“Delly,” a quiet, clear voice called. “I think you just scared him.”
Ireland.
I faintly registered her speaking in low tones with Cole and Delly, and my muscles relaxed one by one as I got my bearings. Without looking my way, Ireland scooped up my water bottle that had fallen onto the ground and handed it to me. I took it and drank greedily, small flashes of memories trickling in as I did.
Waking up from surgery. The sudden, intense nausea as the anesthesia wore off. Throwing up everything I’d ever eaten in my twenty-eight years on this planet at the surgery center.
What happened after that was even more of a blur—until her.
Her sweet lavender scent as she settled me onto the bed. Her grip on the bare skin of my thigh.
Just…her.
Ireland’s delicate hand reached toward me, taking my water bottle the second I’d drunk my fill and putting it back on the nightstand.
I tried to meet her eyes, but she kept her focus elsewhere, and my stomach sank.
Just like everything else right now, it didn’t feel right.
Delly and Ireland left the room without a word a few moments later, leaving me with Cole.
“All right, Mr. Jacks,” he said seriously as he held his arms out. “Let’s get you to the bathroom. Lady of the house’s orders.”
My face caught fire, and Cole smirked.
“Yep, your woman told me to get you up and to the bathroom and threatened me to do it safely. Not with words, but with her eyes. She’s kinda scary, man.”
I frowned. “Don’t talk about her eyes.”
Cole shimmied his shoulders and made an “Ooooh” sound appropriate for an elementary-aged child.
But to his credit, he was all business once he got me up, walking me to and from the bathroom safely. When we got back to my bed, Delly brought in a TV tray from Lord knew where and set it across my lap.
“Chicken-and-stars soup,” she said with a smile. “Just like Grams used to make for us.”
I smiled at her in thanks, my stomach grumbling. Cole tried to tuck a napkin into the collar of my T-shirt, and I batted him away with a scowl. Undeterred, he reached for my spoon next, but I beat him to it, yanking it up and pointing it at him.
“No.”
“Addy’s getting grumpy,” Cole stage-whispered to Delly, but I’d just spotted the crackers on the plate under the bowl, so I ignored him in favor of crushing them on top of the soup.
“Cole,” Ireland called from the doorway. “Got a minute?”
My hands flexed, practically grinding the crackers into dust before I dropped them into the bowl.
Or that’s what I imagined I’d done. I couldn’t spare a glance for the crackers, my eyes fixed on the doorway. I only glimpsed Ireland’s profile before Cole met her there, and they walked away.
Yeah. This was a nightmare.
Delly cleared her throat, and I jumped again. At some point, she’d gotten onto the bed beside me. She was sitting cross-legged, her tired eyes watching me intently.
“What time is it?” I asked as I stirred the soup, unveiling the little star-shaped noodles as they got caught in the current of the steaming whirlpool.
“Around ten. You only slept for a few hours.”
“You talk to Pops?”
She shook her head. “No, but I talked to Jillie. She andRachel had dinner with him and stayed with him until we got home.”