Page 38 of Luck Be a Genie

“I thought I could walk you both back to the parking lot,” Nick said. “Just let me wrap her feet first.”

“Are you sure?” Carl asked. “We don’t want to be a bother, and you’ve already had your fill of adventure today, I think.”

“It’s no problem.”

Nick set me down on a large flat rock, shrugged out of his shirt, then helped me into it. I hadn’t even had the space to realize yet that I’d been running around in only a sports bra, but Nick had obviously clocked it.

And I was right. He did have a veritable hospital inside of his bag. I’m sure my lung could have collapsed or something, and he’d have just the right thing to help me.

I snorted, looking down at his handsome face as he knelt in front of me, tenderly cleaning out the debris from my wounds, then bandaging and wrapping them. When he was done, he urged me onto his back, then picked me up, holding me under my thighs.

“Comfortable?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “Sorry I lost my shoes.”

He chuckled. “Are you kidding? Do you know how often I dream of being this close to you? I’m in heaven right now.”

“Nick!” I said, embarrassed, as both Carl and Mae laughed as we started down the trail back to our jeep.

“Aw, hon,” Mae said with a sweet cackle. “Don’t fuss. He’s just a man in love.”

I thought about her words the whole hour back to the parking lot.

He’s just a man in love.

Was he?

Just a man in love?

Chapter 14

Lucky

“Nick, I really don’t want to be stuck in this bed again,” I told him, I thought very reasonably. I was on vacation, after all. Who wanted to be stuck in bed during their vacation?

And not for the first time!

Nick smoothed my hair away from my face. “I know. I can pop home for a bit and ask one of the elves to make a potion for you? I know our hospital has one on staff, and I know Rhys wouldn’t mind if the one on staff is gone.”

I felt immediate, intense relief. That was a perfect solution! I’d had to take, or rather had been privileged to take, an elven healing potion now and again, and one of them would be perfect right now.

“That’s brilliant! Why didn’t we think of that when I had my concussion?” I complained, making a face. That hadn’t been fun either.

Nick was quiet for a moment. “To be honest, Lucks, I was a little rattled that day. Sorry. I should have thought of it. I think I’ve gotten used to being at home, where the hospital is mostly for paranormals. Being in a normal human city is amazing, but there are benefits that I think I just take for granted living in Moonhaven.”

I squeezed his hand. “Me too. It’s nice living there, right?”

His gaze turned intense. “It is, but I hope you know I’d live wherever you wanted to live.”

“What about you? Do you have anywhere else you’d like to live?”

He rubbed the back of his head in thought. “I’ve lived a lot of different places already. I’m really comfortable in Moonhaven. But if you wanted to go to, say Florida or something to be near the beaches and the water, I wouldn’t mind.”

“It would be nice to be in a warmer climate. I love the sunshine here. And I love being near so many bodies of water. There are all kinds of rivers, lakes, and waterfalls, and then we’re surrounded by the ocean. It’s like a water lover’s paradise.”

Nick smirked. “And I know how much you love the water. At the very least you need to have your own pool.”

I nodded, though having a house with a pool wasn’t really in the cards for me on my secretary’s salary. It was enough for now that my townhouse complex had a couple of them. “It would be nice.” I bit my lip, looking at him hesitantly. “You’d really just go with me?”