by Stacy Eaton
“How about I come find you in the OR when I’m done?” Amy asked as she packed up her stuff.
“Sounds good, I’ll see you then.”
Tucker said goodbye to Amy, and I waved as she left. When I turned around, Tucker had a silly-confident grin plastered across his face.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I just think it’s great that you are trying to make sure you know what to do for me when you have me alone.” I pressed my lips tightly and gave him an annoyed look. “By the way, how was your smut book last night?”
“For your information, I was reading a book about helping someone in a wheelchair, it was far from smut.”
He sobered quickly. “You were doing that on your time off?”
“When do you suggest I do it, when I’m trying to take care of you? I told you that I wasn’t trained for this, Tuck. I’m trying my hardest to be prepared.”
“You amaze me.”
I laughed his comment off just as his mother flitted into the room—and flitted was a great way to describe how quickly the woman moved about. She didn’t seem to walk, or glide, she just was there, and then there, and then over there. Her movements reminded me of a hummingbird around a feeder.
“Josey, it’s so great to see you. Thank you for meeting us.”
“Mrs. Wheatcraft, it’s nice to see you again.”
“No more Mrs. Please, you’re part of the family now. Please call me Gloria.”
I glanced at Tuck who looked surprised at what she’d said and then shook his head as he rolled his eyes my way and grinned.
I cleared my throat so I wouldn’t laugh. “Okay, Gloria. Tucker said you wanted to talk to me for a few minutes. What can I do for you?”
“Oh, no, it’s not what you can do for me, but what I can do for you. I just wanted to know what you might need at the house so I can have it ready for you when you arrive.”
“Um, I guess a bed would be nice.”
She waved my words off with a laugh. “Of course, the in-law suite has a spare bedroom that is outfitted with a two-way speaker so Tucker can call you at night if he needs to. There is also a small kitchen, but don’t worry about meals, we have a housekeeper who cooks for us.”
“I don’t want to trouble you like that. I’d be happy to cook our meals as long as I had a way to go to the store.”
“It’s really no trouble. She will be happy to be able to feed two more people. We also have a car you can use while you are out there. Theo just ordered a new SUV for you that has a lot of space for Tucker to be able to stretch out.”
“Wow,” I replied not sure what else to say. “That’s very nice of you.”
“Theo considered getting a vehicle that had a ramp in it for the wheelchair, but we decided to wait and see on that. Hopefully, Tuck will feel better soon, and we won’t need it.”
“Okay,” I replied slowly.
“Is there anything else you might need?” she asked as she straightened the sheets around Tucker’s legs.
“No, but I have a question.”
“And what is that, dear?” she paused as she spoke.
“How are we getting to Texas?”
“Oh, by airplane. We will have a service collect your things, and we’ve already made arrangements to have him moved from the hospital to a private airstrip.”
“Well, then, I guess that about covers it all.”
“I’ll just need your address so the driver knows where to pick up your things. Pack as much as you’d like, make sure to bring jeans, as I’m sure you’ll have some time to go riding on the ranch.”
“Ride? Like on a horse?”
Tucker laughed, then had to hold his side. He asked, “Yeah, on a horse, Josey. Have you ever been on one?”
“Uh, no.” I shook my head adamantly. “I’ve never been on a horse, and I’m not sure I want to either.”
Gloria waved my comment away. She sure did that a lot.
“We’ll see about that.” She had finished straightening up his sheets and had even re-straightened them. “Okay, well if you guys don’t need anything else, I need to get back. Marisha and I are going out to dinner and a show.”
“Have a good night, Mom,” Tucker called, and I said goodbye as she flitted right out the door.
“Does she ever stand still?” I asked him seriously.
“Only when she is crying. It’s like her body shuts down, but at any other time, she is constantly moving.”
“Does she ever make you tired?” I sank down on the side of his bed.
“Every time she is in the room with me, which right now isn’t too often. She’s having a hard time with the fact that I can’t feel my legs. I think she’s really freaked out about the possibility of me being in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.”
“I’m not surprised. A lot of people go into denial over those things. How are you feeling?”
He shrugged, “Before you got here, I was getting upset again, but like I told you before, you just kinda calm me.”
I patted his hand. “Good, I’m glad to hear that.”
Tucker took hold of my hand when I pulled it back. “You know what I’m wondering?” His face took on a childish look of humor.
“What?”
“When you were reading that wheelchair smut book last night? Were you thinking of me?”
It took everything in me not to laugh as I schooled my features and replied, “With every turn of the page.”
His brows shot up at my serious tone, and then I began to laugh.
“Very funny.”
“You asked for it.”
As I left Tucker’s room, I found myself grinning down the hallway. No matter what happened between us, Tucker and I were off to a great friendship. I hoped that if anything did happen between us, it wouldn’t ruin that.
Chapter 14
Tucker
It had been seven days since my incident, and I was preparing to leave the hospital. I’d be an idiot to even try to hide the fact that I was a nervous wreck about the whole thing.
