6. Alyssa
6
ALYSSA
An incredible aroma filled the air when I woke the next morning. It smelled so good that for a moment, I didn’t even wonder where I was.
Then it all came back to me. I was at Spencer’s house. The rather masculine-looking bedroom confirmed that.
The curtains and quilt were dark, but otherwise, the room had a fairly modern feel to it. There were art prints on the wall and a few sparse decorations. It didn’t seem like a guest room, so I wondered if it belonged to Spencer or Raphael.
My back ached as I attempted to sit upright in bed. It felt like my injuries were designed to prevent me from any kind of normal movement. My leg was broken, okay, so that meant using my arms more. But my left wrist was still sprained. While it didn’t ache quite as much as the other spots, it sure hurt to push myself upright. And any movement jostled my cracked ribs.
But hell, I couldn’t keep sleeping the days away. And that meant sitting up. Finally, I figured out that by pushing really hard on the nightstand with my right arm, I could get into an upright position.
Of course, it left me exhausted—too tired to even adjust the pillows behind me. But at least I’d done it. And after a few minutes of panting from the exertion, I felt a bit better.
Noises came from the kitchen, and suddenly I was very eager to discover the source of that delicious scent. I glanced at my phone and saw that it was after nine. That probably meant that the twins and Spencer were gone—if he’d gone into work today. I hoped he had.
That must mean that it was Raphael who was in the kitchen. Should I just call out? I felt a bit foolish doing that, but I didn’t have his phone number, so I couldn’t text him. “Raphael?”
There was a rattle as something was set down, and then slow footsteps coming nearer. The person who eventually appeared in the doorway was definitely not Raphael.
“Good morning, dear. How do you feel?” The woman standing there looked like she’d answer a casting call for a grandmother type. She had gray curly hair and sloped shoulders, and wore a pale blue tracksuit and white sneakers. “I’m Nana.”
“Hi, um, Nana.” Lately, it felt like every time I woke up, there was another stranger there, watching over me.
“Well, my real name is Ruby, but everyone around here calls me Nana.” Her cheeks were pink, and her light blue eyes were warm and kind. “How are you feeling?”
“A bit stiff and sore.”
Nana came over to the bed. “That’s only natural. Our bodies are meant to move around at night, but that thing’s got you anchored down.” She gestured toward the outline of my heavy cast under the covers. “Let me get your meds. Raphael laid them all out already.”
She moved off at a slow speed, and while she was gone, I ran my fingers through my hair. The people I’d met in Lake Boise had been nothing but kind, but I was tired of encountering them while not looking my best. Or even close to my best.
Nana returned with some medicine on a saucer and a glass of water. I swallowed the pills and then downed most of the water. I hadn’t had a whole lot to eat or drink lately.
She took the glass from me and set it on the nightstand. “Are you hungry?”
“Very. Something smells amazing.”
The older woman looked pleased. “Ever had a Cajun scramble?”
“No, but I’d like to.” Automatically, I tried to swing my leg off the bed, but Nana was right, the stupid cast did feel like an anchor holding me down.
“No, you stay right there. Might as well have breakfast in bed while you can, right?”
She picked up something that had evidently been leaning against the wall on the other side of the nightstand. It was a smooth piece of wood, about eighteen inches wide and twice as long, with the wood curved at either end. She positioned it over my lap, where it formed a little table. “What would you like to drink with your breakfast?”
“Tea, please.”
“Sweet tea?” Nana asked, and I stifled a sigh. At some point, I was going to have to try that.
“Just regular. And thank you so much for doing this.”
Nana beamed. “Taking care of people in this house is what I do.”
A few minutes later, the little wooden table was loaded with tea, toast, and a huge bowl that contained eggs, sausage, potatoes, onion, pepper, salsa, and cheese. I picked up my fork and sampled the food.
Every bite was an explosion of flavor. An explosion of heat, too, but after the bland hospital food, it was nice to taste strong flavors. “This is delicious.”
“Raphael made the sausages last night.” Nana was sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed. She’d said it would give us a chance to get to know each other and make me feel less like I was still in the hospital.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that me eating in bed with someone sitting there watching me made it feel exactly how I had in the hospital. But the food sure was better.
“Eat up,” Nana chided whenever my fork stilled
“It’s really good, but I think my appetite has shrunk.”
She nodded. “Yes, that can happen after the kind of thing you’ve been through.” She blinked rapidly. The moisture in her eyes warned me what was coming. “We’re all so very, very grateful to you. Lucas is a very special young man.”
“I’m glad I was there,” I said sincerely. “I only saw the twins for a few minutes, but they seem like great kids.”
“They are,” Nana said, the pride in her voice making it clear she felt like the twin’s real grandparent, even if she wasn’t a blood relative. “Some siblings fight. Lord knows that Raphael and Corinne did when they were kids. But Lucas is fiercely protective of Charlotte.”
She paused, thinking it over. “And vice versa. They’re two peas in a pod.”
