5. Evelyn
FIVE
EVELYN
“He’s a good one,” one of the nurses said. I smiled tightly.
They had the wrong impression of what was happening between Ronnie and me.
The right thing would have been to correct them, but I didn’t.
Instead, I smiled and agreed as they got me unplugged from the different machines I’d been hooked up to.
One of the nurses offered to help me get dressed, but I shook my head and said I could do it myself.
To be fair, I had been sitting on the edge of the bed already and thought if I was up, I could handle dressing myself. But I was wrong. So extremely wrong.
It seemed that once all the adrenaline had rushed out, my body felt stiff as a board.
Not even when I was working eighteen-hour days for a week while trying to get the bakery ready had I felt this sore.
I groaned as I tried to put the oversized long-sleeved navy-blue shirt over my head, the gown covering my lap.
“Evie? Baby, you okay?” Ron asked. There was that baby again. My face heated up. I hated to admit I liked it. A lot. It was sweet and rough from his lips. But I shook it off. I had all but thrown myself at him, and he hadn’t responded. He’d obviously been too embarrassed to turn me down.
“I’m just having a little trouble getting the shirt on,” I responded.
Maybe he was ready to get back to work and felt obligated to give me a ride home.
“Just give me a min––“ But there he was, his eyes dark with what I could have sworn was lust, but it vanished.
He was nothing but professional. Without asking if it was okay, he was there helping me get dressed.
“Thanks,” I whispered softly, my gaze laser-focused on the ground like it was the most interesting thing I had ever seen.
“Baby, look at me,” he urged, but when I didn’t, the tips of his fingers touched my chin so softly, so tenderly, my eyes fluttered shut as I tried to absorb the sensation.
Our time was coming to an end, and it scared me.
It was crazy. I didn’t know him. Not really. Past small talk and usually grunts from him, we didn’t know all that much about each other. But I knew the moment he’d drop me off, probably out of some sense of duty, I’d probably never see him again. And the thought of it hurt.
With the bakery closed for the foreseeable future, he wouldn’t be popping by anymore, and I’d miss his grumpy face. How can I be more worried about not seeing him than the state of my business? My brain was a mess, but when he called out my name again, I had no choice but to open my eyes.
“There you are. Let’s get you home.”
“Actually…” I cleared my throat and stepped away from his touch. “I’ll just call an Uber or a friend,” I suggested, and by the way his brows bunched furiously, he didn’t like that idea.
“What?” he asked. Rip it off like a Band-Aid , the realistic part of me whispered in the recesses of my mind.
“I just…” The words felt stuck in my throat.
“Breathe,” he quietly urged, and I did as he asked.
“Look, I’ve already made a fool out of myself, and I think it’s better if I just find my own––“ I didn’t say another word because he moved forward, crowding me to where the back of my thighs touched the hospital bed.
“I know we didn’t get to finish talking, but you invited me to your place. That still there?”
“The invitation?” I squeaked, and he nodded, his gaze warm and intense while his hand stroked the side of my face with so much care, with the most-gentle touch, I had no idea why tears started to form in my eyes.
“Yeah, the invitation.” His voice sounded raspy in my ears.
“Yes. But I don’t want you to feel obli?—“
“I don’t,” he cut my off. “When it comes to you, sweetheart, there is a lot I feel, but obligation is not one of them. Not even close.”
“Is this because you’re a paramedic and—“ His lips started to twitch, and his brows rose so high I was almost positive it touched his hairline.
“You think I’m taking you home out of some sense of duty?” Because I didn’t trust my own voice, I simply nodded. There was something going on in his eyes and his head.
I could see there was a war waging inside of him.
I recognized the look. It was the same one he had whenever he caught himself letting his guard down at the bakery just when I was close to making him smile. But he shook his head.
“No.” The two-letter word rasped so deeply it felt like it echoed in the semi-private area we were in. “I need you to know something right here and right now, Evelyn. The only sense of duty I feel is to this.” His hand found mine and placed it over his chest.
Right over his heart.
My eyes felt like they were about to pop out along with my heart. Is he saying what I think? Have I been hit in the head and am imagining this whole thing?
“And to this.” Our hands moved from his heart to mine. My lips parted, and I blinked. Everything inside me was jumping up and down, but the realistic part of me, the one scared of falling and feeling what I knew was possible the moment I’d seen him that first time, kept my feet on the ground.
“You don’t mean that,” I whispered hoarsely.
“I’ve been an ass,” he blurted, and blinking the tears away was close to impossible.
But I didn’t have to worry because the thick pads of his thumbs wiped them away carefully.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I promise I will make it up to you.
I just… I didn’t know how to handle what I felt and thought I had time but—“ He scoffed.
“Life likes to remind me just how precious things can disappear in the blink of an eye.”
“Ron.” I sniffled
“I was going to ask you to dinner.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Now, I know you don’t know me. Not really. You could have easily told me no and?—“
“I would have said yes.”
“Baby—“
“You saved me,” I cut him off, but by the way his brows bunched up, I could tell he didn’t agree. “You got to the scene fast. Faster than anyone else. And you got me out of there. But even without today happening, I know you.”
“Baby.” His forehead dropped and connected with mine. “Let me take you home.” I wasn’t sure if he was offering or telling me, but I was all too eager to agree.
