7. Raphael
7
RAPHAEL
Alyssa didn’t look injured when I got home. The blanket covered her cast, and yeah, she still had that wrap around her sprained wrist, but she looked great. Fresh-faced, with that smooth, dewy skin gleaming. Her blue eyes peered from behind dark lashes. Her hair gleamed, even in the low light of the room.
“Morning, cher.” I stepped past the bed to open the blinds. Alyssa closed her eyes and turned her face toward the sun. She looked like a stray cat that sometimes sunned itself on the deck.
Then her eyes opened, and she cocked her head to the side. “What’s sha ?”
I grinned. “It’s the French word for dear . That’s how we pronounce it down here. You’ll get used to it.” I sat on the foot of the bed, being careful not to jar her leg. “How are you doing this morning?”
“Pretty well. That sausage you made tasted really good.”
“Did Nana make you an authentic Cajun scramble? I’m surprised it didn’t burn a hole in your mouth.”
“Nearly did, but it was great.”
I laughed. “Especially compared to hospital food, right?” She nodded. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re up. I’ve got a bunch of things for you, but I didn’t want to bring them in if you were sleeping.”
“What things?”
“All sorts. I’ll start with the nicest ones. Be right back.”
I returned a minute later with a flower arrangement in each arm.
“Are those from the hospital?”
I searched the room before deciding to put the flowers on the dresser. “No, these are all new.” I plucked the little cards from the arrangements and handed them to her. “But the ones from before are here, too, out in the living room. Someone from the hospital delivered them last night after you were asleep.”
She gaped at me in surprise. “Wow, people really take small town hospitality seriously around here.”
I chuckled at that. “I’m a bit biased since it’s my hometown, but the people here are generally pretty nice. But that’s likely not what’s going on. You saved the elementary school principal’s son. That makes you famous and a hero.”
Alyssa blushed. The color looked good on her face, but I didn’t want to make her squirm—not with all the injuries she had. “Who are the flowers from?” I asked.
She opened the first little card. “My brother and his girlfriend and their, ah, roommates.” I didn’t quite understand the new flush of color on her cheeks, but I didn’t question it. “The big one is from my friend Sierra.”
“You keep getting all these flowers—it’s like living with a celebrity.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you secretly a movie star?”
Alyssa made a weird little sound that was half laugh and half cough. But then she placed her good hand on her ribs and winced. I winced, too—poor girl. With careful aim, I patted her good leg under the cover, and then went to bring in the stuff I’d picked up after my class.
The first load was the stuff Flynn and I had grabbed from her apartment last night. I dumped a pile of clothes on the dresser next to the flowers. “We brought pretty much everything we saw. Your toothbrush and toiletries are in here.” I put her light blue duffle bag on the bed next to her. “Looks like you hadn’t had much chance to unpack, so if you need something else, you’ll have to let me know where it is.”
“You’re assuming I know where it is in the first place.” She gave a small laugh, but my heart went out to her. She’d had only one night in her new place, and only one day at her new job. Then everything changed. “Thank you for doing this. Could you please thank Flynn for me, too?”
“Sure,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if I would. Flynn could be a bit of a loner sometimes. He was much different from Spencer in that regard. But he usually didn’t let it get in the way of family—until now.
Ever since Lucas nearly got hit, Flynn had been especially gruff and taciturn. He’d barely spoken when we went to Alyssa’s place last night. I had a theory or two about why that might be, but no clue about how to fix it. “I’ve got some more stuff for you, too.”
Nana was on her way out when I went back into the living room. “Want me to walk you back?” I asked. She just lived next door, but she wasn’t as steady on her feet as she had been when I was a kid.
She patted my arm. “No need. You just take care of that young woman in there. She’s a special girl.”
I wholeheartedly agreed with that. It made me wish that the things I’d gotten for her were more fun. But right now, that wasn’t what she needed.
Alyssa was gazing dreamily at the flowers when I came back in. “I went to a medical supply store and got this.” I handed her a box that contained a plastic sleeve to put over the cast when showering.
Her smile lit up the room. “This is great. I’m dying for a shower.”
I grinned as I took up my spot at the end of the bed. Next, I produced a small silver device that looked like a rake. I tossed it to her, and she caught it with her good hand. It only took her a second to realize that the handle expanded. “It’s a back scratcher. I thought you might need it since you can’t bend your leg. Sometimes when you have a cast, it makes the parts of your skin that aren’t covered itch more.”
“That’s very thoughtful, but I think I can reach anywhere I need to.” To demonstrate, she bent at the waist and flattened her upper body against her legs, showing flexibility that my students at the fitness center would’ve envied. But when she reached to grasp her ankles, she gasped in pain and sat back up. “Forgot about the ribs.”
“Yeah, they’re going to be tender for a while.” I’d bruised two ribs a few years ago, and I remembered how it felt. “Last, but not least, I got you these.” I produced two pairs of soft, white socks from the medical store bag.
She wiggled her good foot under the blanket. “I have the socks that Nana made for Charlotte.”
I chuckled. “She knitted me a pair like that every Christmas when I was a kid. Trust me, they’re great for keeping your feet warm when it’s cold out, but not all that comfortable when you’re walking across the hardwood floors.”
The light in Alyssa’s eyes faded a bit. “Don’t think I’ll be doing much walking for a while.”
Shit, I hadn’t meant to demoralize her. Quite the opposite. “Still, you might feel better with some nice clean socks.” I patted the blanket that covered her legs. “Let’s find out.”
