“I have a bag in my car I’ll go grab, and I’ll meet you back here.”
“A bag?” she asked, her eyes widening.
“Yeah,” I said, sort of sheepishly.
“Well, go get it.”
I nodded and slipped outside to the car. When I got back in, Wendy was just coming into the room. She waved me in to follow her as she opened her bedroom door and then ducked into the bathroom in there. I sat my bag down on the chair by the bed and changed out of my clothes into some loose shorts and a plain T-shirt. When she came out, she was wearing a nightgown that showed off her shapely body while still looking comfortable and soft.
We didn’t speak as we curled up in the bed together, my arm under her as she rested her head on my shoulder. I tried to be extra mindful of the areas she was hurting, but she took care of that herself, settling into me. To my surprise, we drifted off to sleep almost immediately, a dreamless, peaceful slumber.
22
WENDY
“What’s wrong?” Finn asked when he came into the kitchen and kissed me on the side of the head before heading over to the coffee maker.
It was part of the comfortable, easy pattern we’d fallen into over the last few weeks since I got hurt. After that first night we spent together, he just kept coming over and staying. Sometimes special events or issues came up at work that kept him there well into the night or meant he had to be back to work really early in the morning, so he wasn’t able to come over for the night. But as many nights as he possibly could, he spent at my house with me.
That made mornings so much more pleasant. I’d started moving the time I woke Olly up back a little bit at a time so that it wouldn’t be as much of a shock on him when I went back to work. He was loving it just about as much as I expected him to. But I had a little bit of time just with Finn before getting him up to look forward to each morning.
Those few minutes were peaceful and happy, with cups of hot coffee, cuddles to the first glow of sunrise, and a few lazy kisses. A wonderful way to start my morning. At least most mornings when he was there. That morning, I’d already gotten knocked down a bit and wasn’t feeling as dreamy as I eased into my day.
“That was Deana,” I said, letting out a heavy sigh as I dropped my phone to the table.
He looked over his shoulder at me, his eyebrows knitted together as he got the coffee brewing. Finn had picked up some savory cheddar-and-bacon croissants the day before and I had been looking forward to indulging in them over breakfast. I pulled them out of the box now and put them into the oven to warm up a little.
“Is she alright?” he asked.
“She’s fine,” I said. “She just got a call from work and has an emergency meeting this afternoon, so she’s not going to be able to bring me to my physical therapy and doctor’s appointment. I don’t know how I’m going to get there. I still haven’t been cleared to drive, which is, no pun intended, driving me insane.”
“I’ll take you,” he said with a casual half shrug.
The coffee finished brewing, and he poured some into our two mugs.
“I can’t ask you to do that,” I said. “I know you have work, and everything’s been busy.”
“You’re not asking me. I offered. And, yeah, work is work. But they’ll deal. It’s Tuesday. That’s not usually a busy day. And I did a ton of prep work yesterday, so they should be fine for a few hours. Besides, I’ll tell Helen it’s for you, and she won’t think twice about saying it’s okay.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I don’t want to be any trouble. Any more than I already have been.”
Finn carried the mugs of coffee over to the table and set them down, then gathered me up into his arms, pulling me to him carefully so I could hobble on my knee brace over to him.
“You are not trouble to anyone,” he said. “And you haven’t been.”
I gave him a quick kiss. “That’s really sweet of you. Not true. But really sweet of you. I’m sure that the guys at the logging company would say I’ve been a bit of trouble. And Deana. She’s been hauling me around just about everywhere for the last month almost.”
“She’s your best friend,” Finn said. “She doesn’t feel like you’re trouble. I bet she feels terrible for not being able to bring you today.”
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “She said she was sorry about a dozen times.”
“See? But that just means that I get to bring you. Let me know what time, and I’ll be here to pick you up.”