“What’s wrong?”
“Its Ashley. They had to rush her to the hospital.”
“I’ll take you.”
Chapter Eleven
Drake
As I looked through the mail that arrived in my absence, I heard my phone beep on the kitchen counter. Picking it up I saw I had a text from Xander.
“Ashley is in the ER. Please come. We need to talk.”
Without a second thought I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. I sped to the hospital and parked in one of the doctor’s reserved spaces. I didn’t care if they towed my car, I had to make sure everything was ok with Ashley. She looked a little pale earlier on the flight home, but I disregarded it as nerves. A lot of people had issues with flying.
The nurse’s station was crowded with people trying to get answers about their loved ones. I pushed my way through to the front, spotted a pretty young nurse wearing pink scrubs with her blonde hair pulled into a tight pony tail and smiled when I caught her eye. She rushed over.
“Oh my lord you’re Drake–”
“Shhh darling, listen I need a huge favor. My friend Ashley Boone is here in your ER and I need to check on her. Could you tell me where I can find her?”
“Oh yes, anything for you.” She smiled at me and I knew she would let me do whatever I wanted to in a closet or back room, but I wasn’t interested. “She’s in the room at the end of this hall.”
“Thank you sweetheart.”
“I’m Lorraine, ask for me if you need anything. And I mean anything.”
I ran down the hall without answering her. I heard Xander yelling for answers at another nurse’s station and then saw him return back to Ashley’s room. I remembered what he went through with his first wife. I was sure his being in the hospital she died in was bringing all of that back for him.
As I approached the door, a male doctor with short curly grey hair wearing green scrubs entered Ashley’s room. Peeking inside the room, I saw Ashley sitting up on a hospital bed, looking much better, and Xander sitting beside her, holding her hand. I decided to sit on a metal chair by the door and wait, not wanting to delay the results any further. I could faintly hear what the doctor was telling them.
“I’m sorry for the delay, but we wanted to make sure we got all the test results back.”
“Doctor, I want you to just be blunt. Don’t mince words, just get to the point. What’s wrong with her? Why has she been so sick lately? Its cancer isn’t it?”
The doctor laughed and I thought I heard Xander growl like he does when someone upsets him. “No, she’s not really sick at all. She’ll be fine in a couple of months.”
“A couple of months? Is that how long treatment is going to take?”
“Mr. Boone, if you would stop interrupting me, I would like to tell you and your wife that you’re about to have a baby.”
“She’s pregnant?”
The happy sound in Xander’s voice and Ashley’s sudden giggle was enough to bring tears to my eyes. I leaned forward so I could hear a little better.
“Yes, what she’s experiencing is called hyperemesis gravidarum, or extreme morning sickness. Ashley, you just need to relax, try to eat when you can. Even just little meals or snacks. You’re about 6 weeks pregnant and this could last until your fourth month. So congratulations! I’ll be back with your discharge papers.”
After the doctor left the room, I leaned over to peek into the room again. Xander and Ashley were tightly hugging each other. I didn’t want to disturb them so I got up to leave. Whatever Xander needed to talk about could wait for another time.
As I walked down the hall towards the front of the ER, I saw Jackie and Samantha enter. I tried to stop Jackie as she ran past, obviously concerned, but she wouldn’t listen. Samantha turned around and beelined to the door.
“You’re not even going to talk to me? We’ve known each other our whole lives and now you’re going to act like this?”
“This is how I always acted towards you. I don’t like you, remember?”
“That’s not how it seemed the other night.” I walked beside her as she approached the door.
“Just forget about the other night, it was a mistake. No, it wasn’t a mistake, it was great. It was perfect. The perfect ending to the crappy story of us. We both got what we wanted. Why complicate things?”
“What are you talking about? I told you how I feel about you. I want us to spend more time together. I want to get to know you better.”
“Listen Drake, we were never meant to be. Everything from the beginning pointed to that. You like your women and that’s fine, keep them. I’m not a piece of meat.”
“I know you’re not, I never treated you like you were a piece of meat. I don’t understand.”
“I’m not stupid. What we had was physical, nothing more, nothing less. Thanks for the great night, but now its time for me to move on.”
“You’re not even giving me a chance Samantha. Don’t I at least deserve that?”
I followed her out of the hospital and immediately the paparazzi swarmed around me. I damned myself for flirting to get the information I needed. I should’ve known better. The nurse must have called them. I continued to follow Samantha who picked up her pace as she pushed through the cameramen.
“Drake! Is Ashley Boone your mystery girl? Is that your baby?” Yelled a nearby photographer with a copy of his tabloid that featured a photograph of Ashley and I kissing.
Ignoring him, I reached out for Samantha’s arm.
“Leave me alone!” She spun around and stared at me, her eyes wild and red as tears spilled down her cheeks. “This! All of this is why we can never be Drake.” She yanked her arm away from me. “I could never trust you. I would never know what’s real with you.”
“But Samantha, let me explain.”
“Save it for someone who cares,” she shot back as she ran towards the parking lot.
I knew she didn’t want to be chased so I let her go. Devastated, I stood on the sidewalk as the paparazzi surrounded me again, yelling their questions as flashbulbs popped in my face.
Samantha needed to calm down before I could talk to her. I had to figure out some way I could see her. I knew she wanted nothing to do with me, but she didn’t understand I wasn’t that man anymore. There was only one woman on my mind and the more I saw her, the more I learned about her, the more I fell for her. I would get my chance with her if it was the last thing I did.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Part 4 of His Every Whim will be released at the end of February while I work on my first novel, Lucky Break, due in March.
Author’s Note
If you enjoyed reading this book, it would mean a lot to me if you helped others enjoy it too. Recommend this book to friends or family or consider writing a review on the site you purchased it from.
Reviews and word of mouth recommendations are the best gift you can give an author. It helps other readers discover new books too!
I love hearing from readers! If you do write a review please let me know by emailing me at [email protected] and I’ll thank you with a personal email.
xoxo,
Liliana
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Copyright
His Simple Wish
Copyright © 2013 by Liliana Rhodes
Cover by Liliana Rhodes
Photography: ©Depositphotos / zastavkin
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used
fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Table of Contents
His Simple Wish
Author’s Note
Liliana’s Links
About The Author
Copyright
His Simple Wish Page 5