“Maybe you could come out, take a look and see what you think? You’ve been promising me a visit since you got out of the hospital.” After another pause, Jared said, “Sure. Think about it. Hit me up with a text. Will do.”

He ended the call and put the phone on the table. “He said he’d think about it.”

“Did he show any interest at all?”

“You know how he’s been since he got home. He doesn’t show much interest in anything. Let him sit on it for a day or two, and then we’ll see what’s what.”

Lizzie didn’t like having to sit on anything when she had a plan. She had calls to architects she could make in the meantime, but she’d like to know for sure that she had a doctor on board.

“There’s smoke coming out of your ears from gerbils working overtime on the treadmill.”

“There are no gerbils on treadmills inside my head.”

“Something is fueling that crazy brain of yours, my love.”

“I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t mean to drive you nuts all the time.”

He gave her hand a gentle tug that brought her tumbling onto his lap. “You don’t drive me nuts. I just have to act like you do, or I’ll totally lose control of things around here.”

She raised a brow in amusement. “So you still think you’ve got the control?”

His bark of laughter made her smile. “We both know you’ve got all the control. You’re the boss, baby. I’m just along for the ride, and it’s a beautiful ride. I love your energy and your passion and your desire to make things better for others. You heard about Paul and Alex’s predicament the other night and you’ve already got a plan in place to fix it for them.”

“That’s nice of you to say, but it’s no fun if you’re not as into it as I am.”

“I’m into whatever you’re into. Whatever you want, whenever you want it. Don’t you know that by now?”

He touched her heart when he said such sweet things. And the best part was he meant every word he said. “So there’s never going to come a day when you say, ‘Enough, Lizzie!’?”

“As long as we have an occasional day off to be lazy together—preferably naked and lazy—then I’m good.”

“What’re you doing today?”

He peeked at her over the top of his sunglasses. “As in today today?”