Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
L eni stood next to her sister and gaped at the transformation of the house. The toys that had been strewn across the floor were neatly corralled in a bin, and the two loads of laundry that Lorna had dumped in the chair three days ago and had been meaning to get to, were all neatly folded and stacked in the laundry basket. The end tables had been straightened, and the carpet showed fresh vacuum tracks.
The kitchen had been cleaned as well. The supper dishes that Lorna had been coming down the stairs to do when she’d tripped on a Lego and fallen, were either in the dishwasher or drying in the rack next to an immaculately scrubbed sink. The floor had been freshly swept and mopped. Even the sticky fingerprints that Leni had noticed on the refrigerator earlier that day were gone.
The table and countertops had been wiped clean, and a candle that had been buried behind a stack of papers for weeks was now lit and sitting in the center of the counter, giving off a soft glow and the subtle scent of vanilla.
Lorna’s eyes were still wide as she gazed around the house in awe. “Who did all this?” she whispered. As if talking too loudly might make the magical transformation disappear.
“I’m not sure,” Leni said. “I guess Chevy must have.”
“Dang, his grandma raised him right,” Lorna said. “Do you think we could hire him to come do this every week?”
Leni laughed but what her sister said wasn’t a bad idea, and she made a mental note to check into finding a cleaning service she could hire for the next four to six weeks.
As they started the slow and arduous task of getting Lorna up the stairs, Leni was thankful that Chevy, or the magical housecleaning fairies, had cleaned the blood off the wall and removed the stained rug from in front of the stairs. She made another mental note to order a new one from Amazon.
They stopped to check on Max as they passed his room, both leaning in and sighing together as they saw him tucked into bed and heard his soft snores filling the room.
They passed Leni’s room next, which doubled as the nursery, and they could see Chevy asleep in the chair by the window, still holding Izzy on his chest. His cowboy hat was on the dresser and his boots were next to the chair.
“I’d like to let them sleep,” Lorna said in a hushed voice. “But I’m sure Izzy is going to need to eat soon, and I’d rather feed her before I fall asleep.”
“Good idea. Let’s get you into bed then I’ll bring her to you,” Leni whispered back.
“I can help,” Chevy said quietly, his eyes fluttering open. He eased up from the chair, the baby still cradled against his shoulder. “You should have woken me. I would have carried you up the stairs.”
“Be still my beating heart,” Lorna whispered to Leni. “If I weren’t in so much pain, I might have just swooned.”
“Oh, stop it,” Leni whispered back as she started to nudge her sister in the ribs, then stopped herself.
The hallway was suddenly very crowded as the tall, broad cowboy stepped into it with them.
“I can pass Izzy to you,” he told Leni. “But I don’t want to wake her up.”
“It’s okay,” Lorna told him. “I need to feed her anyway.”
Leni took the baby from him, much calmer than she’d been earlier in the evening, but Izzy still stirred, her tiny mouth already making sucking motions as she rooted and fussed against Leni’s shoulder.
Chevy took the crutches from Lorna, leaned them against the wall, then bent down and carefully scooped her into his arms. Watchful not to whack her head or her injured foot into the wall, he carried her into her room at the end of the hall and gently set her on the bed. “You need anything?”
“There’s an ice pack in the freezer and a bag from the hospital on the sofa downstairs,” Leni told him. “It’s got some acetaminophen in it. Could you grab those and maybe a glass of water? There’s a pink Stanley cup on the counter. Or there was.”
“I saw it. It’s in the dish strainer,” Chevy said.
“Thanks for cleaning everything up,” Lorna told him, wincing as she tried to lean back against the pillow.
“Yeah, thanks.” Leni shifted the pillow in an effort to make her sister more comfortable. “I can’t believe you did all that.”
He shrugged off their thanks. “The kids were asleep, and I wanted to do something to help. I live in a house with all men, so believe me, a sink full of dishes and a few baskets of laundry was nothing.”
Leni put a hand on his arm and looked up at him, trying to ignore the heat she felt just from touching his skin. “No. It was everything . You really came through for me…for us…tonight.”
“I would do anything for you.” He held her gaze for a moment, as if trying to communicate his sincerity through this one look. And the weird thing was that she felt it. She’d grown up with this man, known him since she was twelve years old, and been in love with him since she was fourteen. A few days ago, he’d asked her if she was going to be staying in town long enough for him to try to get her to forgive him, and the idea of that seemed crazy.
