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“Just let me take care of you for the next few days without argument, okay? Then we can discuss the terms of your return to work with Ivy.”
“We?” I asked in a tone that should leave no question to my point.
His smile was immediate and placating. “Meaning you and Ivy, but I would make sure you had something to eat while you were doing it.”
“That’s cause you’re the best, Lance Garland,” I said on a sigh as I sank into the bed. Ivy had insisted on staying at the hospital with us rather than going home and having to disturb Lucy when we needed a ride to Lance’s. She gave me strict orders not to show up in her diner unless it was to eat.
“No, I’m not. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have yelled at you or left you alone in that bakery. I was too afraid to hear you say you were moving out when you found out I couldn’t take the promotion.”
I closed my eyes for a moment before I opened them again. “Why would I decide to move out because you didn’t take a promotion? I thought we’d been over this.”
His lips pursed, but he didn’t say anything. He just kept stroking my forehead in silence for a few moments. Finally, he said, “It’s time to rest, Gumdrop. I’ll wake you every two hours like the doctor instructed and keep ice on your head. Hopefully, by morning, at least the headache will be gone.” He kissed my cheek and then closed his eyes as though he were asleep instantly.
“Lance Garland,” I said with pointed determination. “I will not sleep a wink until you tell me why you think I would move out because you didn’t take a promotion. I want to hear it. Now.”
He sighed, opened his eyes, and kept them pinned on the ceiling. “I tried to explain it to Ivy already once tonight and it was too hard, Indie. Please. I’m tired.”
“I am too, but I won’t sleep until you tell me. I have the right to know, considering you’re the one who accused me of something without knowing it was true.”
He sat up and spun around to face me. His hair fell down over his forehead and he pushed it back with his fingers, leaving them in the locks when he spoke. “Please understand that I thought you knew about the promotion and didn’t tell Ivy there was no way I could do it. That was what she implied, or maybe what I heard, as she was talking. You know that my brain doesn’t work right under stressful situations. The idea of having to go to business school, glasses or no glasses, when I can’t write, sent me into a tailspin.”
“I can understand miscommunication, Lance. I wasn’t upset with you for thinking that, or even for implying that we didn’t belong together, once I talked to Ivy. I know how your mind works and I knew you would come back as soon as you had time to think things over when you weren’t stressed or upset.”
“Which is exactly what happened,” he agreed with a head nod. “But see, the thing is, taking that promotion would have given me a new career path and with that an increase in salary.”
I rubbed my fingers inside the cast while I tried to puzzle out what he was saying. “It would have, but Lance, I know what your abilities are and where we have wiggle room and where we don’t. Those glasses give us wiggle room,” I said, pointing at the box on the table. “They allow you to get things done here when I’m not around without having to wait for me to check something over. That’s great. That makes your life easier. It will be the same at work, but those glasses can’t hold a pen on paper and make it write.”
He shook his head. “No, they can’t. The writing didn’t come back and it never will, as I explained to Ivy tonight.”
“I know this, Lance. It still doesn’t tell me why you think I’d move out if you didn’t take a promotion.”
He stared at the mattress rather than make eye contact. “My earning potential will always be held back by my learning potential, and that’s not high.”
“No,” I said immediately. “You’re wrong there, Lance. Your learning potential is high, as long as the information is presented in the right way. Are you going to read a book? No. You’re going to listen to the audiobook. Can you read a recipe step by step? No, but you can watch a video. You can’t look at it as being held back.”
He tossed his hand up. “See, this is that wholeyou have no limitations but the ones you give yourselfcrap I was trying to explain to Ivy,” he said, throwing around air quotes like an enraged middle school girl.
I paused and really listened to what he said and then thought back to the few times he’d said it before. That was when the light came on. “You’re afraid that I don’t want to be with you because you can’t make enough money to make me happy?”
His shrug held the truth. “You have to admit that as the breadwinner, there won’t be a lot of bread coming in the door.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” I asked, sitting up and grasping his chin. “Do I look like the kind of person who cares how much money you make? I can answer that question myself. No, I do not. I also don’t believe in the antiquated idea that only one person can be the breadwinner. I work. I earn a living doing the exact same kind of work you do!”
“Wrong,” he said on a shake of his head. “You are a manager.”
“That’s true, but before that I was a waitress for a whole lot of years, Lance. You tell me I can’t compare your mom to mine, which by the way, your mom was the best, Brenda proved that last night,” I said, motioning at my side that had six stitches in it. The doctors said I was lucky the knife she had was small or it could have been much worse. “Anyway, I’m not with you because of how much money you make. I’m with you because I love you. I’m with you because you make me happy. I’m with you because we feel right together, don’t you understand that?”
“I do now,” he said, lifting his head to meet my gaze. “Ivy said people talk about us the same way they did about her and Shep all those years ago. She said we don’t realize how much we do for each other without even thinking about it. We just do it, and instinctively know that’s what the other person needs. In her words, we’re soulmates.”
I took his hand and squeezed it. “I agree with Ivy. I’m not leaving my soulmate now that I finally convinced him to love me.”
His lips found mine and he kissed me gently, being careful of my forehead. “You didn’t have to convince him to love you. You just had to convince him it was okay to. He’d loved you for years.”
“Same, my soulmate, same. Now, can we go to sleep without worrying about what tomorrow will bring? I know I have some legal situations to deal with, but it’s almost Christmas and I want to find a little joy in that season.” I gasped when a thought came back to me and I couldn’t stop the tear that fell down my cheek.
“What hurts?” he asked, kneeling to arrange the pack on my forehead better.
“Nothing! I just realized that we won’t have the Michelle Garland Cookie this year!”
