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I poured myself a cup of coffee when Kaleb entered the kitchen. He filled his thermos with the rest of the pot of the black gold before turning his attention to me.
“I need you to take Kade to his doctor’s appointment this morning.” He grabbed a banana from the counter and peeled it. “The veterinarian is coming today to pregnancy check the spring calving cows. I don’t want to reschedule. He has a month-long wait period.”
“Wow. He needs to hire someone if he is that busy.”
“He said he hired a new veterinarian. But he won’t start until this spring.” He shoved the banana in his mouth.
“I can take Kade. It’s a recheck?” What else could I say? I don’t want to be in the same small space as him. Stuck there for hours and hours. Think of the money, Delilah. I told myself. I put on a grin and nodded.
“Yes, and probably he’ll get x-rays and a new cast. Here’s the appointment card. See you tonight.” He slapped his cowboy hat on his head and strode out.
The business card held the address of Kade’s surgeon, Dr. Greg Glanders, and the time of the appointment. Great, Dr. Glanders my ex-boyfriend. Maybe, I’d get lucky and another surgeon would be seeing his appointments. I could only hope. It was in two hours.
I approached Kade’s bedroom and silently swung the door open. He fell asleep only a couple of hours earlier. Part of my job was to monitor his sleeping and medications overnight. I usually check on him every couple of hours. Last night, his pain had been excruciating and he spent most of the night tossing and turning. I tiptoed across the room. The floor creaked a bit. I stopped on the rug and held my breath.
“Delilah, I know you’re there.” He mumbled into the pillow, not picking up his head to look at me. “What do you want?”
“You have a doctor’s appointment in a couple of hours. We need to leave in forty-five minutes.”
He groaned and pulled the blankets over his head. I slid open the curtains to let the morning light into the room. He groaned again and rolled towards the wall.
“Can’t it be rescheduled?”
“No, you have a good surgeon and he probably won’t have any openings for at least a week.” I moved his chair closer to the bed. “Besides, you need different pain medications. You haven’t slept well for the last couple of nights.” I hadn’t slept either. Thinking about the man across the hall made me toss and turn. Kade finally rolled back over and scooted to the edge of the bed.
“Alright, let’s do this.” A sarcastic smile pulled at one side of his lips.
The waiting room of the hospital was crowded. Kade wheeled his wheelchair to a corner of the waiting room so I snagged a wooden chair and dragged it over next to him. We stared out the glass window, watching the traffic below, not talking to each other. He folded his arms across his chest as a large sigh escaped his lips. I turned in my chair to watch him. I forgot how much I liked just to sit next to him as butterflies danced in my stomach.
“Do you want to talk about yesterday?” He asked. His blue eyes searched my face. I blushed and fidgeted with my keys.
“Not really.” I was embarrassed about how I acted. I didn’t know why I was jealous of another woman in Kade’s life, and I didn’t want to examine it that closely. Silence settled between us as we both were lost in our thoughts.
“Do you remember the first time we met?” His voice was soft and hard to hear over the hum of the room.
I shook my head. “I thought you were always in my life.”
A deep chuckle resonated from his chest. “Damien invited me over to play Legos after school, and your family had just moved to Sunnydale.” A smile touched his lips. “You wanted to play with us. But Damien said no girls. Then you burst into his room wearing his shirt and shorts.” He chuckled. “You said that you are now a boy. You were so cute.” His blue eyes twinkled at me with a look I hadn’t seen in years.
“I don’t remember that,” I murmured. I reached for his hand. My hand was hairs away from his when warning bells went off in my mind. What was I doing? This is the same man that broke my heart in two. A nurse walked into the room and called out Kade’s name. He spun his chair around and wheeled it after her as I hurried to keep up.
Kade sat on the paper-covered bench in his shorts. The nurse had cut off the cast on his right leg and took him for radiographs. She brought him back and left us to wait for the doctor to look at the images. He scrolled on his phone as I paged through a magazine when a sharp knock sounded on the door. The doctor came in pushing a cart. My heart skipped a beat. He was tall, dark, and handsome. My skin heated as soon as I recognized him: Dr. Greg Glanders, orthopedic surgeon extraordinaire and my latest ex-boyfriend. I scooted closer to the door. Kade gave me a weird look before turning his attention back to the doctor.
“Good afternoon, Kade. Here for your four-week recheck, I see. How have you been feeling?” He punched buttons on his keyboard.
“Just fine,” Kade muttered.
“How’s the breathing?” He ran his fingers along Kade’s ribs. Kade’s face turned a little green. “It’s only been four weeks, so you still have some time to heal, but your radiographs look good. They are healing nicely.” The doctor moved down to palpate Kade’s leg. “Any concerns?”
Kade shook his head.
Of course, he would deny it! Before I knew what was happening, my mouth opened. “Actually, Doctor,” The doctor turned to face me. “Kade’s been having a hard time sleeping from all the pain.”
