Page 84 of One Kind Soul

“No! It’s time I went home. To my real home on Kauai.” The lies burned her tongue and destroyed her heart. “I’ve wasted enough time here. I have a job at The Nalu Resort and my beach house. My life is there.” And that should be enough information on her intended next destination for a Lynda ally to report back to his or her boss.

As Nicole swiped her purse off the chair, she noted most people in the waiting room were on their phones. They ignored her outburst, but many of them appeared to be texting rapidly. Any one of them could be working for her sister.

That’s The N-a-l-u Resort. Hopefully whoever was Lynda’s ally in that waiting room got it right. This plan only worked if her sister followed Nicole out of Vermont.

“Let’s go back to the farm,” Christian said quietly, his words no longer impaired by swollen lips, but his hand rubbed his stomach as if he might be nauseous. “Then we can talk.”

She hated putting on this crazy display. Jared and Ben’s sister looked as if they wanted to be invisible, but Lynda had given her no choice.

“I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to settle for some hick farmer in this stupid town.” She had to work hard not to crumble when Christian winced.

He doesn’t deserve this. He also didn’t deserve a life of looking over his shoulder for Lynda.

“Maybe it’s the anaphylaxis talking,” Christian said slowly, wearily, “but didn’t you tell me you loved me in the ambulance?”

And I always will.

“What was I supposed to say?” She flapped her arms out, one eye on a dude sitting nearby still speed-texting. Maybe he was Lynda’s lackey. “I thought you were going to die.” She gave Christian a slow head-to-toe look, half to memorize his every detail and half to drive home her feigned disgust. “You obviously didn’t die, so I’m out of here.” She almost added a Chrissy to the end of that, but that was a term of endearment. Nothing endearing about this moment right now. Nothing.

Christian stood there, confusion and shock on his still beautiful though blotchy face. She was an ass doing this to him when he was so foggy from the bee sting, but the sooner she lured Lynda out of Vermont, the safer he’d be.

Nicole might be breaking this wonderful man’s heart right now, but it was worth it if it kept him alive.

****

Christian stood in that waiting room as Nicole marched through the double doors and disappeared. He blinked slowly a few times then looked at Jared and Susie, Ben’s sister.

“What just happened?” He scratched at an itchy hive on his wrist, his stomach cramping.

“I’m not sure,” Jared said, standing. “She sat here with me, seeming to be a big bucket of concern for you, but . . .” His voice trailed off. “I’m as confused as you, buddy.”

Christian opened his mouth to reply, but in the next second, he rushed toward a garbage can between two chairs and lost the contents of his stomach. He heaved for a few moments, his gut attempting to turn itself inside out by the feel of it and sweat dotting his forehead.

“I’ll go get a nurse.” Susie ran for the doors.

No. He didn’t want a nurse. He wanted Nicole. To go after her. To talk. To understand what she’d said to him. She couldn’t have meant all that stuff. She’d told him she loved him in that ambulance and he believed that over the bullshit she’d served up in the waiting room.

Another load left his stomach, splattering into the garbage can. How gross for the other people in the waiting room. If his back wasn’t to them right now, he’d be absolutely mortified.

“Whoops,” a male voice said behind him a few minutes later. “Let’s get you back to a bed, Christian.” A hand to his elbow helped him to his feet and the nurse picked up the garbage can too. “Just in case.”

“But . . .” Christian risked a glance over his shoulder to the doors Nicole had walked through. “I need—”

“You need to lie down for a bit more,” the nurse said. “You fooled us, Christian. We thought you were good to go.”

“I am.” But as he said that, his stomach pitched and he stopped walking to puke in the trash can again.

“Good to go doesn’t usually involve vomit.” The nurse guided him through another set of double doors and to an ER bed. He swapped out the garbage can for a smaller bin, having Christian get on the bed and lie back. “You stay right here. Close your eyes. That should help with the nausea. You need a little more time off your feet. No worries.”

But he was worried. Nicole had left and he feared she was about to do something by herself about Lynda. He had to talk to Donovan. He groped the pockets of his jeans, but he didn’t find his phone.

Where is it? It’d been in his pocket earlier. Perhaps in being rushed to the emergency room by ambulance something happened to his phone.

“My . . . my friend. Jared. In the waiting room,” he said between deep breaths to keep from puking again. “Can he come back here?”

“Sure. I’ll go grab him.” The nurse patted his arm. “In the meantime, you relax.”

Relax? How could he relax? Nicole was about to put herself directly in Lynda’s crosshairs. That was the only logical explanation for the way she’d behaved in the waiting room. She’d quit her job. She’d spent all morning moving stuff into the farmhouse—the farmhouse they’d live in together. She’d been excited to stay in Vermont with him. He was sure of it.