Mr. Miracle (7 page)

“You’re attracted to her.” Celeste’s tone implied he might as well transfer straight back to the pearly gates after less than a week on Earth.

“It’s more a case of her coming on to me,” he assured his mentor. “She asked me to accompany her to the Christmas concert … I made an excuse, said I’d be late, but she insisted on saving a place for me. What do I do?” he pleaded, feeling almost desperate. His heart was pounding and his
breathing had gone shallow. It was absolutely necessary that he find an excuse to get out of this concert.

“Well, Harry,” Celeste said, slowly shaking her head. “It seems to me you’ve got yourself into a pickle.”

That was the last thing he wanted to hear.

Although she had twenty-four hours to think it over, Addie knew this situation with Erich was going to be a difficult one. They needed to talk, and frankly, Addie wasn’t looking forward to the conversation. Her steps dragged, her feet heavy, as she crossed the matted winter lawn from her family home to the house in which Erich had been raised.

Julie Simmons opened the wreath-adorned front door even before Addie had the opportunity to ring the doorbell. Her eyes, the same shade of blue as her son’s, expressed deep relief and gratitude.

“Erich’s awake,” she whispered. “He’s home from the
hospital, but he didn’t have a good night. Because it’s difficult for him to get up and down, he’ll need to sleep in a chair for the next couple of days … maybe longer.”

In other words, Erich wasn’t in the best of moods. For that matter, neither was Addie. She hadn’t slept well, either, tossing and turning in a futile pursuit of sleep. She glanced at him and saw that both his hands from midway up his fingers to his elbows were in casts, making any kind of movement difficult. Basically, he was helpless.

The instant she’d made the offer to take care of Erich, her mother and Julie had been filled with grateful relief. They’d gushed with appreciation, thanking her over and over again.

Addie had assumed she’d feel good about being able to do this for her mother. Quite the contrary. Already she was filled with dread, and her mother and neighbor hadn’t even left for the airport. If Addie hadn’t been able to get along with Erich for the first eighteen years of her life, it seemed crazy to think she would now. Being his caregiver would surely prove to be her worst nightmare.

And his, too.

“Come in, come in,” Julie insisted, reaching out and grabbing Addie by the elbow and practically dragging her inside the house. The door slammed in her wake.

Her reluctance couldn’t have been any more evident.
Automatically, her gaze flew to Erich, who sat in the living room in a recliner, his feet raised. A hand-knit afghan covered his legs. Both wrists in their casts rested in his lap. He looked miserable and in pain. One side of his face was bruised, and his lips were swollen.

“I’ll leave you two to chat,” Julie said, and quickly left the room.

Addie moved into the living room and stood with her fingers tucked into the back pockets of her jeans.

“You can sit down if you want,” Erich said. One eye had swollen completely shut, she noticed.

“Thanks, but no thanks.” Addie preferred to stand. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather stand.”

“Have it your way.”

“Your mother must have mentioned my offer.”

“Yeah, she told me. Am I supposed to be happy about that?”

His mother was right—Erich was in a rare mood. She swallowed back a retort, doing her best to remember he was in pain and not to take it personally. She bit her tongue and managed to restrain herself from snapping back.

“I’d rather it be anyone but you,” he said.

Oh, he liked adding salt to a wound.

“Trust me, the feeling is mutual.”

He muttered, “I figured as much.”

“Isn’t there anyone else who could step in?” she asked.
At first she was embarrassed to have been so blunt. Then she figured, what was the point of hiding her eagerness to escape this situation?

“Like who?”

“Don’t you have someone who cares?” Because, clearly, she didn’t, and she wanted to be sure he knew it.

He rotated his head and looked away from her. “Not currently.”

So much for that. “What about a friend?” She was beginning to sound desperate.

“Listen, Addie, you’re not obligated to do this.”

She was well aware of that.

Julie, who must have been listening in on their conversation, stepped around the corner from the kitchen. “The insurance company is providing a nurse to stop by once a day. She’ll see to bathing him and so on. I asked about increasing the time she spent with Erich, you know, like a private nurse,” she added, “but the cost was astronomical, far and away more than we could afford.”

“My friends work during the day,” Erich explained. “Even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t ask them to be my caregivers. Not this time of year … or any other time,” he qualified.

All the solutions they’d tried were the ones Addie had hoped to suggest. She felt her heart sinking.

“Then I guess it’s up to me.” Her attitude was fatalistic at this point.

“Don’t bother,” Erich insisted, glaring at her. “I’ll be just fine without you or anyone else.”

“Sure you will,” Addie murmured sarcastically. He couldn’t do anything on his own. She’d literally have to spoon-feed him.

His mother dropped her voice as though that would prevent him from hearing. “He hasn’t been feeling well this morning, and that makes him a little cranky. I think it might be one of the side effects from the pain medication. I know you two had your differences when you were teenagers, but you’re adults now, right?”

“Right,” Addie admitted reluctantly.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Her look was strained, but hopeful. “He won’t always be this … unpleasant, I’m sure.”

“Actually, I think his bad mood is related to the fact that he’s about to be stuck with me,” Addie returned, mustering a smile.

