“Shirt, too?” she asked.
“Yeah, probably,” he said, gently pulling it over her head until she sat there in a white bra and a pair of white silk panties. He tried to keep his focus all on the business of helping her, he really did. He felt the water. “Okay, I think this is ready.” And, man, as hot as she was, it was going to suck for her. Lifting her once more, he stepped to the tub, but it was almost hard to let her go when she laid her head against his chest.
She hit the water with a shriek, eyes wide, hands flailing. “It’s freezing.”
“I know. You don’t have to stay in long.”
“Slider,” she whined.
“Ssh, I know. Scoot down as much as you can.”
She did as he asked, peering up at him with bloodshot eyes as the water crested her shoulders. He found one of the washcloths she’d been using and soaked it again before bringing it to her face. Rinse and wipe, rinse and wipe, until he had her hair mostly wet. She hugged herself so tight and held herself so rigidly that the bones of her clavicle protruded.
“Just a few more minutes,” he reassured her.
“You know,” she said, licking the water off her lips. “I suspected a really hot guy hid under all that facial hair, but I never expected just how sweet a man hid under all the gruffness.”
The comment hit him about a dozen different ways. Pleasure. Surprise. Embarrassment. More. Plus, she thought he was hot?
No, no. He was not starting down that train of thought while she lay there mostly naked and sick. “I think the fever is going to your head.”
“No, just using the cover of the fever to say something I might not otherwise. Guess I blew that cover, though, huh?”
He managed a chuckle, because this playfulness was evidence that she was doing a little better. “Let’s see where your fever is,” he said, handing her the thermometer again.
102.1.
Better. Improved enough that relief flooded through him. “I’d be happier if we got this down into the 101 range before getting you out,” he said. “Think you can make it?”
Teeth clattering, she nodded. “Yeah, I can feel it working. Thank you. I’m sorry you had to come home.”
“I’m not,” he said. And he wasn’t. Admittedly, it raised some memories he’d rather not revisit to be taking care of another woman in this house, but that was where the similarities with Kim ended. Cora wasn’t terminally ill. She didn’t have cancer. And she was a cooperative patient, which Kim had never been. Maybe that was because Kim knew, as he did, that if she hadn’t gotten sick, she’d have still been with the other guy, whoever he was. And she knew, too, that that other guy hadn’t stuck around when she’d told him about her cancer. But Slider had.
Because that was what family should do, even when that family had fucked things up. Big time.
Still, he sometimes wondered whether the other man or he was the bigger asshole. Because that douchebag had abandoned her when she was ill, but Slider had taken care of her knowing she wanted to leave him. Sonofabitch.
“Slider, I can’t take it anymore,” Cora said.
He reached in and pulled the plug, and then he turned and grabbed a towel. “You did good, Cora. Real good.”
This time, the thermometer read 101.5.
“I think I can stand,” she said.
“Let me help at least.” He offered his hands, and together, they pulled her to her feet.
“If you’ll hold up the towel, I’ll slip out of these wet things.”
He gave a nod, looking away as he held up the towel to give her some semblance of privacy. Wet clothing slapped against the tub, once, twice. And he tried like hell not to think about the fact that she was utterly, totally naked two feet away from him. An arm’s reach away. Because he was finding it damn hard not to want to take her into his arms.
She wrapped the towel around herself.
And then she listed to the side.
Slider caught her in his arms after all, and then he lifted her into a carry against his chest. “I’m putting you in my bed tonight so I can keep an eye on you.”
“Okay,” she said.
After that, he put her in one of his shirts and a pair of his boxers and tried like hell not to like the look of her in his clothes as much as he did. And then his bed became the center of activity for the rest of the night. Ben brought Cora drinks and Popsicles on a tray, and she invited them to stay and play a game of cards to keep her company. And Slider had the weirdest, most unexpected thought.
Family.
They felt like a family.
He liked Cora. He did. Obviously, he couldn’t deny that anymore.