Page 22 of This Time I'm Keeping You
“A taxi!You put an injured woman into a taxi!”
“All right, that’s enough, Nick.”
He felt himself turned, and then two hands were on his back, pushing him toward the elevator.
“What the hell are you doing, Em?”
“Getting you out of here before we’re thrown out.”
“I was just trying to find out where Poppy was,” Nick said as she pushed him back into the elevator.“What idiot lets an injured woman leave alone?”
“You were making a scene, and while it was pleasing to see you show so much emotion over a woman, I don’t think this is the place.”
“It’s about being careless and nothing to do with emotion,” Nick snapped.“She’s a friend who’s not thinking clearly.Poppy should have waited for me to take her home.”
“Right, so you’re angry because she got into a taxi, but if her boyfriend had picked her up, then you’d have been fine with that?”Emma said.
“What boyfriend?How do you know she has a boyfriend?”Nick demanded.
“Hypothetically speaking.”
Nick glared at his sister, who looked way too happy for his liking.
“You’re behaving irrationally, which I like, because it doesn’t happen often.”
“I’m telling Dad you’ve been seeing that loser with all those piercings and the motorbike if you don’t shut up.”
“You wouldn’t!”Emma hissed, the smile falling from her face.
“Try me.”
Nick knew he’d get about a minute’s reprieve before she started talking again.Em was never one for silence.
“How come you’re irrationally angry?”
“Drop it, Em.”
She ran alongside him as Nick stalked out of the hospital and back to his pickup.Wrenching open the door, he jumped in.Turning on the ignition, he waited until Em’s seat belt clicked, and then they were moving.
“Do you even know where she lives, Nick?”
“Yes, I filled out her forms.”
“And because you have that memory that discards nothing, you stored it away.”
He didn’t answer, and she thankfully stayed silent while he negotiated the traffic and cooled his temper before he reached Poppy’s house.
He was angry, and it was irrational, but knowing she’d left alone got to him.Poppy had been scared and hurting last night.Chances were, she was still those things this morning.
And you care about her.
He shelved that thought as he parked outside the small brick house a while later.
You didn’t start caring for someone in a matter of hours… did you?
Getting out, he headed up the path to the front door.He’d have plenty to say to Poppy when he got hold of her.
“I hope you’re not going to greet her with that look on your face.”
