The road to recovery the next morning was gruesome and grizzly. First, she stumbled into a hot shower, and just tried not to think too much. After she'd freshened up and managed to dress for the day, she shuffled her way slowly downstairs.
Breakfast, coffee, and painkillers were next on her recovery list.
Thank the good Lord that it was Saturday and she didn't have to run the daycare.
She found her female relatives predictably lying in wait to ambush her as soon as she entered the kitchen. Cassie had come over and her son Charlie was playing with Amanda's three kids out on the back porch.
It was a lovely spring day and they had opened all the windows to let in the refreshing breeze.
An apple pie was cooling on the windowsill and Lucy felt her appetite spark to life.
Flora set a plate of pancakes, homemade hash browns, bacon, and scrambled eggs down on the table and indicated that Lucy should tuck in.
Paula, Lucy's stepmother, smiled tentatively and placed a mug of coffee down at Lucy's elbow, then backed away. "Lucy, honey, we're all just so relieved that you're okay and that you're safe and sound with us."
The other four all nodded in fervent agreement.
"The shooting is all over the news!" Aunt Martha volunteered and Flora elbowed her with a reproving frown.
Lucy's hand trembled slightly as she poured a generous amount of maple syrup on her buttermilk pancakes.
Her two older sisters came over to hug her around the shoulders from behind before leaving her in peace for a while to eat.
When she had consumed as much as she possibly could and had gotten some coffee in her, she took a few painkillers and finally felt prepared to discuss what had happened.
Amanda was the one to speak first, clutching her own mug of coffee. "It's so awful, what's happened to Fenton. Everyone's in total shock and poor Mary-Lou is just devastated, of course."
Lucy bit on her lip as her sympathetic heart ached for Mary-Lou. Losing a loved one was the worst thing that could happen to a person.
"We've made her a pie and a few casseroles." Martha pointed out needlessly, gesturing at the glass dishware that cluttered the kitchen counters.
"Anyway, enough talk of gloomy stuff!" Martha suggested, shifting around in her wheelchair with an avid expression that Lucy didn't much care for. "You have to give us the scoop on you and Sean, Lucy! We've all just been dying to know!"
Grandma Flora rolled her eyes. "Well, some of us were dying, some of us were managing to endure in mildly agonized suspense."
Lucy laughed as she hugged her sturdy and ever-so-slightly plump grandmother.
Next, she turned to face her stepmother. "Morning, Paula. You didn't have to come all the way over here, it's seriously not that big a deal, guys." Lucy said, forcing a smile as she quickly hugged the young, gorgeous Latina woman. Paula was only a few years older than Sean, who was only a few years older than Lucy.
Paula clasped her firmly by the shoulders for a few moments as her golden-brown eyes swept over her. "Nonsense! We're very happy that you're safely home with us, Lucy. My goodness, how crazy this has all been! We're just so relieved you weren't hurt!"
Lucy forced another smile, easing back from her. "Thanks."
"You were lucky Sean was there to save you!" Martha piped in helpfully.
The kids had made their way back into the kitchen, lured by the scent of pie, no doubt. Lucy looked down at her niece as Kailee hung affectionately off her leg; hiding her expression at the mention of Sean.
"I heard some gossip from Matt that when Sean found you at the scene; at the Miller farm, he swept you literally right off your feet and carried you away like some kind of romance novel or something!" This was volunteered by Amanda, who could gossip with the best of them, though she liked to pretend she was too good for it.
Just then, Guy came in from doing his morning chores. His weathered face brightened up at the sight of his youngest daughter.
"Lucy bell!" He cried, in his deep, booming voice. "Good to see you up, girl. Tell me you're alright."
Lucy smiled wryly to herself as her father roped her in for a big, tight hug. She patted his back in a comforting fashion. "I'm okay, Daddy, I promise."
He set her back from him, holding her by the shoulders and gazing down at her sternly. "What the heck were you thinking, wandering around on your own while you knew an escaped fugitive was loose?!"
"Guy." Paula said in a soft, coaxing voice.
