by Lexy Timms
Andrew weakly took it and tried to shake back. “Hey, Cayden,” he said, his voice sounding like rocks were stuck in his throat. “Thanks for coming. It’s good to see you.”
“Better to see you,” Cayden replied, scanning all the machines in the room. “How’re you feeling?”
“Better than I look, I hope. I kind of feel like I got hit by a truck, though.” Cayden was the only one who snickered at the joke. “Sorry,” Andrew mumbled.
“Well, now that everyone has seen each other, back to our discussion,” Andrew’s mom directed toward his father.
“Frances, is now really the—”
“I think it is, Tanner,” Frances replied firmly. “Just while it’s fresh on our minds. And Lillian is here, too. She’s an organizer; maybe she can help us think of a creative solution.”
“I organize homes,” Lillian put in. “Not trips.”
“Listen, I really don’t think that there’s another way to handle it except to cancel the trip.” Tanner sighed, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I mean, it’ll be a lot of phone calls, since all our reservations are made, but it’s the only way.”
“What trip?” Cayden asked.
Lillian looked at him. “They planned a trip to Europe a few months ago,” she explained. “They’re supposed to leave in a few days.”
“In four days,” Frances clarified. “But with Andrew’s recovery and all the care he needs, even rescheduling will be a hassle. I want my son to be okay. The trip doesn’t matter.”
“Mom, I’ll be okay,” Andrew tried, but Frances didn’t seem to hear him.
“The doctor is supposed to refer us to a physio today and look at Andrew coming back home soon,” she went on.
“Mom,” Andrew tried again, “please go on your trip. I’ll call one of my coworkers to come by once a day, maybe bring some food, something.”
“Which coworker?” Frances demanded.
“Uh...”
“I just don’t think that will work. Your femur is broken in two places; you’ll need to be in a wheelchair or on crutches.”
“They aren’t bad of breaks, Mom.”
“Bad breaks? They aren’t bad breaks? A broken bone is a broken bone. And you broke your leg! I don’t know if one of your coworkers would be able to give you the best care like we could.” Frances looked at her husband. “I think we need to start making the calls tonight, since the trip’s so soon.”
“I really don’t want you two to cancel your trip,” Andrew insisted. “Seriously, I really want you to go. You’ve been looking forward to it for months.”
“Andrew, dear, you’re going to give yourself a headache if you keep joining in this discussion.”
“Doesn’t my opinion count? I’m the one you would be cancelling it for.”
“You really will need constant care, honey. The amount of physical therapy you need to make a good recovery will be more than someone coming by once a day to check on you.”
“I’m not in hospice, Mom. I’m not dying, and I don’t have a terminal illness. I have a slightly broken femur and some bruising on my torso—that’s it.”
“Slightly...” Frances sighed and then frowned. “You also have a concussion, don’t forget.”
“Mom, the doctor literally said earlier it’s a hairline fracture.”
“That’s a miracle,” Andrew’s dad commented softly in his deep voice. “It should have been much worse.”
“How are your pain levels?” Cayden asked quietly.
Andrew groaned. “Oh, for shit’s sake. Please don’t ask me that. I’ve been asked that a thousand times within the last hour.”
“I mean it, though.”
“So do I. If I say it’s less than a one and I feel like a freshly hatched baby from Heaven, will you stop obsessing about my care, Mom?”
“Don’t worry about the trip,” Lillian piped up, her voice breaking the monotonous banter. Everyone looked at her inquisitively. “I’ll take care of him.”
The room got quiet. “Yeah, Mom,” Andrew said, “See? I’ll have the best care in the country.”
Cayden stared at Lily in shock. His gut had warned him this was going to happen before she’d even said it. The offer made perfect sense. Andrew’s parents on vacation, Lily’s place was a bungalow. He pressed his lips together and held off making any comments. It wasn’t his place to say anything—yet.
Frances and Tanner looked at each other for a few moments, having a whole conversation only they could hear. “Lillian,” Tanner said, speaking slowly, “that would be far too much for us to ask you to do.”
“You didn’t ask,” she countered.
“But Lillian,” he said again, “what about your work?”
The simple question silenced her. She reached for a bottle of water and drank deeply. “I’ll figure something out. But you two have been saving for this trip for years, and you deserve to go.”
“Yeah,” Andrew agreed, his eyes half closed.
“Do you need some water?” Frances asked. “Are you hungry?”
“I’m okay. Really. Searching the backs of my eyelids for a way to figure out how Lillian can work.”
“Andrew needs to start physical therapy very soon after getting discharged,” Frances said. “That’s just a couple of days from now. We don’t want you to be away from work for that long.”
“I mean, I could just call my clients and let them know I’ll be away for a couple of weeks. I could do phone consultations, or even work with them on a video call.” She sounded confident, but her face said otherwise.
A knock on the door made them turn their heads, and they saw the cheerful smile of Andrew’s doctor entering the room. “How is everyone doing today?” His voice was smooth and booming, something about the positive energy around him dissolving the stress from the conversation.
“Can’t complain,” Andrew croaked, reaching out his hand.
The doctor shook it. “Looking good.”
