37. Kendra
Kendra
After we decided on a plan, met with Danny, and got me even more settled in my home-away-from-home—literally one home away from my home—exhaustion started to settle in deep.
I wanted my studio cleaned up immediately, but there was not much that I could do alone and injured.
Plus it was unfair for me to ask Eli to help me after the long day.
He was just as tired and emotionally wrung out.
His mom brought back Wren along with a home-cooked meal for dinner tonight and two more for the freezer.
Holly was doting on me just like she would with her son or her three daughters, and it honestly felt so nice to have that kind of motherly affection.
I hadn’t had that since losing Nana. Thinking about it now makes me swallow a lump of sadness and longing for both her and my own mother.
Holly was happy to learn that I was staying here with Eli so that he could look after me while I recovered.
Understanding filled her eyes when I explained in few words that I just couldn’t be in my own house after what happened.
Eli enthusiastically shared about the renovation plans and his eagerness to help make my vision come to life.
I wasn’t sure if he was happy to help so that he could get me out of his house faster, or if he just really liked construction projects like when he was younger.
Either way, I was looking forward to seeing a tool belt slung around his muscular hips again.
Eli bounced a fussy Wren in his arms while Holly stood at the sink cleaning our plates and loading the dishwasher. Meanwhile, I sat totally useless at the table.
“I hate that I can’t help with anything. It’s killing me that I can’t even hold Wren.” I pout at Eli as he pops a fresh pacifier into his daughter’s mouth.
“Sweetheart, you heard what the doctor said. You have to take it very slow for a while. You can’t lift anything with your broken arm or put pressure on your broken ribs.
Plus your incision from the surgery. The more you take it easy the faster you will heal.
” Eli gives me a stern look, my stomach swooping from the silent command.
He called me sweetheart, again, in front of his mother! Like it’s just something he says all the time.
“He’s right, Kendra. I know slow is not a speed you are used to, but you don’t really have a choice in the matter right now. Let us take care of you, okay?” Her warm smile fills up the kitchen and zaps me right in the center of my chest, bringing a sting of tears to my eyes.
“Alright, but just this once,” I give in, making them both laugh.
It’s still not easy brushing my teeth and using the bathroom in my state, but I manage. All I want to do is sink into the guest bed, my bed now I suppose, and sleep for days. The hospital gives you great care but zero rest, constantly having nurses or doctors checking in on you at all hours.
Easing down the hallway I hear Eli’s deep voice reading a story to Wren in her room.
I decide that peeking in on them before I go to bed won’t hurt.
I pad quietly up to the door and look in to see Wren snuggled on Eli’s lap wearing purple unicorn pajamas and a sleepy expression.
I try to hold back a groan seeing that he’s wearing grey sweats and one of his favorite cutoff shirts, holes so gaping I can see his entire rib cage and a ripple of abs as he rocks in the chair they are sitting in.
He is not trying to make Wren fall asleep with the book, keeping his voice steady and lulling.
No, of course Eli is doing different voices for all the characters and making the story as entertaining as possible, even for his tiny daughter.
I stifle a giggle behind my hand, which makes Eli look up at me, startled.
I gasp when I see that his eyes are framed in square, dark tortoiseshell glasses. They make his deep blue eyes look even more intense as they lock with my own.
Holy. Hotness.
“Would you like to join our story time, sweetheart?” Eli asks casually, but his eyes stay heated as they roam a trail up and down my body.
“Since when do you wear glasses?” I manage to ask past my suddenly parched mouth.
“Since my eye exam last year,” Eli harrumphs. “They are a very mild reading prescription, but I still need them for shi—stuff like this, especially when my eyes are tired.”
“Nice catch,” I laugh, taking a step into the room.
“Yeah, decided I’m trying. I would like her first world to be ‘dada’ and not another four-letter one.” Eli grins at me, and the combination of that, his dimple, plus his glasses are too much for me to handle. I need to get out of here before I kiss him and split my lip back open.
“Okay, well, good night then.” I turn and shuffle out of the room as fast as my aching body will allow.
I hear Eli chuckling and call after me, “Good night, sweetheart.”