I wanted to hear more about the twins—but I was also curious about what
Nana had said about Raphael. “Raphael doesn’t seem like the fighting type.”
“He’s not,” Nana confirmed. “Not anymore. But he was pretty wild as a teen. He and my granddaughter would stay out until the wee hours of the morning, come home with smiles on their faces, and never feel an ounce of shame.”
“Really? He doesn’t seem like the type.”
A shadow passed over Nana’s face. “Once his sister got sick, it was like night and day. He dove into research, trying to find out anything he could about her condition. And after she passed, he became a super uncle. I did what I could, but he was the one who held things together over here after such a terrible loss.”
Wow. That sounded more like the man I’d met recently, but still, it was truly sad that his change had come about from such a tragic thing. “Was she—Corrine—sick for long?”
Nana nodded unhappily. “She was diagnosed with cancer not long after she and Spencer married. And then when they found out she was pregnant, she refused all treatment. She didn’t want to hurt the babies.” Nana was silent for a long moment. “She died when the twins were just a few months old, but she loved them as much as she could while she was here.”
The sausage scramble felt heavy in my stomach as Nana concluded the devastating story. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to pry.”
Nana’s tone turned brisk. “You didn’t. When a young lady suddenly finds herself in a household with three handsome men, she needs to know the score.”
“Three? Oh, you mean Flynn, too.”
“Haven’t you met him? Usually, he’s over here all the time. He lives right next door.”
“No, I haven’t met him.” I thought about adding that I’d seen him at the park, but that was another upsetting story, and I’d had enough of those for the moment.
“You’ll like him. He’s a real charmer. Well, when he wants to be. He’s a vet, you know. Enjoys working on his own sometimes. But he’s great with those kids. They all are. It’s like Charlotte and Lucas have three dedicated and devoted dads.”
A vet? I wondered what branch of the military he’d been in. It kind of fit with what little I knew of him. At the park, he’d seemed strong and healthy, with a straight posture that in retrospect, seemed like something a former military man might have.
The image of his deep brown eyes as he hovered over me in the street came back to me. I’d seen the same mesmerizing eyes in Spencer’s face, but I hoped I’d see Flynn’s again soon.
I also thought about the twins. They were very lucky to have three men who loved and cared for them, but I wondered how often they thought about their mom. Was it something that weighed on them, or was it more like something they’d never known and therefore couldn’t miss?
That made me think of Charlotte. She’d seemed so competent and at ease signing with her family yesterday. Was her hearing loss like the loss of her mother? Something she knew she was without, but had never experienced? It made me want to find the girl and give her a big hug, the way she’d given me one yesterday.
Nana stood up. “Can you eat any more?”
“No, but it was incredible. Thank you so much.”
It took Nana a while to clear the dishes. The only thing I could do to help was to set the little wooded table down between the mattress and the nightstand after she wiped it clean. It felt wrong having this older woman I barely knew wait on me, but I could barely help myself, let alone someone else.
“What else can I do for you?” Nana asked, scrutinizing me after everything was cleared away. “Do you need that bathroom, or can you wait until Raphael is back?”
“I’m good.” My heart sank at her question, though. “I know I need to try the crutches at some point; I just feel so weak right now.”
“Of course you do. It wasn’t just your leg that got injured. Your whole body’s been through a lot. But you’ll get stronger. And the physical therapy will help.”
Her look of understanding was so kind that it made me want to confide in her. “I just hate that people have to help me get to the bathroom. I mean, I don’t even know these men.”
“Oof, yeah, that doesn’t sound like fun. Maybe you could try using the crutches just to stand up? Oh, I know—I have a walker at my home from when I twisted my ankle a while back. Why don’t I get one of the boys to bring it over here? I bet that would make it easier to get to your feet.”
“Yeah, that would be great.” The thought gave me hope. If I could get up and down on my own more easily, then I wouldn’t mind help getting around the room until I mastered the crutches. “Thank you.”
“Anything, dear.” Her smile turned into a puzzled expression as she studied me. “Is there something else?”
Nana had to be at least fifty years older than me, but she was still female, and I suspected there were some things she’d understand better than Spencer or Raphael. “Do you think you could find a hairbrush for me? Or some makeup. I don’t know where my purse is, but there’s a lipstick and stuff in there. I hate being so unkempt.”
“Not a problem,” she said with a kind nod. “I think I saw your purse out in the living room, so I’ll get it for you. And Charlotte’s got a brush you can use.”
Nana was as good as her word. She brought me a wet cloth to wash my face, a brush, a mirror, and my purse. After I cleaned up a bit, I felt more like myself. And more ready to face the day, which would likely include a handsome man appearing before too much longer.
In a further attempt to feel more like a normal human, I used my phone to catch up on the news and answer some texts and emails. It was so nice to focus on something other than my condition for a change. But then I got something even better to distract me from my health concerns.
Raphael arrived, his dark hair a bit windswept. He had on a tight gray t-shirt that showcased the muscles in his arms. His shorts and running shoes were black. He looked fit and handsome and like a lot more fun than the news.