His Forbidden Love (Manhattan Billionaires #2) - Ava Ryan Page 0,29

mouse a decisive final click and meets my gaze again. There’s something steely about her jaw that wasn’t there before.

“Of course I’m excited,” she says, eyes glittering as she shrugs and gives me a smile that stops when it reaches the halfway point. “This is what I’ve always wanted. A great guy. A home. A partner. A life. What kind of fool wouldn’t be excited, Dr. Jamison?”

And there it is. All the answer I need, whether I like it or not.

If she’s happy, I’m happy.

“Good for you, Harlow,” I say, wanting to mean it and hating myself because I don’t. Luckily, my sister reappears just then, giving me the out I need. “I’ll have people over some other weekend. And you can bring Bruce.”

“Great. Thanks.”

She turns and heads away from me, leaving me watching as she goes. She passes a patient room just as a youngish voice shouts with excitement.

“The cafeteria’s this way, Jacob!”

That’s all the warning she gets before two boys—they look like they’re about nine or ten—race out of the room and plow directly into her. She yelps as she hits the floor hard at my feet.

I, meanwhile, undergo an eerie out-of-body experience that catapults me back to another day in the ER.

Her sudden absolute stillness as she lies there, facedown and unconscious, is forever seared into my brain. Never in my life, before or since, have I felt that sort of cataclysmic terror.

Something comes over me. Alarm. Blind rage. A raging case of PTSD. I can’t explain it other than to say that I’ve been down this road before with Ally being injured in an emergency room mishap. And the sight of someone potentially injuring her again makes me lose my fucking mind.

“Watch what you’re doing!” I roar at the kids, who already look stricken. “This is not a playground!”

“We’re sorry!” one of them cries. “We didn’t mean to knock her down! We’re really sorry!”

But I don’t have time for those kids. I’m too busy squatting beside Ally as she levers up to her elbows.

“I’m okay,” she says with an embarrassed laugh. “Nothing to see here, folks.”

“Don’t move,” I bark, reaching for her. “Let me check your head.”

“We’re really sorry! We didn’t mean to—”

“I’m fine,” she says, smacking my hands away as she surges to her feet without difficulty. “I didn’t even hit my head.”

“I’ll just take a look,” I say, in no mood to take anyone’s word for it that she’s okay. I whip out my flashlight with every intention of checking her pupils and then paging neuro for a consult just to be sure. Maybe ordering a CT scan. But a new interruption arrives as the apparent dad of the two hooligans races out of the room and surveys the scene.

“Jacob? Andy?” he says, scooping his boys closer and eyeballing me and Ally. “What the hell did you do?”

“It’s okay,” Ally says quickly, flashing a reassuring smile. “Just a little accident—”

“Which wouldn’t have happened if you’d kept a better eye on your kids, buddy,” I say, some runaway protective instinct propelling me to edge in front of her, lest these kids get any more funny ideas. “This isn’t a school gym.”

“Dr. Jamison,” she says sharply, squeezing my arm and giving me sidelong warning look that has sparks shooting out of it. “I’m fine. It was an accident.”

Then she edges past me and says a few further words to the dad and kids, but I don’t catch them. I’m too busy realizing that my booming voice has caused more than a few heads to turn in my direction. Including my sister’s. Judging by her shocked expression, she made her untimely return from the bathroom at the exact moment I started ranting like a lunatic about a nonevent.

But tell that to my racing heart.

“What the hell was that about?” Ally cries, rounding on me the second the dad and kids head in the cafeteria’s direction.

“You sure you’re okay?” I ask, giving her a once-over and reaching for my flashlight again. I’d feel much better if she let me check her pupils—

“Yes, I’m sure,” she says, incredulous. “Why are you acting like a maniac?”

More heads turn in our direction, but fuck it, I don’t care. I’m trying to do the right thing here. I’m trying to be a good guy. I’m trying not to lose my fucking head. But maybe it’s way past too late for all that.

And she just scared the shit out of me.

“Maybe because I don’t want to spend another night of my life wondering