Cindy spoke truth.

Cindy was also an African American nurse who worked in that suburban hospital just outside Chicago, but she used to work at a hospital deep in the city. Over the last week and a half, I’d learned that Cindy had seen a lot and most of it was not good.

I’d also learned that Cindy didn’t beat around the bush.

“I’ll do my best not to become a junkie,” I assured her as she hit the elevator button.

“Follow the doctor’s orders. Read ’em good,” she ordered. “Get your booty out of bed and get around. But don’t overdo it. You hear?” she finished as the elevator binged.

“I hear,” I muttered.

She wheeled me in the elevator and expertly wheeled me around to face forward.

“This has not been real fun,” I told the doors but did it speaking to Cindy. “But I’m gonna miss you and the girls.”

Weirdly, this was true. It was likely I’d never forget getting shot or the ensuing weeks where I had to battle the pain, struggle to recover, and do this with a Bianchi onslaught in full swing. But the nurses in that hospital were the best. I couldn’t say this with any authority. I’d never had a hospital stay before. But they were so good, I couldn’t imagine better.

“Yeah, we’re gonna miss you too,” she replied. “Mostly we’ll miss tryin’ to figure out what is up with you doin’ the Sleepin’ Beauty act when that boy comes callin’.”

Apparently they were also attentive. And to more than just my health.

I pressed my lips together.

“What is up with that?” Cindy prompted.

“Uh…” I non-responded as the elevator doors binged again and started to open.

“That boy came every day to see me,” she started as she began to push me out of the elevators, “I’d be on the phone with my stylist like a shot. I’d have my hair done. My nails done. My toenails done. And I’d be in a negligee.”

I tamped down visions of me in a negligee reclining in a hospital bed, which were too ridiculous to fathom, even for me (and there was very little too ridiculous to fathom about me), and I thought about Gina.

Gina had brought me some new nightgowns and a robe to wear during my hospital stay. They were pretty in a cute way that was very Gina and so not me.

I was about flash and impact all the time. I could put on the glitz just going down to the lobby to get my mail.

But when it came to bed wear, the less material the better. And if there was material, I liked it to leave as little to the imagination as possible (yes, even if I was sleeping just with me).

As cute as the ones Gina brought were, they were also appropriate for a hospital stay, thus no flash, no impact, and lots of material.

I’d opted to wear hospital gowns.

They were ugly, shapeless, and no one could get ideas about a woman in a hospital gown.

And I had a feeling Benny was getting ideas.

Cindy started wheeling me toward the exit doors and she did this still talking.

“So the girls, we’ve been talkin’ about that since he brought you in covered in your blood. Now, I didn’t see that part, but it’s made the rounds big time. Hot guy. Hot girl. GSW. Blood. Drama. Resulting television crews. That happens.”

I was sure it did.

But it was time to put a stop to this.

“He’s my dead boyfriend’s brother.”

“Ah,” she uttered knowingly, still wheeling. Her voice had gone from no-nonsense nosy to soft with nurse concern when she went on. “Sorry to hear about your loss, hon. When’d he die?”

“Seven years ago.”

She stopped wheeling.

“Uh…what?”

I twisted my neck to look up at her to see her staring down at me.

“Vinnie died seven years ago.”

“And you’re fakin’ sleepin’ when his hottie brother comes a-callin’ because of why?”

“Because Benny, the hottie brother, wants to talk,” I told her.

“About what?” she asked.

I had no clue.

But with the way he traced my lower lip with his thumb when he told me we were going to talk. With the way he picked me up off the forest floor and sprinted to his SUV with me in his arms after I was shot. With the way he caught my pass years ago when I was drunk after Vinnie died and stupidly, crazily, sluttily threw myself at him…

Well, with all that, I was thinking all this attention wasn’t about remembrance of sisterly love, what with the lip-tracing and tongues-tangling parts being included.

“I don’t know,” I shared with Cindy.

Her brows shot up. “And you faked sleepin’ and didn’t find out?”

“Yep.”

Her head tipped to the side and she deduced, “’Cause no boy who looks like that comes to the hospital every day for a girl who looks like you ’cause he’s keepin’ an eye on his seven-years-dead brother’s girlfriend.”

