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“So am I,” he quipped wryly.
“I meant, I wouldn’t have chased them away if I’d realized they were your parents.”
“I use the term loosely,” he said. “They’re no fonder of me than I am of them. Don’t worry about it. You couldn’t chase them away with a pitchfork if they didn’t want to go. Now, where’s my pizza?”
She checked the first box, closed it again and set it aside. “Here it is.” She opened the box and arranged it on the adjustable table in front of him, then opened the sack. Plunking napkins down in front of him with one hand, she reached into the bag with the other and extracted a small cardboard triangle containing the cheesecake he’d been dreaming about since he’d first thought of it hours earlier. She set that aside and carefully lifted out first one and then another foam cup with plastic lids. Next she removed two straws, peeled one and pushed it into the hole in the top of the lid on one of the drinks. Sliding the large cup close to the pizza box, she picked up the other cup and reached for her own pizza. A moment ago he’d have given his house, his dream house, for a few minutes of solitary peace. Now the idea of eating alone, of being alone, seemed singularly unpalatable.
“You’re not going?” he said disapprovingly, catching her wrist in his one good hand. He realized as his fingers closed around her delicate, finely boned wrist that he wasn’t trying to detain her so much as he was looking for that jolt, that flash of carnal recognition that he’d felt before, when he’d stuffed the twenty-dollar bill into her pocket and discovered the unexpected bounty of her breast beneath the loose coat. It flashed through him, right up his arm to the center of his chest and straight down to his groin. It jolted the cup right out of her hand and sent it spilling across his clean, dry floor.
With a small cry, she leaped back, dismay shaping her pretty little mouth into a plump O. Royce craned his neck to glimpse the pale liquid spreading across the glossy tile, then he smiled at her, moved by a mischievous imp whose presence he hadn’t felt in far too long and said, “Be glad to share.”
But she just shook her head and ran out of the room. With a sigh Royce closed the lid on his pizza. Somehow it didn’t look nearly so inviting without Nurse Merrily Gage there to share it.
Chapter Three
“Lane, would it kill you to actually put your dirty clothes into the hamper?” Merrily asked, exasperated.
Her brother peered at her through the steam generated by the long, hot shower he’d gotten out of minutes before. “What difference does it make?”
Merrily stuffed the clothes into the hamper and straightened, brushing her ponytail off one shoulder. “It would save me the effort of picking them up.”
He shrugged and went back to combing his hair. “When you sort the laundry you’re gonna pile it on the bathroom floor, anyway.”
“That’s beside the point.”
Ignoring her, he tossed aside his comb and hitched up his jeans, admiring his bare chest in the mirror. “Hey, you ironed that red shirt of mine yet?”
“I haven’t had time.”
“Merrily, I’m going out tonight.”
“Wear another shirt.”
“I don’t wanna wear another shirt. That’s my chick-magnet shirt.”
“Then iron it yourself.”
“Yeah, right. You know I can’t iron.”
“Maybe it’s time you learned.”
He chucked her under the chin and grinned down into her upturned face. “Baby sister, that’s what you’re for.” Abruptly turning pitiful, he whined, “Come on, Merrily, I’ll ruin it if I try. You can whip it out in no time. Ple-e-ease.”
Merrily sighed. “Oh, all right, but from now on you put your dirty clothes in the hamper, agreed?”
Lane turned away. “Sure, sure. Make it quick, will you? The guys are picking me up in a few minutes.” He went out of the bathroom whistling.
Merrily bent and opened the cabinet beneath the sink. After extracting the steam iron as well as the cleanser for which she’d originally come into the room, Merrily straightened and looked around her. She’d spent the whole morning cleaning this one room, and now just look at it. Towels lay in a damp heap on the floor. One corner of the bath mat had been kicked up and left so that water pooled outside the shower. A wet washcloth that had been slung over the top of the shower dripped a trail down the pebbled glass wall. Why did she even bother? On every day off, she slaved to clean up this place, but not one of her brothers could be trusted to so much as straighten up after himself.
At twenty-eight, Lane ought to have been living on his own, possibly even married, but he wasn’t responsible enough for that. The older two were worse. Lane at least had a social life, if trolling the club scene with his equally immature friends could be called such. Kyle, at thirty, remained the next thing to a recluse. He considered himself superior to the others because he’d earned a master’s degree in English, but he hated his job as a high school teacher and had always been more comfortable with his books than people. Jody, on the other hand, had followed their father into the U.S. Postal Service, delivering mail. It was grueling work, but not grueling enough to have turned Jody into the old man he’d become at thirty-two. Since their parents had spent a large chunk of their retirement fund on a motor home and set off to see the country more than a year ago, Jody had virtually turned into their father, taking over the family home as if he owned it and attempting to order all their lives as their strict, conservative parents had done.
