“Okay. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure your lunch is delivered. What do you like?”
“Peanut butter and jelly is fine. Or I like ham and cheese.”
After rushing through breakfast, I told Tony to step on it.
“We’re going to be late,” Hope said.
“No, we aren’t.”
“Yes, we are.”
“Hope, we won’t be late.”
We were late. Just as Tony pulled up to the building, the doors shut and we were locked out.
“Ugh!” I placed my hand on my head.
“Told ya we were going to be late. Just push this button.”
I did and the door unlocked. As we stepped inside, there was a manly looking woman standing at the entrance with her arms folded.
“I apologize. Traffic was bad.”
The woman glared at me and then looked down at Hope. “You may go to your classroom, honey.”
“Bye, Mr. Sutton.” Hope smiled as she waved.
“Bye, Hope. Have a good day.”
****
By time I got to the hospital, I was exhausted. I had no idea how Lorelei did this full-time and by herself. I carefully opened the door to her room and saw she was awake. As I stepped inside, she looked at me.
“Jack,” she softly spoke.
Walking over to her bed, I placed my hand on hers. “How are you feeling?”
She shrugged. “Like shit.”
I gave her a small smile.
“How’s Hope?”
“She’s good. I just dropped her off at school.”
“Thank you.” She picked up Luna. “I’m sorry I missed you both last night.”
“Don’t apologize. You need your rest. I’ll be bringing her by after school.”
“She isn’t giving you a hard time, is she?”
“Nah. She’s a good kid.”
“Good. Words can’t express how grateful I am that you’re looking after her. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
I gave her a tender smile as I lightly squeezed her hand.
“It’s the least I can do since you do so much for me.”
“What do I do for you, Jack?”
“God, I don’t think there’s enough time to list everything. You get my coffee every morning, you put up with my yelling, you pick up my clothes from the cleaners. Hell, Lorelei, you even buy my condoms.”
“All those things are part of my job.”
“Maybe so, but this is my way of repaying you.”
“Can you do me a favor?” she asked.
“Anything.”
“Could you go back to my apartment and get my phone. It’s on my nightstand.”
“Of course. I’ll bring it by later. I better get going. You need your rest and I have to get to the office.” I leaned over and pressed my lips against her forehead. “I’ll see you later, Lorelei.”
“Bye, Jack.”
After Tony dropped me off at the office, I handed him the keys to Lorelei’s apartment and asked him to get her phone and bring it to me. I also asked him to grab her sketchbook. Maybe once she started to feel a little better, she would want it.
My first mission was to get Hope’s lunch to her. Sitting at my desk, I called the deli down the street.
“I need to order a ham and cheese sandwich on white bread. Also, throw in a bag of chips.”
“Is there anything else, Mr. Sutton?”
“Do you have any fruit?”
“We have apples.”
“Put an apple in the bag and one of your fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. I need it delivered to Hope Flynn at Sunnyview Elementary School in Harlem.”
“We don’t deliver that far.”
I sighed. “Okay. Have it delivered here to my office at eleven fifteen sharp.”
“Will do, Mr. Sutton.”
After ending the call, a text message from Coco came through.
“On my way to LA. I thought you like to have these. They’re sweet, Jack.”
She sent the two pictures she took of me and Hope. I closed out of it as Garrett walked in my office.
“How’s Hope?” he asked.
“She’s fine.”
“She’s an adorable little girl.”
I smiled. “Yeah. She looks so much like Lorelei.”
“Anyway, do you need me to call the temp agency to send over someone until Lorelei gets back?”
“Nah. Lorelei is such a good PA, I’m afraid she’s spoiled me. Anyone that would replace her wouldn’t be good enough and I’d end up making them cry.”
“Okay. That’s all I wanted to know.”
“How was dinner with my sister last night?”
“It was good. Why?”
I shrugged. “I was just curious. That’s all. It was odd running into the two of you there.”
He narrowed his eye at me. “We talked earlier in the day and I told her I was going to visit Lorelei. She said she was going as well and that we should go together. Neither one of us had eaten, so we decided to stop and have dinner after. Is that a problem, Jack?”
“No. No problem.”
Shortly after Garrett walked out of my office, Tony walked in with Lorelei’s phone.
“Ah, good. I’m going to need you to drop off Hope’s lunch to her at school as soon as it gets here.”
Tony gave me a small smile.
“What? What’s that look for?” I asked.
“Nothing, Jack.” He continued smiling.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Jack
Hope walked out of the school and approached me with a sad look on her face. Patting her head, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m one of the top ten students in the school who made the final spelling bee round. It’s tomorrow for all the parents and my mom can’t be there because she’s in the hospital.” She looked down and slumped her shoulders as we headed to the car.
I didn’t know what to say to her. She looked so sad.
“What time is the spelling bee? Maybe I can come and watch you.”
Tony looked at me through the rearview mirror.
She reached inside her backpack and pulled out a note, handing it to me.
“It says here that the spelling bee is at one o’clock. One o’clock is a good time for me. I’ll schedule you in.” I gave her a wink.
“Really?” she said in excitement. “You’ll really come?”
“Sure. Since your mom can’t be there, I will be. But do me a favor, let’s not mention this to her because she’ll feel really bad that she can’t be there and we don’t want her worrying about it.”
“Deal.” She smiled. “Will you study the words with me after we visit my mom?”
“I think I can do that. But after we visit your mom, we’re going to have Mr. Tony take us to the store. We need to get some food for the house.”
“Okay.”
We arrived at the hospital and Hope ran to Lorelei’s bedside and gave her a hug.
“I’ve missed you so much, baby.” She kissed her head. “Thank you for leaving Luna here to keep me company.”
“You’re welcome. How are you feeling?”
“A little bit better. How was school today?”
“It was great. Mr. Sutton forgot to pack me a lunch, but he sent one over to the school and it had a cookie in it.”
Lorelei glanced up at me and a small smile crossed her lips.
“He burnt the eggs this morning, so we had to hurry and get breakfast from a diner down the street. We were late for school.” She giggled.
“I see. Well, at least you made it there.”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out Lorelei’s phone and handed it to her.
“Thanks, Jack.”
“You’re welcome. Any more news from the doctor?”
“He said I’ll still be in here for a couple of more days.” She coughed as she rested her hand on her chest.
“It’s better that way, Lorelei. You need to get a hundred percent better. You don’t want a relapse.”
“That’s what the doctor said. How’s everything going at the office?”
“The office is fine. I don’t want you worrying about that. I brought you something else.”
“You did?”
“Hold on a second and I’ll go grab it.” I walked out of the room and met Tony in the hall where he handed me Lorelei’s sketchbook.
Her face lit up as I walked back into the room and handed it to her.
“I thought you would like to have this in case you get bored.”
“Thank you, Jack. I can’t believe you brought this.”