Page 263 of The Night Shift

Theo nudges my blood-streaked cheek with his nose. “You okay?”

A pause.

I turn back to him with something fierce and tender in my chest. “I’m with you. I’m more than just okay.”

He smiles in return. The kind of smile that makes everything bad inside me a little better. He brushes a streak of blood from my cheek before leaning in to kiss me. “Can I tell you a secret, Holly Moore?”

I nod.

“I’m so horribly and pathetically in love with you.”

“Are you now?”

“Mmhm.”

“Well, then maybe.” I lean back, propping myself up on my elbows, my eyes never leaving his. “You should stop talking about it and start showing me how much.”

A spark ignites in his eyes, a glint of mischief dancing there, accompanied by a devilish grin. He puts a hand on his chest and crawls forward. “As you wish, my love. I’m forever at your service.”

My pulse quickens.Forever. I like the sound of that.

Epilogue

Five years later

Theo

The elevator hums as it climbs. Holly stands beside me, fitted in a black pencil dress and beige heels, her crimson lipstick doing unspeakable things to my concentration. Her soft blonde waves are pulled back into a messy ponytail. She’s holding a pink elephant plushie in one hand and tightly clutching my fingers in the other.

“You need to relax, darling.” I gently kiss the side of her head.

“Don’t fucking tell me to relax,” she snaps. “This is all your fault. I told you a billion times I didn’t want to do this today.”

“Attend your niece’s first birthday? I’m not sure we really have a choice. As kind-hearted and joyful your sister used to be, she’s gotten quite scary as a mom. I don’t want to get on her bad side.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it.”

“It’s going to be fine, Hollister. Besides, we’re going to have to tell them eventually.”

“Eventually is not today. And — no, we don’t. New York is cold. I’m a surgeon. I could just wear gloves forever. Problem solved.”

I laugh quietly.Funny Holly. “You’re overthinking this. Everyone’s going to be pleased. Emily was ecstatic.”

“That’s because she’syoursister. She was probably just in shock you managed to end up with someone as amazing as me. She can’t afford to be upset. And also, she loves me.”

True.

Now that Em’s finally moved out and has a place of her own in London, she’s flown over to visit us a few times — and somehow, despite having nothing in common except a shared tolerance for my presence, she and Holly became fast friends. Bonded immediately over their mutual tendency to be mean to me.

The elevator pings. The doors slide open.

I press a quick kiss to the pulse point on Holly’s neck. “Come on. We’re already late, and I can only assume the party’s been catastrophically dull without me.”

She doesn’t smile. But she doesn’t let go of my hand either. In fact, I practically have to pull her down the hallway with me.

We reach the familiar door at the end of the corridor and the extravagant nameplate mounted to the adjacent wall, listing all six residents of the flat in birth order:Parker, April, Audrey, Peter, Toothless & May.

I knock.