He didn't have to turn around and look at Aubrey to detect her dissatisfaction because he heard her grunt.
"Yes, you do. You're worrying too much about me. Clay, I'm fine—really. I want you to be happy, and I think you and Jenny would make such a cute couple. She's so nice, and if it hadn't been for her, my hospital stay would've been very stressful. She eased my mind a lot."
Clay collected two plates from an overhead cabinet and divided the scrambled eggs between the two of them. When the slices of bread were done toasting, he put one on Aubrey's plate and one on his own and carried them to the counter. He was surprised when she didn't turn her nose up at it like she usually did. "I'm sure she's a great person and all, but my main focus right now is you. End of story. I may ask her out later on down the line, but I'm not making any promises."
He brought their coffee cups and forks to the counter and sat beside her. She pouted her lips in defiance, but he chose to ignore it and concentrated on his meal instead.
"Have I mentioned lately that I'd like some nieces and nephews before I'm too old to enjoy them?" she joked. "Just promise me you'll think about it."
Clay sipped his coffee. "Let's not jump ahead of ourselves. And I have thought about it. She's a beautiful woman, so it's impossible not to consider it, but I don't want you getting your hopes up."
She sighed once again, and they ate the remainder of their breakfast in silence. He noticed she had trouble gripping her fork and cup a few times, but he didn't say anything because he didn't want to make a big deal out of it and agitate her. When he’d first moved back home, he pointed out every little thing she had difficulty with, but he did it only out of concern. Still, he could tell it bothered her, and since then, he tried very hard keeping his comments to himself.
"Do you need some helping washing the dishes?" she asked.
Clay swallowed his last piece of toast and pushed his plate away. "I'll take care of it. You should probably get to work. Didn't you say you had a project to complete today for your boss?"
Aubrey wiped her mouth with a napkin before tossing it on top of her plate. "Yeah, I need to get started on that. Thank you for breakfast." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I love you, and I appreciate all that you do for me."
Clay smiled. "I love you too. Call me if you need me. I'm going to check the mail."
She nodded and picked up her cane. He kept a close eye on her as she hobbled down the hallway to her office, and once she shut the door behind her, he slipped on his sneakers and walked outside to the mailbox. It was a beautiful Wednesday morning, and several of their neighbors were taking advantage of the pretty weather and working in their yards. A couple of them waved as he walked down the driveway to the mailbox, and he waved back.
Clay frowned when he saw a thick envelope from the Lake Arrowhead General Hospital inside the mailbox. It was addressed to him and Aubrey, and he hesitated opening it until he returned to the house. After doublechecking that she was still inside her office, he tore open the envelope and pulled out the wad of papers that turned out to be the bill from Aubrey's hospital stay.
His heart thumped erratically when he saw the total, which was close to six-thousand dollars. He knew it would be high, but he never expected it to be so costly, and he knew he would have to ask his boss for some extra shifts to help pay for it. Clay furrowed a brow as he stuffed the papers inside the envelope and put it in the backpack he carried to work, so Aubrey wouldn't find it. She had enough to worry about without adding something else to the pile.
As he picked up the dirty dishes and carried them to the kitchen sink, his heart was burdened, and his mind raced with the numerous things he had to tend to. Clay squared his shoulders and jutted his chin while reminding himself that it was just a temporary setback and what mattered most was Aubrey's well-being, which he would guard and protect, no matter what the cost.
Chapter 8
Jenny
The following Monday, as Jenny and Kelly were walking into work, the conversation turned to what occupation they would've chosen if they hadn't gone into nursing, and Kelly burst out laughing as soon as she heard Jenny's answer.
"But you're such a homebody," Kelly remarked. "I can't picture you working as a travel guide."
Jenny stuck out her tongue. "In case you didn’t know, I traveled every summer with my parents before they moved to Rome, and I think that would be a great way to mark some countries off my bucket list."
