Chapter 40
T wo days passed before she had a chance to pay Hayes back for all of his kindness. He had spent the last two days hovering over her, doing everything for her.
She’d barely been allowed out of bed, let alone do anything else. He’d helped her shower, made her food, and brought her things to entertain her.
But, thankfully, he’d had to go up to JSI headquarters this morning. After getting her dressed, he’d made her promise to sit on the sofa and watch television while he was gone.
That wasn’t happening.
As soon as he left, she got up and started searching for cleaning supplies. She’d start with the bathroom and work her way around the cabin.
Not that it was dirty or anything. But it wouldn’t hurt to clean everything and it meant he wouldn’t have to do it.
So far, it had just been the two of them. They hadn’t seen anyone else. Packages would turn up on the porch, along with groceries.
Her Little now had all these amazing things, but she just wasn’t sure she deserved them.
Hayes wasn’t her actual Daddy. He was just acting as her Daddy because he knew she needed it.
He did a lot of things because he knew she needed them.
It was odd, but there were no photos of May anywhere. Well, nowhere obvious. She knew that the other woman hadn’t lived here, but she thought there might have been one photo of her.
But as she started cleaning, Devi realized this was a lot harder than she’d thought it would be. She had to keep pausing to catch her breath and make sure that her spinning head didn’t mean that she’d land on her butt.
She instinctively reached for things with her bad arm and then was brought up short by the sling and the pain that sliced through her, making her feel nauseous.
By the time she’d finished the shower and basin, she’d had enough and she still had to do the floor.
Mopping with one arm wasn’t actually as easy as it sounded.
As she stuck the mop in the bucket, she heard a noise from the living room.
“Hello? Devi? Where are you?”
The male voice made her cry out in shock and she managed to tip the bucket of soapy water all over the floor. “Oh no!” she cried.
“Devi? You okay?” that same voice asked.
“You better go in there, Zeke. She might be hurt,” a feminine voice said.
Zeke? Hayes’ friend Zeke? Oh no. She looked terrible. She was wearing some loose pants and a T-shirt with the arm cut out of one side. Plus, now, she’d splashed the floor and herself in water.
“What if she’s naked?” Zeke asked.
“Well, ask her,” the woman replied.
“Uh, Devi? Are you naked?” he asked.
“No,” she said in a high-pitched voice. She knew she should leave the bathroom, but she was kind of scared to walk on the wet floor.
Knowing her luck, she’d likely slip and hurt herself even more.
Shoot.
“I’m coming in then.” The door opened and an attractive, dark-haired man stepped into the bathroom. His blue gaze took her in as she held the mop while standing in the middle of a puddle of soapy water.
To her shock, he grinned. “Oh, you’re in so much trouble, pretty girl.”
What?
Stepping forward, he didn’t seem to have any problem walking on the slippery floor.
“I’m going to pick you up, okay?” he said in a firm voice.
“I can walk.”
“Not happening. Hayes told me that you’re clumsy. I don’t want you falling over and hurting yourself.”
“He told you that I’m clumsy? Sheesh. Did he tell you anything else embarrassing about me?”
“If he did, I’m not telling. I’m picking you up now.”
His voice left no room for argument.
“Um. Okay.”
“I’m Zeke, by the way.”
“Devi.”
“I know.” He lifted her into his arms. Yum, he smelled like mint.
Probably not something you should notice.
He carried her out of the bedroom to where a gorgeous woman sat in a wheelchair in the middle of the room.
Her eyebrows went up. “What happened? Why does she have a mop?”
“Spilled a bucket of water in the bathroom,” Zeke said.
“Oh and she was trying to mop it up?”
“Hmm, looked more like we startled her and she knocked it over.” Zeke set her down on the sofa. “Is that right, Devi?”
“I’m so sorry. I’m a mess.” She let the mop go and tried to fix her hair.
“Well, no one cares about that,” the woman said, waving her hand through the air. “Least of all us. I’m Eden.”
“Hi,” she said quietly. “I’m Devi.”
Zeke crouched in front of her. “Surprised that Hayes is letting you clean the bathroom when you’re barely out of the hospital and have an arm in a sling.”
“Letting me?” she repeated.
“Letting you,” Zeke said firmly. “As in gives you permission. If I know Hayes, which I do, he has not given you permission to clean the bathroom.”
“I really don’t think I need permission to clean a bathroom,” she muttered.