A smile lit up the doctor’s face. “Why, Delilah Allen! I didn’t see you there.” I extended my hand to shake his. Instead, he wrapped me into a hug, that lasted a bit too long. I wiggled out of his grasp, catching Kade’s glance. “Kade, you have the best nurse in the ER taking care of you.” Heat rose up my cheeks as I looked at my shoes. “Of course, we can get something to help him sleep.” He went back to examining Kade who raised his eyebrows at me.
“Here’s the prescription.” He handed a sheet to Kade and then turned to me. “Delilah, would you like to get some lunch sometime?” I blushed again as Kade cut his gaze to me. His blue eyes blazed.
I opened my mouth to respond when Kade cut in. “Delilah, I think it is time to go home.”
I shot Kade a dark look. “Greg, I would love to get lunch sometime. My number is the same.”
Kade scowled at me while I smiled brightly at him. Greg looked between us with confusion on his face.
I CLENCHED MY FISTS as Dr. Glanders flirted with Delilah. She blushed a lovely pink color at his attention. She brushed her hair back with the back of her hand and fluttered her eyelashes at him. Did she just do that? My eyes narrowed as he laid his hand on her shoulder. Her laugh was high and fake when a knock sounded at the door. The nurse stuck her head in.
“Dr. Glanders, do you want Kade to be back in a cast?” She carried boxes under her arm. The door swung closed behind her. Dr. Glanders drew his attention away from Delilah.
“Yes.” He glanced back at Delilah. “I’ll call you later.”
“That would be great.” She looked down at her shoes and twirled a loose strand of hair. With that, he strode out of the room. The nurse wrapped my leg and rolled on the casting material. She put pressure on my ankle to bend it and the casting material grew hot. When I tried not to wince, Delilah stepped over and reached for my hand as I raised an eyebrow at her.
“What was that about?” I slid my hand out of her grasp to the edge of the exam table and gripped it.
“Oh, nothing,” she mumbled with more blushing.
The nurse snorted. Then, she glanced up apologetically. “Dr. Glanders still has the hots for you, Delilah.” She wrapped another couple of rounds of casting around my calf. “Rumor has it he hasn’t dated anyone since you broke it off with him.” She folded the cotton wrap down and ran the cast material under the upper edge. Delilah sat down in the chair and crossed her arms. The nurse looked over her and sighed. “But it’s not any of my business.” She cleaned up her materials and ran her hands down the length of the cast once more. “That should do it. You’ll need another appointment in two weeks for more radiographs and another cast.” Then, she quickly left the room.
I scooted myself into my wheelchair and rolled toward the door. “I’m starving. Let’s get lunch.” Delilah followed behind me as I checked out.
Maria’s Pasta Bar was packed with people even when it was not lunchtime. Simmering marinara and freshly baked garlic bread assaulted my senses when we entered the packed building. The hostess seated us in a corner booth and took our drink orders.
“I haven’t been here in ages.” Delilah grabbed a menu and scanned it for the specials. “I think the last time I was here was the night of my prom.” She blushed again and quickly hid behind the menu.
“That was a great night.” I chuckled. “You ordered the spaghetti with the giant meatball. Do you remember that?”
“Kade, how could you bring up one of the most embarrassing moments of my high school career?” She blew her straw wrapper at me. I caught it before it bounced off my nose.
“It is one of my fondest memories of us.” I leaned forward and grabbed her hands before she snatched them back. “You tried to eat that meatball on a fork. When you bit into it, it fell off and rolled down the front of your white dress.”
“My mom was so mad at us. You had to rush me home to put on the dress I wore to your prom the year before.”
“That green dress. It was beautiful on you.” Sighing, my eyes flashed.
I was nineteen years old again and I was taking Delilah to her senior prom. When she walked down the stairs at her mother’s house, the world stopped. That green dress. It was made for her and I loved it when she wore it the year before for my senior prom. A look of nostalgia crossed Delilah’s face as if she were also remembering that night. Was there something there? Something that missed how we used to be? Her brown eyes got wider, and she leaned closer to me. Her lips parted when a throat clearing jerked us back to reality.
“Would you like to order?” The waitress asked sweetly.
Delilah dropped my hand and returned to the menu. “I would like the spaghetti and giant meatball.” She winked over at me as I tried not to laugh.
“I will have the chicken alfredo.” The waitress spun on her heel back to the kitchen, leaving Delilah to sip from her water.
“So, you and Dr. Glanders?” I leaned back to prop my leg up on the seat as Delilah choked on her water.
“Yep,” She flicked a couple of drops of water at me. “We dated for a bit. Nothing serious.”
“That’s too bad. He looked at you like you were the last woman on earth.”
“I don’t need a man like that in my life.” She shrugged. “He needed to be needed and it caused a lot of tension. Not to mention he was boring.” She rolled her eyes up to look at the ceiling.
“Are you going to go to lunch with him?” I realized I had twisted my paper napkin into a small knot.
