Deep sigh of relief. If he fucked up and she did something while Kaden was gone, he’d never forgive himself. He got out of bed and used the bathroom. By the time he finished she was walking through the bedroom door with a beautiful smile on her face and his cup of morning goodness in her hands.
“Thank you, sweetie.”
She paused, as if waiting for something else. He leaned in and kissed her forehead. He wanted to plant a deep one on her lips and knew that would lead to spending all day in bed with her.
Wait, why was he fighting?
Because she’s still my best friend’s wife, that’s why.
“You’re welcome, Sir.”
Oh crap, formal.
“Are you okay, hon?”
She nodded and only a little cloud flitted through her eyes. “Is it okay if I’m formal?”
“Sure.”
She relaxed. If it helped her, he’d do it. “Thank you, Sir.”
“What’s on the agenda for today?”
“Master said for me to work with You on the ropes and the singletail.”
Seth also knew he needed to mow. It’d been nearly a week. In the wet Florida climate, the lawn was growing at a jungle-inducing rate. “I need to do some chores first.”
“Will you go grocery shopping with me, Sir?”
Of course he would. He’d go to hell and back for her. Publix was easy. “Let me get my chores done first, and then we’ll go.”
She fixed his breakfast. Later, he noticed that she sat either on the front porch or back lanai and watched him mow. She reminded him of a lost child.
He was in the shower when Leah knocked on the bathroom door. “Sir?”
He’d grown comfortable with her coming into the bathroom when he was in the shower as long as she didn’t try to open the shower door.
“Yeah, hon?”
“Master’s on the phone. He said He has to talk to you right now.”
“It can’t wait until after I’m out of the shower?”
“No, Sir. I asked. He said it can’t.”
Argh. “Hold on.” She only had her arm stuck through the bathroom door, anticipating he’d be naked.
At least she wasn’t trying to push him too hard.
He stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his hips, and then took the phone. She pulled the door closed.
“Dude, shower time. What is so fucking important it can’t wait five minutes?”
“Is she all right? She doesn’t sound right.”
Seth shivered when he felt the AC kick on. “Yeah, she seems okay. Can’t this wait?”
“No, it can’t. She sounded out of it.”
Seth dropped his voice, unsure if she stood on the other side of the door or not. “She had a little episode last night. Nothing major. I took care of it, didn’t even have to take her to the playroom.” It felt weird talking to Kaden about Leah like this.
“Why is she being formal?”
“She asked to.”
“That’s a warning sign right there.”
Seth’s gut curled in an unpleasant way. “Well, fuck, you could have told me that shit before you left! Is there anything else I need to know, genius?”
“Just keep a very close eye on her. Don’t give her any more time by herself than you have to. Spend the whole day with her. Keep her busy.”
“I’m going to the store with her in a little while.”
“Good. You might want to get her to the playroom before you go to bed.”
His stomach curled again. “Why do it if it’s not necessary?”
“Blow off some pressure before it builds up. Use training as an excuse. It’ll help.”
He hated using the harder implements on her even though he knew it was relatively safe. Swatting her on the ass with his hand, he could dig that. Frankly, it was kind of hot the way she squirmed and enjoyed it, and he knew he couldn’t hurt her. “Can I just play it by ear?”
“Don’t leave her alone today. Seriously.”
“All right. Fine. Let me get back in the shower. I’m fucking freezing.”
He hung up and peeked out the bathroom door. Leah was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully she hadn’t listened in. “Leah?” he called.
She appeared in the bedroom doorway a moment later. “Yes, Sir?”
He held out the phone. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Sir.”
He climbed back into the shower, turning the water hotter to get rid of his chills. While he had been planning on blowing off a little of his own tension, the worry now pulsing through his mind killed his boner.
* * * *
With Kaden’s words echoing through his brain, Seth kept close tabs on Leah. If she was slipping into a deeper sadness, she was doing a damn good job of hiding it from him. He drove Kaden’s truck and talked Leah into taking a few side trips before hitting the grocery store, getting parts he really didn’t need for the mower and items he did need to add some external electrical circuits to accommodate Kaden’s amped-up plans for his biggest light display ever.
It apparently worked. By the time they returned home late that afternoon and he helped her unload the groceries from the back of the Ridgeline, Leah seemed fine.
He was out in the garage when the sound of shattering glass and Leah’s strangled cry scared the living crap out of him. He ran inside and found her clutching her arm, red splattered all over the kitchen floor. He slid to a stop at the edge of the kitchen, only marginally relieved to see the red covering the tile floor was red glass from a shattered pitcher.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Leah cried. She looked panicked. He spotted a trickle of blood between her fingers where she had her right hand clamped around her left forearm, just below her elbow. “It was an accident, Sir! I was trying to get the pitcher down so I could make your sangria!”
“It’s okay, hon.” He forced his voice to stay calm and steady. “I know it was an accident. I can see that. Don’t move.” She was in bare feet, and he had already kicked his shoes off. The kitchen floor was a minefield of red glass. The stepstool and open top cabinet door were more proof of her intentions. “Stay right there. Do not move.” Seth raced to the front door, yanked on his sneakers, then carefully stepped into the kitchen.
