Page 94 of Careless Whisper

“And she hurt you,” I reminded her. “I let her.”

She reached over and linked her arm with mine. “Yeah, but I survived. And I’m going back stronger. And didn’t we talk about how your need for self-flagellation is getting a bit much?”

I looked at her then—sun-warmed skin,fierce eyes, steady hand in mine—and felt a quiet, seismic shift inside me. We weren’t just surviving. We were living. And, against every odd, we were still walking forward—together.

“I love you, you know,” I said.

“I know,” she replied like it was the most natural thing in the world, which made my heart swell.

“I love your generosity, your sense of humor, your big heart, the way you love so hard.” I paused and kissed her nose and then added, to lighten the mood, “I also love your tits and pussy.”

She looked at me with mock indignation. “You men think about other things besides sex?”

“Yes.” I slung an arm around her. “I think about your tits, your ass, your pussy.”

“Which is thinking about sex,” she pointed out.

“No, Gigi, those are parts of your anatomy. I thought you knew that since you’re this bigshot OR nurse,” I teased.

CHAPTER 34

Reggie

Inever thought I’d be happy to smell that distinct Harper Memorial antiseptic again. But the moment I stepped into the cardiology wing of Harper Memorial, my heart did a stupid little somersault.

The place buzzed, as always, with controlled chaos—monitors beeping, scrubs swishing, voices low but urgent—the same impossible clockwork. But nothing was the same becauseIwas different.

It had been four months since Elias showed up at the clinic in San Miguel de Allende and asked me to trust him again.Then, I hadn’t seen Seattle at the end of the road—partly because I had been living in thenowwith no future planned so I could heal.

No one in San Miguel de Allende had been surprised when we announced we were going back to Seattle. Since we got back together, everyone wasexpecting it. So had I, even before I admitted it, because I had been training Juanita to take over clinic management. I assured my parents I’d come back to do interviews when Juanita started med school—which the Lancaster Foundation had decided to fund.

Even though I wanted to come back to Seattle—it had been bittersweet to leave. I cried on the plane, and I held Elias’s hand until we touched down.

A part of me felt that Seattle was unfinished business—but now, walking toward the nurses’ station, I knew that the unfinished business had beenme, not my geography.

The nurses station was strangely empty when I knocked on Cindy’s door.

The look she gave me when I stepped inside was pure clinical neutrality.

“Regina.” She stood up and smoothed her lab coat like she was about to deliver a policy update. “You’re scheduled to begin orientation with the surgical team tomorrow. I’ve reviewed your credentials and reinstatement paperwork. All of it is?—”

“—in order,” I finished with a grin.

She gave a prim nod. “Exactly.”

“So…you missed me or what?”

Cindy snorted. “You wish.”

And then, like a switch flipped, she let out a sharp breath, walked around her desk, and threw her arms around me.

“You’re back!” she whisperedfiercely. “God, I missed you. Don’t make me do all the admin myself again; it nearly killed me.”

I laughed into her shoulder. “I missed you, too.”

She pulled back and looked me over. “You look… grounded. I don’t know what Elias did to fix this, but I’m glad he didn’t screw it up this time.”

“Oh, he still might,” I teased. “But I’m stronger now. I won’t break.”

---