Both Mantis and the orderly laughed.
“What’s your name?”
“Tom,” he answered, pointing at his name badge that had been flipped, so Mantis couldn’t read it.
“Tom…” Alegria murmured and then rested her hand on Mantis’ arm. “Have you heard from Dutch?”
He shook his head.
“Where do you want to go?” Tom asked.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Heck, yeah. You hungry? We can take a side trip to the cafeteria if you want.”
“I’m starving, actually,” she said, smiling.
Would her smile go away if he told her, right now, how much he loved her?
“Oh, wait! Stop!”
“What?” both Mantis and Tom asked.
“Look,” she said, lifting the blanket covering her legs. She smiled up at him while he watched her toes wiggle.
“Would you mind excusing us for a minute, Tom?”
“Sure thing, man. I’ll be right around the corner.”
Mantis stood in front of her with his hands on the arms of the wheelchair. “There’s something I want to do, but I don’t want to upset you.”
“What?” she whispered.
“I want to kiss you, Manon.”
—:—
It had been so long since she’d felt his lips on hers. There were times she thought she never would again. But before that could happen, there were so many things that needed to be resolved. First and foremost for her, was her relationship with Dutch. He may be avoiding them on purpose, but that didn’t mean she could jump into a relationship with Mantis while she was still technically involved with him.
She reached out and touched his cheek with her fingertips. “I want that so much…” Should she tell him that, right before the car came crashing into the side of Mantis’ dad’s car, she’d decided to end things with Dutch?
Mantis took his hands from either side of her and stood. “I’m sorry,” he said, running his hand through his hair. “I keep crossing the line, even though I promised you I won’t.”
“It isn’t that I don’t want to kiss you. It’s—”
“Dutch. I get it.”
“Please don’t be angry with me. Not now. I can’t bear it.”
He knelt in front of her, cupped her cheek, and looked into her eyes. “Manon, you have to know that I love you. I never stopped loving you.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I still love you, too. My guess is that Dutch knows that as well as we do. Maybe even better.”
“Um…I just got paged for another pickup,” said Tom from around the corner. “You two wanna go to the cafeteria now?”
“Can I take her?” Mantis asked.