“Feeling pretty good, too.”
“Excellent. Do you need anything?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Don’t hesitate to ask.” The doctor’s teeth were so shiny that the light glinted off them. He turned to Andrew’s parents. “And you two?”
“All good,” Tanner replied, keeping true to his reputation as a man of few words.
“Good to hear.” The doctor looked at a file he had in his hands. “I have a list of physical therapists who specialize in cases like Andrew’s. Rodney is a big city, and we’re lucky to have these kinds of options for him.”
Lillian’s face fell.
“There are a few more around who are just as good,” he continued, flipping through some sheets of paper, “but I figured that since you live here, it would be best to keep travel to a minimum. Actually, your neighborhood is near one of the clinics.”
“That’s good to hear,” Frances said, but then sighed. “We were just trying to figure out what to do about the location, actually. Tanner and I want to cancel our trip to Europe, which starts in four days so we can take care of Andrew, but—”
“I’m insisting that they go ahead as planned,” Andrew interrupted. “Lillian already said she would take care of me, anyway.”
“It’s just her job that worries us, since none of her clients are here and we’ll be gone for three weeks.”
The doctor looked at Lillian. “Where do you live, if I may ask?”
“Hanneston,” Lillian replied. “All my clients are back there. But, really, it’s no problem. I can figure out a way to make it work. I’m just glad that Andrew’s all right.”
“He’s better than all right,” the doctor said, then stared into space for a second and searched through his papers. “The progression of his healing is really incredible. The procedure went very well yesterday, and we cleared out the small infection. Your temperature’s already down and the little, hmm, shall I say issue, you had won’t repeat itself. You’re on the mend. You’re a strong one, Andrew.”
&
nbsp; Andrew smiled, looking like he was about to fall asleep. “Thank you, Doc.”
“Actually,” the doctor continued, pulling out a piece of paper, “I think one of the physical therapy clinics I mentioned is in Hanneston. I printed out all the surrounding ones because, well, you never know what works for someone.”
Lillian shot out of her chair and to the doctor’s side, looking at the paper. “That’s only about ten minutes from my place!” she exclaimed.
“Is it, now?” the doctor seemed to be sharing in Lillian’s joy. “Well, would it be better for me to get you situated with them instead of with the clinics here in Rodney?”
“Yes,” Lillian answered, almost before the words were out of his mouth.
Yes? Cayden’s attention was suddenly piqued. Andrew would be staying at her place? Physio and what else?
“Lillian—” Andrew’s dad started.
“Don’t even try,” she retorted. “I love you guys. However, stop trying to think I can’t offer. This is something I truly want to do for all of you. Plus, Andrew wants you to take your trip, and I do, too.” She looked at the floor. “Maybe it’ll make up for lost time together. Amelia would want you to go.”
Cayden remembered that Lillian mentioned going two or three years without any communication with Andrew or his parents, largely because the heartache of losing Amelia was too much for her to bear.
“Don’t even try to change her mind,” Andrew mumbled from the bed, fading fast into sleep. “I would be shocked if you haven’t realized yet that once she has set her mind to something, there’s nothing anyone can do to change it.”
Frances, realizing that Andrew was right, let the frustration slide from her face. “All right, then,” she surrendered, and looked at the doctor. “Hanneston, it is. For the time being, at least.”
“Don’t worry about a thing,” Lillian protested again. “I’m going to take care of him and make sure he recovers in no time. I have a spare bedroom, my house has the perfect layout for him to get around on crutches, and it’s not a huge city so getting to his appointments won’t be a problem.”
Cayden felt his heart stop beating. What is she doing?
“I’ll need to have some appointments for him shifted over to Hanneston,” the doctor interrupted, making some notes on Andrew’s record. “He needs to see the cardiologist, the physio—”
“Anything,” Lillian put in. “It’s all no problem. And I can keep working through it all, too. So that’s a big issue we don’t have to worry about anymore. I’m not leaving anytime soon, so I’m good for however long it takes.”
So, he’s moving in with her? Cayden couldn’t find words to speak, but he quickly realized now wasn’t exactly the best time to have a discussion with Lillian. He clamped his teeth down on his tongue to keep from blurting anything. He couldn’t argue. She was doing the right thing, but still...
The doctor took a breath, made a final note, and closed the file. “All right, then,” he boomed. “I guess we have that figured out. I’m going to see about shifting his appointments over there. Will you be here later?”
“I’ll be here.” Lillian nodded.
“Okay. I’ll be back a little later this afternoon to go over everything with you and talk about the car situation.”
“Car situation?”
“Getting him back home, since he can’t bend his leg. And he definitely has a long one.” With a smile, the doctor said goodbye and left the room. Lillian focused on Andrew’s parents; they brainstormed how to fit him in her small car, where to stretch out his leg, and other details that Cayden missed. He stayed silent, trying to deduce whether it was all real or not—Andrew coming to stay at Lillian’s? For how long, the next few months? How long did a femur break take to heal? How would they know when he was ready to go back to living on his own, or would Lillian want him to stay even longer than was necessary?
