“Now, Eli, I have better things to do with my time than to check up on you.” She pursed her bright red lips together and let out a big sigh. “I want you to look at my wrist.”
His eyes darted down to her hands in her lap. “What did you do to your wrist?”
Shoving her sleeve partway up her forearm, she held out her frail-looking wrist for his inspection. “I was exercising on my pole and one hand slipped. I landed on this one.”
Exercising on my pole were words he really didn’t need to hear coming from a senior citizen who used to threaten his life with her rolling pin.
Eli examined her wrist, careful of his touch as he rotated it, had her wiggle her fingers and apply pressure to his.
“This looks like a sprain, but I’d like to send you over for an X-ray just in case. The swelling isn’t too bad. Have you been putting ice on it?”
Maddie shook her head. “I didn’t have time. I baked some bread for you before I came in.”
Eli resisted the urge to groan because who knew what flavor she’d concocted this time. “You need to take care of yourself, Maddie.”
Reaching over with her good hand, she took a loaf from her purse. “I hope you like pumpernickel banana. Until you tell me what you like, I’ll keep making up my own blend.”
Eli took the loaf, laughed and nodded. “Maddie, I won’t be here long enough for you to worry about my favorite kind.”
She harrumphed before taking her cane and sliding off the table. “I’ve heard you’ve been spending time at a certain vet’s house.”
Of course she’d heard. This town was too small, the people too nosy, for anything to remain private. Reason number four hundred and eighty-two for him to get back to Atlanta.
“Stonerock is an addicting town,” she went on. “You’re back now and I bet if you think about it, you’ll agree that fate has handed you a second chance at where you should actually be.”
Eli studied her. “Are you getting philosophical on me?”
“Just stating a fact. Your father will retire soon. This surgery might be just the eye-opener you both needed.”
Eli wrote out her order for an X-ray and waited until she shuffled out of the room. He eyed the bread and started to toss it in the trash like he did the last one, but that seemed cruel.
The first time he’d been skeptical, but she was obviously extending the proverbial olive branch to him.
Still, pumpernickel and banana? He chuckled. He picked up the loaf and headed to the front desk where Lulu was typing away on the computer, doing actual work on insurance claims. He tossed the foil-wrapped surprise onto the desk and smiled.
“From Maddie.”
Lulu glanced over at him, looking over the top of her rhinestone-rimmed glasses. “Oh, honey, I can’t eat that. Too many carbs. I like to save my carbs for my margaritas.”
Eli shrugged. “I won’t eat it, either. Just the combination sounds disgusting.”
Lulu took a sip from the plastic cup she’d brought from home. That cup was always on her desk and Eli knew his father had never asked what was in it—Eli flat out didn’t want to know. But as flighty as she seemed with the whole bimbo facade going, she really did run this office smoothly. He didn’t catch her working often, but everything was always done on time and in an orderly manner.
Lulu set her cup down and slid off her glasses as she smiled. “Maddie always brought your dad cinnamon raisin bread. You might as well tell her your favorite or she’ll keep giving you odd mixtures for spite.”
Eli laughed, shaking his head. “So she told me. What’s your favorite? I’ll tell her that because I’m not sticking around long enough for it to matter.”
“Give it to Sarah. That girl can use a few added pounds. But if Maddie can do a vodka-flavored bread, I’ll take it.” Lulu donned her sparkly glasses and went back to typing. “Such a shame you’re not staying, though. I think you’re fitting in nicely here.”
No, he wasn’t. He was merely filling in for his father and then Eli would be back to Atlanta, hopefully heading up the trauma unit. He couldn’t wait.
As he walked back down the hall, Sarah had just put another file into the slot. “Rooms one and two have patients,” the young girl told him.
“Thanks, Sarah.”
His father’s newest nurse was straight from school, quiet, and one rarely knew she was around. Quite the opposite from Lulu.
When Eli pulled the chart from the slot, he paused. Maybe he couldn’t wait to get back to the job he’d trained for, but that meant leaving Nora...again. He’d known this would be hard, and that’s the main reason he’d stayed out of her bed. Well, that and because she was beyond vulnerable.
Coughing into his arm, Eli flipped open the chart, recognizing the name of the elderly gentleman waiting on the other side of the door. That was something else he wouldn’t have in Atlanta. He rarely knew a patient in a town of that size.
And that was how he liked it, right? Eli shook off the questions swirling around in his mind. He couldn’t stay. It wasn’t an option. That didn’t mean he didn’t care for Nora and her child, though.
Caring for someone didn’t mean you had to give up your goals and forget everything you’d worked for. He could still care for her from a distance; they could still remain friends. And when the time came for her to remarry...
A heavy weight settled into his chest. The last thing Eli wanted was to see Nora fall in love and marry again. The first time had nearly killed him. But who was he to ask for more? The last thing she needed was for him to express that he may be falling for her again.
