I had barely seen anyone in days. “I’m craving friendly, intellectual conversation.” And bacon. “But you’ll do.”
Lachlan laughed, and I could hear him settle onto the floor. “I called your grandma and sisters and let them know you’d slept through the night and seemed better.”
I stilled. “How do you know how I slept?”
His fork clanked against a plate. “I checked on you a few times.”
“That wasn’t necessary.”
“I’ve watched enough true crime to know if the wife dies in the home, the husband is always the prime suspect.”
I picked up a still-warm biscuit and took a glorious bite. “Just protecting yourself?”
“Exactly.”
“And how many times did you check on me?” I asked.
“Not sure.”
“Round up,” I said. “Ballpark. General range. Tally the total and carry the one.”
He yawned. “Every few hours.”
Buttery eggs melted on my tongue as I processed that. He’d checked on me? Who did that? “Aside from the small creep factor of you staring at me through the night, that was very kind. You must be exhausted.”
“We creeps don’t need sleep. How are those biscuits?”
I took another bite and knew only bliss and nirvana. “Amazing. I’ll have to reconnect with my Spanx, but worth it.”
“You can borrow mine.”
My phone pinged once, then three more times.
“Is that one of your boyfriends texting?” asked Lachlan from the other side. “He sounds needy.”
“It’s my boss. And she is needy.” I rapidly typed back a response. “She can’t recall where I dropped off her dry-cleaning last week.”
“Are you her personal assistant?”
“Sometimes it feels like it,” I admitted. “Last night at midnight she texted me for her own garage code.” That one had gone unanswered until now. How many times did I have to tell her it was the year of her daughter’s birth?
Lachlan’s voice held that sexy morning rasp. “Has Celeste asked how you’re faring or checked to see if you need anything?”
I scrolled through text after text, but it was for naught. “Celeste knows if I needed anything I would ask.”
“Huh.”
I didn’t like thathuh. “As much as I’m enjoying breakfast, I do need to get back to work.”
He shifted against the door, and I imagined Lachlan sitting there in his Pac-Man t-shirt, faded jeans, and bare feet. “I called a doctor friend of mine, and he said you need to take it easy for a few more days, even if you’re improving. Rest up.”
Maybe it was the medication. Could’ve been the security I felt with the wall between us. But I took a bite of bacon, crisscrossed my legs on the hardwood floor, then pressed the rarely used share button on my heart. “Here’s the deal, husband. Whether I want to or not, there’s no time to slow down right now. I have a promotion on the line, plus a parade of events for you. Celeste sees rest as weakness.”
“That’s dumb.”
“While that is profound leadership input, I know my boss. I could be in a medically induced coma, and she’d expect me to call in for our daily meeting. Life is not to be rescheduled for frivolities like sickness.” I remembered being so thankful the funeral of Rosie’s fiancé had been on a Saturday, so I could take half the day offalmostguilt-free.
“You sound really stressed in there,” Lachlan said.
