by Parker, Ali
“Oh, that arrived okay, did it?”
“It sure did,” I said. “And thank you. I’m already feeling so much better since it arrived.”
“I’m just glad there was something that I could do to help you,” he told me gently. When he spoke to me, it was like his voice took on this soft, compassionate edge, and I found myself wondering what great power above had sent me such a sweet man to fill out my life.
“You really didn’t have to go through all that trouble,” I told him.
He snorted, cutting me off. “Yeah, like I was just going to let you sit around all sick if there was something I could do to help you.”
I snuggled down into the bed, smiling. I felt like a princess, knowing that he had gone to all this effort to take care of me, like it was obvious that it was his only option.
“Well, it was utterly and completely too much,” I said. “But I suppose I’ll allow it this time around. I think I’m stocked on medication for the rest of my life, though. You sent over so much.”
“You know me,” he replied. “I don’t do anything by halves.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said with a laugh. “That’s why I love you.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Had I really just said that?
I felt the overwhelming urge to toss my phone to the other side of the room, as though that would undo what I had just let slip out of my mouth. I couldn’t believe it. How sick was I, that I thought that was all right to come out with?
I held my breath, certain that I had just fucked up beyond all repair. But then, from the other end of the line, I heard him laughing.
“What?” I asked defensively, more than a little panicked.
“You just told me you loved me for the first time while you were hopped up on cold medicine,” he said.
I giggled uncertainly. I still didn’t know if he was totally freaked out or not.
“Yeah, I did,” I said, and I bit my lip, waiting for him to say something back to me.
What I had just come out with was dangling in the air between us, the words that I had thought for a long time but had never said out loud because I had been sure it was too soon. Was he just deflecting because he didn’t want to say it back to me?
He had a lot to think about here. Not just himself but Winnie, too. It would have made sense if he had decided he wasn’t ready.
“Well, that’s just fine,” he replied. “Because I love you too.”
I felt like a warm pulse of gold light had just spread out over my chest when I heard him say that to me. I beamed and clamped my hand over my mouth in delight.
I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that he had said it back. I might have let it slip as something of a mistake, but that didn’t make it any less true—and he felt the same way about me.
I wasn’t sure that it got any better than that.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s not really how I imagined saying it for the first time.”
I was so giddy with the reality of this I had almost forgotten I was meant to be sick. I felt as though I had lifted a little out of my body and was rotating around the light fixture in my ceiling, unable to think about anything but the way that it felt when he said those words to me.
I wondered if, on the other end of the line, he was feeling just the same.
“Stuffed with a cold and high on meds?” he teased. “Yeah, me neither. But it’s true, right?”
“It’s true,” I agreed, and I bit my lip and decided to say it again, just to make sure that he knew I wasn’t kidding around. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he replied.
I couldn’t get over how magical it sounded to hear him say that to me. I tipped back on the bed and drummed my feet on the covers, all hyper like a kid on Christmas.
“I can’t wait to see you again,” I told him.
“In that case, I should be letting you get some rest,” he said. “Go on. Back to sleep for you. You want to be fighting fit so I can say that to you in person.”
“Yeah, I sure do,” I agreed. I sighed down the phone. I didn’t want to stop talking to him, but I knew he was right, and I needed to rest.
“I promise I’ll speak to you soon,” he said, like he could read my mind.
And with that, we bid our goodbyes, and I let the conversation wash over me once more. I love you, I love you, I love you. I couldn’t get enough of the way that sounded.
And I could hardly wait till I could say it to him in person.
Chapter 42
Harry
“Yes, that’s what I want on the flowers,” I told the man on the other end of the phone. I knew that it was overboard, but I felt like it was a good time to be over the top. Given that we had just told each other I love you for the first time.
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. The soup and the meds had just been a kind gesture to let her know that I was thinking about her. I hadn’t expected her to drop the L-bomb, and I hadn’t expected myself to be so happy to say it right back to her as soon as I got the chance.
I was sending over some flowers to celebrate the occasion—and because she had been teasing me about going overboard and I wanted to show her just how far I could go. I had asked them to put a note in, a little tease about her loose lips when she was under the weather, and I was looking forward to seeing her reaction when she got them.
I missed her like crazy. I only had a few hours left at work. Then I could go home and maybe call her again. I wanted to hear her voice, even if I couldn’t see her in person. We’d meant to meet for lunch that day, but obviously, that had fallen through. Even though I had made sure she had something to eat, it still wasn’t the same.
I petted Tink’s head under the table, and he crawled into my lap and dozed off. He was as tired from our afternoon walk as I was. I got back to work and got distracted long enough to keep Raina out of my head.
Right up until the moment that my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see a fresh message from her. I opened it up, and I burst out laughing when I saw what it was, a picture of her smelling the flowers and flipping me the bird at the same time.
