Lily

by Chris Keniston

  “Good idea, Lucy.” The General nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Have to keep the young man’s strength up.” Nodding at the General, Lucy turned to Cole and smiled. “You take it easy. That foot’s going to need lots of rest.”

  For some reason, Cole felt the need to come to attention but settled for a nod and a quiet “thank you.”

  Lucy gave a curt dip of her chin then spun around and marched out the door much the way she’d come in.

  “Now,” the General took a seat, “what exactly did the doctor say?”

  “RICE. Rest, ice, compression, elevation,” Lily answered for him. “Which is why I’ve already called Barb and told her I’ll be baking here for the next few mornings instead of at the Inn.”

  “Here?” The General’s brows lifted high on his forehead.

  “Here we go.” Violet bounced into the room waving her hands in the air. It took Cole a moment to realize she held a vial in each hand. “Lavender and Peppermint.”

  “Violet.” Lily frowned.

  “Don’t worry.” The cheery brunette eased onto the floor beside him with the grace of a prima ballerina. “Just a few drops on each temple—”

  “Wait a second.” Fingers splayed wide, Cole waved his good hand at her.

  Violet and Lily smiled in unison.

  “No worries.” Violet held a dropper over him. “This will help with those headaches. Essential oils. They won’t hurt, I promise.”

  “Violet, dear,” the General spoke up. “If the man doesn’t want—”

  “General, sir.” Lily cleared her throat. “It can’t hurt.”

  “There you go.” Before he could object, Violet had squeezed the drops onto his temple and rubbed them gently in. “You should start to feel better soon.”

  The only way he was going to feel better was if everyone left him alone to catch a few winks.

  “All right.” Violet sprang to her feet. “I hate to heal and run, but I’ve got a yoga for seniors’ class Grams organized starting in twenty minutes.”

  “Thanks,” Lily called to her.

  “Any time, cuz.”

  Cuz. The two seemed so close, Cole had assumed they were sisters.

  A soft rap sounded on the door.

  “Yoo hoo.” A lovely woman with shoulder length white hair and bright blue eyes seemed to float into the room. “How is our patient doing?”

  “Fine, ma’am. Thank you.” He wasn’t really, but something about the gentle manner of his newest visitor made him think so.

  “That’s good. I’m Fiona Hart. Our Lily will take good care of you.” The woman studied him momentarily before smiling and turning to the General. “Katie phoned. She found her grandmother’s set of fine crochet hooks from Ireland for me to try. Shall I ask George to give me a lift to the One Stop?”

  The General sprang to his feet with the speed of a new recruit under the watchful eye of his drill sergeant. “George is working on some loose boards on the back porch. I’ll drive you.”

  “Thank you, dear. I’ll meet you back at the house.” The General’s wife turned toward Cole. “Feel better soon.” Then she left the room as gracefully as she’d entered.

  “Very well.” The General faced his granddaughter. “We might as well walk back to the house and let the young man rest.”

  “No.” Lily shook her head. “He can’t be left alone.”

  The General frowned.

  “Concussion.” She said the single word as though that would explain everything. And judging by the tight press of the old man’s mouth, it had. “I’ll move my things down here for a couple of days until we’re sure he’s all right.”

  “Here?” The General’s tone dropped an octave. “Alone?”

  Not since he’d been caught making out with the pastor’s daughter had a single word made Cole feel completely and totally chastised.

  “Yes, here,” she said matter of factly, conveniently ignoring the alone comment. “This is his cabin for the week.”

  Shaking his head, the General seemed to struggle to pry his mouth open and spit out words. “Absolutely not. I will not have my granddaughter cohabitating with a single man.”

  “General.” A soft sigh showed Lily’s struggle to hide the exasperation from her voice. “We are not cohabitating. There are two bedrooms, and if you haven’t noticed, his injuries leave him at a serious disadvantage for co-anything.”

