Still bleary and half-asleep, I watched him walk in his pajama pants to the door (he usually slept nude, but he put them on so we could be comfy watching telly and his junk wasn’t right there, taunting me because he wouldn’t let me have it).
He opened the door, and I saw Christine was outside.
“I’m sorry to disturb,” she said. “But Hale Wheeler is here.”
I blinked and pushed up to a hand.
“Hale?” I asked.
“Aye,” Dair said to Christine like he was expecting this visit from Hale. “I’ll talk to him.”
Christine nodded to Dair, cast a glance at me still in bed, her face got all happy, and she bopped away.
Dair went to his duffel, pawed through it and came out with a T-shirt.
“Did you know Hale was coming?” I asked.
“How’s your back?” he asked in return through the shirt he was pulling on.
I did a bitty twist to check it, and no pain.
“All good,” I told him.
“Stay resting anyway,” he ordered. “It can seem better, and then ye stress it, and you’re back to where ye started or worse.”
He said this while walking to the door.
“Dair,” I called. “Dair!” I said sharply when he didn’t stop.
He turned at the door.
“This is being loved the right way, lassie,” he said mysteriously, then he was out the door.
Therefore, I was out of bed.
Okay.
Ow.
I froze, but it was just a little twinge, and then it was gone. Really not bad, but he was right. I should take it easy.
But I could still walk, and I did so to walk out of the room, down the hall and the stairs. I just did it slowly.
I made a guess, and headed in that direction, and I knew my guess was correct when I heard men’s voices coming from the lounge.
“I’ll be seeing her,” Hale was saying.
“Aye. I’ll let her know you’re coming up and then ye can go up,” Dair replied as I hit the room. “But she hurt her back so she’ll be resting.”
They were standing in the center of the room, and I could almost see Hale, but most of what I saw was Dair’s back.
“And I’ll be speaking to her alone so I can ascertain her state,” Hale declared in a hard voice.
“My state?” I asked.
Dair turned and both men’s attention came to me.
I smiled and moved forward. “Hey, Hale.”
