“That’s really not necessary, ma’am,” Thomas said. He held up his clean clothes. “I’m all set.”
From the look that Andrea gave his rolled up jeans and T-shirt, it was clear she didn’t agree. “Well, you look like you’re on your way out, so bon appétit.” She handed him the bag from the steakhouse.
“Oh,” Thomas said. “Thank you. I’m... Thanks.”
Andrea immediately got to work cleaning off the bedside tray.
“Oh,” Tasha said. “No, Andrea, I’ll get that.”
“I didn’t want to wake you before, dearie.” Andrea didn’t stop. “It’s already done.”
“Thank you,” Tasha said. “Um... Would you mind checking on the prince? I know the queen’s going to want an update.”
“As long as you’ve got everything you need,” Andrea said, but she was already halfway out the door with the trash.
“I’m good,” Tasha said, and the woman was gone—leaving that door still wide open.
Tash gently took the bag with the food from Thomas’s clutches. “Why don’t you sit down and eat?”
He looked at her. If she honestly thought that that—whatever that was from Mrs. Potts—had made this any less bizarre...
“I’m so sorry,” she started but then cut herself off. “Shit! I’m not sorry. I shouldn’t be sorry!” She took a deep breath. “Thomas. I know this is weird. Let’s get out of here.”
Words he’d been dying to hear.
She led the way out of the hospital room, past the stern-faced guards at the door and was beelining it toward a bank of elevators when Mrs. Potts—Andrea—called after her.
“Don’t go too far, dearie! The prince will be back in his room in a flash. He’s awake and asking for you.” The woman was standing further down the hallway at a nurse’s station and she waved cheerily at Thomas. “Thank you again for keeping our Natasha safe, Lefftenant.”
And okay. So now they were gonna have to stand here, in front of the elevators, out of earshot, but in sight of the guards and Andrea.
Nope, not Andrea. She’d disappeared down the hall, no doubt to relay to the queen whatever information the nurses had given her about the prince. Who would be back in his room in a flash.
Tasha, being Tasha, jumped right in. “You’re freaked out,” she said with her usual point-blank approach, her voice lowered even though the guards couldn’t possibly hear them from here. “Because I haven’t talked to Ted. You still think... What?”
He cleared his throat, glancing back at those watching guards. “I don’t just think it anymore,” he said. “You seem to believe that Ted’s playing a game but—”
She cut him off. “I know Ted’s playing a game—”
“He’s not.”
Tasha sighed. Heavily. “Thomas.”
He waited.
It was her turn to glance at those stony-faced guards. She sighed again. “Okay. Look. Remember when I was in the hide and we both saw that it was Ted who was being chased, and you said... Do you remember what you said?”
“Trust me.” It still made him a little weak in the knees to think what might’ve happened if she hadn’t trusted him.
She nodded emphatically. “Well, it’s my turn. You need to trust me. You just need to give me a little time to talk to Ted. You need to trust that I know what I’m talking about when I tell you that he’s going to be happy for me. For us. He is. But I can’t have that conversation while he’s stoned out of his mind or if there’s a crowd of guards and staff-members hovering around him. I can’t.”
“I just keep thinking, what if you didn’t?” Thomas said slowly. “Talk to him. Just yet. I know you don’t believe me, Tash, but he loves you.”
“Yes. He does. I do know that. We’re very close friends.”
“I... don’t think that’s what Ted thinks.”
She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Welp, you’re wrong. Guess you’ll have to trust me.” But then she faltered. “Unless this is where your doubts and regrets kick in?”
“No,” he said, absolutely. “But...”
“Oh, good,” she said. “There’s a but.”
Thomas struggled to explain. “Tash, I’m having doubts for you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means...” He cleared his throat. God, his stomach hurt. But he made himself say it. “I think I should give you some time. And some space, too.”
“Space?”
“Look, I know you see things differently than I do, but what I see is a man—a prince—who is crazy in love with you. And I don’t want you to throw away a life like that—like this...” he gestured around them, but at what? The expensive clothes she was wearing? That was no big thing. He had money saved, he could buy her whatever she needed and wanted. This hospital corridor they were standing in? Nah, as a SEAL, he was more likely to bring a unwanted hospital stay into her life than the prince was in the future. The essence of Andrea that still echoed in the hallway? Yeah, maybe that’s what he was talking about. The staff, the guards, the title, the fairy-tale happily-ever-after.
The incredible pain in the ass that came with a too-public life.
Somehow it didn’t seem as if she’d be missing all that much. And yet...
She was silent, eyebrows raised, just waiting for him to finish.
“I just want to make sure you’ve thought this through,” he told her. “So, yeah. Space. I, uh, was thinking I should drive back to San Diego tonight, with Rio and Dave.”
She took a step back from him. “Oh, my God. You’re serious.”
“Flights are still impossible and you said yourself that you need time to talk to Ted—”
“I said that, yes,” she said. “But time as in a few hours. Another day at the most.”
“And I think you’ll need longer than that,” he said.
“Well, you’re wrong,” Tasha told him. “You’re doubling down on your incredible wrongness and—oh, shit, you’re in a hospital.” She rubbed her forehead as if she had a sudden, severe headache. “Of course you’re freaked out and everything feels wrong. But please, please, please Thomas, trust me.”
Tasha could feel her eyes welling with tears as she stood there, a polite three feet away from this man she loved with all of her heart, unable to throw herself into his arms and beg him not to be stupid.
“Yeah, I’m freaked out,” he said quietly. “Yeah, I hate hospitals, but... Tash, I really think it’s a good idea. Not just for you, but for me, too. I’ll go with Rio and Dave. That way we’ll get back to Coronado as quickly as we can. I think it’s best if we leave tonight.”
“Please just wait until tomorrow,” she said. “Andrea got us all rooms at a hotel that’s just down the street—”
“The admiral needs us in California.”
“Bullshit,” she said. “It can wait twelve hours. You haven’t slept in days.”
“I can sleep in the car.”