Book 27 Renewal After Dark #3
Duke offers to drive McKenzie to the grocery store to get supplies. He learns that McKenzie is good at math as long as she doesn’t have to do it in her head, and she enjoys woodworking. He jokes that he was always good at art stuff and pulls his sleeves up to show off some of his impressive work.
She’s planning to focus on getting herself and Jax settled and will work at Tiffany’s store.
“Did you get out here much as a kid?” Duke asks.
“Not as much as I wanted to. My mom sort of resented how much time I spent with my grandmother, and the minute Gran left for the summer, Mom thought I should spend all my time with her. Except that wasn’t what I wanted.”
“What did you want?”
“To come to Gansett with Gran for the summer, but my mother wouldn’t have it.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I never have been able to explain her to people. Gran used to say she’s a narcissist. Everything was about her, all the time.”
“Your mom is Cecelia?”
“Yeah. I guess she probably told you about her.”
“She mentioned that she was difficult.”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
At Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Kelsey Gordon adjusts the sling that supports her surgically repaired broken right forearm, which is now encased in plaster.
The meds she’d been prescribed keep the pain manageable, which is a relief after a rough couple of days following surgery to pin the broken bone.
She waits by the nurses’ station, hoping for an update on the condition of her fiancé, Jeff Lawry.
Debbie, the nurse who cared for Jeff overnight, approaches the desk and smiles when she sees Kelsey waiting for her.
They’ve gotten to know most of the nurses who worked on the floor.
“He had a restful night, and the doctor upgraded him to good condition when he came through on morning rounds. They’re working on a plan to discharge him to a rehab facility in the next week to ten days.
” She squeezes Kelsey’s shoulder reassuringly. “It’s all good news.”
“It’s been hard. He got hurt saving me.”
“He’s on the road to recovery, honey, and everything will be all right in a month or two.”
“I appreciate your kindness.”
“Go see your love. He was asking for you. I’ll be back tonight.”
“We’ll see you then.” Feeling better after her talk with Debbie, Kelsey walks down the hallway to Jeff’s room.
Sarah, Russ and Adele are outside the room with Jeff’s eldest brother, Owen, who had come over from the island yesterday, hoping to convince the others to go home to the island so they won’t wear themselves out.
Jeff’s recovery will be a long one, and they’ve been encouraged to pace themselves.
Sarah isn’t having it, though, and as long as she’s staying, so are Charlie and her parents.
“The morning nurse is in with him,” Owen says. “He asked for a few minutes.”
Charlie approaches, carrying trays of coffee that he distributes to each of them.
Kelsey smiles at him as he hands one to her. “Thank you.” Charlie is such a love. He asked how she took her coffee a week ago and has kept her supplied ever since.
“How’re you feeling, honey?” Charlie asks.
“Sore but better knowing Jeff is improving.”
She will never forget the ordeal of being pinned under him and a ton of debris for hours while firefighters and townspeople worked frantically to get them out.
Tears flood her eyes as she relives the horror.
Sarah’s arm gently encircles her shoulders, giving silent support that Kelsey needs badly. The four of them have been so good to her. She’d be forever thankful to them and her own parents, who came running when they heard she and Jeff were badly injured in the storm.
A male nurse she hasn’t met before emerges from Jeff’s room. “He’s all cleaned up and ready for guests. Is one of you Kelsey?”
“That’d be me.”
“He’s asking for you.”
Kelsey runs the fingers of her left hand through her hair, pinches some color into her cheeks and takes a couple of deep breaths, preparing herself to give him whatever he needs while bracing herself once again to see him badly injured.
She smiles brightly as she enters the room, wanting to project only positivity and optimism.
Every day, it’s all she can do not to crumble when she encounters his bruised face, the tubes, machines, monitors and IVs. It’s a lot.
“Hey,” he says gruffly. “There you are.”
She takes his hand, noticing the bruises on his face have begun to go yellow, which one of the nurses had told her is a sign of healing.
“Here I am. You look so much better today.” That isn’t true, but she’ll never tell him otherwise.
He’d been lightly sedated for much of the past week, so she hasn’t had much of a chance to talk to him.
His cracked lips curve into a small smile. “Is that the kind of wife you’re going to be? The kind that lies?”
“I’m not lying! You do look better, and you’re awake, which is a huge improvement.”
“I asked for a mirror earlier. I look like shit.”
“No, you don’t.”
“It’s okay. I had a barn cave in on me and lived to tell. That’s what matters, right?”
