ELLIE
I CAN’T HELP BUT SMILE as they roll Nik back to surgery. He was so drunk from the meds they gave him. The poor thing was waving his good arm around like he was swatting at things we couldn’t see. Thank goodness, he never tried to move the rest of his injured self.
We’re all motionless and silent, staring at the doors they took him through as if we’ve turned into a group of zombies. Cash finally breaks our trance when he lets out a loud sigh. “We better go to the waiting room. Lacey probably won’t like us hanging around out here,” he says to all of us. We all turn as one and head towards the doors.
“How long did they say it would take again?” Scott asks.
“Two hours for the surgery, and another one until they get back down here with him,” Leia answers.
“Did any of you hear how long he said his recovery would be?” Cash asks as we walk into the waiting room.
“Three months, maybe more. If he heals enough from the other surgery, and his broken shoulder blade he may be able to use crutches soon. Most likely he’ll either be flat on his back, or in a wheelchair for weeks while all of that heals,” I tell him, sitting down.
“Damn. That’s a long time for anyone, let alone Nik. He’s gonna be so pissed. Give him another week, and we won’t be able to stand him, he’ll be so cranky.” He groans, then rubs his hands down his face. “Who told you all of that by the way?” he asks, turning and looking me.
“Lacey did late yesterday. She said Peacock Peterson would come talk to us today and the ortho surgeon will, too, once he’s finished,” I tell him.
“Peacock Peterson? Who the fuck is that?” Leia asks, her gorgeous face all twisted.
Scott lets out a laugh. “He’s Nik’s other surgeon, and you are gonna love him,” he says with a big grin spread across his face.
Cash and I look at Leia, then each other and proceed to burst into laughter until our eyes water. Scott is laughing right along with us.
“What the fuck is wrong with you people? How in the hell could anything possibly be that fucking funny right now?” she yells at us, her hands planted firmly on her hips.
I get myself under control first, and look up at her while I wipe my eyes. “We’re sorry, Leia. It’s nothing about Nik, I swear. It’s Dr. Peterson. He’s a complete pig from hell. I’ve never met anyone so arrogant in my life. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women, too. He hit on me the first time I met him, and he thinks I’m Nik’s fiancée! We’re laughing because we can already imagine what it’s gonna be like when he meets you,” I get out between giggles.
She crosses her arms, while the veins in her temples start to pop. “Is that the fucker that left his leg so fucked up?”
Oh Lord, I think I may be about to get an up-close view of Tornado Leia.
“That’s the one,” Scott tells her. “He says he did all he could until the ortho doc could work on it.”
You can almost see the steam coming out of her ears she’s so mad. She clinches her fists, and takes a few deep breaths while closing her eyes.
“You saving up for him, Lei-Lei?” Cash chuckles at her.
“You bet your fucking lumberjack ass I am.”
We all grin at her as she sits back down, and smooths out her designer jeans and top. She is so beautiful it’s like having a supermodel in the room with us. She’s basically the female version of Nik, which makes sense being they’re siblings. I can only imagine what beautiful babies they were, toddling around with their blonde hair and blue eyes.
I get up and pace the room as memories begin invading my mind, trying to think of anything else I can to distract myself. I start with the hospital. I’m really sick of it already, but I may as well get used to it since we’re gonna be here for a long time. Unlike poor Nik, at least I can move around and even leave if I want to. And boy, do I want to.
I desperately need to go get some of my clothes and things. I need to call Vicky, Brandon, and Anna. I’m shocked they haven’t tried to call me sooner. It’s only Saturday, though and I talked to all of them Thursday, they shouldn’t be worried yet.
Have I really only been here a day? It seems like forever and a day. I wonder if I have time to run to the house, and get some things and be back before he’s out of surgery. I think I’ll try.
I walk over to Cash, and tap his boot with my foot. “Don’t freak out on me again, but I think I’m gonna run to the house, and get some clothes and things while he’s in surgery. I promise I’ll come right back. I’d rather go now instead of after he’s done. I want to be here when he wakes up. He’ll never have to know I left,” I tell him.
“How far are you from here and in which direction? I could go with you, and grab some of my stuff on the way.”
I can tell he doesn’t want me going alone. Whether that’s for my sake, or keeping an eye on me, I’m not sure.
“I’m out on the west side of Wilmington Island.”
His face falls a bit. “That’s the opposite way from me, we may need to go separately.”