“It’s not the cleaning the bathroom part,” Eden told her. “It’s the fact that you did it while injured. And you waited until he left to try. These guys are hugely overprotective and I’m pretty sure Hayes might be the worst of all of them.”
“That I believe,” she said. “He doesn’t like me doing anything. I can’t even get my own coffee. I’m lucky if I’m allowed to use the toilet on my own.”
Eek. Had she really just said that?
She snuck a glimpse at both of them. Weirdly, they looked kind of relieved. That was odd. And they were smiling.
“I can’t believe I just told you guys that. Sorry. Too much information.”
Eden just smiled. “Don’t worry. If anyone knows how you feel it’s us poor women who live here on Sanctuary Ranch.”
“Poor women?” Zeke growled.
“Yep. We’re constantly bossed around by Neanderthals.” Eden winked at her. “It’s a terrible life. All these gorgeous, sexy men telling us what to do, protecting us, taking care of us.”
Zeke just shook his head at her before walking over to kiss her lightly. “I’m going to go mop up the water in the bathroom. The two of you can sit right here, understand?”
“Oh, I can’t let you do that!” Devi tried to stand but Zeke shot her a stern look and she froze.
“You just stay right where you are,” he ordered, pointing a finger at her. “Until Hayes gets back, you’re under my charge.”
“See what I mean? A total Neanderthal.” Eden shook her head. “So bossy.”
“Are they all like that? All the men who live here?” she asked. It was actually a relief to sit. Her head was swimming and she felt tired.
“Pretty much,” Eden told her. “Some are worse than others. And Hayes . . . girl, you’re in trouble once he learns what you were doing.”
“I was just trying to help. I feel like I owe him. He’s doing so much for me.”
“Well, I wouldn’t lead with that,” Eden advised. “These guys don’t like when you say that you owe them. They do stuff for us because they want to.”
“I just don’t understand why he wants to do this. Why he even wants me here. I know I’m in danger back home, but why does he care so much?”
“Maybe because he cares for you,” Eden suggested. “Because he likes you?”
“He’s still in love with his wife.”
“May was a great person,” Zeke said, walking back into the room without the mop.
“She wasn’t overly social; she didn’t really like most people.
She was happy on her own or with Hayes. And stubborn, boy was she stubborn.
Hayes blames himself for her death because he wasn’t there.
However, May had managed her asthma for years and she knew what she was doing.
The asthma attack was likely unavoidable and sure, maybe if he’d been with her he could have gotten her help quicker, but that doesn’t mean that she would have survived.
We just don’t know. And yeah, Hayes loved her.
But that doesn’t mean he can’t love someone else. ”
She shook her head. She didn’t believe that at all. May was the one for Hayes.
“Hayes doesn’t feel that way for me,” she explained.
Eden smiled. “We’ll see.”
She searched for some way to change the topic. “Can I get you both a drink? Coffee? Tea?”
“Stay where you are,” Zeke reiterated, shaking his head. “You’re trouble.”
“She’s in trouble,” Eden sung.
Zeke shot her a look. “Oh, like you haven’t been in trouble plenty of times.”
“Pfft.” Eden crossed her arms over her chest, but she was grinning.
“You can’t tell him,” she said suddenly. “You have to promise me.”
“Hmm.” Eden rubbed her chin. “Devi, are you a Little?”
Zeke groaned. “Princess, you’re not supposed to just come out and ask her like that.”
“Well, why not? Everyone wants to know. Ellie and Charlie also put together a Little gift basket. We were just wondering if that was what you wanted or not?”
There was curiosity on Eden’s face.
“If it helps, I’m a Little,” Eden added.
Oh. That did help a bit.
“Yes, I am too,” she said shyly. She’d never really interacted with another Little.
Well, she wasn’t sure about Silla. And Hayes had told her that Gwen was a Little.
But it wasn’t quite the same.
“What do you like to play with?” Eden asked.
Devi bit her lip. “I’m not sure. I’ve never really had a chance to find out.” Maybe she wasn’t a very good Little.
“Hey, that’s all right,” Eden told her gently. “Sanctuary Ranch is a great place to figure out what you like. And you can always come to one of our playrooms. You don’t really have room here. Do you have a stuffy or a special toy at least?”
A playroom? Eden had a playroom? Wow. That must be amazing.
“Um, I have a squirrel. Called Coco.”
