“I won’t text you, then. Come on. Don’t give up yet. Let’s get to know each other. I’m sorry I texted you so much tonight. I’m just...I don’t know...excited to have met you. I didn’t mean to freak you out.” He laughed at himself. “I can see why you don’t want to see me anymore. I’m sorry. Really.”
She hesitated. “All right. It’s late. I need to get some sleep.”
“So, you aren’t breaking up with me?”
“Breaking up with you? We aren’t in a relationship yet.”
He was silent on the other end.
“Look, why don’t you let me call you next time, okay? I’m going to be busy over the next few days.” Then she’d call him and tell him she didn’t want to see him. For now, she just wanted him to leave her alone.
Several seconds passed before he said sadly, “All right. I understand.”
“Thank you.”
“Bye for now.”
She disconnected, not liking the way he said “bye for now.”
* * *
Thad thumbed through a magazine, sitting in a chair waiting for the doctor to come and tell them when his mother could go home. His mother stirred, waking from sleep.
“Ah.” He put the magazine back on the table.
“You’re still here.” She blinked past her drug-induced grogginess, growing more and more alert. Not even drugs could douse the fire in his mother. No wonder she was such a good politician. She kept going and going.
“We need to make arrangements for when you come home,” he said.
“That’s easy. Hire Lucy.”
When she tried to sit up on her own and grunted in pain, he went to her. Stacking her pillows, he helped her sit up and lean against them.
“Lucy has a job.” And he didn’t need her that close to him while he searched for his mother’s shooter. “I’ll call a home care company.”
“I want Lucy.” His mother moved toward the side table where a container of water sat.
Thad reached over and put it in her hand. She held it by the handle and sipped through the plastic straw.
“Why do you want Lucy?”
“Offer her the job, Thad.”
His mother could be stubborn, and he could see she was going to be regarding this. “Me?”
“Yes, you. Please, do this for me.”
“Why Lucy?” he repeated.
“You yourself mentioned how good you thought she is. I agree. There is no better nurse for me. Offer her the job.”
“What about after you’re better? You won’t need a home care nurse after you heal. She’s not going to give up her permanent job just because you want her for a month or two.”
“Offer her twice what she makes here. And talk to her boss and see that he gives her a leave of absence so she can have her job back when I’m no longer in need of her. If she wants it.”
What was his mother up to? “What do you mean, ‘if she wants it’? Why wouldn’t she?” At Duke University Hospital. She had a great job there.
“Who wants what?” Another female voice joined in.
Thad inwardly cringed as he recognized Lucy’s voice. Facing her, he took in her trim shape in the white uniform and her long, auburn hair up in a ponytail. And those green eyes. He could stare at them for an hour.
“Just the person we need to talk to,” his mother said. Her energy was returning with each passing day.
“Mother...”
“This is my decision, Thadius H. Winston.” She leaned to put the water container on the table.
Thad took it from her and did it for her. If he didn’t suspect she was playing matchmaker, he wouldn’t care who she chose for a home care nurse. But Lucy...?
“What’s going on?” Lucy went about her usual routine in the room.
“My mother is going to need a home care nurse and she’s decided that should be you,” Thad said. If he didn’t say it, his mother would. She was in one of her I-will-have-my-way modes.
Lucy stopped what she was doing over by the IV lines and shot a look at him, and then Kate. “What?”
“I’ll make all the necessary arrangements.” Thad explained the terms on salary and that he’d make arrangements with her boss. “All you have to do is move in with my mother until she can take care of herself.”
“Is that all?”
Hearing a note of sarcasm, he pressed ahead regardless. “Yes. I’ll take care of everything.”
“You’ll take care of everything.” More of that sarcasm came into her tone.
“You won’t have to do a thing. Other than...take care of my mother.” He studied her eyes, those green windows that revealed nothing but patient contemplation, yet he sensed there was more burning behind them.
She folded her arms. “Last I recall, this was my life and I made all the decisions regarding it.”
She was offended. He hadn’t meant to offend her. Why was she so hard for him to predict? With most women he saw what was coming ahead of time. With Lucy, he never knew what he’d get.
“I wasn’t trying to control you. I...” Jeez. What the hell? She’d reduced him to a blithering idiot. Maybe it was that uniform and ponytail.
“What Thad meant to do is ask if you’d be willing,” Kate said, stepping in. “It was my idea. I’m the one who requested you.”
Lucy’s eyes shifted to her and her stance eased. She lowered her arms, uncertain now. Would she agree? Thad almost hoped she wouldn’t.
He was near panic over the idea of having her so close to him, because he’d already planned to stay with his mother after she was released from the hospital. He wasn’t taking the chance that the gunman would try again...and succeed. There was no one else available, no one he’d trust anyway.
His middle brother, Sam, was still recovering from being held captive for three months in a foreign prison while on duty with his army special forces unit. His physical wounds had healed in the six months he’d been back. It was the mental wounds that needed more time. His oldest brother, Trey, was busy running the family business, Adair Enterprises. He was also grooming for a senatorial run and getting ready for his wedding. That left Thad to step up and take care of his mother. His brothers stopped by as often as they could to visit her, but couldn’t be there around the clock.
And now Lucy would be part of that equation, if she agreed.
“That’s a very generous offer,” Lucy finally said, “but I don’t need anyone to talk to my boss, much less take care of everything.”
“Does that mean you’ll do it?” Say no. Say no. Say no.
Dating her was much different from having her living under the same roof, even though it was a big roof.
“Thad isn’t the best at diplomacy,” Kate intervened again. “A politician he is not.” She reached for Lucy. “Come here.”
Reluctantly, Lucy stepped over to the bed.
Kate took her hand. “Please, Lucy. I mean it when I say I think very highly of you. You’re the best nurse I’ve seen at this hospital. I need someone