* * *
The sound that greeted Eli when he came in the door really made his day. Nora’s laughter filtered through the house, as did that of his brother’s. Lord help him, his mind immediately went back to when they were all teens.
After the morning with Maddie and her questionable bread, he’d treated three positive cases of the flu. That made ten total since he’d arrived home.
And he refused to believe his lethargic state had anything to do with that dreaded bug. He could not, would not, get sick. He’d actually tested himself before he left and the swab came back negative. Thank God.
This is precisely why he preferred traumas. Besides the fact the work environment was fast paced and ever changing, he wouldn’t contract any and all viruses.
Still wearing his coat, Eli went into the family room in the back of the house. Nora’s feet were propped up on Cam’s lap and Eli had to clench his fists. They were friends, this meant nothing. Besides, what claim did Eli have over Nora? None whatsoever.
“That house is not even an option,” Nora said, still laughing. “I can’t believe the agent considered that one. Seriously?”
Eli leaned his shoulder against the doorframe. “You’re already looking at another house?”
Nora snapped her head around and glanced up him, her smile still in place. “It’s time I started.”
“I just put that crib together the other day. Does that mean I’m going to have to disassemble it to get it out of the room?”
Her smile faded. “Well, I haven’t found a house yet and I’ve no doubt this baby will come before I actually move.”
“Eli, are you all right?” his mother asked from the other side of the room where she sat next to his father. “You seem...grouchy.”
He raked a hand over his face. “I’m just... I’ll be out in the apartment if anyone needs me.”
The questioning gazes annoyed him. He hated the fact that he was obviously the mood spoiler, but seeing Nora so cozied up with his brother, plus the fact she was looking for another house when he knew damn well she loved the one she was in, just got to him. Besides, he’d told her he’d find a way to help her keep her house.
How many times over the years had Nora made herself at home exactly
like the scene he’d just witnessed? She truly was part of his family whether he was comfortable with it or not. Hell, she’d spent more time with his family in the past several years than he had.
Eli made his way out to the garage and up to the apartment. Obviously his father was being taken care of for the evening, but he’d check on his parents again before he turned in for the night. First things first, he needed to get something to eat. Maybe that would help him feel better. Eli moved through the open floor plan and into the kitchen. Before he could fully study the contents in his fridge, the garage door closed below and footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Watching the door to the living area, he wasn’t at all surprised to see Nora step through the door. Worry filled her eyes as she stared across the room.
“Did you have a bad day?” she asked, still holding on to the doorknob and standing in the doorway as if she didn’t know if she’d be invited in or not.
“Just busy. I didn’t mean to snap at you. You’re the last person I would ever be mean to.” He rested his palms on the edge of the counter and dropped his head between his shoulders. “I was caught off guard with everyone here, more caught off guard that you’d gone and talked to a Realtor.”
“I told you I needed to,” she informed him.
“You love the house you’re in,” he told her, pushing off the counter and crossing the room. “I hate that you feel you need to move because you don’t have Todd to help anymore.”
Nora shrugged. “It’s okay. Life happens and I just have to make the most of what I’m dealing with.”
He took her hand off the knob and closed the door behind her. How easy would it be to throw away everything and just stay here with her? How easy would a life with this breath of fresh air be? But what right did he have to think he could be included in anything regarding her life? He’d thrown it away once before.
Nora reached up, touched his face and frowned. “Eli, you’re pretty warm.”
“I’m not feeling too good actually.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” she demanded.
Eli shrugged and moved back into the kitchen. “It’s no big deal.”
“Get back in here and lie down. I’ll make your dinner. And you’re having soup.”
Eli chuckled, heading back into the living area. “I’m not arguing.”
Her hard gaze softened as she looked down at him. “Now I know you must feel bad.”
Resting his head against the back of the couch, Eli groaned. “This isn’t how this works. I’m the doctor.”
“Looks like you’re the patient to me.”
Before she moved away, Eli grabbed her arm. “Go home, Nora. I can’t let you catch whatever bug I’ve got. I tested negative for the flu earlier, but who knows what this is. Could just be a quick twenty-four-hour thing, but still. I won’t be responsible for you getting sick.”
“I’ll wash my hands and make sure to stay back from your face.” Nora’s beautiful smile spread across her face. “You honestly think I’m just going to leave you when you have no energy and you feel this bad? What kind of friend do you think I am?”
“The best kind.”
Her eyes held his a little longer before she pulled from his grasp and went into the kitchen. If he’d felt better he would have ventured to explore the heat, the friction, that had been bouncing back and forth between them for weeks.
“You need to get out of all those layers and try to get that temp down,” she called to him. Eli hated that she was right, but he was starting to shiver and the thought of taking any clothes off made him colder. But he had to get this fever down. Of all times to be sick, he couldn’t afford to be out of commission now.
After shrugging out of his shirt, he toed off his shoes, letting them thump to the floor between the sofa and the small table. His jeans went next, leaving him in his black boxer briefs and socks. Not the way he’d imagined stripping down when being with Nora again.
