by Allie Bock
“Why don’t you get some sweet tea and sit with me?” He gave me big puppy dog eyes and motioned to the chair next to him. Could I sit next to him? Can I protect my heart? The wariness must have shown on my face. “Come on, Dee. I am sorry about this afternoon. I promise I will be nice.”
I sighed and pulled my hair back into a ponytail as I headed back into the kitchen. “Fine. I’ll get us some cookies and sweet tea.”
I handed him a glass of sweet tea and a package of sandwich cookies before plopping into the rocking chair next to him. I threaded my fingers together and placed them behind my head. The sun beat down on us. The cows mooed as they inched their way across the pasture next to the house, looking for blades of grass. The wind blew tiny gusts across the flat pasture, stirring up small twists of dust. I rocked back and forth. I tried to keep my thoughts from the man sipping sweet tea and munching on cookies.
“So, you and Kaleb are an item?” His quiet voice filled the awkward silence between us.
“No.” I scoffed. His expression was unreadable. “Why?”
“Isn’t Kaleb a nice guy? Or is he not your type?” He swirled the tea around in his glass. The ice cubes clunked together.
I cut my eyes to him. What was he getting at? Did I have feelings for Kaleb? Seriously, he was asking me that? I don’t even know what to say to that. “He’s a nice guy and I know a lot of girls in town find him attractive.” I narrowed my eyes at him and shrugged.
“You don’t like him?” He set his cookies down and leaned forward.
“Seriously, Kade. He’s like an older brother I don’t need. Damien is enough for one girl.” I studied him as he fidgeted on the swing. “Why? Are you jealous?” I tried not to smirk. That’s it. Kade Kisment was jealous of me and his older brother. Ha, that was funny.
“I can’t figure out why Kaleb has you helping me.” He shook his head but still did not meet my eyes.
“You ran away all the other in-home nurses and he figured I could stick with it.” I kicked off my shoes and drew circles in the air with my toes. The silence stretched on.
“He’s paying you?” Kade’s eyelids raised and his hand stopped midway to his mouth.
I turned to look at him and nodded.
“But don’t you have a job.” His brow wrinkled as if this was a hard concept.
“I quit my job. I told you that. And he’s paying.” I shrugged and reached over to steal a cookie.
“Are you only here for money?” He looked hurt and those big blue eyes widened into an incredibly sad puppy dog look.
“Really, Kade? I’ve avoided you and your whole family for the last eleven years. Do you think I would do this out of the goodness of my heart without getting paid?” I scoffed. I rocked back in the chair.
“No, I guess not.” He sucked down the rest of the sweet tea. “I kind’ve wished you did it just to be with me.”
It was so soft that I almost didn’t hear it. I guess I am going to ignore that comment. I rocked back and forth. The awkwardness got thick and I didn’t know what to say to that.
“I’m going to get dinner ready. Don’t eat all the cookies.” I grabbed my shoes and went inside.
Kade
DELILAH COULD ALWAYS see through me. I should’ve known she was going to guess about my feelings for her and Kaleb. The two of them together got my heart pounding and I wanted to smash something. I wished I had let it alone. Whenever I was with her, I had to remind myself that we were not together, and it was my fault as was most of what went wrong in my life. I didn’t deserve to have a woman like her. The banging in the kitchen interrupted my ruminations. Water ran in the sink as a knife thudded dully against the wood cutting board.
My cell phone rang in my pocket as a name flashed across the screen that I had not seen in a while. I swiped to answer it.
“Hello?” Trepidation clutched in my chest.
“Hey, Kade. It’s Veronica.” Her high-pitched voice made me cringe.
“How’s it going, Veronica?” At that, all the noise in the kitchen stopped. “Is everything ok?” For a second, I thought about how I had forgotten all about her and her daughter since I got hurt. Guilt consumed me. If something were wrong, I’d never been able to forgive myself. Veronica’s husband, Ben, was my traveling partner. When he died, I stepped in to make sure that they were taken care of.
