***
“No,” Golden sobbed. “No.” She put her fingers to her lips, fighting to keep the sobs from turning into wails. Her worst nightmare had come true. Claire had suffered a massive stroke and it was all her fault.
Golden lowered her head as she sat by the hospital bed holding Claire’s limp hand. She’d gotten the call from the nursing home early that morning. Apparently, Claire had given them her contact information, probably telling them that Golden was her emergency contact person.
Without hesitation she’d dropped everything and gone straight to the hospital. Workday or no workday, she had to be by Claire’s side. She would just have to catch up on her assignments some other time.
But now that she was here there was nothing she could do but sit. And wait. And worry. What if Claire never regained consciousness? What if, God forbid, she passed on?
At the thought, Golden’s lips began to tremble again. No, that wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t. She didn’t know how she would bear it.
What made it worse, it was because of what she’d done that Claire lay there suffering. If only she hadn’t tried to be her savior. If only she hadn’t meddled. It must have been the stress of her fight with Marjorie that had taxed her system.
Marjorie. As her thoughts turned to Claire’s daughter Golden had to wonder why Marjorie wasn’t there. She could only guess that when Claire had given them her contact information she had removed her daughter’s.
And now she was faced with another dilemma. Should she leave things as is and keep Marjorie in the dark or should she call her and sink back into the troublesome role of meddler? Golden didn’t know what to do, not when it was her meddling that had brought this on in the first place.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
After an exhausting day and night at the hospital it was with relief that Golden finally witnessed Claire open her eyes. Quickly, she got the nurse who wheeled Claire into an examination room where the doctors ran a battery of tests before announcing that she was on the road to recovery. They admitted that she’d pulled out of the crisis a lot better than expected with no sign of any permanent damage. It was this pronouncement that made Golden feel confident enough to leave.
As tired as she was, Golden had no choice but to head for home where she showered and dressed and then headed straight to work. She had already missed a full day at the office and her conscience would not allow her to take any more time off. Feeling like something Sir Winston had dragged in from the gutter she stumbled to her car, blinked then set off down the road.
To Golden’s surprise, Reed was in the office when she arrived. At the sight of him all traces of her exhaustion vanished and her body perked up, attuned to his presence. In fact, much to her astonishment and confusion, her ni**les went hard inside her bra, making her drop her gaze nervously, wondering if he had seen the hard buds beneath her blouse. She would just die if he had.
Thankfully, although he was now standing across from her desk, he didn’t seem to notice. In fact, not only did he not see what was going on inside her blouse, it was apparent that he was not even noticing her at all.
Golden had expected a little excitement upon Reed’s return or even some level of interest. She had missed him so much when he’d been gone. Hadn’t he missed her?
Apparently not. Today he seemed so cool, so distant, that she began to wonder if she’d done something wrong.
And then she realized what it must be. She’d not shown up for work the day before and she hadn’t called to report her absence. She should have, she knew. She should have made a report to the human resources department. Yes, she should have done all that but in her distress she’d totally forgotten about office protocol and now he was cross with her for it.
“Reed,” she said, her voice hesitant, “I have to apologize. Yesterday when my best friend was rushed to the hospital I ended up spending all day and night there. I didn’t make it to work and I didn’t call in. I’m so sorry. I’ll work this weekend to make up for it.”
He waved a hand as if swatting at a buzzing bee and turned his attention back to the file in his hand.
Golden frowned. It almost seemed like instead of appeasing him all she’d done was annoy him. Had she made things worse? Lately, it seemed like that was all she was good for.
She’d been stressed out before, with Claire’s sudden illness and her watchful waiting by her friend’s bedside but somehow, even though that had been a terrible experience, Reed’s dismissal felt even worse. She was being a perfect ninny to even worry about it but right then she felt so deflated she was actually close to tears.
The rest of the day was even more difficult for Golden. Where Reed had started out cool and aloof by the middle of the day he’d started barking orders and then he’d gone into his office, snapping the door closed behind him. She didn’t hear from him again for another two hours.
When she did hear Reed’s voice again it was to receive his command to come to his office immediately. “Goodness,” she muttered under her breath. “What now?” She grabbed her iPad and hurried into her boss’s office.
He didn’t even give her a chance to sit. “We have a lot of catching up to do,” he said, not bothering to glance away from his computer screen. “I need you to work late tonight.”
“Okay,” she said, but she was frowning. This was not the Reed she knew. The Reed Davidoff who had left for the United States just a few days earlier had been gentle and polite and charming. This man who had come back to England was nothing like the man she’d grown to admire. This man was acting like a jerk and whether he liked it or not she was going to tell him that.
“Mr. Davidoff,” she said, her voice quiet but firm.
That caught his attention as she’d known it would. His eyes narrowed as he looked away from the computer screen and stared at her.
“Reed,” she said this time, now that she had his undivided attention, “I don’t know what I’ve done to offend or annoy you but I would appreciate it if you would tell me what I’ve done wrong.” Her brows fell. “I would appreciate it a whole lot more than this cold shoulder you’ve been giving me all day.”