Chapter 101

Layla

“Just talk to him,” I insisted, giving Vanessa’s hand another little tug towards the door of Ethan’s clinic room. It’d been three days since the attack, and he was just about recovered at this point. “You’ll see he’s not a bad guy.”

After I’d all but written Ethan out of my life, I couldn’t for the life of me have said why it was so important that he and Vanessa get along now, but for some reason, it was. Maybe it was just that I was tired of her hovering over me like a grumpy, overprotective shadow.

“Layla,” groaned Vanessa, slipping her hand from mine to cross her arms over her chest. “I gave you my opinion. I’m not changing my mind.”

I cocked an eyebrow in challenge. “Remember when you thought he was hot?”

Her scowl only deepened. “I don’t trust hot men. They think they can get away with anything.”

Vanessa, it seemed, was refusing to budge. Naturally. So I took my argument a little further. “Aren’t hot girls the same?”

“No.” Vanessa’s jaw ticked in clear irritation. “We’re too busy being fucking terrified of the world that wants to use us.”

I faltered at that. Softened, too, because damn, the woman did have a point. “Vanessa—”

Naturally, it was my sympathy that broke her.

“Fine,” she sighed, brushing past me. “Introduce us again, see if Mr. Hottstuff can suddenly wow me with his wit.”

She didn’t wait for me to lead her to the door or make any introductions. In fact, she didn’t even knock. She beat me to the door, pushed it open, and strode in. “You remember me. I’m Vanessa.”

Well, damn.

Reclined in the bed against a wall of pillows, Ethan looked up with wide, surprised eyes. I hurried to stand beside my overprotective and judgmental friend. “Um. This is Vanessa.”

“I gathered.” A smile twitched his mouth, but he managed to hold a serious facade. “And I take it Vanessa doesn’t like me very much?”

Vanessa huffed like a disgruntled hen, and I couldn’t help the laugh that burst out of me. The sound surprised me, and the feeling that accompanied it.

When was the last time I’d laughed? Life had been so goddamn bleak lately. And you know what? It felt damn good to laugh.

In the bed, Ethan smiled back at me, wide and white.

“It’s not a matter of like or don’t like,” Vanessa clarified, shooting me a side-eyed glare. “I don’t trust you. With good reason.”

That sobered us both right up.

Ethan sighed. “Yeah. I guess I deserved that. I’m a cop, and nobody trusts cops. But I promise you, I did not land myself in a hospital bed on purpose. In fact, I kind of hate that I’m here.”

“Maybe not intentionally you didn't.” Vanessa crossed her arms, fixed her scowl to professional levels of disdain. “But people miscalculate their value all the time.”

“Fair.” Ethan dragged a hand over his face. “God knows I’m in over my head. But I’m also quite fond of my spleen, so anything I can do to protect it and not get stabbed dangerously close to it again, you better believe I’ll do that.”

Did I catch the faintest upward tick of Vanessa’s mouth? She was definitely pulling it into a hard, stern line now. “You can technically live without your spleen.”

“It's a very non-vital organ,” I agreed, grinning at Vanessa. When was the last time I’d had this kind of lighthearted fun? “Fortunately, Ethan still has his.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Ethan asked, all wide-eyed innocence. “If I have Layla remove my spleen, will that make you trust me?”

Vanessa snorted, then clapped a hand over her mouth. “Dammit. I don’t want to like you. Don’t try and make me like you.”

“But I’m funny and charming,” Ethan said, with a smile that was indeed quite charming. “It’s okay. I don’t blame you for not being able to resist.”

I groaned, trying very hard not to smile myself. “This is the worst flirting I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s not flirting!” Ethan protested, lifting his hands in a display of self-defense. “It’s spleen protection!”

We all three dissolved into giggles. I bowed over, hands to knees, and even Vanessa laughed without restraint.

God, it felt so good to laugh. I really, truly hadn’t laughed since our honeymoon in Tuscany, when all the world had seemed so far away. I would have given my own spleen to be back there again.

Me. Aldo. Eli. The only things that truly mattered.

“Layla.” Vanessa’s voice called me back from the rolling hills of Tuscany, down to Earth, to the room. “Where’d you go?”

I sighed. “Tuscany.”

They both gave me funny looks, and I decided I’d rather not explain just how dark my life had become.

“I think I’ll take a little walk,” I said. “Clear my head a bit. Will you two be all right here? Or are spleens at risk?”

Vanessa rolled her eyes. Ethan laughed—and then winced. “Actually … Before you go. A question?”

“Oh?”

“Would you mind …” He stared down at his hands, then pried his gaze away to meet mine. “Would you mind me asking your lovely friend here for coffee? Once you’ve cleared me for duty, of course.”

“Coffee!” My brows shot upwards. “Like—”

“A date?” Vanessa filled in, drawing my gaze. Her own brows had nearly disappeared into her hairline with surprise.

“Just wanted to make sure it was all right with you.” He shot me a pained sort of smile, and something about it yanked at my toughened heart strings.

I tilted my gaze back towards Vanessa, who simply stared at Ethan, expression unreadable. “Hey, go for it. Good luck though …”

And then I hightailed it out of the room before I could get further sucked in to … whatever was about to unfold between them.

I was halfway down the hallway before footsteps pattered the carpet behind me. “Layla! Wait!”

I turned to let Vanessa catch up, trying to read the expression on her face as she hurried after me.

“So?” I set my hands on my hips. “Are you gonna let him take you out?”

Vanessa mimicked my gesture, hands on hips, head slightly cocked. “What’s it to you?”

“He’s a nice guy. A good guy.” I let my hands fall from my hips. “And honestly, I think you’d be good for each other.”

“You think so?” Her brows furrowed, pondering that. “Why?”

“Because you’re the only good people I know?” I laughed softly. “Or maybe I just want to play matchmaker for two people who might have an actual shot at happiness.”

Vanessa tilted her shoulder against the wall beside me. “You really think that’s in the cards for me?”

“Yes.”

“For me but not for you?”

Her words lingered in that hallway, too heavy, their meaning far too plain.

“I don’t know how someone like me gets a happy ending,” I whispered. “How do you live the kind of life I do, see the kind of darkness I do every day, and dream of a happily ever after?”

Not that I hadn’t—in Tuscany, beneath those endless blue skies, in the rolling countryside, I’d believed for a few short moments that there was something in the stars for us.

And then we’d come back here.

“I think you deserve a whole lot more than you think you do,” Vanessa said. “But if it’ll make you happy, then yes, I’ll go out on a date with him.”

“Make me happy?” I grinned, and I didn’t have to pretend. “I think it’ll make you happy.”