All She Ever Wanted (Cedar Valley Novel Book 1)

by Christina Butrum

  “I don’t want you to worry,” he said.

  “How can I not worry? I wasn’t even thinking that far ahead. I’ve got bills to pay and a job that depends on me. They’re probably going to fire me if I…”

  “Hey, take it easy. Rachel talked to your boss already. She told him about the whole situation. The accident and everything,” he assured her, yet it didn’t assure her that everything would be okay. Sure, Rachel took care of the job aspect of it, but it wasn’t fair to leave Rachel in charge of the bills by herself—absolutely not. “He’s okay with you taking time off. He said to take as much time as you need.”

  She tossed her head back against the pillow. Tears welled in her eyes and overflowed without control. Overwhelmed with the thoughts, she just wanted to get out of here. She was stuck and she hated that feeling.

  “Leah,” Liam’s voice gravitated her attention back to him. “It’ll be all right.”

  “I have to work, I can’t afford not to,” Leah explained. Fear of losing everything she had worked so hard for, rattled her thoughts. “I can’t afford to lose everything.”

  Frustrated cries interrupted the silence in the room. Liam held tightly to her hand and squeezed—reassuring her that he may not have the right words to say, but he cared. He was there, right next to her—he wasn’t going anywhere. He knew what it was like to have to worry about losing everything. He had lost everything he had, once before. He knew exactly what it felt like to have the fear rack through your body as you try to keep a tight grip, but everything seeps quickly out of your grasp.

  He respected her reaction with silence. She needed to have this moment, to analyze and think about what she was going to do. He didn’t need to complicate her situation more with more decisions—he had already offered her a spot next to him at the bar—whether she took the offer or not, that was completely up to her. He wasn’t going to rush things and shove her in that direction unless she was certain it was what she truly wanted. Although, the thought of taking care of her while she healed from her injuries had crossed his mind more than once since the accident.

  “What do you think I should do?” She asked. She angrily wiped the tears from her face, letting out a frustrated sigh. She wondered how she had gone this long without the slightest thought of what to do once she was released from the hospital. Did she think that she would’ve been healed and back to normal that quickly? Moron.

  Still holding her hand, he hesitated as he debated whether or not to mention the thought that had been bouncing around in his mind for the last few days. He wanted her to know he cared about her—he’d be willing to do just about anything for her.

  “How soon can I work at Levy’s?”

  With that question, his eyes lit up and the smile that crossed his face told her that he had been thinking on that for a while.

  “As soon as you want to,” he said, his smile never fading. “I’m sure I could make a handicap spot at the bar, just for you.”

  He chuckled as she gently slapped his arm. “You’re unbelievable.”

  “I’m being serious,” he said. “We’ll spend about a week or so going over everything and we’ll discuss the plan for the bar.”

  “I can’t do that,” Leah said.

  “Why not?” His face expressed concern and disappointment.

  “I wouldn’t want to be paid,” Leah said.

  “What? Are you serious?” Liam asked. “Why wouldn’t you want to get paid for your work?”

  “It’d take money away from your business,” Leah stated. “It’d be doing the complete opposite of what your goal is for Levy’s. Getting paid would be a burden to the budget.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that,” Liam said.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to be focused on? Getting your business turned around? Paying me would only hinder that.”

  Liam blew out an agitated breath. He was frustrated that she would even think like that. “The business is in good enough standing to pay you. We need your help to turn it around, yes, but it isn’t completely broke yet. We have enough money to make it. We just need your help to keep the business going. Like come up with ideas to draw people to Cedar Valley,” he said. “Is that something you could do?”

  The thought of attracting people to Cedar Valley didn’t seem at all impossible. The mountains and the countryside could do all of that on its own. The only thing she’d have to do is think of creative ways to entice people to visit there, possibly move there, and then the business at Levy’s would be nearly doubled.

  “I need a notebook and a pen,” she said.

  17

  With the discharge instructions and follow up appointment reminders in her hand, she grabbed her crutches and hopped out of the room that had been hers for the last couple of weeks. She was nervous, but determined to get used to the crutches within a day or two. Liam snatched the papers from her hand after he insisted that she let him hold on to them. She was going to have a hard time allowing others to do things for her.

  “Can we stop for a minute?” She asked. They weren’t even twenty hops down the hallway before she wore out. “These things hurt my armpits.”

  Liam helped her over to the small bench along the wall. She plopped down and sighed. “This is going to be exhausting,” she said, looking up and down the hall, embarrassed by how soon she had tired. “I’m sorry.”

  She hated to complain, especially since things could’ve been a lot worse, but crutches sucked. She wanted a wheelchair instead, or maybe one of those knee scooters—those would be more user friendly, and less of a pain in the ass.

  “No worries,” Liam assured her. He was so patient with her. No matter what the issue that she had was, he was always calm and patient. He was perfect for her. God only knew that if a man were to be with her, he needed to have a lot of patience to deal with her stubbornness and independence, not excluding her trust issues, too.

