“Probably so. Now, do you use your walker in the house or what?” I ask.
Personally, I think she should use the wheelchair since she’s only a few weeks out from major, life-saving abdominal surgery. I know that she has a home healthcare nurse that comes in twice a week to check her incisions, and that she now has both a physical and occupational therapist who each visit twice a week. Today was a physical therapy day and they do a lot of work with the walker to help Marnie regain her strength. Knowing my stubborn woman, she probably pushed herself as hard as she could so she could get back to her independent ways.
“Wheelchair. Monica kicked my ass this morning before she left,” she admits. “I’m glad Paul didn’t even blink an eye when I asked for it earlier. I feel like such a burden, Ash.”
“Sweetheart, you’re not a burden. Let those who love and care about you help you right now, okay?” I reply as I wheel her into the bathroom. I’m still impressed as hell that Paul and his friends renovated the bathroom to accommodate Marnie. Where the bathtub once was, there’s now a roll-in shower, completewith a shower chair, plenty of bars for her to hold onto, and a hand-held shower head with a long hose. They also installed a raised toilet and put safety bars on the wall, so she has something to assist her when sitting and standing.
Once I have her in the bathroom, I lock the brakes and say, “Okay, I’ll wait outside. I think you can take it from here.”
She snickers then states, “We discussed me retaining some of the mystery, remember?”
“I remember,” I tease as I leave the bathroom and close the door. To give her privacy, I step further down the hall. Not so far away that I can’t get to her if I need to, just enough so she doesn’t feel like I’m listening in. When I finally hear the water in the sink running, I move closer so when she opens the door, I can maneuver her out of the bathroom and down the hall toward the kitchen.
“Well, hello, sleepyhead,” Esther says as she sets a plate at the table where it’s obvious Marnie has been sitting. “Go ahead and eat. Ash, do you want anything? I have some chicken chili in the crockpot that’s ready.”
“That sounds good if it’s not too much trouble.”
“No trouble at all,” Esther replies as she pulls down a bowl and begins to ladle the soup into it. She cuts a piece of cornbread and places all of it at the table. “Want some tea?”
“Absolutely.” I’m not a huge fan of sweet tea, but Esther does something with hers that takes the bitterness I taste in others’ tea out of it. I don’t know what the secret is, but it’s refreshing and will definitely hit the spot.
“Do you really think I could learn to tattoo?” Marnie asks between bites of her food. She’s eating a chicken breast and mashed potatoes.
“Don’t see why not. A lot of tattoo artists draw and sketch, but I’ve never seen such clean lines before. I think you’d do well, sweetheart,” I tell her. “Then you won’t have to work at the bar. You work too hard.”
She rolls her eyes at me, then says, “I’ll still take shifts on the weekend, Ash. It’s a great way for me to get exercise without going to the gym since I hate doing that.”
I definitely have a few ideas about her getting her cardio in, that’s for damn sure. Unfortunately, that’s weeks away. “We’ll see,” I murmur.
“Whatever,” she huffs out, now glaring at me.
Oops. Forgot she’s a wee bit independent. “As long as you don’t wear yourself out, Marnie, that’s my biggest concern.”
She shakes her head and sighs. “Trust me, right now, I feel like a newborn foal, so it’s not going to be any time soon.”
“How was physical therapy this morning?” Esther asks, bringing over a bushel of green beans.
“Exhausting,” Marnie replies. “But Ash made me take some pain meds and then lay down, so I’m refreshed.”
“Good. Are you ready to learn how to process green beans for canning?” Esther queries.
“Yes! Can we do them on the porch? I wanna see how the girls are doing,” my woman asks.
“Don’t see why not. Ash, if you’ll get her out there, I’ll clean up really quick and meet y’all out there.”
And that’s how I find myself spending the afternoon, listening to my woman, Holly, and Esther gossip while Rebel, Paul, Mina, Ruby, and I work on painting the rest of the signs. Once they are dry, we’ll use different glow-in-the-dark paints to fill in the words. By the time we’re done, every one of us has black streaks, but Rebel is by far the worst.
As I make my way up to where only Marnie is sitting, I lean in and cup her face. “Been waiting to do this all day, babe,” I whisper against her lips.
When her arms go around my neck, I deepen the touch, my tongue seeking entrance as her essence nearly overwhelms me. “Fuck,” I murmur. I’m never going to get enough of her, I can already tell from our kiss. Long moments pass by until we break apart, both of us gasping for air.
“I liked that,” she tells me, a light blush covering her cheeks.
“There’s definitely more where that came from,” I reply just as the screen door opens and Rebel pops his head out. He’s freshly showered, his hair dripping down his neck.
“Now that you two are finished chewing each other’s faces off, dinner’s done and Esther’s ready to serve it up,” he says, smirking at me. I shoot him the bird as Marnie bursts out laughing, holding her stomach.
She manages to get herself turned around and Rebel holds the door while I push her through to the kitchen and over to the table. Mina and Ruby are chattering a mile a minute, filling Paul in on everything they did, even though he was there for the lastpart of it. Surprisingly, he was the only one who stayed relatively clean.
