by Liz Talley
“But I got distracted and...”
They went around and around the issue for the next hour. But by the time Lynn left, assuring Maddie that she wouldn’t be doing so if she thought for one second that her daughter was in any danger, Maddie was smiling again.
But Lynn couldn’t get the incident out of her mind. As soon as she finished with her patient, she called Maddie’s cell to make certain that everything was fine.
Maddie, answering on the first ring, assured her that all was well. Kara had gone down for her nap right on schedule and was still asleep.
“I’m just worried that you’re mad at me,” Maddie tacked on in a rush at the end of the report.
“I’m not mad.” But she called Sara as soon as she hung up the phone, asking the other woman to find time for a talk with the upset woman. Maddie’s biggest challenge was learning how to rein in her agitation and she was afraid that the morning’s incident could cause a setback from the several months’ worth of progress Maddie had made.
She also told Sara about Maddie’s interest in Darin.
She was just hanging up the phone when her emergency pager went off. A 9-1-1 from Angelica, the Stand’s physical therapist. She’d turned to grab a towel for Darin and he’d picked up a heavier weight than she’d instructed, apparently determined that she wasn’t moving him along quickly enough. He’d dropped the weight, which hit his shin and split the skin wide open.
“It looks bad....”
Her bag of emergency supplies sat by her office door and, grabbing them, Lynn was on her way before Angelica finished that last sentence.
* * *
DAYS WERE SUPPOSED to go as planned. It was one thing Grant could usually count on. Because he thought ahead, planned for eventualities, left margin for plan’s error. And other than Luke, and in a small way Maura occasionally, Grant didn’t rely on anyone but himself. He didn’t open his life to outside sources that could waylay him.
And that Saturday was waylaying him all over the place. First the pond’s irrigation system had been clogged. He’d just done maintenance on all the water features the week before and everything had tested fine.
Then there’d been the incident with Maddie’s little girl, Kara, which had upset Darin to the point that Grant had to accompany his brother to lunch when he’d planned to eat granola bars and keep working through the hour or two Darin normally spent at the Stand’s cafeteria.
Darin had been different, strangely upset, not predictably upset, all through lunch. Over such an apparently simple thing.
Maybe because in the past seventeen years he’d had very little contact with strangers, other than medical personnel. He knew Luke well, and now Craig. Maura was like family to him.
And that was all.
Grant didn’t have time to think on it any further at the moment.
After lunch, his lawn mower had run out of gas—a stupid lapse of paying attention on his part because he’d been distracted by Darin’s distress over a woman he hardly knew—and he’d had to walk the two blocks to his fuel source, load up and walk back.
And he’d spent the entire time looking for any sign of the beautiful nurse who’d taken up residence in his subconscious and who tortured him with fantastic odysseys every night in his dreams.
Waking up wasn’t quite as great as it used to be.
And then later, when he was wheeling a load of debris to the trailer, the star of his nighttime fantasies called just as he was contemplating a particularly athletic move she’d made in his dreams the night before. He’d actually been trying to figure out if there was a way to actually physically do what his mind had conjured up. So when he heard her voice on the phone he got instantly hard.
Which embarrassed the shit out of him.
“Your brother asked me to call you.” Her words stopped him in his tracks. Literally. Wheelbarrow balanced in the grasp of one hand he stood in the middle of the front commons, his phone to his ear.
“You’re with Darin? What’s wrong?” He shouldn’t have gone back to work. He’d known Darin was agitated over the morning’s incident with Maddie’s little girl.
His brother had as little experience with children as Grant did. Maybe that was it.
“He’s fine.” Lynn’s tone was reassuring. “I’m taking him to my house.”
Oh. Well, he wasn’t entirely displeased by the knowledge. A little jealous, maybe. He’d been wanting to know which place was hers for over a week, and Darin was just going to stroll right on over with her.
“Why?” He asked the question that hadn’t occurred to him immediately. It should have.
“He dropped a weight during therapy. It hit his shin and broke the skin. Angelica called me.” Her tone was reticent.
“Why would his therapist call you because of a little broken skin?”
“It wasn’t actually a little.” Lynn’s reply didn’t surprise him as much as it might have. “I had to stitch it.”
Wheeling the barrow with one hand because he had to get the thing over to the trailer and get his ass over to his brother, he said, “How many stitches?”
“Eight. He’ll need to have them for a week to ten days.”
“Let me talk to him.”
There was a pause on the line. He heard rustling, her voice murmuring something unintelligible in the background. And then she was talking to him again. “He’s shaking his head.”
Grant pushed faster, swerving as the unwieldy cart almost tipped over. He knew better than to wheel a barrow with one hand.
He also knew better than to run out of gas or fantasize about any one woman.
“You still there?” Lynn’s tone had softened.
“Yeah. My brother doesn’t want to talk to me?”
“He knows you aren’t going to be pleased.”
“Because he had an accident? That’s ridiculous. Darin knows me better than that.”