“Yes. We’re getting by. I heard about your accident and was calling to see if there is anything I can do?” Her voice was sweet and almost pleading.
I sighed with relief that she was okay. “It was about a month ago,” I said as I ran my fingers through my hair.
She laughed nervously. “I’m a little out of the loop with Ben gone and all. I don’t follow the bull riding circuit like I used to.” She had a hint of sadness in her voice.
“No, it’s ok. I’m just recovering at home.”
“Do you need someone to care for you? Do you need any help? You’ve helped us so much; I want to return the favor.” She was stumbling over her words as she hurried to get them out.
“Nah, I’m good. My brothers have it handled.” I bit into the second to last cookie. Delilah’s shadow crept out under the screen door.
“Ok. Just let me know if you need any help.” She paused for a second. “Oh, Kade, you don’t have to send a check this month.”
“Are you sure?” I sat up and stopped chewing. I handled her finances and every month I sent her a check for living expenses. Veronica was a sweetheart, but Ben said she wasn’t good with budgeting. “Everything’s alright?” Nerves ran through me if something had happened to them, I’d never forgiven myself.
“Yep.” Her voice hit a high note and squeaked. “All’s good. We have a bunch of leftover from last month. We can make it work for a bit.”
“Alright. Let me know if you need more. Bye, Veronica.”
“Bye, Kade.”
I sighed and stretched my arms over my head, flinching as I forgot about the pain in my ribs. I set my phone down and closed my eyes, leaning my head against the cold chain. A shadow fell on my face as someone blocked out the sun.
“You’re unbelievable.” Delilah crossed her arms and glared at me. “You accused me of being something to Kaleb and you have a girl. What do you want of me? Just to make myself a nun?”
I shrugged. I didn’t want to explain the phone call or myself to her. She stormed back into the house, slamming the door. I closed my eyes and tried not to worry about Delilah or Veronica or any of their problems.
The wind blew softly, and the cows mooed close by. A horse trotted into the yard with its metal shoes clanging against the small gravel. The horse snorted and blew as the saddle creaked. Then, heavy boots clopped up the porch steps. Kaleb reached and took the last cookie from the plate that Delilah had made for me.
“It’s good to see you out of the house.” He propped one foot up on the edge of a chair and leaned towards me. “Feeling better?” I nodded at him. A loud crash came from the kitchen, causing us both to turn. “She’s still mad?”
“Yep, like a hornet.”
Kaleb chuckled and shoved the whole cookie in his mouth. “You do have that effect on her. I’ll go check it out.” He strode confidently towards the kitchen. He had a swagger to his stride that I haven’t seen in a while. Delilah might not have feelings for him, but he looked excited to confront her in all her rage. The screen door slammed behind him, and I strained to make out what they were saying, but all I heard was mumbling. A few minutes went by before Delilah came out of the kitchen. She swept by me without even a glance, gathered the reins of the horse, and swung on to his back. She clucked to him, and off they trotted down the lane and out of sight. Her black hair floating behind her contrasting with the grey horse.
“What do you want for dinner?” Kaleb leaned against the door. “Delilah burnt the noodles for the mac and cheese.”
“Sandwiches are fine. Where’s she going?”
Kaleb shrugged. “She just needs to ride it out. I told her to take the rest o
f the day off.” He went back into the kitchen. I watched the horse and rider get smaller on the horizon. My feelings for her both surprised and confused me. What was I going to do?
Chapter 10 September 9th
Delilah
I poured myself a cup of coffee when Kaleb entered the kitchen. He filled his thermos with the rest of the pot of the black gold before turning his attention to me.
“I need you to take Kade to his doctor’s appointment this morning.” He grabbed a banana from the counter and peeled it. “The veterinarian is coming today to pregnancy check the spring calving cows. I don’t want to reschedule. He has a month-long wait period.”
“Wow. He needs to hire someone if he is that busy.”
“He said he hired a new veterinarian. But he won’t start until this spring.” He shoved the banana in his mouth.