With the city workers doing construction on the hospital parking garage, the only places left to park were the lot outside the emergency room entrance and the lot in front of the hospital, which was usually reserved for visitors. It was a nuisance trying to find somewhere to park, but it gave Jenny a good excuse to use the emergency room entrance and look for Clay.
"I would be a chef in a fancy Hollywood restaurant that caters only to celebrities," Kelly said.
Jenny smirked as they turned a corner in the ER and headed for the elevator. "I've seen your attempts at cooking, and you can't even boil water. How in the world do you expect to be a chef?"
Kelly shot her a cynical look. "You didn't let me finish. First, I would attend a prestigious culinary school, and after I graduated at the top of my class, then I would work at an elite restaurant in Hollywood."
When they neared the elevator, Jenny stopped in her tracks and her pulse quickened when she spotted Clay at the nurse's station inside the ER.
"Oh my," Kelly said. "If it isn't the hunky paramedic you've been pining after."
Jenny nudged her in the ribs.
"Well, go on. Go talk to him," Kelly urged. "Don't make me haul you in there kicking and screaming. You know I'll do it."
Jenny's feet felt like they were glued to the floor, and she was afraid to move. She'd spent the past two weeks thinking about him and hoping she'd bump into him, and now that she had the chance to talk to him again, she wasn't sure she could do it.
Come on, Jenny. You've bungee jumped off mountains and skydived thousands of feet in the air. Stop being such a wimp.
Kelly gave her a push to get her moving, and she swallowed hard past the lump in her throat as she walked his way. She looked over her shoulder one last time just as Kelly gave her a thumbs-up before stepping into the elevator, and after gathering as much courage as she could muster, she approached Clay. "Hey, stranger. Fancy seeing you here."
Clay looked up from his paperwork, and she noticed immediately the dark circles under his eyes. Also, his hair was disheveled, his clothes were rumpled, and it looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.
"Hey, Jenny. How are you?"
She set her purse on top of the desk and eyed him closely. His complexion was sallow, and the five o’clock shadow on his face made him look older than his years. He looked genuinely exhausted, and that concerned her. "I'm doing good, but I don't think I can say the same for you. Are you okay?"
He rubbed his right eye with the back of his hand and gave her a weary smile. "Yeah, I imagine I must look pretty bad. I haven't had a day off in over a week, and I'm running on fumes."
He finished his paperwork and handed it to the young nurse behind the desk, who took it and thanked him with a big, flirty smile—much flirtier than Jenny cared for—but she tried not to show it. Fortunately, he seemed too tired to pay her much attention.
"Are you short-handed at the ambulance service?" she asked.
He slipped his pen inside the front pocket on his shirt and shook his head. "No. We have plenty of help. I've been taking extra shifts to help pay off Aubrey's hospital bill."
His selflessness made her heart swell, but he sounded so tired and worn down. She wanted more than anything to take him in her arms and comfort him, but now wasn't the time or place. The ER was unusually busy for a Monday afternoon, and she hated they didn't have more privacy. "How is Aubrey doing?"
Jenny could tell by the disheartened look on his face that she wasn't going to like his answer, and she feared the worst.
"She's been having more stiffness in her j
oints. Dr. Harding suggested doing some exercises, so I bought her a treadmill, and that's helped some, but there are times when nothing works. I've been doing everything I can think of from treating her to massages at the salon to bicycling with her at the park, but it's just a day by day thing at this point."
A couple of people walked up to the nurse's station, and Jenny put a hand on Clay's arm and motioned for him to follow her to a private spot away from the crowd—and from the googly eyes of flirty nurses.
"Do you mind me asking what kind of medication Aubrey's taking?"
Clay shook his head. "Not at all. Right now, she's taking a capsule once-daily, but Dr. Harding said at her last appointment she may have to switch to intravenous infusions once every three months."
His answer tugged at her heart. Jenny knew infusions were normally reserved for those with progressing symptoms, so if Emily recommended them, then Aubrey's case was worse than she imagined. Of course, in his line of work, Clay probably understood the implications, too, and she hoped her questions didn't make him feel even worse about the situation. To play it safe, she decided to change the subject.
