Page 20 of This Time I'm Keeping You
Nick didn’t want to leave her alone to wake up in the scary hospital, but he also knew he couldn’t stay because visiting hours were over long ago.But he’d be back in the morning.
She moved and moaned in her sleep as something in her sore body tugged.She then resettled, arm resting on her chest.Finding a spare pillow in the cupboard beside her bed, he lifted Poppy’s injured arm onto it.She didn’t wake, clearly exhausted.Kissing the top of her head, he then walked out of the room before he followed his impulse and stayed the night in that uncomfortable chair.
Chapter8
Poppy bit back a moan of pain as she rose on her good elbow.Nick had come to see her last night.He’d talked about his family while one warm hand had stroked her head, putting her to sleep.
That man was dangerous.He’d been hot in college, but the charming part had been missing.It was there now, and it was unsettling how good it felt being around him again.
“Good morning, Miss Sylvester.”Poppy watched the doctor enter her room.
“Good morning.Will I be able to go home soon, Doctor?”
“I’ll let you know in a few minutes.”
Two hours later, Poppy was in a cab wearing yesterday’s dress and carrying her laptop and heels, and looking forward to getting home and cuddling Hercules her cat.
They’d given her a list of instructions when she left the hospital, but as they needed her bed, she’d been free to go.Poppy didn’t have Nick’s phone number, so she decided not to wait around for him, because there was always a chance he may not come.
And you know that for a lie.
The actual truth was she was far too aware of Nick Atherton, so she’d chickened out and run away.Poppy had become an expert at that.
Getting out of the cab twenty minutes later, her body now one big ache, she walked up her path to the large potted plant close to the front door.Poppy tried to ignore the screams of “water me” from its wilting leaves as she bent to retrieve her spare key from its hiding place.
“Hello, Poppy.Did you have a good night?”
“Oh hey, Mrs.Leibowitz,” she said to her elderly neighbor, who was walking out her front door.She’d been the first to greet Poppy when she arrived, and they’d been talking every day since.
“Who was the lucky guy?”
“Pardon?”Where the hell was the key?Poppy knew she’d put one under this stone.She dug her fingers into the soil.
“You’re in yesterday’s dress and carrying those sex heels, and you called me to feed Hercules because you wouldn’t be home until today,” Mrs.Leibowitz added.
Tall and thin with the constitution of a professional athlete, Poppy’s neighbor could eat whatever she wanted and not put on a pound.She ran five miles a day and worked out with other seniors down at the rec center twice weekly.
She put Poppy to shame.
“I fed Hercules again this morning, so don’t let him fool you.”
Poppy knew she’d have to rise from her bent position at some stage, and when she did, Mrs.Leibowitz would see her injuries.Sighing, she dug deeper into the soil and found the key.Straightening, she turned.
The shriek was loud enough to ensure every other resident on the street heard her.
“I’m all right, Mrs.Leibowitz.I just had an accident and had to spend the night in the hospital.”
“Get inside that house at once.Look at you, all bruised and broken!”The woman ran to her, long silver braids bouncing on her shoulders.Dressed in pink leggings and a fitted exercise shirt, she had the body of a teenager and the face of an eighty-year-old cowboy who’d spent every day in the sun.
Taking the key from Poppy, Mrs.Leibowitz unlocked the door and then waved her inside.
“You get up those stairs now, Poppy, and wash off that blood,” Mrs.Leibowitz said, like she’d been in a gunfight, and it was dripping off her.“Don’t get your injuries wet.Do you need help?”
“I got it,” Poppy said, looking at the stairs and wondering how she was going to make it up.Taking it slow, she managed and then shuffled into the bathroom.She removed her sling, and started undressing slowly after closing the door on Mrs.Leibowitz’s instructions.Turning on the water, she stepped under the warm jets and tried to keep the injury to her head dry.
“You all right in there?”Mrs.Leibowitz thumped her fist on the door minutes later.
“Great, thanks,” Poppy lied with her cheek resting on the wall.