That proclivity created friction amongst the siblings. Jody parked himself in front of the television most evenings and issued edicts that his brothers both protested and ignored. Merrily herself operated on the periphery, functioning as housekeeper and cook while holding down a demanding full-time job of her own. The only thing the three brothers seemed to agree upon was that Merrily deserved whatever headaches and exhaustion her life brought her since she’d opted for a career instead of marriage and the protected existence of a housewife that her mother had chosen. They conveniently overlooked the fact that marriage had not really been an option for her. Even if some guy had been interested in her, he wouldn’t have braved the guard dogs her father and brothers had always become whenever anyone approached her. She knew it was their way of showing their love for her, but she also knew that if they had their way, she’d be stuck keeping house for one or all of them the rest of her life.
She’d been trying to work herself up to moving out on her own for some time now, but what was the point, really? Her own social life was nonexistent and would likely remain so. Certainly she had friends, but most of them were married with young families of their own. She was Aunt Merrily to a bevy of small children whom she often baby-sat, but their parents didn’t really have much time for her anymore, and because of her appearance it was difficult for her to make new friends her own age. She kept telling herself not to be so shy about it, but she couldn’t seem to overcome that first dismissive look she always received when she approached other adults. The only notable exception to the rule was Royce Lawler, and even he had thought at first that she was a candy striper or some other teen volunteer at the hospital.
She wondered how he was doing and suppressed a surge of guilt at having left work the evening before without checking in on him. Really, though, how could she have faced him after she’d spilled her drink all over the floor of his room? She hadn’t even gone back to clean it up. Instead she’d called housekeeping to take care of it. If she hadn’t gone in there thinking they could share dinner together, she wouldn’t have embarrassed herself like that. It was stupid, the way she’d started to fantasize about the man, especially since she would probably never see him again. Barring complications, he’d leave the hospital before she even returned to work. Disappointment welled up in her. She bit her lip, but then Lane yelled to get a move on with that shirt, and she shoved aside personal concerns to do what she seemed to do best, taking care of everyone else.
“What the hell do you mean she’s not coming in?” Royce demanded of the male nurse easing his bandaged leg down onto the pillows arranged to accept it. Knowing that he was going to lose the traction bar soon was a great relief, but it seemed secondary to the fact that Nurse Gage wouldn’t be tending to it. “She has to come in. She’s a nurse, and she has patients who depend on her.”
“She also has days off just like everyone else,” the man told him, his smile flashing white in his dark, squarish face. “I, Carlos, will take care of you today.”
Royce tamped down his impatience and forced a smile. “Great. That’s great. Uh, when did you say Merrily, er, Nurse Gage would be back?”
Carlos shrugged, saying off-handedly, “Day after tomorrow.”
The day after? But he was due to check out of here tomorrow! Wildly he thought of stalling that for a day, but the idea of spending one more night in this torture chamber made him shudder. He might have done it if he’d been able to see his kids, but Pamela had decreed the hospital too traumatic for them, and under the circumstances he was forced to agree, so his only contact with them had been by telephone, when he could convince that suspicious nanny that he was who he said he was and should be allowed to talk to them. No, he had to get out of here so he could schedule a real visit, and the sooner the better, but that brought up a whole other set of problems.
He really couldn’t manage on his own, but he would not go to his parents’ house. Dale was well-meaning but no one’s idea of a nurse, even if he could’ve spared the time from his busy practice to play that role. So Dale was calling home care agencies looking for someone to stay with Royce for the next few weeks. Royce grimaced at the thought of some stranger living in his house helping him tend to his most intimate needs, but what else could he do? Unless… He realized suddenly what had been in the back of his mind almost from the moment he’d been told he would be going home soon. It probably wouldn’t work, but he knew that he’d kick himself later if he didn’t at least try.
“Listen,” he said as the nurse turned away. “I have a favor to ask. It’s real important to me.”
The man shrugged good-naturedly. “Sure, as long as it is not against doctor’s orders.”
“It’s not against doctor’s orders,” Royce promised him. “I just need you to contact Merrily, I mean Nurse Gage, for me. Can you do that?”
Obviously surprised, the man stroked his chin. “I don’t know. Personally I hate to be called on my day off.”
“Please,” Royce said. “If you could just get her a message, tell her I need to see her… Look, I’ll pay you. It’s that important.”
The man seemed insulted. “You do not have to pay me. If it is that important to you, I will see what I can do.”
Royce relaxed slightly. “Thanks. H-how soon? I mean, how soon can you call her?”
Carlos Espinoza glanced at his watch. “I have a break in about forty minutes. I will try then.”
Forty minutes. Royce bit his tongue to keep from urging the fellow to make the call now, immediately, instantly. Forty minutes, and then how long before he heard from her? Would he hear from her at all?
