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He was surprised he’d talked her into it but was thrilled just the same.
It probably had more to do with the fact she was mobile more than before.
Her cast was off and she was just using crutches to take some of the weight off her leg. She’d healed well and her doctor was thrilled.
She opted for this over the walking cast. She’d told him more than once, she was ready to be done with the crutches but wanted to get back to wearing normal clothes and shoes on both her feet. He found it funny but guess he understood too.
By next week she was going to go down to one crutch for a bit to make sure she was steady enough in her head and then ditch them altogether. He just didn’t want her rushing it or pushing herself too much, as the vision of her unconscious as he ran from the car with her in his arms was still imprinted in his brain, not usual for a man that normally could walk away from anything in his past.
“It’s beautiful out here,” she said to Luke.
“It is,” he said. “It’s the first place I can say I’ve had alone. I’ve had apartments alone, but since you are sharing walls with people, I didn’t consider it such.”
“Is this the first house you’ve lived in?” she asked.
“Yep,” he said, stretching his arms up over his head. “I spent my whole life in apartments. Not even rented homes.”
“Other than college dorms and here, I’ve only ever lived in one place my whole life.”
“Really?” he asked, looking over at her. He hadn’t shaven in a few days again and ran his hand over his beard. He knew Heather liked that look on him, but when he was ready for work he’d shave it. He could go either way.
“Yeah. My parents bought their house before I was born, so that is where I’ve been. I went to college a few hours away. Not too far. I could get home easily enough on the weekends and did often.”
“You missed your family?” he asked. He had no clue how that would feel. He couldn’t get away fast enough.
“I guess so. More of it had to do with guilt. I was the baby and my mother missed me. She kept asking me to come home. I had friends and did things at college, but there were times it was loud and noisy there too and I wanted some quiet. I guess I can understand why you like it so much here.”
“It doesn’t seem like it was that quiet in your house with your brothers,” he said.
She’d told him multiple stories of how her brothers always fought and wrestled. They threw each other into walls when they were horsing around.
Or if they weren’t going after each other then they were picking on her. Being overprotective or teaching her how to defend herself.
He got the feeling she liked that as a kid but not so much when she got older.
“Not really. But by the time I was in college they weren’t around much. Gavin was already on the police force. He got hired right out of college, but he was working a lot and going out. Noah went to trade school and is a licensed electrician. He always knew he wanted to be a fireman, but it takes time to get in. They like a fireman to have other trades too, they do work on things at the firehouse.”
“Makes sense,” he said.
“Plus a lot of firemen have other careers since they don’t work a normal shift. Kind of like you.”
“I don’t have time for another career,” he said.
“I know. I didn’t mean it that way. But it’s different with firemen. Anyway, Noah was home too, but he was a volunteer fireman and he was working. Then the two of them finally got their own apartment together my second year of college.”
“Which meant you were the last one home and your mom wanted you there more.”
She let out a sigh and reached for his hand. “Yeppers,” she said. “When I hit my senior year though, I was coming home less. I had a boyfriend and wanted to be on campus. Plus when I brought him back with me my brothers were a pain in the butt.”
He laughed. “As older brothers should be,” he said. “What happened to the college boyfriend?”
She turned her head to look at him. “He couldn’t handle my brothers. When we graduated he went back to where he was from and wasn’t willing to move closer to me. I wasn’t ready to leave either.”
“But you did,” he said.
“Because of my grandmother,” she said.
This was the first he was hearing this. “What about your grandmother?”