How could she ever forgive him for the way he’d hurt her?
But maybe her sister was right.
Maybe he had changed.
Izzy took that moment to let out a frustrated cry, breaking their gaze as Leni passed the baby to her sister.
“Leni texted me a few hours ago with instructions on how to give her a bottle,” Chevy said. “But I only gave her a couple of ounces of milk—just enough to stave her off—because I figured you’d need to nurse her when you got home.”
“Thanks for that,” Lorna told him.
“I’ll go get that water and the medicine,” Chevy said, ducking out of the room as Lorna settled the baby in next to her.
Leni heard his footsteps on the stairs as she turned back to her sister. “What else can I do for you? Do you want another pillow?”
Lorna winced as Izzy latched on, then her shoulders relaxed. “I’m good now. But Chevy really came through tonight, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, he did. Although I still have no idea where he even came from. It was crazy. You were bleeding, the ambulance was there, Izzy was crying. Everything was happening at once, then he was just there .”
“Sometimes it happens like that,” Lorna said, running her fingers over the pale blond peach fuzz on Izzy’s small head. “Everything happens at once, then they just show up, right where they’re supposed to be. And then everything just feels right.”
“I’ve got her stuff,” Chevy said, coming up the stairs. “Do you want to come get it?”
“Aww. Isn’t he thoughtful?” Lorna tried to waggle her eyebrows, but grimaced as the movement must have caused pain around her stitches.
Leni walked into the hallway to meet Chevy. He was holding the bag with the Tylenol, a Spiderman ice pack, and two Stanley cups of water.
“This was the only ice pack I saw. And I figured you could use some water too,” he told Leni as he handed her all the things. “You probably haven’t had anything to drink since this all happened.”
Dang it. Lorna was right. He was thoughtful.
“No, I haven’t. Thank you.” She took a sip from the straw and the cool water felt amazing on her throat. “How’d you get so good with babies?”
“I’ve grown up on a ranch and bottle-fed just about every kind of baby farm animal there is—from calves to colts to newborn kittens.”
“Are you comparing my adorable niece to a baby cow?” Leni teased him.
He held his hands up in surrender. “No, I wouldn’t dare.”
“She is as cute as a kitten, but the way you just scooped Izzy up and didn’t seem intimidated at all by holding her or giving her a bottle, that’s something different.” A thought occurred to her, and it felt as if the blood suddenly drained from her face. “Do you have a kid? Or a wife?” Surely Lorna would have told her if Chevy had gotten married.
Chevy chuckled. “No. And absolutely not. Not married and no kids. But there have been several moms who’ve brought their newborns to knitting club, and I became the designated baby-holder.”
Relief flooded through, but her cheeks still felt tingly at the memory of Chevy holding her niece so comfortably in the crook of his shoulder. “Is that how you knew Lorna would want to nurse? That was kind of impressive, by the way.”
“Thanks. And yes. Knitting Club could also be called Chatting Club, because all those women do is talk. And the older women love giving advice to the younger ones, especially the new moms. I’ve heard more than I ever wanted to know about mastitis, leaking milk, and bleeding nipples.”
Leni’s eyes widened as she crossed her arms over her chest. “ Bleeding nipples?”
He shrugged. “Evidently cracks are a thing unless you use cream after. But, apparently Bag Balm, the stuff they use on cow’s utters, works great.”
“Weird, but I’ll let my sister know.” She held up the things in her hands. “Let me give this stuff to Lorna and get her settled, then I’ll come back to talk to you.”
He nodded. “My boots are in your room. Okay if I wait for you in there?”
“Yes, that’s fine.” She turned away, the thought of him being in her room again after all these years making her heart race.
It took her longer than she’d thought it would to take care of her sister. By the time she’d found pillows to elevate Lorna’s leg, positioned the ice pack carefully on her ankle, gave her the Tylenol and set up her night table with her water, the extra pain reliever, a tube of chap stick, and got her phone plugged into the charger, Izzy had finished nursing and fallen asleep. Lorna was practically asleep herself as Leni took the baby and gently placed her in the bassinet next to the bed.
“Call me if you need anything,” Leni whispered before slipping out of the room. Taking a deep breath, she walked back to her room, not sure what she was going to say to Chevy but knowing that she needed to really thank him for all he’d done for her family that night.
She rounded her door frame then stopped, her heart stuck in her throat, as she took in the sight of Chevy Lassiter curled up on one side of her bed, sound asleep with his head on the pillow next to hers.