in agreement.
“She insisted she’d be fine as soon as Lacy got here,” Geneva Calder said.
“I’ll talk to her.” Lacy nodded. “You can put me down now, Bennett.”
“I’ll take you in to see her,” Bennett said, not terribly keen to be left alone with complete strangers. While they seemed friendly enough, they were eyeing him as if he was an exotic zoo animal.
Lacy must have sensed his uneasiness because she didn’t argue, thank God.
“Okay. Up the stairs, down the first hall.” She pointed to the stairway ahead.
Bennett carted her to her great-grandmother’s room, careful to turn and step sideways down the hallway so as not to bump Lacy’s ankle. Her head rested just below his chin and he could smell her sweet perfume.
For no good reason whatsoever, his chest tightened, thick with an unnamed emotion. He wasn’t comfortable with this intimacy, and yet she felt so good in his arms, he never wanted to set her down.
He looked down at her.
Lacy stared up at him as if he were a gallant knight who’d slain a hundred dragons on her behalf. Her admiration both unnerved him and filled him with an odd sense of pride. No woman had ever looked at him in quite that way.
As if he was the most special person in the world.
What was he thinking? Bennett ripped his gaze from her face and stared at the door standing open a crack.
In unison, Bennett and Lacy peeked inside.
A bright-eyed elderly lady sat propped up in bed, a cat-that-chowed-down-on-Tweety-bird expression on her face. She looked quite healthy for someone suffering from an attack of acute angina and not unlike a queen holding court.
“Drahy,” she exclaimed and motioned them forward. “Come in, come in.”
“Drahy?” Bennett murmured under his breath.
“It means ‘dear one’ in Czech,” Lacy whispered. “She calls us all that, so she doesn’t have to remember names.”
“Good ploy considering the amount of progeny she’s produced.”
“Seven children, twenty-five grandchildren, forty-two great-grandchildren. But I’m her favorite.”
“I can see why,” he whispered, his breath fanning the teeny hairs around her ears.
Lacy turned her head and flashed him a smile.
“Don’t stand there whispering. Bring your young man over here.”
Bennett walked across the room and deposited Lacy on the edge of the bed beside her great-grandmother. This wizened matriarch had mistaken him for Lacy’s boyfriend, but correcting her felt awkward, so he said nothing.
The elderly woman picked up a pair of glasses resting on the bed next to her and put them on. She eyed Bennett speculatively, then looked at Lacy.
“Yes,” was all she said.
Lacy seemed to understand the code, for she nodded in return, then introduced him.
“Very nice to meet you,” Great-Gramma said. “You’re good to my Lacy, no?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Bennett reverted to the old-school manners Nanna had taught him to use when addressing his elders.
Lacy reached out and took the elderly lady’s hand in hers. “How are you, Great-Gramma?”
The woman pressed a dramatic hand to her chest. “Not so good at first, but I’m much better now.”
“Why don’t you let us take you to the hospital?” Lacy asked.
“No reason for a hospital. You’re here. You can help me. You and your young man.”
“Mrs. Kahonachek,” Bennett said, “I’d advise you to seek professional advice.”
“But you’re a doctor, no? And Lacy is a nurse. That is professional.”
“Well, yes, ma’am, but we don’t have the equipment here to examine you properly or to make a correct diagnosis.”
The woman’s color was good, her respirations were even, and her droll smile mischievous. Bennett was beginning to suspect she’d experienced nothing worse than a bad case of indigestion. His own nanna had been known to exaggerate her symptoms when she wanted extra attention.
Still, with a heart patient one should never assume anything, and he wasn’t doing to let down his guard.
“I’ll get my medical kit from the car,” he said. “And be right back to examine you.”
“That would be good.” She nodded.
“Be right back.” Bennett hurried from the house, relieved that Lacy’s great-grandmother appeared not to be seriously ill.
“Oh, drahy.” Great-Gramma squeezed Lacy’s hand once Bennett had gone. “Your thunderbolt is so handsome.”
“He is cute, isn’t he?”
“I knew for sure if he drove you to see me if I was sick that he was the one.”
“You’re faking?”
Great-Gramma cocked her head and placed a palm over her heart. “Not faking…exaggerating.”
“Great-Gramma! We drove three hours. He was on call and had to arrange for someone else to take his spot on the roster in case something happened.”
“All for you.” Great-Gramma gave a romantic sigh. “And he even carried you with your