Glass crunched under his feet. Now she trembled, and he worried about her going into shock. “How bad is your arm?”
“I’m scared to look. It hurts really bad. I didn’t mean to do it, I swear! I lost my balance when I was stepping down. I guess I hit the pitcher on the counter.” The slate counters looked totally stunning but were fucking murder on anything breakable. He’d already broken two glasses and a plate himself. A few pieces of glass on the counter also supported her story.
The sight of her blood turned his stomach. He tried for a masterly tone. “Calm down, love. You’re okay. It was just an accident.”
She nodded, her eyes tearing up.
He grabbed a dish towel off the counter. She lifted her fingers enough he could slip it around her arm. From the amount of blood, he suspected she’d need stitches.
Fuck. Great. Kaden goes off for two fucking days, and I have to take her to the ER. Fuck!
“Hold that there. Don’t let go.”
She nodded.
He carefully scooped her into his arms and stopped at the doorway so he could kick his shoes off. He didn’t want to track glass through the house. Seth carried her down to the master bathroom and set her on the counter. First things first, he checked her feet for glass so she could walk. She had two scratches along the tops of her feet, probably from bouncing glass, and one small shard still embedded in the side of her foot. She told him where the tweezers were, and he removed the glass from her foot.
Next, her arm. Yes, it was deep, fortunately not into a vein, from the looks of it. He put the dish towel back and clamped her hand over it.
“Okay. Listen to me. You have to get stitches.” Her eyes welled with tears, and he shook his head. “This was an accident, l
ove. Stop worrying. Master will not be mad at you. If anything, he’ll be pissed at me because I’d asked you to make the damn sangria in the first place.”
At that she smiled a little.
“We’ve got to get you dressed. And that”—he pointed at her collar—“has to come off.” While it was the thin leather collar, and her long hair hid the locking buckle in the back so she could wear it in casual situations in public without worry, there was no way in hell he could take her to the ER wearing it.
She blanched, vigorously shaking her head. “No! Master put it on me. I can’t take it off!”
Fuck.
“Leah,” he sternly said, “Master told you I’m in charge and you listen to me, right?”
She finally nodded, her eyes wide and brimming with tears.
He kept his voice firm and stern. “It has to come off. I take you to the hospital wearing that, they’ll call in the cops to ask how the fuck you got hurt and accuse me of doing it. Where’s the key?”
She finally answered him. “On a silver chain, in the top left dresser drawer. My day collar is there, too.” The locking silver necklace looked completely harmless in vanilla situations.
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll put your day collar on you. Okay?”
She relaxed a little. He needed to speed this up because blood had started seeping through the dish towel. He had to drive her to the emergency room and get her taken care of. He rushed into the bedroom, found the key and her silver necklace, and made the switch. Then he guided her into the bedroom and helped her get dressed. He had to change the sodden dish towel out and grabbed a bath towel for her to hold around her arm.
“Where’s your purse?”
“Living room.”
He found it and carried her out to the Lexus, ran back inside to grab his cell phone and lock the house. Now the adrenaline crash hit him and he had to focus to keep his hands from shaking as he got into the car and started it.
Leah looked pale. “Talk to me, love,” he said.
“It hurts.”
“I know it does, love.”
“I have to call Master and tell Him. I have to tell Him immediately when something happens.”
“Hey, kiddo, I was right there. Remember, I’m in charge. It’s okay. I’ll call him once we get you taken care of.”
She nodded and rested her head against the seat.
He gently slapped her thigh. “Don’t close your eyes.” They were ten minutes from the closest hospital. He didn’t know if she’d go into shock over something like this, but he wasn’t taking any chances. “Stay awake. Don’t go to sleep.”
She nodded again, but he didn’t like her pale skin tone.
At the hospital he parked, then carried Leah into the ER. The triage nurse took one look at her arm and immediately directed them back to a bed. Within five minutes Leah was being examined and sutured. At least she’d kept enough of her wits about her to drop the formal act.
Seth handled registration and insurance for her while she was being treated. Kaden had set up medical power of attorney paperwork already, but Seth never imagined he’d need it for Leah. When asked his relation to the patient, Seth took a nervous breath.
“Family caretaker,” he answered, handing over folded copies of the paperwork from his wallet. It was a term Kaden had come up with, thinking it would cause them the least amount of grief and raise the fewest eyebrows over the next several months.
Apparently, it was more than good enough for the administrator. She made copies and returned them to him without further questions. By the time he returned to Leah’s side the doctor was almost finished suturing her. She’d gouged a deep, four-inch-long gash along the meaty part of her inner arm. With a shot of pain meds to calm her, Seth asked her for more details.
“It happened so fast. I was stepping down, and I lost my balance. I was holding the pitcher in my right hand, by the handle. When it broke I still had the chunk of handle in my hand, and I think that’s what got me. Glass was bouncing all over the place.”
That made sense. “I’ll call Kaden in a few minutes. You relax. That’s an order.”
She closed her eyes and nodded.
