She frowned. “Sounds like a tick-borne disease. I read about them when I did my crash course on farm life.”
She disappeared into the bathroom and returned with the tweezers and a baggie.
“You gonna keep it as a souvenir?” I managed to say between the pain in my body and my foggy thoughts.
She smiled, and Lord, it did things to my heart when that woman smiled. “According to the internet, you can test a pulled tick for diseases if you mail it off.”
“Oh. That’s smart,” I said as she started digging into my hair. “Over here.” I grasped her fingers and moved them towards my right ear, where the tick was.
Her eyes bulged when she felt it. “It’s giant.”
I nodded. “Been there a few days, I think.”
She winced as she went in with the tweezers. “For the record, I hate bugs.”
“Noted,” I told her, and again, that easy smile was back.
She looked down at me, and the smile grew. “You’re good for me,” she said seriously, and it felt like my heart stopped in my chest.
“You’re good for me, too,” I responded, and she said nothing more. She didn’t need to. That was enough to last me a lifetime. I’d wait forever for this woman just to get a little more of that.
There was a slight tug at my scalp, and then Ella squealed before dropping the sickly gray, fat tick into the bag with a grunt. “Gross.” She sealed it up and threw it onto the coffee table like it was a bomb about to explode.
Now, I was smiling. She was adorable.
She pulled out her phone and dialed someone. “Hang on. I gotta ask my boss for the day off so I can take you into town to see a doctor.”
The joke didn’t register until my phone rang, and it showed Ella calling.
I chuckled, picking up. “You can have the day off,” I told her.
She smiled and hung up.
With a helping hand, she lifted me up and guided me into the garage, where I got into the passenger side of my truck. Then we discreetly drove to town. Her belly was touching the wheel; she was already so big. She seemed to instinctually know I wouldn’t want my staff seeing me like this.
“Thanks for being there for me,” I told her as I leaned my sore head against the cool window and peered out at the rising sun.
“It’s the least I can do, Seth,” she said, and I prayed to the Lord at that moment that, one day, Ella would be my wife. I no longer wanted the love and affection of a good woman. I wanted the love and affection ofthisgood woman.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ella
Seth’s tick scare was horrible. The doctor confirmed he had symptoms of a tick-borne disease and promptly put him on four weeks of antibiotics. After three days, he perked up like nothing had happened, and a week after I’d sent the tick off to the lab, we got the results. It was positive forBorrelia burgdorferi, also known as Lyme disease.
It had been quite a scare. I’d never seen big, strong Seth so sick. Anytime he moved for three whole days, he winced or was bedridden napping. The man never napped. He was usually up at five a.m. and stayed out working until the sun went down. I knew that it killed him to be so helpless, but Russel handled the ranch while I tended to Seth and brought him food while Maggie was gone. Tonight was my last night of bringing over dinner until Maggie got here. It was Seth’s first full day back at work, and though he seemedbetter when I walked inside his house after knocking twice, I found him on the couch.
“Hey.” He sat up, looking a bit tired.
“Were you napping?” I asked, setting the lasagna soup I’d made down on the coffee table.
He chuckled. “Yes. I haven’t napped since I was three years old. This is crazy.”
I nodded. “Well, the doctor said it would take a while to feel fully yourself again. You been taking your pills?”
His alarm went off on his phone, and he smiled, ending it. “Twice a day!” he said and pulled the pill out from his pocket, chugging it back with a bottle of water. “What is that delicious smell?” he asked, eying the soup bowl.
“Lasagna soup,” I said. “I’ll let you get to it.” I turned to leave.
