“I love her,” Nathan corrected.
“I want to adopt her,” Gabriel added.
“Can we keep her?” Quinton asked. “Please? She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to this clinic.”
“She’s been here for FIVE MINUTES.”
“Best five minutes of my life,” Fitz said solemnly.
Julien made a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a whimper.
“Julien,” I said gently, touching his arm. “Your eye really is twitching.”
“I KNOW.”
“Julien,” I continued, my hand still on his arm. “It’s okay. Fitz was just being welcoming. And Winnie has been wonderful. Everyone here has been so kind.”
He looked at me, and I could see it—the panic, the embarrassment, the absolute certainty that his carefully controlled professional life was about to implode.
But underneath all of that, there was something else.
Something that looked almost like... relief.
Like maybe, just maybe, he was glad I was here.
Even if he would never admit it.
“We need to talk,” he said quietly. “In my office. Now.”
“Okay.”
“And the rest of you”—he turned to his colleagues, who were all watching with undisguised glee—“have patients. Go see them.”
“But this is so much more interesting,” Quinton whined.
“Dr. Wesley—”
“Fine, fine. But I want details later.”
“There will be no details.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Julien grabbed my hand gently but firmly and started pulling me toward a hallway.
Behind us, I heard Fitz say to Winnie, “I give them six months before he’s completely in love with her.”
“Three months,” Winnie replied.
“Want to bet on it?”
“Dr. Lovejoy, I am not betting on Dr. Darcy’s marriage.”
“Your loss.”
I smiled, letting Julien lead me away, feeling the warmth of his hand in mine and the certainty in my chest that said, “Yes, this is right; this is exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
The universe had brought me here.