  Cole almost objected to the comment and immediately recognized it was not in his best interest to prove to the General that he was not nearly as incapacitated as his granddaughter believed.

  “I don’t like it.” The General shook his head. “Not one bit.”

  “General.” Lily eased over to her grandfather and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Grams is waiting for you at the house. Go on. We’ll be fine here. Besides, Lucy will be back soon with some chicken soup and we’ll have a proper chaperone.”

  The last words were obviously said playfully, but he could tell there was enough emphasis to reflect the truth of the statement.

  “I don’t know,” the old man blustered.

  Lily nudged him gently toward the door. “I think I hear Grams calling.”

  If she did, the woman had bionic ears. The main house was most definitely too far up the hill to hear anyone calling.

  “Well,” the General allowed himself to be ushered a few steps forward, “I’ll be back soon. But remember,” he stepped over the threshold onto the front path, “no fraternizing amongst the ranks.”

  Somehow Lily managed to keep a straight face, smile, and ease the front door closed as she nodded. “No fraternization. Got it.”

  The door fully shut, she spun about and leaned back heavily. “That could have been so much worse.”

  The events of the last few hours ran through his mind. Hit by a car. A broken wrist. A dislocated shoulder. A sprained ankle. A week off his feet. A beautiful woman to care for him…and… a Marine Corps general standing guard over them. He wasn’t at all sure how it could have been any worse.

  ***

  Harold Hart stood momentarily still outside the colorful cabin door and shook his head.

  Sensible, smart, capable and caring, with a lousy sense of direction and even worse sense of balance. He supposed if any of his granddaughters were to hit a man with her car, it shouldn’t surprise him that it would be his Lily.

  And now that same man was going to be laid up in his cabin in need of constant supervision for at least the next forty-eight hours.

  He shook his head again and followed behind Lady and Sarge toward the main house. “Not at all what I expected. But,” a hint of a smile teased at the corners of his mouth as he nodded to himself, “it could work.”

  Chapter Five

  “Okay.” Lily slapped her hands together and rubbed vigorously. She’d talked him into coming back to the cabin. For the first time in her life she’d tossed her grandfather out the door, insisting she needed to be here at the cabin. That left one question. Now what? “Do you need anything?” she asked, hoping for a little direction.

  “Nope. I’m all set.” Flashing a ridiculously stiff smile, Cole blew out a deep breath and looked left then right, his gaze finally settling on the remote control just outside his reach.

  “I’ll get that.” Lily leaped forward. Tripping over her handbag on the floor, she nearly landed in his lap before catching her balance. Quickly snatching the remote off the table, she handed it to him as though stumbling across the room were perfectly normal.

  Leaning on his good hand, Cole’s lips tightened.

  “Hang on.” Lily eased forward, studying the man reclining on the sofa. It was obvious that any movement was jostling the sore shoulder. “We have two choices here.”

  “We?”

  “We. I can come up behind you and try to help you sit up so it doesn’t hurt. Or I can bring some extra cushions to prop behind your back instead.”

  “Or,” Cole bit back a smile, “I could just push myself and sit up.” He press
ed his good hand into the sofa and scooted back. “Like that.”

  “I’ve already mentioned you’re rather stubborn, haven’t I?”

  “You have.” Pointing the remote at the TV, he searched for a show to watch.

  “Hmm.” Studying the new elevation of the injured leg, she grabbed a cushion from the nearby chair and stood hovering over his bad leg. “We might need to raise this higher.”

  “Any higher and I’ll be able to receive alien communications that entire satellite systems are incapable of.”

  A sputtered laugh slipped out. Quickly she covered her mouth and took a step back. So the man did have a sense of humor.

  For the first time today, Cole smiled up at her. She had no idea why, but his smile was broad and bright and made his gray eyes sparkle.

  “You might need to be perched outdoors for the alien reception thing to actually work. With a tin foil hat.” She smothered another giggle. “You know, just for effect.”

  Cole rolled his eyes but the smile remained intact.

  “Are you hungry?”

