33
Goldie
I’m lyingon a heating pad and stretching my still-aching hips on Odette’s thick rug in her apartment while the snowfall picks up outside when Sheila suddenly shrieks and immediately follows it with, “Oh, he brought the puppy!”
I peel one eyelid open and look up. There’s Odette’s floral couch. Her wall of family photos. The glass-doored cabinet full of her grandmother’s china. The light fixtures that need to be cleaned.
Evelyn sits at the dining room table, gaping toward the short hallway to the door with a deck of cards paused mid-shuffle in her hands.
“And he better behave himself as well as the puppy does,” Odette’s saying.
Her apartment is bigger than mine—she has three bedrooms so she can host her kids and grandkids anytime they’re visiting—which means I have to twist my neck to fully see what’s happening in the entryway.
And what’s happening is that Odette and Sheila are leading Fletcher and Sweet Pea into the apartment, Odette leaning on a cane since she graduated from her wheelchair yesterday.
My heart hiccups and then leaps.
He’s here.
He took my invitation, andhe’s here.
I start to smile, and then I fully take in the expression on his face.
He’s not scowling, nor is he smiling. There’s no cockyyou’re welcome for gracing you with my presencethat I’ve seen him pull off either.
And I do meanpull off. I think it’s mostly an act.
But tonight, there’s a gravity about him that feels too real and too deep.
His gaze finds mine, and my heart hiccups and leaps again. I smile. Can’t help myself. “You came. I didn’t think you’d take me seriously.”
He sweeps his eyes over my entire body. “Hip hurt still?”
“We gave her the good painkillers,” Sheila says. “Extra-strength Motrin. She’ll be up and on her feet again in no time.”
“Lingering aches,” I tell him. “I’ll be better in a few hours. I’m barely limping.”
All three of my lady friends snort orhmphat that.
“Hope you’re good at bridge,” I add. “I forgot to mention. It’s a prerequisite that you play bridge when you’re snowed in with us.”
“Playing for cash?”
“It’s strip bridge,” Evelyn says.
All three of them look from Fletcher’s handsome face to his solid body.
“My, my,” Odette murmurs.
“This seems unfair, but also, I’m getting a little excited,” Sheila whispers.
That finally gets a smirk out of Fletcher.
I finish my stretch and pull myself up to sitting. With the front moving through, Iamfeeling better. Better still for not having to do all of the manual labor to get my books into storage.
All Silas said wasnext time, tell me yourself when you’re hurting and need a hand.
Something changed between those two men today.