“Great name. I have a rag doll named Betty. But my favorite animal is a wombat and I also have a stuffed wombat. His name is Wombles.”
“I love wombats,” she said.
“They. Are. Awesome.”
They smiled at each other and she thought she might have actually made a friend.
“All right, I promise not to tell,” Eden told her.
Oh thank goodness.
It would just be better if Hayes didn’t know about what she’d done.
The door opened and Hayes stepped into the cabin. “Zeke, Eden, good you made it.”
“We did,” Zeke said, coming over to shake his hand. “Just in time to find your girl cleaning the bathroom.”
Devi gasped loudly. “You tattletale, you promised that you wouldn’t tell.”
“No, Eden promised she wouldn’t tell,” Zeke said. “I never said any such thing.”
Crap.
She knew she’d forgotten something.
“You were cleaning?” Hayes glared at her. “Why would you do that? You were supposed to be resting.”
She remembered Eden’s advice against telling him that she thought she owed him.
“I just wanted to contribute something,” she told him. “To help you out.”
“Help me out? By cleaning? You could have hurt yourself!”
“But I didn’t. See? I’m all fine.” She was not going to tell him about the throbbing in her arm.
And the look on his face told her that she might not be fine for long.
“How long do I have to sit in the corner?”
Hayes glanced over at Devi who was sitting in a chair, facing a corner of the living room. Zeke and Eden had left about ten minutes ago.
“Until I’m feeling less . . . upset,” he told her.
Cleaning the bathroom? What the fuck was she thinking? What if she’d slipped? Zeke had told him how he’d found her standing in the middle of a huge puddle in the bathroom. The bottom of her pants had been so saturated that he’d taken them off her.
Now she was just wearing a T-shirt and panties.
Which he was trying not to think too much about because he didn’t need his cock to get hard right now.
Christ, he’d been gone an hour. Just to go to a meeting with Kent, Liam, Donovan and Zander, who’d been on video call. Zander still had members of his team in Angel, trying to find those bastards who had hurt his girl.
Zander also seemed to think they weren’t the only ones hunting those bastards down.
Which was concerning.
“How long do you think that will be?” she asked.
“Are you in pain?” he demanded.
“No.”
“Do you need to go potty?”
“No!”
“Then it could take a while.”
He was not happy with her. She could have slipped, fallen on her arm, and . . .
He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
She was fine.
She was unharmed.
He’d just have to watch her more carefully. That was all. He could keep her safe if he was more vigilant.
A sigh escaped her.
“Are you in pain?” he asked.
“No,” she grumbled. “I’m not in any pain. But I am bored. I don’t understand, all I did was clean the bathroom.”
“No, that was not all you did and that is not the issue here.”
Walking over, he turned the chair so she was facing him.
“So what is the issue?” she asked.
“The issue is that you could have hurt yourself,” he explained. “You could have slipped onto your arm or hit your head.”
There was a hint of frustration in her face that gave way to understanding.
“But I’m fine. I was just cleaning. And I didn’t slip.”
“You could have.”
“All right, maybe I shouldn’t have been cleaning with an injured arm?”
He gave her a knowing look. “ Maybe?”
“However, I am not an invalid. I can do some things. And just sitting on the sofa or in bed . . . I’m going a bit nuts. I wanted to help you. You’ve done so much for me and I feel like I . . .” She cut herself off.
“You feel like you what?”
“Eden warned me not to say the next part.”
Oh, she had, had she?
“Probably a good idea if the next thing out of your mouth was going to be that you owe me.”
She gave him an innocent look.
“You’re trouble.” He tapped her nose. “Big trouble.”
“Sorry.”
“Somehow, I don’t believe you. No more housework. Promise me.”
“Not until my arm is doing better,” she clarified.
Well. They’d see.
“I’m going to make you some lunch, then we’re off to see your new physical therapist.”
“Oh goody,” she grumbled. “Are you sure I have to go? I don’t feel like being bossed around by some mean woman who should have been a drill sergeant.”
“It will be fine. You need to do this for your arm, to help it get better.”
She stared down at her arm. “Do you think it will get better, though? That I’ll ever be able to use it again?”
Hayes cupped the side of her face. “I know you will be able to. But you’re going to need some help. And you have to listen to me when I’m trying to take care of you.”
She bit her lip. “Okay, Daddy.”
“Now, you can sit in the corner again and think about your behavior while I get lunch ready.”
“Goody,” she muttered.