“How does one accidentally feel someone else's hair?”
“Shut up, Rory.”
He grins. “Mr. Adair’s bloodwork is ready. I was coming to tell you that when I found you mid-daydream.”
“Oh, good grief.”
I study the labs, and go give Mr. Adair the good news, then head to the on-call room to try to sleep.
After a night of patchy sleep, I’m home from the hospital. I open my front door and find Makenna sitting on the couch watching the telly.
She looks up as I’m toeing off my shoes and tries to blink tears from her eyes, but I see them anyway.
“What’s going on?” I sit beside her.
She smiles and gives me a small laugh. “It was a commercial. At the end the little girl shared her cookie with her grandpa. And she gave him the biggest piece.”
“Oh … okay …” Makenna’s tender heart strikes again.
“I know it’s crazy, but I’ve been crying over sappy commercials for a long time.”
“You know … there was a cereal commercial years ago that always got me.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but don’t tell my sisters.”
“Hmm …” Makenna’s eyes shimmer with mischief. “I feel like I should leverage this in some way.”
“Do you now?” If she only knew she didn’t need leverage.
“I do.” She brings her hand to her chin and begins tapping her beautiful lips with her finger. “I think I’ll think about it. It’s too important to make a snap decision.”
“Very canny. You certainly wouldn’t want to waste this opportunity.”
She grins. “How was work?”
“Things were pretty quiet until I tried to sleep and then someone needed something from me every hour.”
“Oh gosh. Do you want to lie down?”
“Ach, I’m fine. I may have a wee kip before we leave, but not just yet. What did you and Fiona get up to?”
“She brought me a dress from her company and it’s perfect. We shopped for shoes, and some other things. And we went to an amazing antique store, then to dinner and then to live music at Eden Court Theatre.”
“You didny have more fun with her than you do with me, did you?” I act like I’m upset, but I’m thrilled they got on so well. Fiona actually sent me a message before she left this morning telling me exactly how much she approves of Makenna, even offering if I had to move, she’d be okay with it.
“Your sisterispretty great,” she teases, and I love the twinkle in her eye. “When are you thinking we’ll head out?”
Makenna and I are leaving for our wee trip today, and I couldn’t be more excited to sightsee with her. Even if it means sleeping on a couch. It does make the wee kip a bit more important, now that I’m thinking about it.
“It won’t take me long to get the rest of my things after I wake up. How about you?”
“I’m ready anytime,” she says.” But no rush. Get all the sleep you need.”
I head toward the stairs, then stop. “I just realized, we’d talked about the hot tub at the tree house, but you can’t submerge in water yet. I’m sorry I didny think about it sooner.”
She doesn’t look terribly disappointed. Maybe she doesn’t like hot tubs. “Ah, I didn’t think about it either. That was in my discharge papers, and the doctor told me too. You couldstill use it, though. I’ll sit on the edge and stick my feet in.”