She nodded and pulled the blanket to the side.
This sight of her thick cast killed me every time. It looked so heavy, clunky, and uncomfortable—especially since she was a slender young woman who didn’t weigh that much to begin with.
The oversized purple sock seemed to add insult to injury. If Alyssa hadn’t figured it out yet, Nana was far better at cooking and kindness than she was at knitting. I pulled the sock off and tossed it on the floor.
“Don’t do that,” Alyssa said. Then she stopped. “I just mean, I’m a guest here, and I don’t want to mess up someone’s room.”
I gave her a gentle smile. “It’s my room, so I’m allowed to throw socks.” Though I’d planned to pick it up before I left. Messiness wasn’t really my style. Not anymore.
“I thought it was Spencer’s.” Alyssa looked around my room as if seeing it with new eyes. “I guess because he was the one who carried me in here.”
“His room’s upstairs, so this one seemed like the better choice—unless you wanted to bunk with the kids.”
She looked concerned. “I’m sorry to kick you out of your room.”
“Don’t worry about it. This house has lots of nooks and crannies. I don’t have to sleep on the deck, though we do have a nice hammock out there. The twins think it’s a swing.”
She smiled at that. I cupped her heel, intending to slide the sock on. I hadn’t done anything like that since the twins were little—hopefully Alyssa was better at keeping still than they were.
Not that she had much choice in the matter.
Her small foot was chilly. Automatically, I ran my thumbs up and down her instep. “Are you cold? Do you need another blanket?”
She shook her head. “My feet are always like that.”
I rubbed some warmth back into them and her eyes closed. “Are you tired?”
“No.” Her voice sounded drowsy, though. Or something like it. “It just … it feels good.”
Despite her words, I stopped stroking her smooth skin. “I’m sorry, I should’ve asked first.” The realization that I’d just started stroking her hit me hard. I wasn’t like that, especially not with people I didn’t know.
“Please don’t stop,” she murmured. “That’s the first thing all week that’s actually felt good.”
Those words made my hesitation fade away. The whole time she was in the hospital, she’d had IVs in her and people poking and prodding at her. If this actually felt good to her, I was prepared to do it all day.
Shifting my position, I sat with one knee up on the bed, facing her. Gently, I lifted her cast and settled it on my leg so that I wouldn’t put any strain on it. Then I resumed kneading her foot. “I like your pink nails.” The baby-doll pink somehow suited her.
She grimaced. “They’re not going to look very good in a few days.”
I paused, my thumb pressed into the arch of her foot. “Alyssa, you saved my nephew’s life. You could have snakes coming out of your head, and I’d still think you’re beautiful.”
Her cheeks turned the same pink color as her toes. Then she giggled.
“What?” I said.
“The part about snakes coming out of my hair. I’d better not turn you all to stone—at least not while I’m so dependent on you.”
I grinned. “Very considerate of you.” I switched to her other foot, rubbing harder since it was her good leg.
She moaned, and I swear my mind hadn’t been in the gutter, but the sound made my pulse speed up. Despite the fact that she was injured, she was a very beautiful young woman. She groaned again, and it made my cock twitch.
Uh-oh.
My job was to help her, not drool over her. But she was making it hard. Literally.
“Let’s try out those socks,” I said mildly. I slid them on her feet as quickly as possible and then stood up.
Alyssa looked up at me with a smile. “That felt amazing.”
“Glad you liked it.”
She basked in contentment for another moment before reaching for her purse. “How much was all the stuff from the medical supply store?”
“No charge.”
Her head cocked to the side. “Because they heard about me saving the principal’s son, too?”
“I should have thought to mention that. But no, no charge, because it’s my treat.”
She shook her head, holding some cash out to me. “I want to pay.”
“And we don’t want you to.”
“We?”
“Spencer, me, the kids, Nana, Flynn, and pretty much everyone we’ve ever met. So, it’s several hundred against one.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes, but I caught the quick grin that crossed her face.
Unfortunately, I suspected I was about to wipe that grin away. “You don’t have to pay, but you do have to start exercising.”
She stared at me and then at her cast. “How?”
“We’ll start working on your good arm and your leg. Once you get going with the crutches, you’ll be relying on them more than ever.”
“We?”
“Well, you and me.”
“I thought I was going to go to physical therapy.”
“You will, starting next week. But I have some experience with recovering from injuries, or at least sports injuries, and I want to help.”
Alyssa was silent for a moment, and I suspected that a battle was raging inside her head. No one that injured was thrilled about the idea of exercising, but it would speed up her recovery in the long run. Finally, she nodded. “Are you an athlete?”
I nodded, feeling another spike in my heart rate as her eyes swept up and down my body. “I ran track in high school. Played baseball, too. Now, I teach some classes over at the fitness center. That’s where I was this morning.”
“What do you teach?”
“Kickboxing. Tai Chi. Aikido. Yoga sometimes.”
“You’re interested in a lot of things,” she observed.
That was an understatement. My entire career was based on things that sparked my interest. “Always have been.”
Alyssa still looked doubtful. “I’ll try with the exercise, but it’s never been my strong suit.”
I gave her an easy wink. “Luckily, I’m a good teacher.”
“You might not say that after you work with me.”
She was wrong about that for several reasons. But all I said was, “Since you’ll be the only student, I guarantee you’ll be at the top of the class.”