Even with red-rimmed eyes and a runny nose, she still looked beautiful to me.
Tink, surprised by my sudden laughter, woke up and jumped off my lap. I leaned down to snap a picture of him to send straight back to her to let her know what she’d done. I was glad she liked them.
I was turning into a seriously sappy guy when it came to her. I just wanted to take care of her, no matter what it took. If I had thought that she wouldn’t turn me away at once, I would have been over there already, offering to mop her brow and warm her soup for her.
Was this what happened when you were in love? Everything that you had been before fell away, and it became all about the person you loved, and nothing else at all in the world mattered.
I made it through the last of my work and then went to pick up Winnie from the after-school club that she had been attending that day. I forgot which one it was, since she always seemed to have so much going on, but I knew she would catch me up in the car.
She rolled into the front seat to join me, and I guessed she must have seen the grin on my face and figured something big had gone down.
“What happened?” she asked. “Something with Raina?”
“No, she’s sick today,” I said.
“But you’re smiling.”
“I’m just in a good mood,” I assured her. “How was your... stuff?”
“You said Raina was sick?” she asked. “Then we need to bring her ice cream.”
There was such a certainty to her voice that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh, do we now?” I asked her.
“Ice cream makes everything better,” she said.
I grinned. “You think?”
“I know,” she replied, and she meant it. “But we have to get a lot of different flavors. To make sure that we get one that she’s going to like. We can take it over there.”
Winnie waved her hand. “Then we can tie it to Tink’s collar and send him in to drop it off.”
I busted out laughing. I had to hand it to my niece. She always had an unusual answer for difficult situations.
“Okay, well, I’ll tell Raina that it was your idea,” I said. “Let’s get her some treats, huh? Something to make sure she knows we’re thinking of her.”
We drove down to the store closest to the school, and I let Winnie out of the car to help me pick out the best ice-cream flavors she could find.
She mulled over the right choice before she settled on one that stood out to her, and she got a giant carton of it that would probably take up most of the space in Raina’s freezer. I decided that the best way to serve cold food was with something hot on the side, so we headed down to a local Thai place to find the spiciest food we could get our hands on.
I wasn’t sure what she liked, so I made sure to get a selection. Winnie was practically staggering as she helped me with all the bags of food that we had brought. It was enough for us to take home leftovers for ourselves when this was all over and done with.
“Do you think she’s going to like it?” Winnie asked as we started the drive over to Raina’s place.
I nodded. “I think she’s going to love it. And I bet she’s going to be very touched that you thought of her like this.”
I buzzed outside her apartment and put my arm around Winnie to keep her from shooting off ahead of me. The last thing I wanted was for her to get sick, too. I knew that I was risking the same thing, but I was finding it hard to give that much of a damn, not when I actually had the chance to see Raina in person after what we had shared earlier that day.
Her voice came crackling down the intercom. “Hello?”
“It’s us,” I told her. “And we come bearing gifts.”
“More stuff?” she exclaimed. “You really didn’t have to.”
“Yeah, but we did,” I replied. “So let us in before your ice cream melts.”
She buzzed us up, and I took Winnie up with me on the promise that she would make sure to stay outside the door. Raina opened it, and she beamed widely as soon as she saw us.
“Oh my goodness, it’s so good to see you,” she told us, waving to Winnie and giving me a hug.
She was wrapped in a loose robe, and as I put my arms around her, I could feel the tempting shape of her body beneath it. I pulled away swiftly. I was certain that if I let myself get any more distracted, I was for sure going to end up with her cold, and that was the last thing I needed.
“We brought you ice cream,” Winnie explained, and she handed over the vast sack of food that we had brought over for her.
“And Thai food,” I added. “So you’ve got the choice of whether you want hot or cold food.”
“You guys really didn’t need to go through all this trouble,” she said, planting a hand on her chest and smiling widely. It might have just been my imagination, but I was sure that I could see a little glimmer of tears in her eyes. Maybe that was just her bug.
“Well, we wanted to,” I said. “It was Winnie’s idea. I would have been happy just leaving you up here by yourself to rot, but she wanted to make sure that you were taken care of.”
“Hey, you can play like you don’t care all you want, but those flowers you sent me say something different,” she teased as she took the bag and brought the food inside. “Winnie, thank you for all of this.”
“I miss you!” Winnie blurted out.
Raina’s whole face seemed to soften with the sweetness of what she had said.
“I miss you too, honey,” she replied. She placed the food down on the counter inside her apartment and then turned her attention back to me. “And I miss you, as well.”
I kissed her on the cheek.
“You’ll get sick,” she warned me.
I grinned at her. “Totally worth it,” I replied.