"I think it’s noble the way you take such good care of your sister, but I hope you get some time off soon so you don't wear yourself thin."
Clay smiled at her. It was a wearisome smile, but she was just happy his lips were curved upward instead of downward.
"Thanks, Jenny. It's sweet of you to worry about me, but I'll be fine. I have tomorrow night off, so I'll get a break."
Jenny's heart skipped a beat. She was off tomorrow night too. It felt like the perfect opportunity to ask him out, but what if he just wanted to be left alone so he could get some much-needed rest? Oh well, there was only one way to find out.
"Clay, I'm off work tomorrow night, too, and I would love to treat you to dinner. I know you have a lot going on with Aubrey, though, so if you can't, I completely understand."
He smiled again, but this grin was much brighter and happier than the last one, and that gave her hope.
"I'd like that," he replied. "How about I call you tomorrow, and we'll make plans then?"
Jenny could hardly contain her excitement. She gave him her phone number, which he wrote down on a piece of paper inside his clipboard, and a few minutes later, they said their goodbyes when he got called out to an emergency. As Jenny watched him sprint toward the exit, the butterflies in her stomach did flip-flops. He was so handsome, even when he was exhausted and his tail was dragging.
When he exited through the double doors and disappeared, she checked the time on one of the wall clocks in the ER, and she panicked when she saw it was almost time to clock in. Jenny left the ER and walked hurriedly to the elevator. By the time she made it to the break room on the fourth floor to clock in, she had just a few seconds to spare. As soon as she was on the clock, she roamed the floor looking for Kelly, who she eventually found in one of the supply rooms.
"I did it! I asked him out!" she exclaimed.
Kelly's gaze widened as she peered over her armload of supplies. "Oh my gosh! That's great! When are you going out?"
Jenny unloaded some of the supplies and carried them before Kelly dropped them on the floor. "We're both off tomorrow night, so we're going out to dinner. I don't know the details yet. He's calling tomorrow so we can make plans."
They left the supply room, and Jenny followed her to the nurses’ station, where she filled one of their rolling carts with needles, tape, alcohol swabs, betadine, and other necessities for when they had to go to a patient's room and draw blood. She glanced up and down the corridor and noticed it was relatively empty except for one male nurse, Timothy, who was taking dinner trays to the patient rooms and another nurse she didn't know by name who was helping a patient walk the corridor. "I can see right now it's going to be a long night.”
Kelly nodded in agreement. "So, do you have any idea where you'd like to go tomorrow night?"
Jenny pulled up a chair and sat behind the desk and started nervously tapping her fingernails on top of it. "I don't know. Do you have any suggestions?"
Kelly finished filling the cart and rolled it out of the way. "Hmmm. Well, if he likes Mexican food, there's the restaurant on the corner of Fifth Street and Main. They have great enchiladas and fajitas. There's always Sicily's on Corbin Street for Italian food, but I would probably stay away from that. I've seen how messy you are with spaghetti."
Jenny stuck out her tongue.
"Oh, I know!" Kelly said. "How about that new restaurant on Tilson Avenue? I think it's called Dewey's or Louie's or something like that. They have really good steaks, and I don't know a man alive who doesn't like steak. They also have some amazing margaritas."
Jenny contemplated the idea. Steak and margaritas did sound like a winning combination.
"Hey, Kelly."
Jenny rolled her chair away from Kelly when she caught Timothy draped over the desk, vying for her attention. She tried not to laugh at the tortured look on Kelly's face, and she grabbed a piece of paper and started doodling on it so she wouldn't look like she was eavesdropping, which, of course, she was.
"Hey, Tim," Kelly answered. There was no enthusiasm in her voice whatsoever, and Jenny almost felt sorry for the poor guy.
"I heard they've started a Chinese food buffet in the cafeteria on Monday nights," he said. "It's supposed to be very good."