Merrily sat in the kitchen thumbing through a magazine. When the phone rang, she didn’t even look up, knowing that Jody would prefer to get it himself. A moment later, when he yelled for her, she felt a mild spurt of surprise. Rising from the table, she walked to the end of the bar that separated the den from the kitchen. Jody sat in his recliner, staring at the television screen.
“What is it, Jody?”
He didn’t look away from the screen. “That call was for you.”
She folded her arms. “Why did you hang up, then?”
“Guy said that a Mr. Lawler wants to see you. I said I’d pass the message. That was it.”
Royce! For a moment she stood frozen in place. He wanted to see her. She didn’t stop to wonder what he wanted or why it was important enough to contact her at home. She didn’t question who had actually made the call or when or how she was supposed to make contact with Royce Lawler. She only knew that he wanted her, and that was more than enough at the moment.
“I’m going out,” she announced as she moved back through the kitchen. Jody shouted at her that it was too late to be going out, though in truth it was only a little past eight. Ignoring him, she grabbed her handbag from her room and, mindless of the sandals, shorts and simple tank top that she wore, darted out through the garage door.
Her small, two-door car sat curbside in front of the house. Lane, who was in construction, always got the garage because the tools piled in the back of his pickup were liable to be stolen if he left the truck out, or so he claimed. Merrily couldn’t help recalling that when their parents had been at home and their mother had parked her car in the garage, Lane’s truck had sat beside their father’s in the drive and nothing had ever disappeared from the back of his truck then. Now Jody parked in the drive, leaving one side free for Lane to come and go, and she and Kyle jockeyed for position curbside in front of the house.
For once, Merrily was glad that she didn’t have to back out of the garage past Jody’s SUV and ease between Kyle’s sedan and the neighbor’s minivan into the street. It was much easier just to jump behind the wheel and take off. By the time Jody figured out she wasn’t paying him any mind, heaved himself up out of the recliner and made it to the front door to yell at her again, she was already pulling away from the curb.
The hospital was less than ten minutes away from the house, which was one reason her parents had agreed three years earlier that she should take the job there. She had never regretted the decision. She loved nursing. She was good at it, and the money was generous enough to allow her to pay off her school loans in record time, make a substantial down payment on the sporty little economy car she was driving and stash a sizable amount in savings every month.
As she parked in the employee’s lot and hurried into the hospital, she thought again that she really ought to move out on her own. She could afford it. Why she should consider doing so now, however, was something she did not want to address. Instead, she concentrated on getting where she wanted to. The moment she entered his room, however, she realized that she could have chosen a more opportune moment to visit, since the room was already crowded with medical staff, all of whom clustered around the side and foot of his bed.
The traction rod had been removed, and they were in the process of replacing the heavy bandages on his right leg with a stabilizer, which was really just a heavy elastic bandage with steel rods attached and Velcro closures. It would serve in place of the old-fashioned plaster cast, such as the one on his right arm and shoulder, and allow the doctors to periodically check the surgery incisions required to properly set his leg bones. After counting four practitioners, including the doctor, his assistant and two nurses, Merrily knew that she didn’t need to be in that room at that moment.
All thought of beating a hasty retreat evaporated when Royce spotted her and exclaimed, “Merrily! Hey. Come on in.”
Carlos Espinoza glanced over one shoulder, grinned and said, “That was fast.”
So it was Carlos who had left that message.
Royce waved her over, exclaiming, “Free at last! Man, that traction stuff is for the birds.”
“If you don’t stay off this leg,” the doctor warned from the stool rolled close to the bed, “you’ll be right back in it.”
“Don’t worry,” Royce replied meaningfully. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
The doctor looked up at Merrily, who had moved to stand next to the head of the bed, and said, “See to it that he doesn’t.”
She thought it odd that he should direct his orders specifically at her, but she just nodded. The orderly at the doctor’s elbow slid the spread stabilizer beneath Royce’s leg, which the two nurses held suspended slightly above the bed. Bright red with white trim, the contraption would be hard to miss in the weeks it would have to be worn. The nurses gently lowered Royce’s leg, and though he winced when it met the padded lining of the stabilizer, he winked at Merrily and said softly, “Thanks for coming.”
She just smiled and shifted her weight self-consciously. At the exact same moment, Carlos started to turn away from the bed. The two bumped, and Carlos apologized cheerily, though Merrily felt her face glow red with the knowledge that it was her fault. What was it about Royce Lawler that turned all her fingers to thumbs and her feet to blocks of clay?
As Carlos left the room, Merrily grasped at something to say to deflect attention from her clumsiness. “I see the IV and morphine pump are gone.”
