“Oh, yeah,” he said to Helen as he remembered. His eyes relaxed back into a sleepy daze. He smiled up at his family and stretched until he winced, then rubbed at his sore chest, no longer in a good mood. “Little privacy?” he asked.
His mother, sister, and cousin all either crossed their arms or put their hands on their hips. Humiliated, Helen tried to untangle herself from the sheets and roll out of bed without attracting too much attention. Cassandra spun on her heel and stomped out of the room.
“Ari, help Helen,” Noel said gently as she saw Helen’s difficulty. Then she turned and bellowed angrily down the hall. “Hector! Get in here and help your cousin!”
“I’m okay,” Helen protested as she stood up on tender legs, only using Ariadne’s helping hand to maintain her balance. She realized she was wearing that ridiculous scrap of silk Ariadne had the nerve to call a nightgown, although that detail had escaped her notice the night before when she decided to take her little stroll.
“Whoa! That’s . . . interesting,” said Hector as he arrived and saw Helen.
“What’s interesting?” Jason asked as he passed in the hallway. He poked his head in the door and saw what his brother was looking at. “Aw, damn!”
They both stared at Helen, half naked and totally busted as she got out of Lucas’s bed. Then they looked at each other, threw back their heads in unison, and laughed.
“Okay, okay. Enough,” Lucas said defensively. “She was worried and came to check on me, but by the time she made it here she was practically falling over. I didn’t want to wake Cassandra to carry her back to the guest room, so I had her lay down with me. Obviously, we just slept. Now, can everyone but Hector or Jase get out of my room, please? That includes you, Mom. I need Jason to help me out of these casts so I can take a shower.”
Helen made it back to the guest room without accepting any more help than she had to. She was so embarrassed all she wanted to do was run screaming out of the house, and to do that she was going to have to prove she was healthy.
“No thanks, I got it now,” she said to Ariadne when asked if she needed help bathing.
“Okay. Just shout if you need me,” Ariadne replied with narrowed eyes.
Twice Helen had to sit down on the shower floor to rest, but she eventually managed to clean all the itchy sand out of her hair and towel off without calling for Ariadne. It took her ten minutes to struggle into her own freshly laundered clothes alone, but it was worth it. All she wanted do was say thank you and slip out without drawing too much attention to herself.
When she got downstairs the whole family was in the kitchen, including Lucas. His face lit up like Vegas when he saw her. She automatically went straight to him and sat down, her hopes of a quiet escape ruined by what felt like a knee-jerk reaction. She hadn’t intended to stay for breakfast, but it was almost as if she needed to be near him.
“We were just about to send someone up to make sure you hadn’t washed down the drain,” joked Noel.
“Helen’s modest. She wanted to dress herself,” Ariadne said, drizzling honey over a bowl of oatmeal and putting it down in front of Helen.
“Modest? Sure she is,” Hector said sarcastically as he passed Lucas the bacon.
“That was your sister’s nightgown, wasn’t it?” Lucas asked without skipping a beat as he served Helen and himself. Hector wisely shut his mouth.
“Yeah,” Ariadne replied for him, not getting it. “So comfortable! What? What are you all laughing at?”
“Nothing, Ari. Just drop it,” Jason said in a pained voice, a hand over his eyes. Everyone was cracking up, including Castor and Noel.
Helen was torn. She didn’t want to laugh at the joke because it was partly on her, but she couldn’t entirely stop herself. She stifled a giggle and looked down at her full plate. It was the kind of breakfast that was almost always followed by a nap, and Helen was dying to go somewhere and hide. She thought about skipping it so she could get away sooner.
“I know you’re hungry,” Lucas said so quietly that Helen alone could hear him. “What’s the matter?”
“I feel like I should go home. I’ve imposed long enough. . .