  She watched him as he hurried down the hallway toward the entrance of the hospital. Within a minute, he rounded the corner with a wheelchair. He parked it in front of her and helped her up. He yanked the leg pieces out of the way and guided her into the seat. After adjusting the leg pieces, he lifted each of her legs onto the foot rests.

  “I’m not good at being a gimp,” she said, with disappointment.

  The nurse had told her to take it easy and rest as much as possible for the next few weeks. She had scheduled follow-up appointments that were scattered well over those few weeks, with Rockford Bay Medical Clinic. The thought of having her boss perform her checkups was kind of odd.

  “Just think, within a few hours, you’ll basically be vacationing in the big town of Cedar Valley, if you want to.”

  He was looking forward to the time they would spend together. Whether they ended up being the best of friends, or lovers, would hopefully be determined by the time her leg was healed—six weeks or less. He had a lot of work ahead of him to prove to her that he wasn’t like all the other guys—he was definitely nothing like Jake.

  She smiled at the thought of the warm sun on her skin while she relaxed on the balcony that overlooked her favorite scenery—the vast mountains that were surrounded by beautiful spruce trees and the winding river. She couldn’t forget about the colorful flowers that she imagined bloomed wildly throughout the land behind Levy’s. “That sounds a bit too good to be true, but definitely something I could live with.”

  “I can’t wait to have you there,” he said. His grin was mesmerizing. His scruffy face and his deep-shaded blue eyes focused on her. She wondered how long it had been for him—since he’d had a woman in his life.

  He lifted her out of the wheelchair with his muscular arms. Leaning against his chest, she wrapped her arms around his neck—afraid she’d slip out of his arms. “I’ve got you, you won’t fall,” he assured her, and set her down carefully in the passenger seat. He reached around her with the belt without hesitation. With his chest pressed against hers as he latched the belt, the sc
ent of his cologne overwhelmed her senses, along with her thoughts.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts, as he spoke close to her ear as he struggled with the buckle. She refocused her attention on him and shook her head. She wondered if it was obvious what she was thinking. Don’t be stupid, men can’t read minds. “That good?” His smirk made him look that much hotter—like he needed any more help in that area.

  “I’m just thinking about things.” She was a horrible liar. She should just be honest. Tell him like it is. I’m thinking about you and me... what could be…

  “This damned buckle,” he said with frustration, as he struggled with it. “It’s needed fixing for a while.”

  She smiled as he rambled on—it was obvious to her that he was somewhat nervous—it was cute and he was hot.

  By the time he got the belt clicked, a million thoughts had flooded through her mind. She couldn’t think straight, let alone look at him, but he was still there, waiting for her to make a move. He was so close to her that she could feel his body heat. She was frozen—unable to move or think or…

  He leaned toward her slowly, giving her time to push away. Instead, she leaned forward and met his lips with hers. There was no going back now—they had officially passed that thin line between friends and something more.

  * * *

  A grunt was heard over the rev of the engine of his truck as they made their way off the open road from the hospital and into the crowded noise-filled streets of Rockford.

  “Come on,” Liam slammed on the brakes. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

  “Nope.”

  The traffic was thick all hours of the day, but more so towards the end of the day. Rush hour traffic was termed for the evening hours when everyone was getting off work and making their way home.

  “How can you drive here?” The patience he had once expressed had nearly vanished. Frustration etched deep into the lines on his face.

  “Trust me, I don’t necessarily enjoy it,” she admitted. She really didn’t have a choice—it’s just where she ended up and like everything else in life, she just dealt with it. “You get used to it, after a while.”

  Liam shook his head. “Count me out of that. This isn’t my idea of living simple.”

  Simple. She wasn’t sure there was such a thing. In love, simple had never existed. In life, simple was just too much to expect.

  “What’s your idea of simple?” She wasn’t being smart; she really wanted to know what he expected.

  He shrugged. “I guess just as it sounds,” he said. He motioned to the crammed roadway and said, “Definitely not this. There’s no way I’d live in a busy city. You couldn’t pay me enough.”

  She understood why he was so edgy, but the city wasn’t all as bad as he made it out to be. She didn’t have a way, at the moment, to prove that to him, but maybe someday soon she’d be able to.

  “It’s really not that bad,” she insisted. Whether she changed his opinion or not, she wanted him to know what it was really like. “You don’t have to go far to get the things you need. Every street has stores that offer every item on your list. Sure, the traffic jams, the noise and the smog are downfalls of city life, but honestly, I enjoy it.”

  The slam of the brakes would have nearly sent her out the window if it hadn’t been for her seat belt holding her back.

  “Sorry about that,” he said, his hands gripped the steering wheel until no color was left in his fingers. “I thought we would’ve moved more than an inch.”

  She couldn’t help but chuckle at the way he reacted to the traffic. He looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”

  She motioned to the traffic and said, “That this has you all sorts of flustered.”

  He grunted once again. He pointed to the line of cars—about ten, or more, and said, “I didn’t think it’d take an hour to get across the bridge.”

  “That bridge is a drawbridge,” she explained, as she motioned to the bridge surrounded by water.

