When We Touch (Whiskey Creek 0.5)(30)
Author: Brenda Novak

Olivia dabbed at the corners. “I was just thinking of a friend.”

“Must be a close friend.”

She nodded. As brief as her time with Brandon had been, she felt closer to him than anyone else.

She’d finished the appointment and was packing her briefcase with swatches and magazines—she had to meet another bride at River City Resort Club and Spa tomorrow morning—when she heard the buzzer that indicated someone had walked into the small anteroom outside her office. She didn’t have any employees, couldn’t afford payroll, so she called out, “Welcome to Weddings by Olivia. I’ll be right there.”

“Could you hurry?” came the response. “I’ve got a plane to catch.”

Brandon! Olivia’s heart jumped into her throat as she scrambled around her desk.

When she reached the reception area, she saw him standing just inside the door with an exasperated-looking man wearing what appeared to be an expensive suit.

“What-what are you doing here?” she asked, glancing between them.

“I couldn’t do it,” Brandon said. “I couldn’t leave without you.”

Was she hearing him right? He seemed in earnest…. “But your… your operation!”

“It can wait.”

“Not if he wants to ski next season, it can’t,” the man he’d brought with him cut in. “But he can still make it if he’s on the next plane.”

“When does it leave?” she asked.

“In three hours.”

“I’ll only go if you go with me,” Brandon said. “Do I have any hope of talking you into that?”

“I-” Her mind whirled as she thought of her apartment, her business.

“Come here, honey,” Brandon said, reaching for her.

He didn’t have to ask twice. She walked right into his arms and pressed her body against his, so grateful to see him, to touch him, her chest ached at the prospect of letting go.

He’d come back. For her.

“I think what we feel deserves a chance,” he explained, his voice low in her ear. “I don’t want to walk away from it.”

“I’d like to be there for the operation.” She wanted nothing more than to watch over him, keep him safe. “But I have clients to take care of and rent to pay—”

The other man made a show of tapping his watch. “Maybe you could join him in a week or two.”

“Olivia, meet Scott Jones, my agent,” Brandon said. “You don’t have to listen to anything he says. Personally I’m finding that quite liberating.”

Now she understood why this other person was so upset. Brandon was risking his career by coming here. She grinned at Brandon’s tongue-in-cheek comment but spoke to Scott. “Won’t the operation be over by then?”

“You could make it for the recovery,” Scott said. “That’s the most important part, anyway.”

Not to her. She wanted to be there to support Brandon through the whole thing. She wanted to go with him now.

She could refer her clients to another planner she knew in River City. That wasn’t the tough part. The tough part was paying her rent without that income….

“He’s right,” Brandon said. “I’m being selfish. I’ve just missed you so much. If it’s too hard, you can come later.”

She considered the money in her savings account. She’d put that away to get her through difficult times, had promised herself she wouldn’t touch it except in an emergency.

Was she willing to spend it on love?

Everyone she knew would probably tell her she was being foolish, reckless. If Brandon recovered, he’d return to his career. But when she was with Kyle, and even long before that, she’d been so responsible, methodical, cautious—and that hadn’t saved her from heartbreak. If Brandon could risk his career for her, she supposed she could risk her career for him.

“I’ll throw some clothes in a bag. The rest I can handle via the internet,” she said and smiled happily as his arms tightened around her and he buried his face in her neck.

“I’ll make you glad you did,” he promised.

Epilogue

When Brandon opened his eyes, it took him a moment to remember where he was. London. The operation. Dr. Shapiro was going to take out the intramedullary rod in his leg and insert a new one.

So where was the stern-faced doctor who’d come to visit him before the anesthesiologist put him under? Brandon could see the ceiling lights of a hospital flashing overhead as two male orderlies whisked the gurney he was lying on down the hall.

Was he on his way to the operating room? If so, the anesthesia wasn’t working. That caused him a moment’s concern. But maybe he was on his way back.

“Is it…” His throat was so dry he could hardly speak. “Is it over?”

One of the orderlies tossed him a professional smile as they continued to navigate the crowded hall. “After six hours? I should hope so, Mr. Lucero,” he responded in a British accent.

Brandon searched the faces of the people who were coming and going. Most were doctors, nurses or patients. He couldn’t see Olivia, but he knew she was in the hospital, somewhere. She wouldn’t abandon him.

He also knew he wasn’t the same man he’d been even two months ago because the next question out of his mouth wasn’t whether or not he’d be able to ski again. “Where’s my girlfriend?”

“She’s waiting in your room, and we’re just getting there now.”

They slowed so they could maneuver the bed through a doorway, and Olivia hurried to reach his side. “How are you?” she asked, obviously worried as they wheeled him in.

“Better now that it’s over,” he said. “At least I hope I’m better. Have you talked to my doctor?”

“He came to see me as soon as he finished.”

“And?”

She stroked the side of his face. “It was a bone infection. He wasn’t sure how your doctor in the States missed it, considering it was so extensive. He had to scrape away the infected area and drain a couple of abscesses. But he said, with antibiotics and some physiotherapy, you should recover completely.” She pecked his lips. “We can call Scott and tell him the good news as soon as you’re not so groggy.”

He wasn’t thinking as clearly as usual, but he was clear about one thing. “Scott can wait.”

“He’s dying to hear the results.”