Without another word spoken between us, he finished helping me get dressed, slipping socks on me as well as the gym shorts that hit mid-calf.
I probably looked ridiculous, but there was something about the way he looked at me, like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, almost like I left him in awe, that made me relax.
The nurse insisted on wheeling me out in a wheelchair, and I didn’t really complain because I had no idea what had happened to my shoes.
Nor did I want to think where they might have ended up.
The moment we stepped out of the front of the hospital, Ron bent and lifted me up to carry me to his truck, where he carefully sat me in the passenger seat and even buckled the seat belt for me before kissing the top of my head and rounding the truck.
I looked out the window. The nurses were waving and smiling at me before they turned and made their way back in.
I had no idea how hard their jobs were. Or Ron’s. I couldn’t imagine the things they saw on a daily basis. Freak accidents to stomach aches to so much more.
“You okay?” he asked, snapping me out of my thoughts and breaking the silence once his own seat belt was on. When I looked at him, it felt like a light bulb turned on in my head. His comment about life reminding him how things could change in the blink of an eye had to be about his job, right?
Or is it about something else?
“I’m good. Thanks for the ride,” I said and then shut my eyes. Thanks for the ride? Why did everything I said suddenly sound sexual? “Umm…” I licked my lips.
“Anytime,” he said with a promise in his voice. “So, where am I going?”
“Oh yeah!” My shoulders relaxed. I felt like such a nerd. He didn’t know where I lived. I gave him directions to my place and sat back.
He was a great driver.
I was oddly relaxed as I snuck glances at him while the small city we lived in passed by us in a blur.
I tried to rack my brain of something to say, but between everything that had happened and the drop in adrenaline that left me a little more than exhausted, I had no energy left to come up with anything.
Before I knew it, he was pulling into the driveway of the duplex I lived in.
“Umm… this is me.”
“The right side?” he guessed, and my head tilted.
“How did you know?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Seems like you.” He shrugged, and I giggled.
“Just wait till you see the inside,” I warned, and his hand stroked my face.
“I can’t wait.” There was a promise in his words. “Wait here for me.”
“Wait?” I repeated, but he was out of the car already, his door shutting behind him. Mine opened, and he was there, bending over my body to unclick my seat belt.
“I could have done that, you know?” I chewed my bottom lip, somehow slightly swaying closer to him.
“You could have, but you don’t need to. Not when I’m here.”
“Oh, wow.” I swallowed.
“Keys,” he said, and without thinking, I handed them over.
“Why do you need my keys?”
“You don’t have shoes on, sweetheart,” he said as if I had forgotten. But before I could respond, I was in his arms. Oh my god, the sexy paramedic I had been crushing on, the one who had saved me today, was carrying me out like a groom ready to take his bride over the threshold.
“Ron!” I gasped, pressing my hand to his strong, muscular, extremely warm chest. “You’re going to hurt yourself!”
“Nonsense.” He rolled his eyes with a sexy twitch to his lips.
“Handsome, I weigh way too—“ I didn’t finish my sentence because he shot me a look just as we reached the front door. Without missing a beat, he unlocked the door, and we stepped inside before he quietly closed it behind us. The lock set in place made me very aware of the fact we were alone.
In my house.
How many times had I thought about this? Maybe not without the whole car driving through my bakery and hospital stop first, but of us just being here. Alone. Together.
“You weren’t kidding,” he muttered. I looked at him, curious about what he was talking about. “This place being very you,” he rumbled, his lips against my temple. “It’s great. Perfect.”
“You think so?” He nodded.
“Room?” he asked, and I realized right then that my hand hadn’t only been on his chest but had somehow found its way wrapped around his neck, playing with the short hairs at the back of his head.
“Room?”
“Your bedroom, baby. You need to rest.” There was that baby again.
“Rest? Why? I thought…” I didn’t finish the sentence. It was like my brain was short circuiting. I was pretty sure he had come over to hook up, but maybe we’d had some kind of misunderstanding? Maybe I hadn’t been clear enough?
“You’re dead on your feet, baby.”
“I hardly did anything today and?—“
“Baby, you had a really emotionally, mentally, and physically heavy day.”
“It wasn’t—“ I started to argue, but his eyes softened. His head leaned in, bringing his stupidly beautiful face that much closer. So close, his breath tickled my lips.
“Please let me do this for you. Let’s get you to bed. You can watch some TV while I make us something to eat. Please?”
That second please was the last nail in the coffin.
I had a feeling anything he asked with that soft, sweet little please would let him get away with murder. “You know how to cook?” I asked, changing the subject slightly.
This time, his lips didn’t just twitch like he thought I was being cute. Nope. He graced me with a full-on smile. But it wasn’t just any smile. It showed off his straight white teeth and a dimple! And it was so damn beautiful to look at it felt like a gift.
“I know how to cook, cupcake. Don’t you worry about your kitchen. It’s safe with me. I promise.” He winked, and I believed him.
At least I knew my kitchen was safe, but I wasn’t so sure about my heart. Because after he got me settled in bed, with Golden Girls playing in the background, I was pretty sure my heart had jumped out of my chest and right into his back pocket so it could leave with him.