Something From Tiffany’s by Melissa Hill

the unbelievable awkwardness of the situation by focusing solely on the reward at the end of it all.
    Vanessa might suspect something was up now, but once all of this was sorted out she would understand completely, and the two of them would laugh about it in the very near future. It was because of that very future that he was being forced into this situation at all, so surely the little white lies couldn’t really hurt?
    Yes, by this time tomorrow all would be fine, Ethan was sure of it.
    Reaching the hospital the following day, Ethan realised he had no idea what this Rachel looked like, but supposed he could ask the nurses when he got there. Assuming they would tell him, of course. As he’d already discovered, the Swiss Guard had nothing on the medical staff in this place.
    As they went up in the elevator, Daisy held his hand tightly. He looked down at her and smiled. ‘Come on then, poppet. Let’s go get our ring back once and for all.’
    Reaching the nurses’ station just a little before eleven, he immediately spied a curvy well-dressed woman with short croppy dark hair standing in front of it. This couldn’t be her, surely; he hadn’t expected someone so poised and . . . elegant to be with a guy like Knowles. While Ethan had been happy to help anyone in trouble, his overall impression of the man, judging by the yelling and cursing at the traffic they’d heard before the accident, was that he was rather obnoxious.
    He walked up alongside the woman, hesitant now about approaching her. She immediately turned to look at him. ‘Hello,’ she ventured, with an uncertain smile. ‘Are you Ethan?’
    He nodded. ‘Rachel?’
    ‘Yes. I figured it had to be you,’ she continued, smiling at Daisy. ‘The nurses mentioned you had a very cute little girl. Hello there, sweetheart.’
    ‘That’s right,’ he said, surreptitiously checking her left hand, but there was no ring. ‘Thanks so much for taking the time to meet with us. I’m Ethan and this is Daisy.’
    ‘Very nice to meet you,’ she said, shaking hands first with him, and then bending down to greet Daisy. ‘Thanks for coming in, but I should warn you I really can’t talk long. The doctor will be coming round to check on Gary soon and I need to be there.’
    ‘Of course, we won’t keep you.’ Damn, Ethan thought; this wasn’t exactly the kind of thing that could be rushed. ‘But you have time for a quick coffee, I hope?’
    ‘Well . . .’ She seemed torn. ‘I suppose that would be OK.’
    They walked to the hospital cafeteria, Rachel having asked the nurse on duty to call her when the doctor was on the ward.
    Taking the seat across from her, Ethan distributed a plate of cookies and fresh coffee he’d bought at the counter.
    ‘So, listen, I can’t thank you enough for helping Gary that night. Both of you,’ she said, turning to Daisy, who smiled bashfully. ‘I hear you were quite the little heroine, too. Gary’s never been to New York before, you see, and I can’t imagine why he thought he could just barge his way through the rush-hour traffic like that.’ She smiled fondly. ‘I’m assuming that’s what he was trying to do?’
    ‘Well, I didn’t see it happen, but I understand he was trying to hail a cab at the time.’
    She nodded as if this explained everything. ‘Exactly what I figured. It was really good of you to intervene, though. Thank you. He can be such a handful at times.’ She shook her head indulgently.
    ‘No problem.’ Ethan was anxious to get to the point. ‘But actually—’
    ‘How did you find him?’ Rachel continued. ‘Here at Mount Sinai, I mean.’
    ‘Ah, just a few phone calls. It didn’t take too much,’ he said quickly.
    ‘Well, regardless, I am eternally grateful. We’re just here for a few days over Christmas – we’re not locals, as you can probably guess.’ She laughed lightly. ‘And while the trip didn’t turn out quite as I planned, it seems there’s a silver lining to everything,’