in her hands. Slowly easing the kiss even more, I sucked her tongue into my mouth and then just let myself have little nips at her lips so she could get her breath back. I knew she was still having trouble breathing through her nose.
“I kinda like it when you’re angry at me.”
Her closed eyes slowly peeled open.
“That didn’t make it any better.”
I let go of her and she swayed a little. “I imagine it didn’t. Too much turtle?”
“Just the right amount of turtle, actually, but I’m not forgetting about the fact that you didn’t let me take a quick look at my place.”
She seemed to be loving picking a fight with me, and when it frustrated me to no end, she seemed to enjoy it even more. I just enjoyed every minute I got to spend with her.
I decided to change the subject. “What do you think about changing out the roses for something more green and Christmassy? It’s that time, isn’t it? It’s going to be December soon.”
She stayed put in her spot and I watched as her eyes got big then she lifted her hand up to her nose.
My adrenaline spiked and I was right back next to her, holding her face up for my inspection. “What’s wrong? What’s happening, Rose?”
She lifted her hand up and made me wait another full ten seconds. “I just learned how not to sneeze.”
I swallowed and my sluggish heartbeat picked up again. “You’re gonna be a difficult patient, aren’t you?”
“What? What did I do?”
I couldn’t stay away from her or keep my hands and lips off of her for too long, it seemed. I walked back and cupped her face, pressing a lingering kiss on her temple. “Come on, let’s get you off your feet. Can you walk upstairs?”
“Do you have work to do?”
“Yes.”
“If you can work in the living room, I’ll lie down on the couch and keep you company. I’ll be quiet, promise.”
Instead of heading for the stairs, I guided her toward the living room and helped her lie down on the couch.
“Okay?” I asked when I noticed she was a little breathless.
“Yeah, I’m fine. How is it that I feel so tired after one car ride and then coming up in an elevator?”
“Other than walking up and down the hospital corridors, you didn’t move much the past week, and you had a major surgery. This is normal. You stay here while I go get a few pillows to keep your head raised and something to cover you up.”
I bent down at the waist and touched her lips with mine.
Her eyes were partly closed, her lips curved up. “By the way, I can’t believe the word Christmassy came out of your mouth.”
“It only came out of my mouth because I was repeating your words.”
“Sure, you keep telling yourself that.”
She managed to stay quiet for an hour and a half before she started talking to me, and she was asleep for eighty of the ninety minutes. Turned out, I could work just as well in the living room while listening and talking to Rose as I did in my office.
We spent another week cooped up in that apartment. I went to work, and she stayed home and, according to her, did a lot of planning for her coffee shop. She wanted wreaths up on the windows—big ones. Not just any wreath would work, apparently. I told her I’d take her there and put them up right in front of her eyes. I told her we could only do that the following week if she was feeling better, and we got into an argument about how she was going to go crazy cooped up inside and could handle going to work for just a few hours to check things out. I loved every second of it and if our kiss after the short argument was anything to go by, she loved it just as much. Soon after, she fell asleep, proving my point that she wasn’t ready to go anywhere.
The first few days we were back from the hospital, she would get dizzy and out of breath just from climbing the stairs. After that, she started to spend most of her time on the couch until I’d get done with work—which I was still playing catch up with—and then I’d carry her upstairs.
At the end of that first week, we went to the hospital and they cleaned out her nose. There was still blood coming down, but despite that, she was