Am I even going to get any time with her? The idea of her being so caught up in caring for Andrew—not to mention her dedication to her work and clients back home—made his heart feel like it was shriveling up into a prune. Did all this really have to happen now, right when they’d gotten back together?
Between her work and Andrew, I don’t see any way that she would even have time for dinner with me. Stop it! I’m being ridiculous. This isn’t about me. Lily and I will be fine. I think. Again, he tried to force away the thoughts of Andrew coming between them yet again, but memories of his last girlfriend, whom he dated several years ago, kept resurfacing. The buildup to their breakup was not entirely unlike this situation. One of her ‘best friends’ had been a guy, too. Then, as it turned out, they were much more than best friends.
He was just coming out of his absentminded state when Andrew’s parents were walking out of the room, saying goodbye and that they would be back soon. Lillian had turned her eyes to her phone. Andrew had succumbed to the deep sleep that had long been building up.
“Where are they going?” Cayden asked in a flat voice.
“To eat,” Lillian replied, slightly confused. “Didn’t you hear?”
“No.”
She looked at him blankly. “Oh. Yeah, they’ve been here since early this morning. They’re hungry.”
“Can I talk to you for a second?” She looked up at him, and he nodded toward the door. “Maybe out there?”
Raising an eyebrow she nodded, and they went outside. Cayden gently shut the door behind them and leaned against the wall, trying to figure out what to say.
“Is something wrong?” Lillian asked after he had been quiet for a bit too long.
“I don’t know about this, Lil,” he confessed. “Taking care of Andrew is great, and I think you’re an amazing person for offering to do it, but his whole recovery might take a long time. Several months, maybe.”
“I’m prepared for that,” she said.
“I know you are.” He was beginning to get flustered, seeing that she obviously wasn’t getting the point. “I just have a lot of thoughts about it all. I mean, I’m about to be moving back, and I’m wondering—”
“Wondering what?”
“I’m wondering if this is really the right thing to do,” he said, unable to find a better way to put it. “I don’t know how it will affect us as a couple, or our work...” he trailed off. “I wish we could have talked about it beforehand. I don’t know if this is actually the best thing for us to do.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
He swallowed. Maybe he should’ve kept his mouth shut.
Chapter 03
LILLIAN’S EXPRESSION was colder than a stone sculpture. Cayden wondered if he needed to say something else because she stood for so long, not moving even the slightest bit.
Just as he was about to dare to open his mouth and ask if she was okay, she blinked. “What?”
“What, what?”
“Cayden,” she said in a loud whisper, inching closer to his face, “How can this not be the best option?”
“I don’t know exactly, Lil,” he said, feeling the heat in his body. “I mean, I just said that you’re amazing for offering to take care of him and see him through until he’s ready and able to go back to his normal routine as he always did. But that’s going to be a long time from now.”
“So?”
“So, I mean, we just got back together. Don’t you think that we need some time to ourselves to figure out, well, us?”
She sighed. “Cayden, it’s not going to be like Andrew will have to be in the same room with us all the time. We’re still going to have time for ourselves.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know for sure. I haven’t even officially moved back yet. My clients still need me to finish up some things. I, well, I have a lot to handle there before I leave permanently.” He felt a grimace scrunch up his face. “So, my visits back home are going to be short until it’s all taken care of, and I’m not sure if I like the idea of having to share you when I’m home.”
“Share me?” Her brows pressed together.
&n
bsp; He paused. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Andrew’s not taking me away from you, Cayden. He’s family, and I’m helping him. He would do the same for me.”
“It’s just a hard thought for me. Having him around all the time seems like it would only add something else to your life to worry about. Look at the big picture: you have a successful business, and not only that but you’re a one-woman show. And we’ve just gotten back together, and both of our jobs are expanding in great ways. We might need to travel for work a lot more often.”
Lillian stared at him.
I wish she would say something, he thought. When she doesn’t say anything, it doesn’t help me make any more arguments. He couldn’t think of any other reasons that this wouldn’t work—except one. “I mean, will your cats be able to handle having someone unfamiliar in the house all the time?”
It finally clicked with Lillian where this was going. She crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. “Are you jealous, Cayden?”
What? He took a step back. “What?”
“Are you jealous of Andrew?”
“Hell no, Lil. Why would I be?”
“I don’t know, because you were last time he visited and you two didn’t exactly become best friends at first sight.”
“Maybe that’s because he likes you.”
A weird look came over her face. “No.”
“Well, he stayed over at your house before, right after our argument. Convenient timing. How do you know he doesn’t like you?”
“What reason do you have not to trust me? I’ve literally never given you any reason not to trust me. I’m not like your ex!” Her face grew red from anger. “How many times do I have to tell you? Andrew has always been and will always be my brother. The closest thing to a brother I’ve ever had, at least. That’s it. And that’s even more reason for you to not be jealous.”
“I’m not jealous!”
“Would you be quiet?” she hissed, looking around to make sure no one heard. “This is not a good place to have this conversation right now!”
“Do you want to go outside?”
“Actually, no, because we aren’t getting anywhere with this. What was your point in bringing me out here? What do you really want to say, without bringing up the health of my cats?” Her eyes were blazing.
