but I came home as soon as I could to put a casserole in the Crock-Pot, didn’t I?”
A pause followed, then, “I can’t be sure when he’ll wake up, but don’t feel you have to wait to eat until I get there.” And finally, “Okay, fine. I’ll come as soon as I can. I promise. Bye.”
Stephen eased back down on the bed, calling out, “Kaylie?”
Just as expected, she stepped into the doorway, her old flip phone in her hand, a smile on her face. “You’re awake! You must be hungry. You slept straight through lunch.”
“Did I?”
He licked his lips, aware now of his hunger and thirst. As if she could read his mind, she walked to the bedside table, pocketed her phone and poured him a glass of water, saying, “I brought this up fresh just a little while ago.”
Turning onto his side, he took the glass in his good hand and managed a long drink before collapsing back onto his pillow. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. So how do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been beat up.”
“The leg’s starting to ache, isn’t it?”
“How’d you know?”
“I’m surprised the nerve block hasn’t worn off already,” she said, smiling down at him. “Do you want something for pain before I go down to get your meal?”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to go back to sleep. What time is it, anyway?”
“Nearly four.”
He nodded, and she turned away, but he called her back. “Kaylie?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for staying.”
“I wasn’t here all the time.”
“I know, you went home to put on dinner for your dad, but you were here most of the time, weren’t you?”
She looked down at her hands. “I thought you might need me.”
“I do.”
She said not a word to that; neither did she meet his gaze.
“Will you stay while I eat?” he asked tentatively.
She nodded. “Someone has to take down your tray when you’re done.”
“Thanks,” he said, but then before she could get out of the room, his big mouth got the better of him and he halted her again. “Kaylie?”
She stopped and turned her head, gazing at him over her shoulder. “Yes?”
He was having second thoughts, but the idea had been uppermost on his mind since she’d walked into his hospital room that morning, and the sooner it was out, the sooner they could honestly address it. And the sooner he would know where she truly stood on the matter. Last night he’d thought she was done with him; then she’d walked into his room this morning. He tamped down his misgivings and said, “I hope you don’t regret that kiss. Because I don’t.”
She froze for several heartbeats, but then she turned, her body pivoting at the end of her neck, and calmly asked, “Why won’t you speak to your mother?”
He must have looked as if he’d been poleaxed, because that’s how he felt. She flipped around and walked out of the room. He stared at the empty door for several long seconds, but then he had to smile, even as his stomach sank.
Oh, man. Talk about giving as good as she got! Her message couldn’t have been more clear. If he tried to discuss the one subject, she would insist on discussing the other, and that was the last thing he wanted. The very last thing. Mercy, his gentle little nurse had just backed him into a corner and forced a standoff. These, he understood perfectly, were the conditions under which they would proceed: the kiss hadn’t happened, no estrangement from his mother. He supposed he’d just have to live with that, whether he liked it or not.
She returned in less than twenty minutes with his lap desk and a dinner tray. Hilda had outdone herself with a dish that Kaylie called “drover’s pie,” consisting of tender bits of beef in a thick, dark gravy presented in a nest of mixed vegetables surrounded by a hearty helping of mashed potatoes and topped with a flaky biscuit crust. It beat by a mile the bland, anemic meal that the hospital had served him the night before. Add to that bounty a huge dish of banana pudding that was to die for, and Stephen wound up stuffing himself. Thoroughly sated, he leaned back against the stack of pillows behind him and sighed.
“I may just have to steal that woman away from your aunts when I leave here. Man, can she ever cook.”
Kaylie chuckled. “If you want to see what damage three little old ladies on the warpath can do, you just try that.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I