Page 33 of Healing Kiss

Zoey placed a hand on Hannah’s forehead and brushed a stray hair from her face. “You must be feeling better if you’re knitting. Whatcha making?”

“I’m not sure yet.” Hannah turned to him, smiling. “Hi, Tristan.” Her dark-brown hair had been pulled back with a bright-blue headband, her skin no longer flushed and pale.

Tristan nodded. “Hi, Hannah, Mr. Milano.”

“Call me Frank.” Hannah’s dad stood and stretched out his hand. “I’ve been meaning to thank you for leaving your fundraiser to visit Hannah last night. I’m grateful.”

“A small thing.” Tristan shook Frank’s hand then turned to Hannah with a smile. “It’s good to see you feeling so much better.”

Frank wrapped an arm around Zoey, giving her a squeeze. “Thank you, dear, for everything.”

Zoey laid her cheek against Frank’s shoulder. “It was nothing.”

“We both know it was more than nothing,” Frank said, patting her back before turning to Tristan. “We’re grateful to both of you.”

“I wish I could say I had a hand in Hannah’s recovery,” Tristan said, nodding toward Zoey, “but it was all Zoey.”

She flashed a glance his way. Their eyes locked, his pulse sped up, and the universe seemed to take a giant pause. She looked away first, the expression in her wide eyes appearing almost guilty. She bent her head and checked her phone.

“I want to talk to the nurses. I’ll be right back.” She hurried from the room.

He wanted to follow and demand answers, but Frank was talking to him and to leave in the middle of their conversation would be rude.

“Please, grab a seat and tell us how you met Zoey.” Frank rubbed a hand over his chin and nodded, motioning to an empty chair next to Hannah’s bedside.

Tristan did as he asked. “We met last night in the patient’s room next door—a little girl with a severe case of pneumonia, who happens to be my accountant’s daughter.”

“How is the little girl?” Hannah asked, knitting needles flashing in and out of the blue yarn.

“She’s doing remarkably well. Her parents told me she was able to go home this morning. Zoey’s visit must have done her some good.” He might have missed the swift look father and daughter exchanged with one another if he hadn’t been looking for it. They knew something he didn’t, Tristan felt sure of it.

“Zoey is a fantastic nurse,” Hannah said, setting her knitting aside.

“After seeing your turnaround, I have no doubt.”

She wrinkled her nose and tilted her head, reminding him of Zoey. Heat seemed to radiate from her wide, amber eyes. “But you do doubt her skill, don’t you?”

“My mother is dying. The doctors and nurses haven’t been able to cure her. Why would Zoey be any different?” The words spilled out of him, as if she’d tugged on an invisible cord and opened a hidden corner in his heart.

Hannah held out a hand, and he got up and leaned over her bed to take it like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. A warm feeling moved through him.Contentment.He had trouble recognizing the sensation, it had been so long since he’d felt it.

“It breaks your heart to see your mom suffer.”

“I don’t want to lose her. It’s been the two of us for as long as I can remember.”

“Until now. I can see it when you look at Zoey. You feel a strong connection with her.”

Hannah understood his feelings for Zoey better than he did. He couldn’t take his gaze off her. “Yes, but it’s all one-sided. I don’t think she’s interested.”

She laughed, and the sound was both musical and jarring at the same time, as if by laughing, she harmonized the notes until they reached a flawless pitch. “You won’t let a small thing like that stand in your way, will you? You’re perfect for one another. You just don’t know it yet.”

She let go of his hand, and for a second, his vision wavered in and out before settling again. What had just happened?

“Are you okay?” Frank peered at him like he thought he would pass out, which was plain ridiculous. Tristan had never fainted a moment in his life.

He stood and was happy when he stayed on his feet. “I’d better check on Zoey.”

Now who was the one running away?

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