“I can take Kade. It’s a recheck?” What else could I say? I don’t want to be in the same small space as him. Stuck there for hours and hours. Think of the money, Delilah. I told myself. I put on a grin and nodded.
“Yes, and probably he’ll get x-rays and a new cast. Here’s the appointment card. See you tonight.” He slapped his cowboy hat on his head and strode out.
The business card held the address of Kade’s surgeon, Dr. Greg Glanders, and the time of the appointment. Great, Dr. Glanders my ex-boyfriend. Maybe, I’d get lucky and another surgeon would be seeing his appointments. I could only hope. It was in two hours.
I approached Kade’s bedroom and silently swung the door open. He fell asleep only a couple of hours earlier. Part of my job was to monitor his sleeping and medications overnight. I usually check on him every couple of hours. Last night, his pain had been excruciating and he spent most of the night tossing and turning. I tiptoed across the room. The floor creaked a bit. I stopped on the rug and held my breath.
“Delilah, I know you’re there.” He mumbled into the pillow, not picking up his head to look at me. “What do you want?”
“You have a doctor’s appointment in a couple of hours. We need to leave in forty-five minutes.”
He groaned and pulled the blankets over his head. I slid open the curtains to let the morning light into the room. He groaned again and rolled towards the wall.
“Can’t it be rescheduled?”
“No, you have a good surgeon and he probably won’t have any openings for at least a week.” I moved his chair closer to the bed. “Besides, you need different pain medications. You haven’t slept well for the last couple of nights.” I hadn’t slept either. Thinking about the man across the hall made me toss and turn. Kade finally rolled back over and scooted to the edge of the bed.
“Alright, let’s do this.” A sarcastic smile pulled at one side of his lips.
The waiting room of the hospital was crowded. Kade wheeled his wheelchair to a corner of the waiting room so I snagged a wooden chair and dragged it over next to him. We stared out the glass window, watching the traffic below, not talking to each other. He folded his arms across his chest as a large sigh escaped his lips. I turned in my chair to watch him. I forgot how much I liked just to sit next to him as butterflies danced in my stomach.
“Do you want to talk about yesterday?” He asked. His blue eyes searched my face. I blushed and fidgeted with my keys.
“Not really.” I was embarrassed about how I acted. I didn’t know why I was jealous of another woman in Kade’s life, and I didn’t want to examine it that closely. Silence settled between us as we both were lost in our thoughts.
“Do you remember the first time we met?” His voice was soft and hard to hear over the hum of the room.
I shook my head. “I thought you were always in my life.”
A deep chuckle resonated from his chest. “Damien invited me over to play Legos after school, and your family had just moved to Sunnydale.” A smile touched his lips. “You wanted to play with us. But Damien said no girls. Then you burst into his room wearing his shirt and shorts.” He chuckled. “You said that you are now a boy. You were so cute.” His blue eyes twinkled at me with a look I hadn’t seen in years.
“I don’t remember that,” I murmured. I reached for his hand. My hand was hairs away from his when warning bells went off in my mind. What was I doing? This is the same man that broke my heart in two. A nurse walked into the room and called out Kade’s name. He spun his chair around and wheeled it after her as I hurried to keep up.
Kade sat on the paper-covered bench in his shorts. The nurse had cut off the cast on his right leg and took him for radiographs. She brought him back and left us to wait for the doctor to look at the images. He scrolled on his phone as I paged through a magazine when a sharp knock sounded on the door. The doctor came in pushing a cart. My heart skipped a beat. He was tall, dark, and handsome. My skin heated as soon as I recognized him: Dr. Greg Glanders, orthopedic surgeon extraordinaire and my latest ex-boyfriend. I scooted closer to the door. Kade gave me a weird look before turning his attention back to the doctor.
“Good afternoon, Kade. Here for your four-week recheck, I see. How have you been feeling?” He punched buttons on his keyboard.
“Just fine,” Kade muttered.
