Chapter 42
He knocked on the door.
Everyone regained their composure. Dean stood up and said, “I’ll go get it.”
Naomi glanced out the window. An hour passed; it was probably Charles, having returned from his shopping.
She could tell the difference in Scott and Charles‘ knocking from the first tap.
The door swung open, and Charles stepped into the room. “HI, Mr. Goodwin.”
Dean grinned when he saw him. “Back so soon? Come on in.”
“Thanks, Mr. Goodwin.” This content is © NôvelDrama.Org.
He trudged into the room with his two bags of groceries. Dean frowned when he saw the amount of stuff he bought. “Why did you buy some many things, son?”
Donna turned when she heard the shuffling of the grocery bags rubbing against each other. She quickly stood up to help Charles with the bags. “What did you buy? This is a lot!”
Charles smiled. “It’s not much. I thought I’d buy you two some daily necessities since you’d spend the night taking care of Naomi.”
The truth was, he was willing to look after Naomi for the night, but he did not want to overstep his
boundaries.
“My God, you
such a considerate young man!” Donna exclaimed, glancing at the items Charles bought–towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, fruits, and some light snacks. It was clear he had put a lot of thought into this. Donna could not help but feel a little touched by this.
“It’s no trouble, Mrs. Goodwin.” Charles put everything away, then brought out a few takeout
1. us. Sorry if it isn’t containers and handed them to Dean and Donna. “I ordered some takeout for much, but I think it’ll do for tonight. We can get something better once we transfer to Horizon City tomorrow.”
Dean and Donna exchanged glances of delight. They were growing increasingly impressed by Charles. Naomi immediately perked up when she heard this. “Charles, since my parents are already here, I don’t think I should inconvenience you any longer. You can go back to work tomorrow; I’ll be fine with my parents here with me. They can handle the transfer tomorrow.”
Charles paused, then turned to glance at her. Naomi was staring at him with a sincere look. “You saved my life and got yourself injured because of me. How can I go back to work in peace knowing that? Naomi, you know me too well; you know I’d never do that.”
Naomi pursed her lips, unsure of how to respond to this. Charles was right; she knew that he could never go back to work knowing what happened, but-
23
“You’ve just started your job not too long ago. I wouldn’t want you to take time off work and affect your job evaluation.”
Charles smiled. “Don’t worry about that, Naoml. I’ve taken care of it.”
With that, he turned to Dean and Donna. “Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin, you should eat first. I’ll help feed
Naomi.”
Dean and Donna would have turned him down in a heartbeat, but after Naomi’s speech, they both sincerely wanted Naomi to end up with a kind, earnest man, and now that there was one standing right before them, they could never pass up an opportunity to set Charles up with Naomi.
“That would be great, Charles, thank you.”
“It’s no trouble, Mrs. Goodwin.”
What?
Naomi thought her parents would leap at the opportunity to shut Charles down, so she was a little surprised by their reaction.
With that, Dean and Donna sat down at the table, whereas Charles perched himself next to Naomi
with a bowl.
“Come on,”
,” he said as he brought a spoonful of food up to Naomi’s mouth.
Naomi pursed her lips in hesitation. “Charles, I-”
“Come on, Naomi. I have to feed you first before I can feed myself. Don’t waste our time,” Charles interrupted her. Naomi knew there was no getting out of this anymore, so she opened her mouth and allowed Charles to feed her.
Dean and Donna were beaming from ear to ear at this sight.
Charles was beginning to look like the perfect husband.
since Naomi was doing better now, she no longer needed all three of them around to take care of her, so Donna stayed at the hospital that night whereas Charles and Dean went to stay at a nearby hotel.
Naomi thanked Charles once more. “Thank you, Charles, for going to all this trouble.”
“It’s no trouble at all, Naomi.” He was just as polite as ever.
Donna grinned. “Enough chit–chat now. Charles, get some proper rest tonight. You’ve done enough for us already. You didn’t get much sleep last night, so catch up on your sleep tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“Will do, Mrs. Goodwin,” Charles replied, smiling, then left alongside Dean.
Naomi stared at them as they left. She felt a little guilty at how much Charles did for her, but she did. not know how to reject his kindness. She vowed to be there for Charles just as she had for him if anything happened in the future.
Donna closed the door after them and glanced surreptitiously at her daughter.
She knew Naomi needed a little time to realize Charles‘ true feelings, and there was nothing she or Dean could do about it, so they had to stay out of it and let the two youngsters go at their pace.
All of a sudden, Naomi recalled something.
Charles and Scott both mentioned transferring her to another hospital tomorrow.
Although Scott did not love her back, he was a man of his word and would never turn back on a promise he made. Therefore, she did not want both of them to turn up at the same time to bring her to two different hospitals. Besides, she and Scott were divorced now, and she did not want to trouble him any further than she had already.
She reached out to grab her phone, but she was limited by the bandage on her arm. Naomi frowned.
How was she going to call Scott in this state?
“What do you need, love?” Donna asked when she noticed this. She was in the middle of peeling an apple for Naomi and paused when she saw Naomi struggling.
Naomi turned to her mother. “Mom, I need to make a call. Can you help me dial the number?”