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“I will eat the quiche and General Tso’s, and probably half a pint of ice cream.” She followed close behind me, down the hall and toward the kitchen. “I’m in OB right now, and women won’t stop having children. It’s exhausting.”
I snorted, hauling her stuff to the counter and dumping it on the surface. “Your bedside manner is impeccable.”
"It's better than our visiting OB/GYN educator. I think a badger with rabies would have better manners than he does." She paused to take off her shoes in the mudroom.
"Do badgers get rabies?" I mused, turning to squint at her.
“Dr. Rook definitely has rabies. Hey, Mrs. S!” Mattie sang, rounding the corner and fully ignoring me to go to the large living area to the right. “It’s good to see you.”
My mother lifted her eyes away from the fire to Mattie. “Hello.” Her eyes darted uncertainly. “Nice to see you.”
Mattie never took it personally that my mother didn’t recognize her. “Fireplaces are the best when it’s snowing,” Mattie said, leaning against a sofa near the older woman’s armchair.
“They are,” my mom agreed, smiling faintly. Her eyes drifted back to the fire, and she lost herself in thought again.
“She’s been tired,” the dark-haired, older nurse said by way of apology.
Mattie nodded. “Me too. Long nights and short days.” She smiled softly at Maggie. “It happens.” That was another thing Mattie excelled at. She didn’t talk about my mother in front of her like she wasn’t there. The nurses were used to doing it, but Mattie always directed her comments to my mother, whether she was listening or not. It made my chest ache. “I’m going to eat dinner, but enjoy your fire, Mrs. S.”
Maggie waved limply, smiling at Mattie again, but not responding. It was the most interaction my mother offered—her little exchanges with Mattie. And Mattie made sure they never lasted long or taxed my mother’s strength.
That was more than her medical training. It was just Mattie.
She made her way back over to me, her shoulders slumping and her tired hands unzipping her coat. I reached for her, tugging her to me by the lapels of the silver marshmallow monstrosity she insisted was the best coat ever designed. “Do you want your dinner here or in bed?”
Mattie’s gaze strayed to the loft-style hallway that led to our bedroom upstairs. Then her almond eyes returned to mine. She teased her lip with her teeth, and her luminous eyes swallowed me whole. “Bed.”
Good. Fucking. Answer. I turned her by her shoulders and swatted her ass. “Go up and I’ll bring your food in a minute.”
“There had better be General Tso’s on my plate,” she threatened with a point and a squint. But her feet were already carrying her to the wood staircase near the wall of windows across the room.
I gingerly pulled the carton of soggy chicken and rice from its bag. “You’re a healthcare professional. You know better than to eat this.”
Mattie reached the stairs and extended her index finger. “General. Tso’s.”
She had me wrapped so tightly around her slender finger, she knew very well that there would be mushy, hours-old chicken on her plate. I shooed her away so I could pull her plate from the microwave, add the chicken and rice, and then nuke it. I refilled her blue water jug—cup was too dainty to describe that monstrosity—and snagged a carton of cookies and cream ice cream from the freezer for good measure.
I padded up the hardwood stairs, the windows to my right fogging over with heavy snowfall. I glanced at it, slowing my pace as I reached the top, and I made a mental note to make Mattie switch cars with me. She had an impractical electrical thing that saved the planet and would probably break her neck in this weather.
The upstairs of our spacious cabin had six bedrooms, three on either side that were connected by an open bridge-like hallway over the two-story living space in the middle. I took a left, heading past meaningless “Western” style art we’d left up after buying the house, and I maneuvered through the master bedroom door. Space-wise, the master wasn’t anything extravagant, but it had been built with a full wall of windows to the left that led to a gray brick-enclosed fireplace in the far-left corner. A leather couch had been placed under the window wall, and to the right, the king-sized bed took up most of the wall with its wrought iron frame and cream-colored bedding set. A circular, candelabra-type light fixture hung over the middle of the room, casting a warm glow over the cozy bedroom.
Mattie already had her scrub tops off and was stepping out of her light blue bottoms when I found her. She tossed them into a wicker basket, and in nothing but a lacy black thong and bra, she turned to flash me a coy smile over her shoulder.
I almost dropped her plate. “God have mercy.”
Her laugh trilled through the room, and she plucked up a black T-shirt from the pile of folded laundry I’d left on the dresser for her. It was her favorite T-shirt—my T-shirt, in point of fact. She hadn’t relinquished it since I’d loaned it to her on the airplane over a year ago. Even though that day felt like another lifetime ago, I still felt a squeeze of fear that wrapped around my heart like a python. I’d been too close to losing her.
I set the plate down on the table next to the couch, and with unhurried steps, I came to join her on the far side of the bedroom. While she wrapped her long hair into a messy bun, I wrapped an arm around her from behind and dropped a kiss on her neck. “How are clinicals going?”
She leaned against me, sighing in disgust. “They have me in the maternity ward. There’s so much fluid, Kael.”
I laughed, running my lips along the curve of her neck. I suddenly understood the appeal of vampirism. I just wanted to bite her so badly. “Sounds sticky.”
“Not the fun kind,” she grumbled. Turning in my arms, she locked her hands at the small of my back. She tilted a smiling glance up to me. “How’s retirement?”
“I’m going to die of boredom.”
She laughed again, and this time, she flattened her palms on my chest. “I shouldn’t laugh, but I might be picking up the perks of your frustration.”