“How’s the breathing?” He ran his fingers along Kade’s ribs. Kade’s face turned a little green. “It’s only been four weeks, so you still have some time to heal, but your radiographs look good. They are healing nicely.” The doctor moved down to palpate Kade’s leg. “Any concerns?”
Kade shook his head.
Of course, he would deny it! Before I knew what was happening, my mouth opened. “Actually, Doctor,” The doctor turned to face me. “Kade’s been having a hard time sleeping from all the pain.”
A smile lit up the doctor’s face. “Why, Delilah Allen! I didn’t see you there.” I extended my hand to shake his. Instead, he wrapped me into a hug, that lasted a bit too long. I wiggled out of his grasp, catching Kade’s glance. “Kade, you have the best nurse in the ER taking care of you.” Heat rose up my cheeks as I looked at my shoes. “Of course, we can get something to help him sleep.” He went back to examining Kade who raised his eyebrows at me.
“Here’s the prescription.” He handed a sheet to Kade and then turned to me. “Delilah, would you like to get some lunch sometime?” I blushed again as Kade cut his gaze to me. His blue eyes blazed.
I opened my mouth to respond when Kade cut in. “Delilah, I think it is time to go home.”
I shot Kade a dark look. “Greg, I would love to get lunch sometime. My number is the same.”
Kade scowled at me while I smiled brightly at him. Greg looked between us with confusion on his face.
Kade
I CLENCHED MY FISTS as Dr. Glanders flirted with Delilah. She blushed a lovely pink color at his attention. She brushed her hair back with the back of her hand and fluttered her eyelashes at him. Did she just do that? My eyes narrowed as he laid his hand on her shoulder. Her laugh was high and fake when a knock sounded at the door. The nurse stuck her head in.
“Dr. Glanders, do you want Kade to be back in a cast?” She carried boxes under her arm. The door swung closed behind her. Dr. Glanders drew his attention away from Delilah.
“Yes.” He glanced back at Delilah. “I’ll call you later.”
“That would be great.” She looked down at her shoes and twirled a loose strand of hair. With that, he strode out of the room. The nurse wrapped my leg and rolled on the casting material. She put pressure on my ankle to bend it and the casting material grew hot. When I tried not to wince, Delilah stepped over and reached for my hand as I raised an eyebrow at her.
“What was that about?” I slid my hand out of her grasp to the edge of the exam table and gripped it.
“Oh, nothing,” she mumbled with more blushing.
The nurse snorted. Then, she glanced up apologetically. “Dr. Glanders still has the hots for you, Delilah.” She wrapped another couple of rounds of casting around my calf. “Rumor has it he hasn’t dated anyone since you broke it off with him.” She
folded the cotton wrap down and ran the cast material under the upper edge. Delilah sat down in the chair and crossed her arms. The nurse looked over her and sighed. “But it’s not any of my business.” She cleaned up her materials and ran her hands down the length of the cast once more. “That should do it. You’ll need another appointment in two weeks for more radiographs and another cast.” Then, she quickly left the room.
I scooted myself into my wheelchair and rolled toward the door. “I’m starving. Let’s get lunch.” Delilah followed behind me as I checked out.
Maria’s Pasta Bar was packed with people even when it was not lunchtime. Simmering marinara and freshly baked garlic bread assaulted my senses when we entered the packed building. The hostess seated us in a corner booth and took our drink orders.
“I haven’t been here in ages.” Delilah grabbed a menu and scanned it for the specials. “I think the last time I was here was the night of my prom.” She blushed again and quickly hid behind the menu.
“That was a great night.” I chuckled. “You ordered the spaghetti with the giant meatball. Do you remember that?”
“Kade, how could you bring up one of the most embarrassing moments of my high school career?” She blew her straw wrapper at me. I caught it before it bounced off my nose.
“It is one of my fondest memories of us.” I leaned forward and grabbed her hands before she snatched them back. “You tried to eat that meatball on a fork. When you bit into it, it fell off and rolled down the front of your white dress.”