  Pointing the remote at the bulky old TV, he shook his head at the same time his stomach rumbled loudly enough to alert the aliens of his lie.

  Lily lifted her brows in a silent re-asking.

  “Well.” Somehow the twinkle in his already sparkling eyes grew brighter. “Maybe just a little.”

  “Excellent.” She spun around. “Feeding people is something I do well.”

  “As opposed to?” He put the remote down and heaving out a sigh, leaned back against the pillows.

  Staring into the near empty refrigerator she took inventory. Apples, cabbage, spinach, nuts, all the fixings for a decent salad, but nothing for a tasty meal. No bread, no juice, no milk. She opened a few cupboards. No coffee. Didn’t the cabins come stocked with basics?

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Right now, a coffee pot.”

  “Under the sink.” He waved toward the kitchen.

  Surely she’d heard him wrong. Opening the lower cabinet, she immediately spotted the old coffee maker. “Why, if you don’t mind my asking, is the coffee pot under here?”

  “It was in my way.”

  “You don’t drink coffee?” Maybe he really was an alien. After all, every human she’d ever known had been addicted to morning caffeine in some way, whether coffee or tea.

  “Nope.”

  Taking in the countertop again, she realized a blender along with some containers and canisters took up the space where the coffee pot would normally be. The only one she might even slightly consider fit for human consumption was the protein powder.

  “I wasn’t sure if I’d have one of the cabins with much refrigerator space. I thought I’d hit the store today for some basics.”

  She bobbed her head, not sure she wanted to know what he considered basics.

  “If you promise me you will behave yourself, I’m going to run over to the main house a minute and pick up a few things for a decent breakfast.”

  “I’ve got some bananas on the counter. I can make a smoothie.”

  “Smoothie? I don’t think so.” Shaking her head, she inched her way out of the small kitchen. “I’ll be back in a flash.”

  Cole stared at her just long enough for her to think he was about to argue when he nodded and returned his attention to the remote control.

  Quietly closing the door behind her, she trotted up the hill to Hart House. White Victorian with a wraparound porch, the building stood as a testament to the strength and love of the Lawford-Hart family. She only wished that sometimes the family tree didn’t come rooted with a stubborn, iron-willed retired general.

  “No fraternizing among my troops,” she muttered to herself. Really. Only her grandfather could make her feel like a raw recruit.

  “Whoa.” Arms full, Violet spun around by the kitchen entry, wobbling to regain her balance.

  “Well done.” Lucy grinned from her spot behind the sink. “You always make almost falling over look so graceful. You know, Louise Franklin told me that her nephew is a very good dancer. Light on his feet. I bet—”

  “Lucy,” Violet and Lily echoed.

  “What?” The woman had the nerve to look up as though she’d been chastised for saving a kitten.

  Shaking her head at the woman she loved like family, Lily took a step back and surveyed her cousin’s arms. “What’s all this?”

  “Turns out the General thought that George stocked the fireman’s cabin, George thought Grams did it, Grams thought Lucy had, and Lucy thought the General had.”

  “And that’s why the place looks like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard?”

  “Yep. These are the basics.”

  “And some of my breakfast casserole. Just pulled it out of the oven,” Lucy called over her shoulder.

  Violet nodded. “I thought I’d run them by quickly before my class.”

  “Well good. That’s why I’m here. Hand them over and I’ll take them back.”

  “Ah ah.” Violet shook her head. “You may have hit him first but I’m calling dibs on the rest of him.”

  “Girls. Your grandfather will be down any moment to take me to the One Stop to see Katie.” In a floral skirt that would make any gypsy proud, their grandmother set her project bag with her latest crafting effort on the counter and moved forward to kiss each granddaughter on the cheek “What have we taught you?”

  Violet’s shoulders deflated. “No man is worth fighting with family over.”

  “Except we’re not fighting.” It may be Lily’s responsibility to keep Cole on the mend but she certainly didn’t have her eyes set on him for anything else. The last thing she needed in her life now was another self-absorbed good-looking hunk.