  Frustration creased his face as he tried to understand what she had just said.

  “You know? A bridge that allows boats to pass through,” she explained. “Have you heard of the Brighton Ferry?”

  “I think I may have, but I’ve never actually seen it,” he admitted.

  “The Brighton Ferry is used for shipping goods, but also for transportation for us along the bay,” she said, smiling at the thought of taking him to see it someday. “I’m not really sure whose idea it was to build a drawbridge and have a ferry to transport people and cargo, but I don’t think they had planned out the time delay in traffic very well.”

  “I assume this city had not been so populated back when they decided to build the bridge. They had a body of water to deal with and they had to figure a way around it. So they did. And not only did they do that, but also a way to bring tourists to their city,” he stated, smiling his too-perfect smile.

  Whether or not he admitted it, he had an interest in this city—maybe not the traffic, but the history of it, for sure.

  “So, you do like this city,” she teased.

  He shrugged his shoulder slightly. “I guess I’m a bit intrigued with the history. It fascinates me to think of how far a town has made it,” he said. He laughed and said, “What can I say? I’m a history buff. I like history.”

  She crinkled her nose. “Yuck. I hated history in school.”

  “That’s why,” he said. “Because it was school. If you were to go and research something from history that interests you…”

  She shook her head. “Absolutely nothing.”

  “I don’t believe that,” he said.

  “Why?”

  The truck jerked forward a couple of inches before it came to a complete stop. He relaxed his arms and rolled up the sleeves of his plaid shirt. His sweat-drenched shirt hugged his chest. She could feel the humidity in the air. The sun belted its rays down on them as they sat dead still in the center lane, crawling forward at a snail’s pace. She looked at his dashboard, realizing his old truck didn’t have much of an option for cooling, since the handles were broken. She fanned off the heat with an envelope she found on a pile next to her that was tucked into the wedge of the seat.

  “You mean to tell me that you don’t have any interest in how the United States became the United States?” he asked, frustration apparent in his tone. “Or what about the history of our presidents?”

  Shaking her head and scrunching her nose, she said, “I’m not into politics.”

  “Neither am I, but I still have an interest in the formation aspect of our country,” he stated. “How it all came together.”

  She had no interest in history. Her father had been upset with her in grade school, when she had received her report cards and they had always shown a bold F in the column for her history classes. Nothing had changed throughout the years.

  The traffic broke free of the jam within ten minutes—which had to be a record breaking time. She gave him directions for a quicker route through the city, until they pulled up in front of her apartment complex.

  “Now, I have to warn you,” she said, pointing a finger at him. “I can’t guarantee my place isn’t a mess.”

  The last few weeks had been hard for her. Hospitals were her least favorite, and when she had been begging to be released, she had never thought coming home would be such a challenge. There was no doubt in her mind that she could manage, especially with Liam and Rachel around to help.

  Opening the door, Liam lifted her out of the seat after she unbuckled herself. She could feel his tense muscles against her back and legs as he carried her the distance from his truck to her front door. He carried her as though she weighed nothing. He wasn’t even short of breath when they reached her apartment door.

  Only at the time of approaching the door had she thought about her keys. More than just her keys, but everything she’d had before she went to the hospital.

  “I don’t have my keys,”
she said, panic filled her voice.

  He reached for the knob and turned it. “No worries, the door’s unlocked.”

  She would really need to find her keys. Even though she was going to Cedar Valley to stay for a while, until she was back on her feet, she still needed to have her keys.

  The thought hit her the moment he set her on the overstuffed, fluffy couch. When Liam’s friend brought her cell phone to her, he hadn’t mentioned anything about the car or her stuff that had been in it.

  “Liam, do you know where my car is?” She had not once thought about her car, or her stuff, while she had been in the hospital.

  “Well,” Liam said, with hesitation. Sitting down next to her, he lifted her casted leg onto the foot stool. “The car was a total loss, so I had Wes pick up the check from the insurance company for you.”

  She put her leg down and sat forward. Pain shot through her side and she slammed back against the couch and cried out.

  “Leah! What’s going on?”

  “A… pain…” she could barely say the words without another sharp pain crossing through her stomach.

  “Do I need to call for an ambulance?”

  She shook her head. She breathed through the pain as she had once seen a pregnant woman breathe through contractions—she had no idea what contractions felt like, but if they were anything like the pain she was having now, she’d be doomed in labor.

  “That’s it, I’m taking you back to the hospital,” Liam said, bolting off the couch and attempting to lift her into his arms. She fought against his reach which caused her abdominal muscles to spasm and the sharp pain to increase its intensity from a three to a hundred on a scale of ten. She grabbed her side and pushed him away.

  “I’ll be all right,” she tried to convince him, but could hardly convince herself. “I just need a minute to catch my breath.”

  He was on the phone as he paced back and forth in front of the coffee table. He was talking really fast, and whoever he was talking to was trying their hardest to calm him down. Concern crossed his face as he kept an eye on Leah. “She has a sharp pain in her side and it’s constant. What should we do?”