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“How’s it coming?” she asked, her voice causing his head to jerk up in surprise. He saw her and stood, walking toward her, leaving his laptop on the table.
He greeted her with a hug, which she returned. She’d come to lean on him, couldn’t imagine doing this without him, had leaned on him heavily in the short week Kathleen had been alive.
“It’s going well. You caught me at the perfect time. I just hit ‘preview.’ But, how’s Kathleen?” he asked, knowing she was doing better today than she had done yesterday, but he hadn’t talked to Kim for several hours, and they’d been doing it long enough to know that Kathleen’s condition could change hour by hour, even minute by minute.
“She’s doing much better than yesterday, still. Glenda is her nurse, and you know Glenda. She’s amazing.”
“It’s funny how the nurses come to feel like family here.”
Kim nodded, appreciating the fact that Davis, while not being chummy with the nurses, valued them, and saw how well they did their job.
He wasn’t a flirt, and she never felt like he catered to the nurses or anything, he was just... Perfect. He showed perfectly that she was the most important one to him, while still giving the nurses deference. She didn’t know how he did it, but he made her feel like she was special, but didn’t make anyone else feel like they weren’t.
“Glenda said as things settled down, and you made it back up, that maybe they’d find time for you to hold her. I told her you would love that.”
“I sure would,” he said, and she could hear the deep desire in his voice. It had been hard for her the first few days when she hadn’t been allowed to hold her baby.
Somehow, Davis had just missed the opportunities. Mostly because he’d been busy taking care of the horses, washing her clothes, and making sure she ate while taking care of her home, her farm and herself.
“You look exhausted,” he said, gently putting his arm around her and walking slowly toward the table where he pulled out a chair for her.
“I am. It’s been such a roller coaster ride.” There had been a few touchy moments where Kathleen had been in a precarious position. But the doctors have been great, and Kathleen had pulled through. Kim felt the prayers of Bill and Bev especially, but the whole town of Blueberry Beach, and also of Strawberry Sands, seemed to be praying for her. The pastor had visited several times, and Kim just felt like she was in really good hands.
“Maybe you can rest in that room they let you use?” Davis asked with his brows lifted.
“You know, I want to refuse, because I don’t want to leave Kathleen for more than the time it takes to eat, but...” She sighed, the sound seeming to come the whole way from her soul, she was just so tired. “If you don’t mind, I think I would like to lie down for a bit.”
“I don’t mind at all. In fact, I’d love to spend the afternoon with Kathleen. I’ll text the social worker now, and see if the room is available.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent off a quick text.
Kim sighed again how well he had been taking care of her, and how much she appreciated it. He didn’t miss anything. Not her tiredness, not her discouragement, not her pain. It was like he was attuned to every little part of her, and wanted to make her as comfortable and happy as possible. She’d never been with someone like that before.
Well, she’d spent one night with someone like that.
She looked down at her lap. It had been wrong, but the way he’d been that night, had been the way he was all the time.
She would have thought after a week he would be tired of catering to her every need, but if anything, he’d gotten to know her better, and hadn’t had to ask her what she wanted. He could just take a look at her face and know.
“I ordered your usual, but if you’d like something else?” he asked as the cafeteria workers called the number that sat on their table.
“That’s perfect.” He probably got her a drink too, non-caffeinated, because she was pumping. The doctors had said that if everything went well, they might start trying to feed Kathleen in another week or two. They had said that there were certain benchmarks that every baby seemed to hit at a certain time, but there were also wide variations, and no two babies were exactly alike. They just let the babies tell them when they were ready for certain things.
That made Kim feel really happy, that they were paying so much attention to how Kathleen was doing, and not forcing her to adhere to a rigid schedule that she wasn’t ready for. But it was also frustrating, because she had no timeline, and didn’t have any way of knowing when something would or wouldn’t happen.
Davis was back shortly with their food. He set her soup and salad in front of her, and opened her drink for her.
“How are your stitches feeling? Your pain level is good?” he asked, settling himself down in the chair, and moving his laptop to where they could look at it without getting any food on it.
“It’s starting to fade. The first few days were the worst, and they went by in a blur, but now, I have times where it doesn’t hurt at all. That makes me want to not move.”
“I bet.”
That’s why he opened her drink for her. Because even doing something little like that gave her pain. She probably should do something for herself, although if it were up to Davis, she wouldn’t be doing anything.
They bowed their heads and he said a short prayer. He always mentioned Kathleen, and, what really impressed her was that he thanked God for caring for her, every time, before he asked God for continued care. It was something that seemed to be a hallmark of Davis. Showing appreciation before he asked for more.
It had convicted Kim more than once, since she often just sent bullet prayers to the Lord, asking for more and more and more.
“All right, if you don’t mind, I can show you the website while you eat.”