He sighed heavily. "I just can't lose you." He said, in a gruff tone.
"You're not gonna lose me, Papa." Lucy said quietly.
"Promise?"
"Promise." She smiled and hugged her dear old dad, savoring the smell of leather, alfalfa, and horse that always lingered about his clothes.
If she had to describe the specific aroma of Home, those were the scents she would choose.
###
Lucy was puttering listlessly about the garden later that afternoon, feeling quite sorry for herself indeed, when a big black pickup truck came revving up the driveway.
She straightened up with her vegetable basket dangling from her arm and groaned aloud. "You've gotta be kidding me."
Sean went into the house first, but he came ambling out of the back door with a mug of coffee in his hand just a short while later.
Bracing herself, she set her basket aside and folded her arms beneath her breasts. "What're you doing here, Kallaghan? Don't you have, like, a job to go do...somewhere else?"
Sean chuckled, not one to be easily deterred. "I had to come by to check on ya, now didn't I?"
She wrinkled her nose at him. "No, you really didn't." She picked up her basket and made to edge past him.
He smoothly side-stepped, deliberately getting in her way.
She shook back her hair to glower up at him, blue eyes positively smoldering now. "Excuse me, sir."
"You're excused." He smiled with brave benevolence down at her, even reaching out to rearrange the collar of her jacket for her.
Her eyes widened with infuriated disbelief.
"You know, I can't help but notice that for someone whose life I've recently just saved, you sure have an unflattering lack of gratefulness." He said to her, taking her vegetable basket from her.
"I said 'thank you'!" She retorted hotly, trying and failing to wrestle the basket free from him. "What do you want from me exactly, Sean? I'm not gonna offer myself to you just because you do your job and protect me!"
He chuckled again, ever so maddeningly. "Just a little gratitude goes a long way, is all I'm sayin'."
She finally managed to nab the basket of baby spinach and radishes back from him. "Did you really come all the way here to chastise me for not thanking you?"
"No, of course not. Like I said, I had to come check on you. You were pretty messed up the last time I saw you, no offense."
Lucy turned away from him to hide her embarrassed flush. She headed towards the back porch to set down her basket and trade it in for another one with which to go collect the chicken eggs in.
"So? How are you doing, Lucy?" He asked her quietly.
She turned around and jumped to find him standing directly behind her. She glared up at him unappreciatively. "I'm fine, thank you very much."
He arced one dark eyebrow at her. "Really?"
"Really. Promise. Now kindly go away, good sir!"
"Because, in my experience, people who're really doing okay don't usually jump at shadows." He said conversationally, as he followed her over to the chicken coup.
She opened the chicken wire gate and closed it quickly in his face when he tried to duck through and accompany her.
Grinning vindictively, she latched the gate shut. "I'm not jumping at shadows, you're just a bully! See? I'm functioning well enough to fend you off, aren't I? Now off with yee! Shoo!"
She stooped inside the enclosure where the chickens roosted, and she took her time inside, hoping that he would get the hint and go away. When she ventured back out, however, he was still there.
Lounging with his back to an apple tree, he seemed about as unlikely to go anywhere as the tree itself.
She sighed as she stepped out of the coup with her basket of eggs. "Do you seriously have nothing better to do than pester me, cowboy?"
He opened his eyes and grinned. He'd been snoozing apparently, his fingers laced across his abs.
Sean straightened up and stretched as she approached him. "Nope."
She quickly averted her eyes before she gave in to the temptation to ogle his body.
"Well, then..." She said, and she tossed him a garden hoe out of the tool shed. "You're in luck! The garden just happens to need hoeing for springtime. You can handle that, right?"
He caught the wooden handle of the hoe, staring at her with big brown eyes. She almost laughed at the look on his face.
Almost.
He grimaced at her. "Yeah, I should be able to handle that, boss."
"Good. I'll be back soon to check on your progress." As she walked away, she did finally smile.
~ ~ ~
Good for her; gettin' him to do chores! LOL
Happy weekend, ya'll! And happy reading!
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