“Yes, definitely.” Kelsey’s emotions are like a kettle set to boil. “I can’t stop thinking about what you did, Jeff… You got hurt so badly saving me.”
“It’s worth every ache and pain to know you’re okay.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t bear to see you hurt like this.”
“I’ll be okay. Eventually.”
“I’ll be right here for all of it.”
Mac stands before the wreckage of the barn he’s managed to avoid for most of a week, staring at it while reliving what happened there during the storm. Kelsey and Jeff had come close to being killed. He’d never forget the frantic race to get them out from under the rubble before it was too late.
Big Mac joins him, striking a similar pose as he, too, stares at the ruins, probably recalling some of the same memories that have tormented Mac for days now. “Thank God they’re on the mend,” Big Mac finally says after a long moment of silence.
“Indeed.”
“Have you heard how they’re doing today?”
“Kelsey texted earlier to say that they’re arranging for Jeff to be discharged to a rehab facility. Probably in the next week to ten days.”
“That’s good news.” He glances at Mac. “Did you hear Sturgil’s missing?”
“What? No. Does Tiffany know?”
“Ned told me her ex-mother-in-law called to ask if Tiff had heard from him. That’s how she found out.”
He calls Maddie to ask if she’s heard about Jim.
“How’s she doing?” Big Mac asks.
“Shocked about Jim but hanging in there, thanks to Mom.”
“She’s happy to help for as long as Kelsey is laid up. We all are.”
“Thank you. It’s very comforting to be surrounded by family at a time like this.”
“I want to get some money to Kelsey and Jeff,” Big Mac says. “I’m sure there’ll be expenses and other needs with both of them out of work for the time being. Can you help me make that happen?”
“Sure, Dad. That’s very nice of you.”
“It’s the least I can do after my building collapsed on those poor kids.”
Duke insists on carrying Jax and most of the groceries upstairs to the apartment.
He bids them good night so McKenzie can put Jax to bed.
After they go through their evening routine and Jax is sleeping in his crib, McKenzie goes to close her door and spots Duke sitting next to a fire under lights that’ve been strung through the trees, giving his firepit area a magical vibe.
He’s working on something, but she can’t see what it is.
She checks on Jax, who’s sound asleep. After cracking the window in his room so she’ll hear him if he wakes up, she goes downstairs and crosses the yard to the firepit, stopping short when she sees what Duke is doing. “Are you… cross-stitching?” Nothing in her life has ever surprised her more.
He gives a sheepish grin and a shrug. “Rosemary taught me how years ago. It’s oddly relaxing. Don’t tell the guys at the shop, okay?”
McKenzie smiles, ridiculously charmed by his confession. “Your secret is safe with me.” And then she has another thought. “The pillows in the apartment… Did you make them?”
“Maybe?”
They were the first thing she noticed. “They’re incredible! You’re very talented.”
“I don’t know about that, but it’s something to do at night rather than rot my brain in front of the TV. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
He turns the sampler, which is held tight by a wooden loop around it, so she can see it. “I’m making this one up as I go.”
McKenzie is stunned by the gorgeous field of wildflowers in an array of dazzling colors, shapes and sizes. “You’re making it up? Not following a pattern?”
“Nope.” He hands her a drawing done in colored pencil. “I’m following that—loosely.”
“Now, that is seriously impressive.”
“I’ve been freelancing for years, so it’s not that hard anymore. Takes forever to get stuff shipped out here. I started making up my own designs, so I wouldn’t get bored waiting for new ones to arrive.”
“You’re very talented.”
“Art is the one thing I got.”
“You’re lucky to have that one thing. I’m still looking for mine.”
“I thought you were a woodworker?”
“I’m a wannabe woodworker. I have the interest but not the skills. Not yet, anyway.”
“What do you do for work?”
“I’ve kind of bounced around from one career to another—my degree is in fashion, but I’ve never really used it. In hindsight, I probably should’ve majored in something that lent itself to a real salary. I was working in retail when Jax happened.”
“So, he was a surprise, was he?”
“You could say that. I’d been seeing his dad for a year when I got pregnant.
I was on birth control that didn’t work, which was a shock, to say the least. When I told him I was pregnant, that’s when I found out he’s married with a wife and two kids and wasn’t interested in another.
He told me he’d had a vasectomy, so the baby couldn’t be his.
That was almost worse than the wife and kids, since he knew I’d been faithful to him, which was more than he could say. ”
“I’m so sorry. That’s awful. What a loser.”