It was one thing to be in the hospital where I could tell myself that I was healing from an injury. I had nurses and orderlies that assisted me with everything that I needed. Over the last two days, I’d even been getting out of bed and into a wheelchair to use the bathroom myself. Who knew there were people who worked here who came in and trained you on the simple daily tasks like that?
My parents had already flown back to Texas to make sure everything was set up for my return. My captain and several of the officers I had worked with had come in to visit me, wished me well, and told me to hurry the hell up and get back to work.
Camille had come to see me last night because she had a therapy appointment today and was then heading out of town to visit her family in New Jersey. It had been an emotional visit during which we had both talked about how we didn’t know what the future held for either of us. When Camille left, I spent an hour thinking over everything we had discussed and almost called Josey just to hear her voice—but I’d held back. Josey was about to upend her life to help me, the least I could do was give her this night alone.
My sleep had been fitful, and I was restless and agitated the next morning. I just wanted to get the day over with as quickly as I could. Josey and I had already talked about how hard the trip was going to be on my recovering body, and I wanted it to be done.
When Josey finally walked into my room at eleven, I was ready to bounce off the walls. She was carrying several binders and flashed me a killer smile as she entered. “I brought some light reading with me for the trip.”
I stared at the binders. “Seriously?”
“Actually, these are all copies of your medical charts, recovery plans, and physical therapy appointments, and so on. Everything that has happened to you over the last week is in here, right down to the number of times you have been to the bathroom.”
I laughed, immediately feeling better. “You could have left that last part out.”
“Bu
t then you wouldn’t have laughed.” She came around to the side of the bed and took my hand, “I know you’re tense, Tucker, probably scared to death, but we’re going to get through this, slowly, one step at a time.”
I squeezed her hand. “Alright, so you ready to get this show on the road?”
“I am. I just signed all your papers. Thanks for agreeing to sign the medical power of attorney over to me. That way I will be able to see all your records and attend your therapies since you have given me authorization.”
“It just made sense. You understand this. I sure as hell don’t.”
“True. I promise if you go unconscious, I won’t give your eyes away to science or anything.”
I shivered, “I’d rather never be able to walk again, than not be able to see.”
“I bet some of the blind people might feel the same way.” Josey got off the bed. “Okay, your transportation is waiting for you downstairs. Your parents sure do know how to travel in style.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.”
“Thanks for the warning.” She winked and brought the wheelchair over to the side of the bed, grabbing the bed controls and lowering it as far down as it would go. “Do you remember how they taught you to get into the chair?”
“Yeah, but honestly, it makes my hips throb. Could you help me? I’d do it myself, but then I’d want to take your head off for the next two hours.”
Josey laughed. “We can’t have that. We’re going to be stuck on a plane together. You might figure out how to walk and toss me off the plane.”
“Never.” I grinned at her. God, I loved how easy she made things. It was like she didn’t even have to think about it, and she just did things that made me feel better.
It took us a moment, and after I was in the chair, I really wished I had been able to enjoy having her arms wrapped around me; however, we were both learning the right way to transition me without dropping me on the floor, so I kept my focus on that and not on where her hands were in relation to my body.
For the first time in a week, I left the room sitting up and not lying flat on my back. It was painful, but it felt like the world was finally righting itself.
Josey wheeled me to the car where the small bag of belongings that I’d had there was already waiting. The flowers had all been passed along to other patients who needed some cheering, and the cards had been slipped in with my other stuff.
I was expecting a town car or an SUV. I never anticipated Josey to stop beside an ambulance and put the brakes on the wheelchair. “What are you doing?”
“How do you think you are going to get to the airport? You can’t sit upright with your leg down on the floor. You’re going by ambulance, on the gurney.”
“You’re kidding!”
Josey reached down in my lap and gathered all her binders while two men came around from the back pushing a gurney.
“Mr. Wheatcraft, let’s get you on the gurney and to the airport.” The two of them had no problem lifting me up and putting me on the stretcher in a few seconds while Josey looked on.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I called to Josey, and she gave a huge grin.
Josey got to sit in the back with me during the ride to the airport, and once we pulled up to the private strip, the doors opened, and two more people entered wearing medical uniforms.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Phil Waters, your flight doctor, and this is Tina Burrows your nurse for the flight. We are going to need to strap you to a backboard just so we can get you into the plane, and then we have a cot set up for you in there. When we get to Texas, we’ll be doing the same thing and transitioning you back to an ambulance where they will take you home.”
“Why do I need to have a doctor with me? I have Josey,” I asked as they began to set up, and Josey jumped out the door to get out of the way.
“Tucker, with all that you have gone through, your parents wanted to make sure you had no issues while flying. The air pressure can cause problems with some people who have undergone extensive surgery,” the doctor answered.