“Do you even feel like eating?” she called from the kitchen. “Maybe just some crackers for now?”
“That might be best.”
He heard her opening and closing cabinets, then the rattle of a bag. When she came around the couch to hand him the package, her eyes fixed on his bare chest.
“If I felt better I’d take you up on the offer of that look in your eyes,” he muttered.
She thrust the crackers at him and quirked a brow. “If you felt better your shirt wouldn’t be off.”
Eli nibbled on a cracker, praying that he’d feel himself by morning. When Nora rustled around more in his kitchen, then in his bathroom, he wondered what she was doing, but she came back with some medicine and sat on the coffee table directly in front of him.
“Take this,” she told him. “We need to get that fever down.”
Feeling ridiculous shivering in his underwear and socks—could this moment get more humiliating?—he eyed her over the meds. “Please, Nora. Go on home. I’ll take this, crawl into bed and hopefully sleep it off.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re sick.”
“Which is precisely why you need to go.”
“I’ve been in here for a half hour. If I’m going to get it, I’ve already contracted it. I promise I’ll be fine.”
On a groan, he closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of the sofa cushion. “I don’t have the energy to argue.”
He waited for her to go, waited to hear the door close, but silence enveloped him and, before long, he drifted off.
* * *
After Nora called to the main house and informed Bev that Eli was sick, Bev tried to get her to go home. No way. Right now all Nora cared about was Eli and taking care of him.
Her baby rolled and Nora froze. That was new. Kicks here and there were becoming more and more common, but that felt like a flip. With her hand on the chair and another on her belly, Nora stood still and watched Eli sleep on the sofa. He was wiped out. Between taking care of her, his father, his father’s practice, it was no wonder.
Guilt slid through her. She should’ve refused his help. All of his downtime had been spent with her or his father. He needed time for himself, but having him around brought out the selfish side of her. She wanted to be with him all the time, wanted to talk to him, make new memories with him.
Eli had zero intention of staying, yet she found herself wondering, wishing. And she didn’t have those teenage dreams in her mind like before. Now she knew full well that the chances of them being together were slim to none. That wouldn’t stop her from enjoying him while he was here.
When Nora was sure her daughter was finished working on her Olympic routine, she crossed the space between her and Eli and felt his head. His fever was coming down. A sheen of perspiration covered him from the breaking fever.
As a concerned friend, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She wanted to be here if he needed anything when he woke.
But as a woman, she couldn’t help but admire his chiseled physique. He’d been a muscular guy in school, always lifting weights with his brothers, always tinkering with cars. But now as a man those shoulders had nearly doubled in size. Taut skin stretched over rippling muscles across his back, shoulders and arms. A tattoo on his back curved up over his shoulder and she knew it went around to the front of his pec. He hadn’t had that when he’d left town at eighteen.
He hadn’t had that scar across his brow and down onto his cheek, either. That was very new because he’d been home for a visit a year ago and she hadn’t seen it.
So much had happened to him since he left. A lifetime, really. But the man who had come home, the man she was now caring for, was taking her heart again and there was no way she could stop him.
Nora shoved her hair out of her face and sighed. She had no place in his life, no reason to know what happened when he’d been ov
erseas fighting for their country.
Knowing he’d been hurt bothered her in more ways than one. She hated the thought of him being injured, but more than that she hated she wasn’t part of his life enough to know, enough to show him she cared.
So here she sat, pregnant with her late husband’s baby, falling for her first love all over again and scared to death of the future. She was a mess.
Yawning, Nora crossed the room to turn on a small lamp. After turning off all the other lights, she moved to the bed, which was on the far wall. The open floor plan worked to her advantage because she could lie there and still see him and hear if he woke and needed anything.
The garage light outside illuminated the window on the opposite wall. Snow started falling again. Being stuck in Eli’s apartment on a cold winter night was not a bad place to be. She only wished she could be in his room, in his bed, under different conditions.
Unable to resist, she snuggled her head deeper into his pillow, inhaling his strong, masculine scent. Was she wrong in not resisting her feelings toward Eli? Because, as the days went on, her feelings for him deepened.
Tears pricked her eyes. Damn it. She didn’t even know what to feel anymore. If she could have anything she wanted, she’d take Eli back into her life, and they’d fall in love and live happily ever after. But that wasn’t reality and Nora would do good to remember that.
Closing her eyes, she allowed the tears to flow. She hated crying, hated the vulnerability that overcame her. More than anything she hated letting anyone else see her as anything but strong.
She knew this moment would come, when she’d be unable to hold back the dam of emotions. Maybe she needed to let go. Getting rid of all the angst, the worry, the fear she’d kept bottled up for so long was long overdue.
Once she cried herself to the point of a headache, Nora wiped her damp face and pushed back her hair. Eli needed her and that’s what she would focus on. She had no choice but to be strong just a bit longer around him. She didn’t want him to see her visibly upset because he had some guilt that seemed to shadow him at all times.
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