“Maybe.” She leaned on the table. “Or maybe not.” Her eyes glinted, her hair falling over her shoulders. “Would that bother you?”
I wasn’t going to admit it to her, but it bothered me greatly. I sipped my sweet tea, surprised at my reaction to her question. She leaned closer still. Mischief danced in her eyes.
“Maybe.” I leaned closer to her. “Maybe it does or maybe it doesn’t.”
I was so close I could see the gold specks in her irises, the ones that I had forgotten were there. Her hair swished forward, and the lavender scent of her shampoo wafted towards me. It reminded me of another time where I was close enough to see the gold specks in her eyes and the scent of lavender surrounded us. That night had been magical but had changed everything between us. Our first time together. Her hair splayed out around us and nothing but being together mattered to us.
I pulled back from her. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t lead her into believing that I could be there for her. I wasn’t strong enough. Walking away from her had been easier than staying with her. I knew I broke her heart, but I couldn’t make myself stay for her. I was too weak to be her stronghold. I gulped the sweet tea.
“You and the doc would make a nice couple.” I regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. Her face fell. Her eyes narrowed and glistened. She tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“Excuse me, I need to visit the ladies’ room.” She slid out of our booth just as the waitress brought our food. “That was mean, Kade.” She stormed to the back of the store.
I slumped in my seat. Pain spiked from my ribs at the sudden movement. I popped a couple of pills. It was for the best. She deserved someone to be there for her. I failed her once and I was afraid it would happen again. I didn’t know if I could be the man she deserved.
THE WATER RAN IN THE sink, swirling around the drain. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I’d escaped just in time before the tears started to fall. My mascara lined my lower lids and dripped down my cheek. I took a paper towel and dabbed at my eyes until the black was on the towel and not on my skin. I pinched my cheeks the way my grandmother used to do when I was little. She would dry my tears and then pinch my cheeks, saying it brought life back into them. I pushed my hair back into a low ponytail and straightened my shoulders.
“You can do this, Delilah.” I coached myself in the mirror. “He’s a stupid, obnoxious boy. You can do this. Think of the children.” The children needed me to complete this assignment. The money would also feed the horses through the winter. People and horses were depending on me. I glared at myself again and turned to head back to the table.
Kade was on the phone with someone who was making him laugh. I stopped dead in my tracks realizing that it was my phone he was talking on. I cautiously approached the booth.
“Hang on. Here she is.” He handed the phone over to me, smirking. “It’s your friend Melanie.”
“Hey, Melanie,” I said cautiously.
“Delilah, I have some good news for you!”
“Lay it on me. I could use something good.” Kade’s eyebrows rose at this.
“I talked to Mr. Giffery’s lawyer today,” she paused and held her breath. The silence stretched for several minutes.
“Come on. You’re killing me here! What did he say?” I bounced in my seat.
“There might be a chance that we could rent the stables and a few acres for a couple of months. His children are going to sell the property, but he anticipates it is going to take a long time to sell that much land.”
“Oh, but that is only a temporary solution.” At my words, Kade stopped eating and watched me. I fidgeted in my seat.
“I know, and I don’t know how long we can keep the horses at Lindsay’s place. They don’t have enough hay to feed your crew for the winter. Mr. Giffery’s place could buy us months or years... How have things been going on your end?”
“Alright. I have all the paperwork filled out for the permits once we have a sure place to be.” Kade’s eyes bored into me and I ignored him.
“Hang in there, girl. We will find something.”
“I know. It’ll get better in a few months.” I smiled a bit as I thought about how far Kaleb’s money would go to help us. It would secure a loan or even be a down payment on a place. I sighed as we hung up. I placed my phone face down on the table.
“What’s going on?” Kade leaned his elbows on the table.
“Um...Melanie and I are trying to start a business.” I don’t know why I didn’t tell him about our plans. It didn’t feel like the right time. I wanted to keep this to myself, at least for right now.
“Is there anything I could help with?” The question startled me. Kade was good with horses, but children? I doubt he would know anything about them.
“No, I’m good.” I shook my head, and he shrugged.
My steaming pile of spaghetti sat in front of me. I stabbed the meatball with my fork. It flew off the table and hit Kade in the chest. A large splotch of red stood out in the middle of his white T-shirt. His mouth dropped open into an O. A laugh burst out from me as he dabbed at his shirt.
“I think that is payback for the Greg comment.” I laughed so hard tears streamed down my face. I clutched my side to keep upright. Kade stared at me before he started to laugh before pain crossed his face.
“My ribs hurt too much to laugh.” He breathed out. “I did deserve that.”
“I think I should stay away from the meatballs.”
I missed hanging out and laughing with Kade. It brought back warm feelings of us spending hours at this restaurant talking and hanging out. A warmness spread throughout my body. Occasionally, I caught glimpses of the person I knew all those years ago. Maybe, he was still there. I mentally shook myself. I don’t need a man in my life. I smiled at him when he grinned at me and winked. My heart broke into a thousand small pieces before I could stop it.