When I glanced at Josey, she was biting her bottom lip, but when she noticed me watching her, she winked. “It’s for your own safety, Tuck.”
“Alright, fine.” What a big fuss. Why couldn’t they have just plopped me in an airplane seat and gotten the plane in the air? My parents just had to do everything big.
Fifteen minutes, and a very uncomfortable ride later, I was being rolled onto the cot in the plane. I glanced around and found the plane looked like a miniature operating room. “I didn’t even know things like this existed.”
Josey was eyeing every inch. “Me neither. Maybe I need to change jobs. That way I could visit more places and still care for people.”
Dr. Waters insisted I have another IV put in, just in case. “Yeah, whatever.” I handed my arm over to the nurse who was waiting patiently and blinking her eyelashes at me coyly. I took a moment to check her out, but she didn’t hold a candle to Josey who was now perched on the edge of a chair discussing one of my charts with the doctor.
Josey tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, and I had the most insane urge to lick my tongue over the outer edge of that cute little thing. She wore small earrings that sparkled like diamonds. A tiny thread of jealousy coiled in my stomach as I wondered what man might have bought those for her.
A couple of minutes after the IV was in, the airplane began to move, and Josey took the seat beside me and buckled herself in. “I have flown a few times, but never in such luxury.”
“I kind of figured my father was sending his company plane to get us. I never expected all this.”
“Your father has a plane?” Josey asked with her mouth hanging open.
“Yes, he does.”
“I never asked you. What does your father do for a living?”
“He works in oil. My great-grandfather started an oil drilling company seventy years ago.”
“Was your father disappointed that you didn’t want to go into the family business?”
“No, he just wanted me to be happy. He said that someday, he’d sell the company, and we’d all have more than enough money to live on for the rest of our lives and my children’s children’s lives.”
She sighed. “Must be nice. I had to work my ass off growing up and to put myself through college.”
“Oh, trust me. My parents didn’t hand out money or let us go wild. I was working when I was fourteen just like everyone else, and I had to earn my keep. Best thing my parents ever did was teach me the value of a dollar.”
“You have good parents, Tucker. You’re lucky.”
“What about you?” I asked her and saw her put a death grip on the edges of her seat when the plane began to take off. “What? Are you nervous about flying?”
She laughed softly. “Honestly, I think I am more nervous about where we are going than what we are in.”
Chapter 15
Josey
He took my hand—a simple gesture, yet so appreciated at that moment. I had taken four weeks off of work for him, and I was on a tiny plane flying thousands of miles away to take care of a man that I barely knew, all because he’d said he trusted me.
I had officially lost my mind.
“There is nothing to be nervous about, Josey. We’re going home. My parents have welcomed you as if you were family. It’s going to be great.”
I stared at him incredulously. “Great? You think it’s going to be great?” I laughed and the wheels of the plane left the tarmac, causing my stomach to drop. “You have a lot of work ahead of you. I’m glad you are being so positive.”
He looked out the window of the small plane. The nurse had situated his cot so it was in an upright position for take-off, and he had a nice view of the shrinking world outside.
“I have to be positive,” his thumb brushed over the back of my hand, “I don’t have a choice.”
“You’re right, you don’t,” I replied.
For the
next few minutes, he kept his focus on the window, and I watched him. It was nice to be able to study him without him knowing I was doing it so blatantly. I traced over every curve of his face, observed the way his dark beard was growing in along his jawline, watched his full eyelashes dip and flutter as he blinked. I was enthralled with him. He was a beautiful man on the outside, and I was quickly learning that he was pretty damned amazing on the inside, too.
About twenty minutes into the flight, Tucker’s eyes closed, and he drifted off to sleep, still holding my hand. I thought about removing it so I could move around a bit, but I was enjoying the feel of his hand so much that I just couldn’t.
Eventually, his hand relaxed enough that I slipped mine out and changed seats so I could watch him while reading some of the paperwork I had brought with me without bothering him.
Tina, the nurse, came to sit beside me. “You two make a cute couple. How long have you been together?”
I glanced between her and Tucker. “We’re not together. We’re just friends.”
“You could have fooled me. I saw the way the two of you were looking at one another, and the way you were studying him when he didn’t know. It sure didn’t look like just friends to me.”
“Seriously, we are just friends. We barely know each other at all.”
“Then why are you flying all the way to Texas with him?”
“Because he asked for my help.” I was getting a little irked with her invasion into our privacy.
“Wow, I wish a guy like that had asked for my help. I would have jumped at taking care of a man like him.”
My claws started to come out, and I clenched my fists as casually as I could. “He is a nice guy.”
“Nice,” she snorted, “he’s freaking hot. I heard he might not walk again. I wonder if his equipment still works.”
I took a long slow breath before I nailed her with a you-better-shut-it look. “That’s pretty unprofessional of you to be saying. I suggest you keep your opinions of your patients to yourself.”
Her brows shot up, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend.” She got out of the chair and began to approach him.
