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“I’m not entirely convinced about that.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Flynn snapped.
“No,” Sergeant Proctor replied levelly. “It doesn’t. I enjoy working with you. You’re good at your job and you’re a decent man. That’s what matters.”
Shocked, Flynn just stared at the sergeant as the words sunk in. “You may be overestimating me,” he finally managed through the lump in his throat.
The sergeant chuckled. “I didn’t say you don’t have your flaws. I can list them, if you want?”
“As lovely as that sounds, I’m just on my way out of here.”
“I thought you had to stay another night.”
Flynn pushed up from the bed and picked up his bag. “The doctor said I’m fine. I’ll just be lethargic for a day or two.” Which felt like the understatement of the century, but he really didn’t see the need to stay in the hospital another night.
In the hallway, he almost collided with a nurse coming his way.
“You’re not supposed to leave today,” she said. “Where are you going?”
“I’m fine to leave,” he murmured, wishing people would stop making him waste his energy on speaking.
“The doctor won’t sign you out until tomorrow morning at the earliest.” She looked frantically at the sergeant, who clapped a hand on Flynn’s shoulder and almost made him crumple under the weight.
“Stay here another night,” he said. “What’s the rush to get home?”
“I’m not going home,” he said through gritted teeth. “Lily’s opening the ice cream shop today and I promised I’d be there.”
“Given the circumstances, I’m sure she’ll understand you not being there.”
“I know that,” he said as he set off along the brightly lit hallway.
He caught the sergeant exchanging words with the nurse, but he didn’t care what they said, he was leaving and that was that.
When the sergeant plucked Flynn’s bag from his hand, a ripple of irritation expanded his chest. “I really don’t have the energy to argue with you, but I am leaving.”
“I can see that.” The sergeant’s eyebrows rose in amusement. “If you can manage to hold a pen, you need to sign a document to say you’re leaving against medical advice. And then you need to let me drive you to Lily’s place. Those are my terms. You can take them or leave them.”
“Okay,” he agreed, relieved at the thought of being driven over there. It wasn’t far, but he wasn’t sure he’d have made it on foot.
As it was, even getting himself into the Land Rover felt like a mammoth task.
“Need a leg up?” the sergeant asked, amused as he held the door for him.
Ignoring the sarge’s newfound sense of humour, Flynn hauled himself into the car.
“Are you sure you don’t just want to go home?” the sergeant asked when he put the car into gear.
“No.” He leaned his head back and battled against sleep. “I promised Lily I’d be there.”
“I guess I could eat an ice cream.”
“Are you going to stay and babysit me?”
“I don’t know about that, but I don’t want to miss out on watching you get shouted out when Lily realises you left the hospital against medical advice.”
Flynn smiled at that.
“You two have got pretty close, haven’t you?”