“It’s not from Nik’s place,” Scott pipes up. “I need to go check on Roxie for him, and pick up a few of his things to bring back. We should be able to be back in an hour, hour and a half, if we only make the two stops.”
“Who’s Roxie?” I ask.
“She’s Nik’s dog. She has a doggie door to get outside, but her food and water probably need to be checked,” Leia says.
“Okay. That works for me if it does for you, Scott.”
He stands up and smooths the wrinkles out of his shirt. “I’m ready when you are.”
Cash looks at Leia. “You staying here?”
“I think so. Someone should stay around just in case, and I can go downstairs and get his insurance started, too,” she says.
He turns to me and Scott. “All right then, I’ll wait and go after he’s out of surgery. That way she can work on his insurance, and I can stay up here and keep y’all posted if there’s any news.”
“Okay. We’ll be back as quick as we can,” I tell them with a wave as Scott and I head out.
Fifteen minutes later we’re pulling up to Nik’s townhouse. I love it the second I see it. It’s a lovely three story made of red brick with black shutters. There’s ivy growing up the railing of the front steps that goes over and all the way up the corner of the house. I can’t wait to see the inside. Then it hits me.
How in the hell are they gonna get him in this house in a few weeks?
“Scott, is there a street level entrance anywhere on the house? He’s gonna have a tough time getting inside if there isn’t,” I say, looking over my shoulder at him.
He has a worried expression on his face after hearing that. “There’s one in the back, but that won’t really help. There’s more stairs to get him up from down there. The living areas are on the second floor and the bedrooms are on the third. The first floor is his studio. We could probably get a hospital bed and leave him on the second level? It would save whoever stays with him from going up and down all those stairs a dozen times a day.”
“I guess it depends on what he’s most comfortable with. It’ll be months before he can climb any stairs,” I say quietly. My worry and anxiety start to ratchet up again, my stomach churning thinking of how complicated Nik’s life is about to become–all because of me.
“God, what did I do to him?” I whisper.
Scott reaches over, and pats my back awkwardly. “You didn’t do anything to him. None of what happened is your fault. I know he told you that already, Cash told me he did.”
“I know he did, but if I had stayed home, he wouldn’t be in this mess. If I hadn’t slapped that asshole robber Nik wouldn’t have tried to stop him from hitting me. So it is my fault! All this suffering he’s going through is because of me!” I wail, bursting into tears.
“Wait a minute. You slapped one of the robbers? You didn’t tell me that the other day.”
“Yes! See? It is my fault! I’m cursed. People die because of me!”
“Ellie, please calm down,” he begs, rubbing my back this time. “Nik didn’t die. You know that. You know he’s going to be back to normal soon. He’s strong and he’ll get through it. And even if you did slap one of them, that still doesn’t make it your fault. You didn’t ask those guys to rob that Starbucks, or tell them to bring guns. I’m sure if you slapped him, there was a reason for it. I bet Nik thinks so, too.”
I try to slow my tears, and get control of myself. It takes several minutes before I’m breathing normally again, and not leaking all over Scott’s car anymore.
“Can you tell me what happened to make you slap the guy?” he asks.
I glance at him and then down at my lap. “He threatened to take me with them, and he was talking really nasty to me. I mean really nasty. He rubbed the gun down my face, and neck and then…” I wave at my boobs.
“Bastard,” he says with disgust.
“Yeah. It pissed me off so bad, and I could see that Nik was ready to kill the guy. I thought I could keep his attention on me if I slapped him. I figured if I let Nik at him things wouldn’t turn out so good. Turns out they didn’t anyway,” I sigh. “The guy went to slap me back, and that’s when Nik jumped in to stop him. One of the guns went off, and he didn’t even realize he’d been shot in the head. I did,” I whisper.
“I saw him stumble. He had blood pouring down the side of his face, but he kept wrestling with the guy. I pulled on him as hard as I could, and screamed for him to get down, but he only pushed me back. That’s when I fell and hit my head. Next thing I knew he was covering me with his own body, and I could hear and feel when the other bullets hit him–the impacts, the groans of pain he made. The whole time he kept talking to me. ‘I’ve got you, Ellie, I’ve got you’. He said it over and over while I was screaming for him to save himself, and not me. He didn’t listen.”
We sit there in silence for several minutes, except for my sniffling–me trying to stop reliving it, and Scott trying to absorb everything I’ve told him I suppose.
