Page 11 of Heart of a Hero

“What have you been up to?” Conrad asked.

Forrest put the lid on the pot. “Just a few more minutes.” He turned away from the stove. “Lizzie thought it would be a good idea to make you some soup. You had what we needed, so the two of us made some. We were hoping it would make you feel better. Do you think you could eat a little?”

The thought didn’t make his stomach recoil. “Yeah, I think so.” What he wanted was to go back to bed and sleep some more, but maybe a little food was what he needed first. He waited until the soup was done and ate a small bowl. It tasted good, and Conrad had doubted anything possibly could. His daughter seemed to like it and ate like a champ. “I’m sorry.” He finished the bowl and sat back, his eyelids getting really heavy. “My mom is around, she can come take Lizzie.”

“She called hours ago,” Forrest said. “I told her not to worry. She has a date tonight. They’re going to dinner and then the symphony. So I said I would stay with Lizzie and watch over you.”

Damn, even when he was sick, Forrest was kind. He’d taken care of Lizzie for most of the day, made dinner, and was nice to his mom. What more could Conrad want? And to top it off, Forrest was sexy, like, lick-him-all-over sexy. He might be sick, but he wasn’t dead. Though he probably should keep all these revelations to himself until he was feeling better. Slowly, he got up and returned to the sofa, curled up under the blanket, and listened to Lizzie and Forrest as they chatted.

He fell to sleep once again and woke a little while later to the sounds of The Little Mermaid. He managed to stay awake long enough to see the end of the movie. Then he took Lizzie upstairs and put her to bed. Thankfully, she settled right to sleep, and he stroked her forehead and left the room to return downstairs. Forrest was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

“Are you going to make it to the sofa? You look unsteady on your feet.” Instantly, he was engulfed in strong arms and guided to the sofa, where he settled. Forrest spread the blanket over him and found another movie. Then he sat next to him, and Conrad leaned against Forrest, soaking in the heat that radiated off him.

“You feel so good,” he said with a sigh, resting his head on Forrest’s shoulder. “I already knew you were a good guy, but I didn’t know you were this good a guy. If you know what I mean.” He closed his eyes as Forrest put an arm around him. “What are you watching?”

“The new Frankenstein,” Forrest said. “I wanted to see it in the theater, but you have this crazy big TV, so do you mind?”

“Of course not.” He wanted to see it too, so he forced himself to stay awake and managed to watch until the creation met the blind man. At that point his eyes grew heavy, and the next thing he knew, the credits were running and he realized he had missed the last part of the story. “Sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay. You’ve been sick. How do you feel?”

“A little hungry,” Conrad answered, and Forrest slipped away, returning with a couple of pieces of buttered toast and a glass of juice. Conrad ate and drank all of what Forrest had brought, finally feeling a little better. He set the plate on the coffee table and stood, suddenly wobbly on his feet.

Forrest was there to catch him, and he guided Conrad up to his bedroom. Conrad slipped under the sheets and closed his eyes. “Thank you,” he said into the darkness, knowing Forrest was there. It was surprising, but in that moment, he knew just what the kids in Forrest’s class felt: his strength and kindness, and that they were safe with him. Forrest was gentle, and he would watch over him if necessary. It was a wonderful feeling, and one he hadn’t thought he could ever have again.

Trust. It was such a small word, and yet such a big thing. With his sucky past, trust was hard for him to come by, and yet he had fallen asleep with Forrest there. Hell, he had been in bed and Forrest had stayed downstairs with his daughter and he hadn’t given it a second thought. He was just sinking into sleep when Forrest’s lips touched his forehead.

The soft kiss filled him with warmth from being cared for. He knew what that was, and he pulled Forrest closer. “Stay…,” he whispered as the last vestiges of control stole from his mind and he slipped into slumber.

It wasn’t until he got up hours later to use the bathroom that he got the answer to his question if what he remembered was real. Forrest lay on the other side of the bed, his wide back to him. When he returned, Forrest hadn’t moved, and Conrad got back into bed, drawn closer to his warmth.

When he woke again, they had shifted in the night. Forrest had rolled over, and Conrad was cradled in his arms with his back pressed to Forrest’s chest. Something else was also pressed against him, and Conrad breathed deeply and tensed for a few seconds because, damn, Forrest was big all over. He was tempted to roll over, kiss Forrest awake, and see what happened, but Forrest moved away, and Conrad slowly rolled over to find him getting out of bed.

“It’s Sunday.” He really lost track of time while he was sick.

“Yes. But I can’t have Lizzie spreading the word at school that her teacher slept over at her house.” He leaned over the bed, giving Conrad a gentle kiss. “I’ll call you later. Okay?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Conrad whispered. He really did. That sort of thing would complicate Forrest’s life in ways Conrad could only begin to imagine, and swearing Lizzie to secrecy was not going to work. Kids her age talked about everything. “I’ll talk to you soon. Okay?” He smiled and snuggled under the covers as Forrest dressed quickly and left the house.

Conrad lay still and regretted that Forrest was gone. He had slept well and thankfully felt a lot better. He checked the clock and realized Lizzie was going to be up at any time, so he forced his body to work and went downstairs. On Sundays he usually made a really nice breakfast for them, but he didn’t have the energy, so instead, he found some toaster waffles and got them out for Lizzie between wishing that Forrest was still there.

DURING THE day, he spent much of his time on the sofa. His mom came over at noon and made him some lunch. She was also good enough to bring over dinner, and by Monday morning he was feeling okay… until he went into work and Lester was waiting at his desk.

“First thing in the morning?” Conrad asked. That must mean that something had happened and Lester was there to gloat or cause trouble.

“Jansen had issues with their systems over the weekend.” He was the on-call person, so he had taken the call.

“And what did you do about it?” Conrad asked. He’d had his phone with him, and even though he was sick, he had taken calls. Forrest had messaged and called to make sure he was okay

“It’s not my account,” he snipped. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Well, since you didn’t get in touch with me, you should have fixed it. But I’m sure you didn’t know the first thing about it, so you what? Just let it go? Figured I’d get to it this morning?” He raised his eyebrows, and for the first time, Lester seemed flustered. “That’s all you did.” He shook his head. “This is the preparation of their month-end, and they have a great deal to do.” He logged in and searched for the issue before getting on the phone, ignoring Lester, who was worse than useless. “What?” he asked when Lester still hadn’t moved. At some point, he must have left while Conrad was ignoring him.

He got Tyler, the manager with Jansen, on the phone and apologized for not getting back to him.

“We’re dead in the water right now.”

“I saw that. But it looks like most things ran. There was an issue in posting.” He went through what he saw and helped Tyler find the answer. Once he corrected it, the system finished running and the next process kicked off. “It’s going to take the system some time to catch up, but you should be ready to roll in a few hours. Tell your people to go ahead and work on their spreadsheets, and they can upload as soon as the processes are done.”