Saving Forever - Part 4 by Lexy Timms Read Free Book Online

headed down the hall, chattering to the patient and checking the file with the names on the doors. Charity and Malcolm stepped on before the elevator door closed. “I’m going to head home now. You should as well. I have a feeling it’s been a long day for you.”
    She smiled, appreciating his sincerity. “I will soon. Just want to go through a few things in the office. I’ll see you tomorrow at eleven upstairs.” She stepped off on their floor and headed to her office, waving as the door slid closed again.
    Inside her office she sat behind her desk and started sorting through the mail. She grabbed her cell and noticed she’d missed a call from Elijah. She set the phone to speaker and called him back.
    “Hello, gorgeous.” He sounded cheery and she loved his sexy accent even more when he directed it at her.
    “Hi, handsome.” Did couples really talk back and forth like this normally?
    “How are you feeling? How’s your side?”
    “I’m good. Side’s good, too.” She touched it just to make sure. “Are you still at the hospital?”
    “Yeppers. I scheduled another surgery.”
    “You staying there all night?” She tossed a few things in the recycling bin and set a number of check donations aside.
    “I probably will. Nothing really to go home to if you aren’t there.”
    She smiled. “Nice try. You can’t blame it on me. You’ve been dying to smother yourself in hospital goo. Play superman to the little helpless patients and save them all.” She giggled. “I’m not stopping you. Just for the record.”
    “Hospital goo? Is that a proper medical term?”
    “Probably. I’m pretty sure I learned it back in my med school days.”
    “Really? I never heard the term before. Let me just flip my laptop open and google it.”
    Charity heard clicking, which probably was Elijah typing on his computer.
    “Aha! I found it. Right beside sickbay slop. Which is the military definition of hospital goo out on the battlefield.”
    She burst out laughing. “Has anyone ever told you that you are truly demented?”
    “I believe my mother has.” His husky chuckle echoed through the phone. “Speaking of my mother, I called her earlier today.”
    “Uh-oh.”
    “Why uh-oh?”
    She waved her hand forgetting he couldn’t see her. “Nothing.” She set the mail aside and opened her iPad for the calendar app that was connected to her phone. “Was she upset we are planning a small wedding?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    Only a guy wouldn’t figure out his mother’s frustration. Elijah was her only son and after his father’s funeral, Charity couldn’t imagine her willing to go small for the wedding. “What did she say?”
    “She asked if you were pregnant.”
    “What!?”
    Elijah chuckled. “Her exact words were: Elijah, did you knock that girl up?”
    “Wow, now I know where you get your kind words from.”
    “You should have heard what she said after I told her you got shot at your father’s birthday party.”
    “Seriously?” Charity’s hand pressed against her forehead and eyes. “Your mother probably thinks I’m part of some gang.”
    “You do have a bit of gangsta’ in you.”
    “How much caffeine have you had today?”
    “Probably not enough.” Elijah laughed. “If it helps, my mother gave me proper heck for being the reason you got hurt. She told me I had to apologize to you. She also gave me some sound advice.”
    “And what was that?”
    “To do whatever you wanted for the wedding. To give you anything and everything you dream of.” His voice softened. “I’ll do whatever you want. If you want to plan something bigger, I’m fine with that. Or if you want to wait, I can do that too.”
    “I don’t want to wait and I don’t want a big wedding.” I just want you .
    “I love you.”
    “Love you, too.” She was glad no one could see her smiling like a dork. “I should call Julie tonight. Have you said anything to Simon?”
    There was a long pause.
    “Elijah? You still