She smiled back at me. I love you, she mouthed, clearly not sure if we were at the point where we could say that in front of Winnie without it being a big deal yet. I had no idea myself. All of this was brand new to me, and I was basically playing all of it by ear.
I love you too, I mouthed back, and I couldn’t wait until I could say it to her properly. When she wasn’t dosed with flu medication.
“We’ll come back and check on you later!” Winnie told her with certainty, nodding happily as she headed away from the apartment.
“I really can’t get any peace from you, can I?” Raina remarked, reaching over to pinch my arm playfully.
I shook my head. “You’re the one who’s out here declaring your love over the phone,” I reminded her.
She flushed a little, beaming at me.
“But we should get going,” I said regretfully. “We have Tink in the car. And some more Thai food. Which I realize now that I’m saying it out loud probably wasn’t that wise of a combination.”
“I’ll see you later.” She laughed and waved us off. “Safe journey home, all right?”
“I’ll let you know when we’re back safely,” I promised, and I planted a kiss on her cheek before I headed back downstairs to the car.
“I thought you said that you couldn’t get too close to Raina,” Winnie said as soon as we had walked away from her. “But you kissed her on the cheek?”
“You can’t get too close to her,” I corrected her. “Because we don’t want you getting sick and having to take time off from school.”
“What about you?” she asked, with a furrow in her brow. “Won’t you get sick?”
I shrugged. “I might. But even if I do, it was totally worth it.”
She laughed as we got back into the car, and I caught Tink sniffing eagerly at the thankfully sealed bags of food in the backseat.
“All right, buddy,” I warned him. “Chill out there. We might be able to spare you some when we get back, but not if you eat it before we arrive home.”
“Can I give him some of mine?” Winnie asked as she reached in the backseat to pet him.
“After what happened with his stomach? I think not.”
“But Raina said he was fine!” she protested.
“Not to go to town on spicy food.” I laughed. “Maybe a prawn cracker wouldn’t do him any harm, huh? We’ll see when we get back.”
We headed back home, even though there was nothing I wanted to do more than spend the rest of the evening in that apartment with the woman I just couldn’t get enough of.
Chapter 43
Raina
I smoothed my dress over my hips and looked at myself in the mirror. Yes, I was starting to look borderline human again.
It might not have been the best look I had ever pulled off, and I knew that I still had some of my flu left around the edges, but I was looking and feeling a lot hotter than I had this last week.
Rita had ordered me to take the rest of the week off, warning me that she wasn’t going to catch the flu off me and then give it to her kid. It was a fair point.
I had spent most of my time tucked up in bed and hiding out from the world at large. And Harry had made sure that I hadn’t had to go outside more than the bare minimum since I had gotten ill.
God, he had been so damn sweet. I didn’t know what I had done to deserve him, but I would have done it a million more times over if it meant I got to feel this special again.
I tidied up the apartment, even though I knew he wouldn’t be coming back there. I had been living in a pit of soup cartons and medication since a few days before, and I was frankly sick and tired of feeling so… well, sick and tired.
I was meeting Harry for lunch at a café not far from my place, and I was so excited about seeing him again—and handing over the presents for Winnie and him at last.
I had managed to make it out to the store the day before to grab something for both of them. For W
innie, I had found this cute little book on unusual professions that women had had through the ages, and for Harry, I had selected a bottle of whiskey that I was looking forward to handing over to him. The two of them had been so attentive and sweet with me that I figured it was the very least I could do.
I headed down to the café and found him already waiting there when I arrived. He’d grabbed a table outside for the two of us, and I was glad that I wouldn’t have to take my pounding head into the building. I felt like closer quarters would have put him at risk to get sick, and that was the last thing I wanted for him. Besides, even though it was getting close to the end of September, the weather was still crisp and bright, and I wanted to make the most of it while we still had the chance.
Was it odd that I felt a little dizzy when I laid eyes on him? Like the world had shifted a little, like everything had moved to make space for him. I loved him. He loved me. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing more perfect in the world for us than that.
He went to give me a kiss on the cheek, but I held my hand up and shook my head.
“If you think I’m going to get you sick, you’ve got another think coming,” I warned him playfully, and instead, I leaned over and gave him a hug. Burying my face in his shoulder, I inhaled deeply, filling my stuffy head with the scent of him.
Mmm. Had he always smelled so delicious?
I sank into the seat opposite him and let the cool breeze soothe me a little. It was nice out, and I was glad to have some excitement outside the apartment for a change.
“How are you feeling?” Harry asked as a waitress approached to take our order.
I had been nibbling on soup most of the week, and I was ready for something a little heartier now that my appetite was returning. I ordered a sandwich with fries on the side, as well as a steaming-hot cup of tea to ward off the last of the cold.
“I’m doing a lot better,” I assured him. “Really. I don’t think I’d be doing so well already if it hadn’t been for you guys, though.”