He leaned even farther over the desk, and Kelly pushed her chair back so they wouldn't be so close. "Thanks for letting me know. Jenny and I are eating dinner there in a couple of hours, and we'll have to try it."
Jenny felt like kicking her for dragging her into it, but she was too far away to reach Kelly’s shins.
"Oh. Okay," Timothy replied.
She could hear the disappointment in his voice, and when he walked away, she gave Kelly a stern look. "You are so mean! Couldn’t you tell he was going to ask you to eat dinner with him?"
Kelly groaned. "I told you. He's sweet and all, but I can't make myself be interested in someone I'm not attracted to. I promise I'm not trying to be mean."
She did look remorseful about it, so Jenny decided to give her a break. "I can't wait until the right person comes along to sweep you off your feet, Kelly Crenshaw."
Kelly grinned. "You and me both."
Chapter 9
Clay
Clay tossed a red shirt on top of the clothes pile on his bed and groaned. Only an hour remained until he had to pick up Jenny, and he'd tried on at least ten different shirts but didn't like any of them. Aubrey, who was sitting on the bed beside the mound of shirts, shook her head and grinned.
"So, this is what it's like having a sister," she teased.
Clay yanked a T-shirt from his closet and wadded it into a tight ball before throwing it at her, which made her burst out laughing. He couldn't help it. He wanted the night to be perfect from start to finish and that included dressing nicely too. He couldn't remember the last time he'd stressed so much about taking a woman out to dinner, and it was getting the best of him.
"Try on the green shirt. No, the one to your left," she suggested. "It brings out the color of your eyes."
He removed the long-sleeved shirt from its hanger and put it on before checking his reflection in the mirror over his dresser. He tucked the shirt inside his dress slacks, and the only other thing missing was his brown belt. While he looked around his bedroom for it, Aubrey watched with a hint of amusement on her face.
"It's sweet seeing you so anxious over this date. Where are you taking her for dinner?"
Clay found his belt and put it on. "I have no idea. I'm letting her decide. And it's not a date. We're just going out as friends."
Aubrey wasn't convinced. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. Of course, it's a date. Going out with a friend wouldn't rattle you this much. Either way, I'm proud of you, big brother. It's about time you stopped lurking over me and hanging around this house all the time."
Clay went to the adjoining bathroom and brushed his hai
r and teeth. "I don't hover over you, and anyway, I'm away from the house more than I'm here."
Aubrey tilted her head and gave him a disgruntled look. "I meant away from the house having fun, not while you're working."
Clay gathered his keys and wallet and glanced around his bedroom one last time to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. "How do I look?"
Aubrey stood and straightened his shirt collar. "There. Perfect. You know, you don't look half bad when you're all cleaned up."
Clay cocked a brow and tickled her side. "You're so funny. Okay, you have my cell phone number, and you know what to do in case of an emergency, right?"
Aubrey moaned and rolled her eyes. "Yes. We've gone over this a million times. Will you please just go?"
She followed him down the hallway to the den, and he felt relieved when he noticed it didn't take as long for her to catch up to him like it had the previous week when the stiffness in her muscles and joints gave her so much grief.
"Call me if you need me," he said. "I mean that. Don't hesitate to get in touch with me. I won't be far away."
Aubrey pushed him toward the door. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Tell Jenny I said hello and have a good time."
Clay kissed her cheek and exited through the side door to the garage. He hated leaving her alone for any length of time, whether he was working or not, and he would worry about her. That was a given. He checked the address Jenny had written on a piece of paper one last time before backing out of the driveway and heading south. She lived only five miles away, but he took his time getting there because he needed to practice what he would say and try to steady his nerves. By the time he turned onto Poplar Drive, he felt a bit more at ease. That is, however, until he saw Jenny.
She answered the door wearing a strapless blue dress that hugged her curves in all the right places and black high heels that showed off her long, lean legs. She looked absolutely stunning, and he tripped over his tongue for the right words to say. "You look beautiful."
Falling In Love: A Sweet Traveling Romance Novel (All Roads Lead To Love Book 2) Page 5