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She was buttoning his shirt, his fingers too stiff to do it, and when he didn’t respond, she looked up at him. “What?”
“It might be weird,” he said. “I’ll be jealous, hearing about work and not able to go to the station.”
“You’ll be back to work in no time,” she said, finishing his shirt buttons.
“I’m not sure about that,” he said, turning to get his wallet and comb off the counter. “All I want to do right now is sleep.”
“That’s depression talking,” Lila said. “You have to trust me on this. Depression is my middle name. Right now you’re grieving, and you have to let some time pass for the healing to even begin. Plus, you’re injured. That’s taking a toll on your mental state right there.”
Talking about it exhausted him. He didn’t reply, leading the way out of the room to the receptionist, where the nurse would tell him when his operating room time was. Having to be at the hospital at eight in the morning was enough to make him just want to forget it, let nature take its course. He repeated that to Lila on the way out to her car.
“Oh, great. Have a weeping wound on the side of your face for the rest of your life. I don’t think that sounds like a great way to move toward a romantic life, personally.”
Her delivery made him laugh, but he regretted it. “Stop it. It hurts to laugh.”
“Well, I rest my case.”
He begged off going to lunch with her, preferring to be alone with Tilly and Ralph, who sniffed him wildly when he got home.
“Sorry, guys. It’s that creepy hospital smell again, isn’t it?”
Back in his bedroom, he struggled with the buttons on his shirt again and finally just pulled it over his head, which was worse. Sweatpants and a hoodie and he was ready for coffee and a lounge chair. The cool days of fall were there temporarily, with hot, dry weather forecast for the weekend again.
The dogs lay alongside him, overlooking the valley to the sea. Sometime after he’d finished coffee, he fell asleep. The sound of a car engine woke him when the sun was low on the horizon.
“How long did I sleep?” he mumbled, confused.
Picking up his phone, he saw that it was four. He’d slept for three hours. The dogs got up and stretched just as a familiar car came into view, and they perked up with tails wagging and ran to greet Aisling.
“I couldn’t stay away,” she said, pushing the door wide so the dogs could sniff her. “I hope you don’t mind. I won’t spend the night.”
A feeling of peace and relief passed over him. “You can move in permanently if you want. I can’t believe this, but I fell asleep on that chair right after I got home from seeing the doctor and I’m just waking up.”
Concerned, Aisling looked up at him. “What did the doctor say?”
“I have to go to the OR tomorrow morning for a debridement or something disgusting.”
“Okay, I’ve got this,” she said. “I’ll take the dogs with me tonight.”
“No, that’s okay, Lila will take me in, and if I have to stay overnight, she’ll keep an eye on things here. But I told the doctor I don’t want to stay.”
“Nowadays you practically have to be dead to stay overnight. I’m sure you’ll be home. I’ll bring you here, as a matter of fact.”
“Come in. I have to feed the hounds.”
“I’ll make dinner if you’re okay with it.”
“I’m fine with it,” Devon said. “How was your first day back?”
“Typical. I got the worst patient as punishment for taking time off.”
“It’s not like you went on a cruise,” Devon replied.
“Yeah, they don’t care about that. One woman kept sneaking the number of days I was off into the conversation. Nothing is sacred, trust me.”
“That’s awful. I hope you let her have it,” he said.
“I told her I really enjoyed myself at my husband’s funeral. That shut her up finally.”
