Page 96 of Say You Remember Me
She moved to slide it off, but I stopped her with a light squeeze of her hand. “No, hold on to it for now. Your dad still thinks you’re engaged, right?”
Her lips parted, and she hesitated. “Right…”
“So just hold on to it while you’re here taking care of him,” I said. “When you’re back in Eden Falls, we can worry aboutreturning it then. Believe it or not, I don’t have much use for it in the meantime.”
Her mouth quirked into a faint smile. “Not planning to hire a new assistant while I’m away and asking her to pretend to be engaged?”
“Nope.” I chuckled, shaking my head. “I’m pretty sure you’re the only assistant I’d want doing things like that with me.”
Her cheeks flushed a light pink, and I couldn’t help but think how beautiful she looked.
Man, I was going to miss her.
Way more than I probably should.
“You’re sure I’ll still have a job to come back to once things settle down here?” she asked, her tone half-teasing, half-serious.
“Absolutely,” I said without hesitation. “Although, if you stay away for a month or two, I might start to worry you’re not actually coming back. That maybe I scared you off with everything happening.”
“I’ll be back.” She smiled, her voice reassuring. “We’ve already had neighbors reaching out to offer help, so I think Dad will be okay once he can move around on his own.”
“Good.” I nodded, though the idea of not seeing her for a couple of weeks already felt like an eternity. After a beat, I asked, “And you’re sure you don’t want me to make any sort of official statement on social media? About…us, or the pregnancy rumors?”
“It can’t be worse than the teen pregnancy rumors I dealt with in high school.” She gave a small shrug, her lips twitching with the faintest hint of amusement. “Plus, at least this time, people think I upgraded to a billionaire baby daddy.”
“Fair point.” I laughed, appreciating her ability to joke even when the situation wasn’t ideal. “But are you sure you don’t want me to address it?”
She shook her head. “Only if you want to. I deleted Instagram from my phone this morning, so unless someone comes up to me in person, it’s like it never happened.”
“Interesting logic, but I guess it could work,” I said with a chuckle, filing away the idea of deleting social media from my phone as well. “Who knows, maybe this will actually work in my favor. All those eyes on my accounts might see my posts about helping small businesses grow.”
She grinned. “Some people might even think we started the rumors ourselves to drum up buzz.”
“If only I were that much of a genius,” I teased.
“Pretty sure you are.” Her gaze softened, and she tilted her head slightly. “But I like that you’re using your genius to help others instead of purposely creating drama for yourself.”
Her words settled over me, warm and grounding. She actually saw me—the version of me I was trying to become—and didn’t hold my past against me.
I sighed internally, grateful in a way I couldn’t put into words.Ugh, I don’t want to leave her here.
But I didn’t want to reveal the full extent of my growing obsession with spending all my time with her because it might scare her away for good. So I forced myself to say, “I should let you get back to your family.”
“Okay,” she said softly, though the quiet reluctance in her tone mirrored my own. Neither of us seemed ready to let go just yet.
I stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, wrapping her in my arms and holding her close. For a long moment, I just let myself feel her warmth, the way she fit against me with her head against my chest, like she belonged there.
Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I closed my eyes and inhaled the sweet, familiar scent of her shampoo. “Take yourtime with your dad,” I murmured against her hair, my voice low. “But don’t take too long to come back, okay?”
“I’ll be back before you know it,” she said softly, looking up at me with a smile that was warm and steady yet held an emotion I couldn’t quite name. “I’ll keep you updated on my timeline for coming back, but…hopefully, I’ll be back in two weeks.”
I nodded, even though two weeks already felt like an eternity. “Good.”
With that, I reluctantly let her go, letting my hands drop to my sides. I took a step back, then another, until I finally forced myself to turn and head to my car.
When I reached the driver’s side door of my Bugatti, I hesitated, glancing back toward the hospital entrance. My chest tightened—and then swelled—when I saw Maddie standing there in the doorway, watching me.
Our eyes met, and she raised her hand in a small wave, her smile filling me with hope.