  “Good.” Violet perked up. “Then I’ll take these things over.”

  “That’s silly.” Lily’s voice rose a fraction of an octave in frustration. “He’s expecting me to fix him breakfast.”

  Her grandmother walked past, lightly patting Lily on the arm. “I was a bit concerned when your grandfather told me what happened, but the young man seems to have come out of the unfortunate incident well. All will be fine.”

  Violet smiled a little too broadly. “You know what they say about lemons into lemonade.”

  “Mm,” Grams hummed, looking at Lily. “Your grandfather says you’re going to be staying with the fireman in his cabin.”

  Her cousin’s big blue eyes rounded double in size. “She is?”

  “It’s not like we’re going to be playing house,” Lily snapped. “The man needs help.”

  “Agreed.” Violet bobbed her head once. “I volunteer to… help.”

  “That won’t be necessary, dear.” Grams smiled that soft smile that came so easily whenever she was about to explain to the girls why, whether it was cake for breakfast or a man in their midst, life just didn’t always work the way they wanted. “This young man is Lily’s responsibility.”

  The skin over Violet’s perfectly shaped brows folded like a Shar Pei puppy’s. Practically pouting, she set the bag in her arms on the island. “How come she gets to keep him?”

  “That’s easy.” Lucy looked up from her spot peeling potatoes over the sink. “She caught him.”

  “I didn’t catch him!” Why did everyone keep saying that to her?

  “Okay,” Lucy shrugged. “You hit him. Feel better?”

  “No.” The air puffed out of her lungs. The horror of seeing Cole roll across the hood of her little Honda gave her the chills.

  “It’s all right, dear.” Her grandmother’s arm curled around her shoulder.

  From her other side, Violet wrapped an arm around her as well. “I’m sorry. Grams is right. You can keep him.”

  ***

  Not a blessed thing worth watching on TV. Apparently befitting the concept of family time and leisure living, the television had no cable, only local channels. Now what? All his belongings, including the book he’d brought, were in the bedroom. His gaze landed on the knee scooter i
n the corner of the room. He could easily hop over and roll into the room and be back with his book and Florence Nightingale wouldn’t probably notice, but despite his bravado, everything hurt like hell even with the pain meds, and he had about as much energy as a sloth before a much needed nap. Not to mention he understood too well that even though the doctor had slipped his shoulder back into place, unless he wanted to slip it back out, he needed to let it heal. Tomorrow he could deal with one handed scooter maneuvers. Today, much to his surprise, he was glad to have someone around to help. Just a little.

  Which didn’t solve the problem of what-to-do-for-distraction until Lily returned. Within reach on the coffee table was the baggie with all his personal effects. The ER attendant had emptied his pockets and one of the two women must have brought them back.

  Cell phone in hand, he tapped on his partner’s number.

  “Payton here.”

  “And where exactly would here be?”

  “Hey man. Didn’t expect to hear from you this week. Thought for sure, general or no general, you’d be otherwise occupied.”

  “Funny. I dare you to stare down the General—and our boss—when he catches you fraternizing.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Just something the General said when he left me a little while ago. No fraternizing under his command.”

  “Was that a warning or did he catch you with the, er, goods?”

  “No goods. The only thing I got close and personal with was a compact car.”

  “What?” Alarm rang in Payton’s voice rather than confusion. “Man, you better be pulling my leg.”

  “Since my right wrist is broken, not likely.”

  “Okay. What the hell happened?”

  “On my morning jog I sort of ran a collision course with a small car.” And a pretty redhead.

  “The only reason I’m not letting the words jogging and car collision escalate my blood pressure is that you’re still here to call me. What hospital are you in?”

  Without the man saying a word, Cole could almost hear his buddy dressing and gathering his belongings to race out the door. “I’m not. I’ve been discharged already.” No point in mentioning the part about with supervision.