“It sounds to me like it wouldn’t have mattered what you did. He would have gone after that guy either way. I know him pretty well, and he would’ve never let that guy hurt you, and I guarantee he would’ve never let them take you either. He probably would’ve died before he let them get out that door with you. He’s not the type of person to stand by and not help someone when they need it. You remind me of him in that way,” he says, grinning over at me.
I huff. “You mean we’re both stubborn, and don’t listen to anyone, right?”
He laughs a little. “Maybe, but mostly you have big hearts and kind souls. You’re good people.”
“Thank you, but you hardly know me.”
“And you hardly know Nik, yet here you are, doing everything you can to help him. That’s enough for me.”
“He’s very lucky to have a friend like you.”
“Thanks, but that applies to you, too. You ready to go in?”
“Yeah, we better hurry if we want to get everything done and get back.”
We both climb out of the car, and I follow him up the steps. As soon as he gets the key in the door I hear a high-pitched bark coming from inside.
“He has a little dog?” I stifle a laugh. I figured he’d have a big dog to match his own impressive size. I can’t imagine him with some tiny, little fluff ball.
Scott laughs at my expression. “Roxie’s small, but she’s no frou-frou dog, I promise,” he says, swinging the door open.
Once I walk in I see he’s right. Roxie comes tearing down the hall at full speed, sliding to a halt at Scott’s feet, only to start bouncing like her legs are pogo sticks.
She is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Like a Doberman and dachshund mashed together. She has a sleek, shiny black and tan coat, no tail, and the biggest set of ears I’ve ever seen on a dog. They look like satellite dishes sticking out of the sides of her head. Her body is long and lean like a dachshund’s, but she’s twice as tall as most of them are. You’d think she’d still be barking her head off, but other than some happy whining, she’s quiet as can be.
“Hi, cutie! Look at you!” I squat down to greet her, and almost fall over when she jumps up on one of my thighs proceeding to cover my face with wet kisses, as she balances precariously on my leg.
“Roxie, that’s enough. Get down,” Scott tells her calmly, and she immediately jumps down and sits at my feet.
Well, she’s cute and trained.
“Oh, my God. She is so adorable. What is she? I’ve never seen a dog like her before.”
“She’s a mutt. One of Nik’s students found her under an abandoned house when she was a tiny thing, and brought her into class with him. Nik kept her either on his lap or in his arms that whole day. He said it was so she wouldn’t disrupt class, but when he took her home with him that afternoon everyone knew it was because he adored her already. She’s every bit as attached to him.”
“How in the world couldn’t you fall in love with this face? Look at her!” I coo while scooping her up in my arms. “You miss your daddy, don’t you girl? The poor thing, I hate the thought of leaving her here by herself for weeks.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll come back by and get her tonight. She’s stayed with me before when he’s went to visit Leia,” he says, leading me through the house and into the kitchen.
I finally get my mind off the dog, putting her down and look around the house. It’s gorgeous, like it could be in a magazine gorgeous. Not one of those girly ones, but the high-end ones like Architectural Digest or something.
It’s so clean and neat. There’s a lot of black and white, with pops of masculine colors here and there. Nik was right when he said he had new and old furniture. I can see very modern pieces mixed in with antiques. I love it. It’s easy to imagine him walking through these rooms in his jeans and white shirt with his bare feet. He would fit right into those beautiful pictures in the magazines.
Lordy, that would be a sight. It would be even better if all he had on were jeans.
Okay Ellie, that’s enough! He won’t be walking through here like that for months, bare feet or not. And he is not yours to be thinking about that way.
“I’m gonna run up and get some stuff for him. Make yourself at home. Wander around and check out the house if you want,” Scott tells me, breaking me out of my internal musings as he finishes up with Roxie’s food. She starts chowing down.
The poor thing must have been starving, bless her heart.
I leave her to it, and walk around to check out the house. The kitchen is huge and all black and white. All the appliances are stainless steel, too. I’m in love with his stove. It has eight burners and two ovens underneath it.
I wonder if he ever actually uses it. Maybe if he has his students over?
I can see him standing in front of that stove cooking. He’s making breakfast for me, and he’s only in his boxer briefs. All of his smooth, tanned back and chest are on display. The fabric of his briefs hugging his perfect ass, and something else we won’t mention in the front. I can imagine myself walking up to him wearing nothing but his white shirt, running my hands up the hard, smooth muscles of his stomach, and up to his chest as I kiss my way across his back from shoulder to shoulder.