Indication that Cindy not only had seen it all, but she understood it.

“Something like that,” I conceded.

“Everything like that,” she returned.

She was right, but I didn’t confirm that fact.

“You’re not into him?” she asked, and I felt my eyes get wide.

“He’s Benny,” I said in response, figuring that said it all.

“He sure is,” she agreed, knowing it said it all because she’d seen him, repeatedly (though, once would do it).

“But he’s my dead boyfriend’s brother.”

“Girl,” she started, wheeling me toward the doors again, “God doesn’t care who you let in there, just as long as the feelin’s are honest when you let him in.”

I looked to my bag on my knees. “It’s my understanding God does care who you let in there.”

“Sure enough,” she replied. “But that’s not the there I’m talkin’ about. The there I’m talkin’ about is your heart.”

I was not going to get into this with my soon-to-be-ex nurse while she wheeled me to the taxi that would take me home after my hospital stay, so I pressed my lips together again.

I unpressed them when I felt her stutter step behind me and the wheelchair jerked slightly with her movement.

I also looked up when this happened.

And what I saw was Benny Bianchi in a white t-shirt that hugged his muscular torso in a way that made you jealous of that tee. He also had on faded jeans that fit loose in a way that only hinted at the power in those long legs (not to mention the power behind that package), making you want to get acquainted with both…intimately. He was leaning against his Explorer right outside the doors.

He had his arms crossed on his chest and shades over his dark brown eyes, but I knew those eyes were on me.

He was waiting on me.

Not parked illegally outside a hospital to come for a visit.

Waiting on me to be released.

“Uh…Cindy,” I muttered, eyes glued to Ben. “Did someone at the nurse’s station share with Benny when I’d be released?”

“He may have made that inquiry,” she evaded.

“And was it answered?” I asked, though the evidence it was was pushing away from his Explorer. It was then I knew why Cindy was wheeling me to the doors and not a nurse’s assistant or an orderly. She didn’t want to miss this or miss reporting back to the girls.

“Mm,” Cindy mumbled her evasion this time.

I couldn’t get pissed at this. Not because it wasn’t worthy of being pissed at, but because Benny was moving in our direction, we were moving in his, and all my attention was taken in concentrating on watching him move.

He moved well. He looked good. He was tall. He worked on his body and this work was extremely successful. He had a lot of thick, messy black hair. And he had a face that was movie star handsome in a way that, without a doubt, launched a million wedding fantasies, even from women who just caught a glimpse of him walking down the street.

My eyes remained locked on him as the doors swished open, and we trundled through at the exact same time Benny arrived at our location.

I opened my mouth to say something but didn’t get a word out, because Ben grabbed my bag from my lap and thrust it Cindy’s way with a murmured, “Could you hold that, darlin’?”

Cindy took it and I again opened my mouth to say something and, again, didn’t get a word out because Ben bent, shoved a hand under my knees, one around my waist, and lifted me into his arms.

But gently.

There was pain, but it was minimal. Mostly because it came with his strength and warmth and the smell of his aftershave.

Shit!

I said something then. It was loud, but it was lame.

And what it was was, “Ben!”

He didn’t even look at me. He turned to Cindy and said, “I’ll take that now.” She must have given my bag to him because he immediately went on. “Thanks, beautiful. You’ve been great. Got it from here.”

After delivering that, he turned and started walking to his SUV.

I glared around his shoulder at Cindy.

Cindy stood with hands on the handles of the wheelchair and grinned at me.

“I’m canceling that big bouquet of flowers and three-layers-deep box of Fannie May I ordered for the nurse’s station!” I yelled.

She pulled her phone out of her scrubs, lifted it, and I knew she took a picture while Benny opened the back door to his SUV in order to toss my bag in, because she called, “That’s okay. I’ll share this shot with the girls.” She looked from her phone to me. “This’ll be all the thanks we need.”

I had more to say to my now-ex-nurse Cindy, but I lost sight of her and couldn’t retort when Benny deposited me (gently, God!) into the front passenger seat.

I turned my glare to him.

“You aren’t taking me home,” I declared.