He nodded but didn’t move to sit up. His eyes met mine, and the world stopped. “Why are you doing this?”
“It’s just soup and tea.”
He shook his head but cringed. “Ouch. Headache. And trust me, Wilder. It’s not just soup and tea.”
I sighed and got up. Lewis sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. “Haven’t you ever had someone take care of you?”
“Other than my parents? No.”
He ate the soup with gusto, complimenting it and the tea several times. Both the cup and the bowl were empty in no time. While I cleaned up, he lay back down but when I crossed the living room to leave, I noticed his eyes were still open.
Again, I felt the urge to sit near him, and to my surprise, he moved over so I could perch on the edge of the sofa again. “You need rest, Lewis.”
Nodding, he reached out and touched my fingers with his. Not hand-holding but almost. “I’m realizing I need quite a few things I never have before.”
His words shot a dart right through my heart. Maybe he meant something else, but my wolf thought that sentiment was for him.
“Will you go on a date with me?” I surprised myself at the boldness.
From the look on Lewis’ face, I shocked the hell out of him too.
“I will. When I’m better.”
“I’ll leave you to rest, then.”
“Wait.” He stopped me from getting up with his hand on my thigh. “Can you put your number into my phone? That way I can text you when I’m better.”
“Of course.”
Chapter Seven
Lewis
I began to feel better almost as soon as Wilder touched my forehead. Not perfect, but that night, I woke up in a pool of sweat from a broken fever. I even changed the bedding and my pajamas before running out of steam and tumbling back between the sheets to sleep well for the first time in what felt like forever.
The next day, exhaustion came to stay, and I gave myself the grace to rest, only rising to feed the chickens and check on the hives—all via ATV. Why I hadn’t used it the day before, I blamed on the fever stealing most of my ability to make logical decisions. I returned home, used the treatments I’d received from Wilder, put the chicken and all the other ingredients I’d bought in the slow cooker, and reheated the last of his soup from the day before. A vague thought of the honey stand almost had me going there, but even via the three-wheeler, it would be a bad idea. If I just rested, I’d be back to 100 percent a whole lot sooner.
If I’d done that when I first got sick, the disease probably never would have been able to take hold of me. So, back to bed and sleep, only rising long enough to eat more soup and take a hot shower that felt like heaven. The next morning, I woke and cautiously self-assessed. The cough hadn’t woken me even once in the night, although it was present. Just not nearly as bad. I picked up the phone to call him, considering the possibility of a FaceTime then thinking it would be too pushy and hitting the regular dial.
“Hi, it’s Lewis.” It flashed through my mind that he might not even remember who I was, that he’d only come over with the soup and medication out of kindness. Or to take a look at the bees. Or to arrange to buy honey.
Perhaps he made house calls every day of the week, and I’d been thinking of myself as special in a way that I didn’t deserve. But for reasons I didn’t want to examine too closely, I didn’t want him to have forgotten me. To not have been special to him.
“Hi, Lewis. It’s good to hear from you. How are you?”
The moment his voice met my ears, I remembered something else. Something huge and relevant.
“Did you really offer to go on a date with me?” I blurted out.
Please let it not be just something he said because he’d been facing the most pitiful wreck and wanted to give him something to live for.
“Oh no. I’m sorry,” he said. “That was inappropriate.”
Gods, how ridiculous was I? And I couldn’t even blame it on the fever because of course it had been gone for a day and a half. “No, I am.” My face burned, making me grateful I hadn’t chosen to FaceTime. “I apologize. I should have realized. I mean—”
“Lewis?”
“You probably have to go.” I held my finger over the disconnect. “Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for visiting and bringing me the medicine and the soup. I had planned to make my own but until today, I was not up to it.”