What, he was some kind of ogre caregiver now?
He thought about what she’d told him about the incident. “How did a three-pound weight cause that much damage?” he asked now, getting away from his own issues and back with the program.
“It was a twenty-pound weight.”
“What? Are you kidding me? He’s progressed from three to twenty pounds in a few days?” That inch of arm movement must have been the beginning...
Relief flooded him.
“No. Angelica handed him the three-pound weight, which he was supposed to be holding while she got a warm compress. He put it down and picked up a twenty-pound weight.”
“Attempted to pick it up.” He heard Darin’s voice in the background.
“He managed to get it off the rack, but immediately dropped it.”
“On his shin.”
“Yes.”
“And no bones were broken?”
“Nope. His bone health is just fine. Though he’s going to have some pretty painful bruising by morning.”
“Where are you now?”
“In front of my house, getting ready to go inside.”
“Which bungalow is it?”
She told him. And he knew it immediately. Set back in the corner of the commons farthest from the main house, the bungalow was one of the nicest, in terms of size and setting. But he wouldn’t have figured she’d be located so far back on the property. Not only did it mean a bit of a hike anytime she got a call, but she’d have to make that walk from any of the parking lots across the grounds with groceries and anything else she brought home, too. Not convenient for when she was off work, to be sure.
“I’m on my way.” As soon as he emptied the wheelbarrow and stashed it in the back of the trailer.
“Wait.”
He heard voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“Darin wants to
know how angry you are.”
“I’m not angry at all.” He wasn’t. “I trust my brother to push himself as far as he thinks he should. And if he pushes too far, he’ll learn. Hell, I’m thrilled he’s pushing at all. It’s been a while.”
Truth be told, he was relieved. A few stitches were a small price to pay to have what was left of his brother back.
CHAPTER TEN
LYNN HAD DEBATED the advisability of bringing Darin back to her bungalow, knowing that Maddie was there. Sara had warned that she shouldn’t try to stop Maddie’s budding interest in Grant’s older brother. Maddie was slow, not incapacitated. Although she’d probably never be able to live completely alone, she still needed relationships in her life and had to learn how to have healthy ones.
Sara was concerned, but said she’d talk to Maddie.
And in the meantime, the more Lynn and the rest of them could watch over Maddie’s time with Darin, the more they could help the other woman through this stage of her recovery.
It wasn’t like Maddie and Darin would ever have a chance to be on their own, other than for perhaps a stroll through the grounds.
And, Sara had added, the friendship, as long as they helped Maddie see it for what it was, could benefit both of them.
Quickly reminding herself of her friend and coworker’s words as she unlocked the front door of the bungalow, Lynn called out.
“Maddie? Kara? I’m home, and look who I brought with me!”
“Mama!” The three-year-old’s happy squeal came from the back of the three-bedroom cottage. “I’m on the potty!” Her daughter’s sweet little babyish voice melted her heart.
“Okay, we’ll wait,” she called back. “Come on in,” she said to Darin, who was standing on the threshold of her house.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I... It’s been a long time since I have been in a woman’s home.”
“I’m not a woman.” Lynn laughed. “I’m the nurse who just stitched you up.”
“Yes, but I haven’t been in your home before, either. Maybe I should wait for Grant.”
“My house is no different than any other house.” She wouldn’t force him, but she hoped he’d come in.
“I just... I think I should wait for Grant.”
She supposed they could stand in the doorway for the next five minutes but wished she could help somehow.
“Darin? That is who came home with you?” Maddie’s eyes widened as she came walking into the living room just ahead of the little dynamo who pushed past her and flung herself at her mother.
Kara hugged her mother’s legs, kissed her leg through her scrubs and then hurled herself toward Darin, as though she was going to repeat the greeting.
“Hold on there, tiger.” Lynn grabbed her toddler by the arm and scooped her up onto her hip. It wouldn’t be long before Kara was going to be too big for her to carry around.
“Mr. Bishop has an owie on his leg.”
“That’s not Mister, it’s Dawin.” Kara giggled with both hands up to her mouth as Maddie’s gaze traveled down the basketball shorts Darin wore for his therapy sessions.
“Your leg is bandaged,” Maddie said, her look of wonder turning to one of horror. “What happened?”
“I dropped a weight. Lynn stitched me,” he said, his gaze locked on Maddie. “It’s okay. I’m fine. Just afraid Grant’s going to be mad. Now I have to be careful to not get it wet in the shower.”
Standing in her open doorway with Maddie behind her and Kara on her hip, Lynn said, “I told you, he’s not mad.”
“You should come in and sit down,” Maddie said, stepping forward, her focus still on the bandage wrapped around Darin’s muscled calf. She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside.
With only a moment’s hesitation, Darin stepped over the threshold and walked behind Maddie to the great room with Lynn carrying Kara behind them. As though she were a hostess in her own home, Maddie settled Darin on the sectional couch Lynn and Brandon had picked together to furnish the family room in their two-thousand-square-foot home. Before she’d gotten pregnant and Brandon had met Douglas and finally admitted to himself that he wasn’t a happily married man.