They wanted to keep an eye on her for a little while. While her blood pressure had stabilized, it had been on the low side when he brought her in. He agreed with that and stepped outside to make the call he didn’t want to make. By this time it was after six. He knew Kaden would be out of his meetings.
“Hey, what’s up?”
Seth closed his eyes. “Do not freak out on me.”
“What?”
“I’m serious, dude. Do not freak out on me.”
“You’re freaking me out now, goddamn it! Is Leah okay?”
“She’s fine. There was an accident. It was just an accident.”
“Oh my God! What happened?”
Seth related the incident. Kaden sounded shaky. “I’ll try to get a flight home tonight.”
“No, she’s okay. Seriously. She’s fine. Once they release her I’ll get her home and put her to bed. They’ve given her pain meds. I’ve got a fucking mess to clean up in the kitchen.”
Kaden hesitated. “Are you sure it was an accident?”
“Yeah. I know it sounds coincidental, but if you’d seen the way she was freaking out—”
Kaden breathed a deep sigh of relief Seth heard on his end. “Okay. If she was upset then it probably was an accident. If it’s not an accident, if she does something on purpose, she tries to hide it and blow it off. At least, she used to.”
“No, dude, I’ll swear it was an accident. I’d asked her to mix a pitcher of sangria.”
“Aw, it was the red pitcher she broke?”
He expected a lot of comments but not that. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
“She always uses that one to make your sangria. She likes the way the orange slices look inside it. It’s one of her favorites. Damn, I’ll have to see if I can find her another one.”
Seth sat on the curb, his own stress catching up with him. “She panicked when I told her I had to take her collar off.”
“Poor thing. As soon as you can, I want to talk to her. Tell her I’m not mad at her.”
“Let me get back in there and check on her.”
She was dozing but opened her eyes when he took her hand. “Did you talk to Master?” she whispered.
He nodded. “He’s not upset. He told me to tell you he’s not mad.” She closed her eyes again, and a tear rolled down her cheek, scaring Seth. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It was an accident, Leah. Accidents happen.”
“But now He’s worried. He shouldn’t be stressed in His condition.”
Danger!
“Love”—Seth made sure to use a low, firm voice—“calm down. He’s not stressed. He was worried until I told him the whole story. He knows it was an accident.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, he’s not happy you got hurt, but he’s not stressed like that. He’s okay. Shit happens.”
She nodded.
She was released a half hour later. Once they were in the car, Seth dialed Kaden and handed Leah his phone.
He watched as she closed her eyes and talked with Kade. Her left arm was bandaged, and she needed to get it checked in a couple of days. He had two prescriptions to fill for her, an antibiotic and pain meds. He pulled into a pharmacy and left Leah in the car, still talking to Kaden on the phone while he was inside waiting for the medicine.
Back home. He’d finally stopped feeling weird calling it home. It was home. It felt like home. Maybe he wasn’t at the point where he could think about it as his in terms of owning it, but he certainly felt comfortable there, like he was part of the family.
He carried her inside and laid her on the couch. “I’ll make you some dinner after I get the kitchen cleaned up,” he said.
She started to protest. He cut her off. “No. You get taken care of tonight.”
“But
that’s my job!”
He whipped out his cell phone and called Kaden, then put him on the phone with her while he went to clean up the glass and heat her some leftovers. By the time he returned with her food, Kaden had apparently mollified her.
She handed Seth the phone. “Master wants to talk with You, Sir.”
“Thanks, love.” He took it to his bedroom and shut the door. “Don’t fucking tell me to give her a session tonight. I won’t do it. I don’t care what you say.”
He laughed. “No, I wasn’t going to tell you that. Pain meds zonk her out. She hates taking them. She’ll be sound asleep in an hour, I bet. Probably sleep until noon tomorrow.”
Relief! “Thank God.”
“You did good.”
“Promise me this gets easier.”
“Just follow your heart. We’ll talk more tomorrow after I get home.”
Seth returned to the kitchen, nuked himself a plate of food, and sat next to Leah on the couch. She’d picked at her food but hadn’t made much headway.
“You’d better eat.”
“I’m so sleepy.”
“I know, babe. It’s the meds they gave you.”
He finished his dinner and made her lay down with her head in his lap while they watched TV. Before long, she’d developed an unfocused stare he knew was due to the pain meds taking hold in her system.
“What are we going to do without him?” she whispered.
Oh, fuck. He did not want to have this talk with her right now.
“We’ll be okay. It’ll take some time, but we’ll be okay.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
She was quiet for a while. He’d hoped she’d fallen asleep. Then she spoke again. “I’m going to miss him so much.” Large tears rolled down her face.
“Me too, babe.” He felt his own tears close to the surface and tried to push them away.
“How long do we have?”
“Babe, we don’t need to talk about this.”
“How long?” Her voice sounded soft but firm. Her quiet tears unnerved him. Maybe being zonked out on pain meds was helping her safely process things.
“I don’t know. Every day is a gift. He’s still strong. He’s got a lot of life in him. I can’t give you a time frame.”
“You went with him to the oncologist.”