A smile bloomed in Erin Lowell's eyes. It was just from seeing the concern in his—the reluctance to let her go, the readiness to throw caution to the wind.
"Who said I wasn't coming back?"
Zane Jennings was still processing her words. "Weren't you transferred?"
"No," she said. "It's a support assignment."
At her words, his dazed confusion and all his pent-up unhappiness vanished. He didn't let it show too much, merely pursing his lips to fight back a smile and giving a nonchalant, "Oh."
They passed through the front lobby and stepped outside the hospital. Erin Lowell walked to the very edge of the path, stopped, and looked up at him. "So, you were unhappy because you thought I wasn't coming back?"
As she asked, her eyes were filled with longing, hoping for an affirmative answer.
He admitted it by default, but changed the topic. "I thought you weren't coming back." He looked at nothing else, his gaze fixed on her. "You still owe me a lot of dinners."
