Page 20 of Hidden
“Harry!”
“Love life,” he said, then snorted. “Honestly, the places your mind goes, Ms. Cavanaugh.”
“It only goes there because you’ve corrupted me,” she retorted as she pulled on a pair of wool socks.
He made a vague sound of disbelief. “Obviously not quite enough. Now, run along and say hi to Sofia and her dish of a man. Call me if you needanything.”
“I will,” she promised again, then ended the call.
Jogging downstairs, she heard the rumble of two male voices followed by Asher’s laugh. She paused halfway down and tried to remember if she’d heard him laugh before. A chuckle, yes, but a laugh? She didn’t think so. She’d remember that if she had. Or would she? She frowned at the reminder of the reason for his visit then continued the rest of the way down the stairs.
“You’re laughing,” she said. Asher’s gaze came up and swept over her. A lot of people looked at her for a lot of reasons—awe, envy, lust, curiosity, to name the most frequent. But something about the smile still playing on Asher’s lips, the appreciation in his gaze, and the way it lingered on her felt…intimate. And personal.
And everything she’d just told herself about her love life folded like a house of cards. Because she wanted to know Asher. She wanted to know what made him tick. She wanted to hear him laugh. She wanted to understand why it bothered him when his cousins called him nice.
“Chad and Sabina have officially kicked off the race for the next generation of Warwicks. I found out last night that Ethan and Kara are expecting. I expect Cody and Tia won’t be far behind, even though they’ve been married for less than two months,” he said.
She laughed. “Who won the bet?” she asked Josh.
He grinned. “Sofia.”
“Bet?” Asher asked.
“The last time I visited, Sabina and Chad had just announced her pregnancy,” she explained. “Josh and Sofia bet on how long it would take for either Cody or Ethan to follow.”
“Sofia put her money on Valentine’s Day or before,” Josh said. “I mistakenly thought my cousins might want to be married for a little longer before welcoming a third person to the party. I picked the end of May.”
Sofia exited the kitchen and joined them in the living room. “And now you owe me—”
“We’re not discussing in public what I owe you,” Josh cut her off, making her laugh.
“Prude,” she teased, sliding under his arm. He hugged her tight and dropped a kiss on her head.
“Prude” wasnota word Ellie would use to describe Josh. And judging by Josh’s eye roll, he gave the comment about as much weight as a feather.
“Given that we’re all standing here laughing, can we assume Ellie’s test was okay?” Sofia asked, bringing them back to the purpose of his visit. Thankfully, Ellie barely had time to switch gears and start worrying before Asher answered.
“You can,” he said. Then turning to Ellie, he asked, “Do you want to sit down, and I can go over the results with you? It won’t take long.”
She nodded and grabbed a seat. Sofia came to sit beside her. Josh excused himself and headed to the garage—she thought he might be making a run to the grocery store.
“The short answer is everything is fine,” Asher reiterated, once he’d taken a seat in a chair close to the fire. “The tests showed no abnormalities.”
Ellie exhaled as a weight lifted from her shoulders. Until Sofia had mentioned it, she’d never considered the possibility of something physically being wrong with her. Fortunately, with Asher’s help, she hadn’t needed to wait long to confirm that was the case.
She started to thank him again then paused. The smile he’d worn earlier had faded and his eyes no longer danced in amusement. Or even relief. “You don’t look as thrilled as I am,” she said, one side of her mouth lifting into a sardonic grin.
He smiled back. “I am. I’m very glad we didn’t find anything. But as important as it is to be grateful for that, you’re still having symptoms that are impacting your life. The root of the problem may not be physical, but—”
“But in some ways, if it were something physical, it would be easier to diagnose and maybe understandwhyI’m having those symptoms,” she said, finishing his train of thought.
“Nothing about a tumor or brain issue is easy, but yes, it would have given you a possible explanation for what’s happening. Without that, you have to decide what path—of many—that you want to take. Or if you want to take any at all.”
She heard what he was saying. She even agreed with him. Maybe her current therapist wasn’t the right one for her and she needed someone new. Or maybe she needed a different approach to therapy altogether. She should probably also consider inpatient rather than outpatient care. The options were many and varied, and shedidneed to dig into them all and decide what might be best for her. But at the moment, she wasn’t ready.
“Do I have to do that right now?” she asked.
He huffed a small laugh. “No. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. And you certainly don’t need to start right now if that’s not what you’re comfortable doing. But as a doctor, I’d caution you not to wait too long. The episodes we talked about were serious. You or someone else could have been hurt. I don’t want to see that happen.”