As Darin sat down, Maddie moved the ottoman under his injured leg. “Do you want water?” she asked.
“Yes, please.”
“Do you want a bottle or a glass?”
“A bottle would be fine.”
“Okay, wait a minute and I’ll be right back.”
Lynn could have gone for the water. Or offered him some juice, which would help raise blood sugar levels after his loss of blood. But Darin hadn’t lost enough blood to be a concern. And he hadn’t been showing any signs of dizziness.
Maddie’s attention to her injured friend choked her up and made her smile at the same time.
“I want wataw,” Kara said, playing with the gold ball post in Lynn’s earlobe.
“How about apples?” Lynn asked, putting the little girl down. “Darin, would you like some apple slices?”
“No, thank you,” the tall man said, sitting completely still and upright on the section of the sofa where Maddie had left him. Kara, who’d run back toward her room, came out again, hurtling toward them as fast as her little legs could go with Sammy in her hand.
“This will help you,” she told Darin as, with the stuffed toy still in her hand, she used both hands to help herself climb up on the couch.
“Be careful of Darin’s leg,” Lynn instructed. She’d have liked to have insisted on her toddler calling the older man by his respectful title, but figured she’d be fighting a losing battle on that one.
And for no real gain.
With Sammy bunched in one hand, Kara started to slip and Darin reached out, pulling the little girl up beside him.
“This is Sammy,” Kara said. “You can kiss him.” She pushed the stuffed toy up to Darin’s face.
On her way to the kitchen, Lynn heard the smacking sound the man’s lips made as he acquiesced.
* * *
GRANT KNEW LYNN’S yard. Intimately. He really, really wanted to know the woman intimately, too.
She was independent. As much in charge of her life as Grant was. With seemingly as little time to spare. Maybe they could hook up. Just for a little adult pleasure.
He walked up the couple of steps to her front door and knocked.
She was still in her scrubs—black bottoms and a peachy-colored top today. A medical professional who was helping his brother.
Maybe he’d stick to fantasizing about those adult pleasures he’d imagined.
She was smiling, and her gaze collided with his.
Maybe it wouldn’t be all fantasy....
“Come on in,” she said.
He did. And stood there in her hallway, not noticing at all the house he’d been so curious about.
“I was just going for some apples and tea. Can I get you some?”
Voices came from the distance. The words weren’t distinguishable, but the laughter that followed them was.
“He doesn’t seem to be any worse for wear.”
“All he’s talked about since I first saw him was you being angry with him. The stitches in his leg, on the other hand, don’t seem to be fazing him a bit. I asked if he wanted a cane, tried to take his arm while he was walking, but he was having none of it.”
Grant laughed. He couldn’t help himself. “I told you, my brother’s a determined man. He’s also had his share of stitches. Starting long before the diving accident.”
“Something tells me you both have.”
Her grin immediately reminded him of last night’s fantasy....
Voices floated in to them again. He recognized Darin’s. The other one was quite distinguishable, too.
“Maddie’s here?”
“Yeah.”
“Does she live with you?” It made sense, the two of them sharing a place. Since they both were employees. Other than Lila, whose apartment, he’d been told, was in the main building, Lynn and Maddie were the only two who lived at The Lemonade Stand full-time.
“No. She has her own bungalow in the first commons. But she tends to panic if she’s left along in the dark for too long, so there’s another woman, Gwen, who stays with her at night. Gwen has her own home, and is never here during the day. Her husband works nights. He drops her here on his way to work and picks her up on his way home every day.”
So Maddie was never completely unsupervised with her daughter. Other than maybe for lunch sometimes, he amended, remembering that afternoon and the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Maddie had promised the little girl.
But they hadn’t been heading toward the first commons....
Curious, he figured he shouldn’t ask questions, but he couldn’t help a raised brow. These women, their lives...they were unconventional, and yet they seemed to blend together perfectly.
“Gwen was a resident,” Lynn said, more forthcoming than usual as they stood in the hallway. He wasn’t sure why they weren’t going to collect Darin, but as long as his brother was engaged in a conversation that he seemed to be enjoying, Grant had no problem spending a few minutes alone with Darin’s beautiful nurse.
“Her first husband, her abuser, came after her a couple of times once she’d recovered, made a new life for herself and remarried. He’s been in jail, but is out again. Gwen was terrified to stay alone. Her husband, someone we all know here, didn’t want her to stay alone, and Maddie needed a life helper. It worked out for all of us.”
“So Gwen gets paid for her time here? This is her job?”
“The state pays a stipend for Maddie to have a companion. Gwen donates it to the shelter.”
“She works seven days a week?”
Lynn shook her head. “Five. Sunday through Thursday. On Fridays and Saturdays Maddie either stays here or at one of the other bungalows. She likes to have slumber parties with the younger girls and they seem to enjoy having her.”