“He’ll be getting a shot of painkiller when we’re done here,” the doctor said, threading a strap through the metal loop opposite and carefully tightening it. “And he’ll have to continue taking those injections for a while. The anti-inflammatory and antibiotics can be taken by mouth. I’ll leave prescriptions at the nurses’ station. The leg should be kept dry and elevated as much as possible. I’ll see him again in about a week. You’ll have to call my office for an appointment.”
Again, it seemed as if the doctor was speaking directly to her, but Merrily dismissed that and said to Royce, “Did you get all that?”
“Got it,” he replied, smiling. Those heavenly blue eyes seemed to be trying to telegraph her a message, but she wasn’t receiving.
The doctor finished what he was doing and got up off the stool. “Okay, that about does it. Nurse Gage, would you lift the foot of his bed, please?” Merrily bent to activate that function of the bed. The doctor went on as the other two practitioners left the room. “I suggest you rent a wheelchair for use at home and when you have to be out in public, which you really should keep to a minimum for several more weeks. I’ll see to it that your dismissal packet has a list of equipment providers in it.” He peeled off his latex gloves and added, “I’ll see you in the morning about six, and you should be ready to go by ten. Takes a few hours to process the paperwork. Any questions?”
He looked first at Royce, then at her. Merrily just looked at Royce, who shook his head and said, “Nope. None I can think of at the moment. Thanks, Doc, for everything.”
The doctor smiled and nodded, then he pointedly addressed Merrily again, saying, “Do me a favor, will you? Keep him away from stairs. I don’t want to have to put him back together again.”
Merrily blinked and opened her mouth to reply, but she couldn’t think what to say to that, so she simply closed it again and nodded.
The doctor dropped his gloves into the appropriate waste receptacle. “I leave you in capable hands then,” he said, and with that walked out.
Merrily stared at the door as it slowly swung shut behind him. “Well. That was odd.” She turned her attention back to Royce. “He kept talking to me like I’m your personal nurse or something.”
Royce ducked his head sheepishly. “I, um, might have, like, accidentally led him to believe that.”
“What? Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m not supposed to leave here unless I have someone who can take care of me.”
“But you don’t,” she immediately deduced.
“Uh, not yet.”
Was this what he wanted to speak to me about? Disappointment skewered her. “Okay, well, I can recommend a couple of reputable agencies.”
He grimaced. “I thought of that already, but I can’t stand the idea of some stranger moving into my house with me.”
Merrily nodded sympathetically. “Maybe you should stay somewhere else for a while, with your parents, perhaps?”
His eyes grew wide with mock alarm. “I’d rather stay here, and believe me, I’d sooner jump out of that window over there than do that. Nope, I just see one option.”
“Which is?”
“You.”
She blinked at him. “Me?”
“Look, I know it’s an imposition, but I don’t trust anyone else.”
“You want me to move in with you?” she asked disbelievingly.
“I know it’s selfish,” he said, reaching across the bed with his left hand to take hers. She jumped, lightning flashing up her arm. “But I’m desperate,” he went on. “I’ll make it well worth your while. Whatever they’re paying you here, I’ll double it.”
Double? “No, that’s not right,” she said distractedly.
“Please, Merrily. I can’t get along by myself, and it’s a big house, lots of room, beautiful area. Did I say that you’re the only one I trust?”
At the moment she couldn’t do anything but gape at his handsome face. This beautiful man wanted her to move in with him, at least temporarily. He didn’t have to just disappear out of her life, after all. He trusted her.
“I know it’s asking a lot,” he said, squeezing her hand, “but Carlos says that because of the nursing shortage you can probably take a leave of absence and come right back here to your job when you’re ready.”
Her job was the least of it, actually. She could get another job. Nurses could pretty much write their own tickets these days, which was why Royce was going to have a difficult time finding someone with really good skills to take care of him. No, the job was the not the problem. The problems, plural, were her brothers. Jody would hit the roof if she told him she was moving out even temporarily, and the other two would lay on foot-deep guilt trips. They’d never taken care of themselves a day in their lives. Maybe it was about time they did.
Why shouldn’t she do this if she wanted to? They were all adults. It might do them some good to start acting like it, including her.
“Look,” Royce went on. “I wouldn’t even mind if you have company over. I mean, if you have a boyfriend or something…”
“No boyfriend,” Merrily murmured, already working out the logistics of it. She had to call her supervisor right away. No one was going to be happy about the short notice, but it couldn’t be helped. Then she had to pack, and it would be best to take everything she might need with her the first time, since any time she returned to the house she’d undoubtedly have to contend with one or all of her brothers. She’d get started tonight while Jody and Kyle slept and Lane was out with his friends.
“Maybe there’s someone else then?” she dimly heard Royce ask.
“Hmm? No, not really.”