Oh my God, Ellie! Stop! What the hell is wrong with you?
I hurry out of the kitchen, and hopefully away from my perverted thoughts, heading outside to the terrace. His backyard isn’t big, but it’s nice and shady with several large trees sprinkled throughout. There’s a patio area below me, and another small terrace above me on the third floor. I would imagine it’s connected to the master bedroom. I’m not going to take myself and my perverted mind up there to find out though.
Lord knows what kind of sexy things my brain would come up with if I saw his bed.
I go back in, and wander through the living room. The sofa is big, white, and spacious. He might be able to spend a few weeks on it if he needed to. It’s low to the ground though, which would be great for someone like me, but with his long ass legs it probably won’t be. A hospital bed might be the way to go for a while. I’m sure he’ll hate that idea.
There’s three very unique wooden tables at the end of the sofa. I wonder if he made them. They remind me of mushrooms that have had most of their tops cut off. With the way they’re made it looks like you could use them as tables or stools, but I’m not gonna try out the stool part. The wood grain is so beautiful. I run my hand over the top of one, and I’m shocked at how smooth it is. If Nik made them, he did an amazing job. The rest of the furniture in here is very modern, but still soft enough to not look harsh or uncomfortable.
I walk into the hallway and run my hands along the thick, shiny black banister of the stairs. It’s so ornate, I can’t imagine the work that went into it. Since I’m not going upstairs to see the bedrooms, I decide to go downstairs and see his studio. I’m half way down when Roxie scares me to death as she flies by and zips straight outside through her doggy door.
When you gotta go, you gotta go.
The first thing I notice is the smell. If I closed my eyes, I’d think I was in a forest. I’m surrounded in the scent of fresh wood. It’s comforting for some reason. Other than two gorgeous modern chairs, everything down here looks old–old enough that my dad probably would have thought it was all old, too.
The toolboxes, the work bench and stools–not to mention the hundreds of tools he has everywhere–are all worn with age. Despite that, everything looks like it has been lovingly preserved to be passed down to the next one that will use them. I have no idea what most of the tools do, but you can tell they have been used to make many things over the years.
I walk over to one of the modern chairs, and run my hands over the beautiful wood sections on it. They’re mostly made from some type of plastic or resin, I think, that’s been molded, but they have gorgeous sections of wood seamlessly fitted into the arms. The legs are made of the same wood, too. The design twists and flows as smoothly as water would. They stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the room. I’m still marveling at them when Scott comes down the stairs.
“Did he make these?” I ask him without looking up.
“He did. Those are some of my favorites of his.”
“I’ve never thought of furniture being a piece of art, but these definitely are. They’re amazing.”
“I agree. Nik has an incredible talent, and I have always enjoyed how he mixes the old with the new. We’re very lucky to have him at the school.” After a minute or two of my silence he speaks up again. “I hate to rush you, but we better run.”
“Oh gosh! I was in my own little world. It was nice getting to know him a little better. I just wish he was here to tell me about all of this. Let’s go, I’m ready.”
Roxie’s still outside running around and barking so we leave her to it. Another twenty minutes later and we’re heading down my driveway.
My driveway. That sounds weird. Not bad, but weird.
“This is a beautiful place, Ellie,” Scott tells me as we pull up.
“Thanks, I think so, too. I can finally be grateful that I have it. The memories aren’t so bad here.” I get out and head up the steps. He follows right behind. “I won’t be a minute. Look around if you want. The view off the back porch is great,” I tell him as we walk in.
I go straight to my room, and over to my suitcase. I never bothered to unpack it. I pull out some clean clothes to change into, and run to the bathroom. Once I’m dressed I go back to my suitcase and pick out some more to take with me. I could take the whole thing, but it’s too bulky. I look around in the closet hoping to find a smaller bag to put some stuff in, and find an old canvas book tote.
It doesn’t smell too musty, so I throw the clothes in, being sure to grab Rachael’s scrubs to take back to her. Maybe the hospital has somewhere I can wash them. I add a few of my bathroom things then pull my charger off the wall, and head back out. I stop in my tracks when I see Scott looking at the one picture I brought from home.
He quickly puts it down. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
I walk over, staring down at us, like always.
“Y’all look so happy,” he says.
“We were, for a little while anyway,” I whisper.
“Was he…
“Yeah, he was.” I trail my fingers over the frame, then make sure it’s straight. “You ready?”
“Umm, sure. Let’s get back and check on our hero.”