a keeper.”
Sunshine turned to the nurse, ready to correct her. Declan shook his head, then winked.
“You’re right,” he said cheerfully. “She is one lucky lady to have me.”
Before Sunshine could respond or even acknowledge the sudden and powerful wish that she really was that lucky, the sliding door to her room opened and a tall, attractive, dark-haired woman stepped in, a tablet in her hand. She smiled and said, “Hello, Sunshine. I’m Dr. Kumar. You seem to have had a bit of an accident.”
“I’d wave but it would get messy,” she said, hoping she didn’t look like she was about to cry.
Dr. Kumar laughed. “We don’t want that. Let me take a quick look, then we’ll fix you right up.”
* * *
Several stitches, a prescription for mild painkillers and some discharge papers later, Sunshine found herself back at home. Her hand was still numb from the local anesthetic, but she had a bad feeling it was going to hurt like crazy once that wore off.
“You should go lie down,” Declan told her as they walked into the kitchen. “You need to take it easy.”
“I cut my hand. I didn’t get in a car accident. I’m completely fine.”
“You have no color in your face and you look like you’re going to pass out any second. Lie down for a couple of hours and then we’ll see how you feel.”
“No. We have to get ready for the party. We have nine kids arriving at eleven tomorrow morning. There’s too much to do.”
“You wrote out a master list. I can follow it.”
“No. My notes won’t make sense to you.”
She had more to say but suddenly felt a little light-headed. She swayed in place, thinking she should probably sit down. She’d barely taken a step toward the stools by the island when Declan jumped to her side and put his arm around her waist.
“Thank you for demonstrating my point,” he said, his voice gentle. “Come on, Sunshine. You have to take care of yourself.”
“I’m fine.”
He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. “Seriously? You’re fine?”
He was standing so close, she could see all the colors in his irises. He was a lot taller than her, and strong, and having him hold her felt really good. Like she was safe and taken care of. She wanted to lean against him, she wanted to have him just hang on forever and...
She pushed away the ridiculous thoughts, telling herself she was injured and not at her best and any warm fuzzies were simply the result of the trauma and not the least bit real. She had to get a grip.
She turned and sagged onto the stool.
“Please bring in one of the lounge chairs from the patio,” she said. “You can move the kitchen table to the side and put the lounge chair next to it. Once I’m settled there, you can bring in a couple of pillows from my bedroom so I can prop up my hand.” She shrugged. “It’s a compromise. You need me to help you figure out what to do and you want me to rest. This way we both get what we want.”
Something hot and fiery flashed in his eyes. It faded as quickly as it had flared but not before she felt an answering jolt way down low in her belly.
“You promise not to do anything but supervise?” he asked, his voice skeptical.
“I promise.”
He flashed her a smile. “Okay then. We have ourselves a deal.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Saturday morning prep for the party couldn’t have gone more smoothly, Declan thought with relief. Margot arrived just before eight and declared herself more than ready to step in and do what needed to be done. By then Declan had already set up the rented tables and chairs on the covered patio and used construction caution tape to rope off the game area of the backyard. Sunshine, still pale but less shaky, supervised, while an excited Connor bounced from person to person, checking to see that all would be ready for his party. The third time Declan turned and nearly fell over his son, his patience reached the snapping point.
“You’ve got to stay out of the way,” he said, knowing he sounded exasperated, but unable to help himself.
“But Da-ad!”
Sunshine stepped between them. She hugged Connor. “I know you’re excited, but if you keep getting in our way, we can’t be ready for your friends and you wouldn’t want that. Why don’t you run into my room and look at what’s on the bed?”
Connor tore out