Erich smiled, too, for the first time since she’d arrived, letting her know she was spot-on.

“I’ll leave you two alone to sort all this out,” Julie said, rubbing her palms together as though to generate heat in a room that had gone decidedly cool. “I’m going to finish packing my carry-on.”

Addie moved across the living room to stand in front of the fireplace. His mother had tacked up two Christmas
stockings that looked crocheted. She focused her gaze on them.

“My grandmother made those for us when I was just a kid,” Erich explained. “Mom still puts them up every year, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re going down as soon as she walks out the door. I can’t stand Christmas.”

“Fine, if that’s the way you feel. I’m not going to force you into a Santa suit.” Nor was she interested in discussing how he felt about Christmas decorations. She had more important matters on her mind. Gathering her resolve, she faced him and asked the most important question, the one that had been on her mind most of the night. “Can we do this?” she asked.

From the intensity of his returning look, she knew she didn’t need to explain the question. It went without saying that they didn’t like each other. But were they capable of putting aside their differences long enough to survive the next two weeks? It wouldn’t be easy on either of them. It would be more difficult for Erich than for her, being that he was the injured party and the one in need of help. He must hate the thought of being in her debt.

“Do we have a choice?” he returned, with a question of his own.

“I don’t think we do,” Addie murmured. She’d spent a good portion of the night seeking alternative solutions, all
of which they had already considered and eliminated before she could even propose them.

“I don’t like this any better than you do,” Erich said, as if it was important that she understand his point of view.

“I know, and I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t like it, either. The question is whether we can set aside our dislike of each other long enough to see this through.” Two weeks would feel like an eternity, and the worst part was that it fell over Christmas.

Once more, Erich centered his gaze away from her, focusing on the opposite wall. “I can manage, if you can.”

“I’ll do my best.”

He nodded and then released what sounded like a pent-up sigh. “That’s about all either of us can expect.”

Addie sat down on the ottoman across from him and leaned slightly forward. “I have classes three days a week. It’s important that I go to those.” She was going to need to focus on her studies if she planned to make a go of schooling.

“No problem.”

“I’ll make sure you get food and have plenty of straws, but as for anything else …”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The picture of Erich stuck with her was a humorous one. Addie did her best to disguise her amusement.

“This isn’t funny, Addie. I’m miserable and cranky, and
I doubt I’ll be a good patient. The fact is, other than when it’s absolutely necessary, it might be best if you stayed away.”

“Do you honestly think I’d want to spend more time with you than I need to?” Addie felt the heat fill her face. It seemed Erich thought she would go out of her way to be with him because she still had a thing for him. The man was living in a dream world.

“Don’t go all Mother Teresa on me, got it?”

If he wasn’t so serious, this would be downright comical. “Trust me, you don’t have any worries there.”

“Good,” he said, and sighed as if their conversation had physically drained him. His eyes drifted closed and then flew open as if he’d caught himself in the nick of time.

“Did you hear our mothers decided to leave tonight?” she asked. Their flight was scheduled to leave early the following morning, and with the threat of snow, they’d decided to spend the night in an economy hotel next to the airport rather than risk missing the flight.

Erich’s frown darkened his face. “Yeah, I know.”

“We can do this, Erich,” she said, hoping to sound positive and upbeat.

“We can try,” Erich said, sounding none too confident.

Addie stood, eager to be on her way. “I’ll stop by sometime this evening.”

He nodded.

“I’ll add my contact info to your phone—if you need anything before then, call me.”

Again, he acknowledged the comment with a flippant nod. His phone was on the table next to the recliner. She reached for it and noticed several text messages.

“You have a text message here from someone named Ashley.”

“I don’t want to see anybody, especially Ashley.”

“Do you want me to answer it for you?”

He looked up at her as if she’d suggested something weird. “No, delete them all.”

“But—”

“Fine, don’t. I’ll do it myself later.”

“Don’t get snarky with me,” she snapped. “I’m not your personal assistant. If you want those texts deleted, then fine. I was only trying to help.”

“Just hand me my phone.”

“Give me a minute,” she mumbled, concentrating on adding her contact information to his device. When she’d finished and stored the number, she handed him his phone. It immediately fell out of his hand and onto the carpet. Addie reached down to get it and gave it to him a second time. He left it in his lap, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes.

“I’ll be by again later.”

He didn’t comment one way or the other, which was just as well.

Later that afternoon, Erich and Addie’s mothers loaded up the car. Addie was going to drop them at the airport hotel.

“I prepared Erich a meal,” Julie was saying as she lifted the second of her two suitcases into the trunk of Addie’s vehicle. In addition, she had a carry-on and a purse the size of an airplane seat. “But he didn’t eat much. I think the pain meds have taken away his appetite.”

“I’ll check on him once I’m done dropping the two of you off,” Addie promised.

“Unfortunately, when we’re on the ship we won’t be able to use our cell phones,” his mother said, and sounded concerned.

“Don’t worry, if I need to reach you, I’ll find a way.” Addie hoped that would reassure them both. “It should be fine, really. I’ll take good care of Erich, I promise.”

Once at the hotel, she helped them with their bags and check-in to make sure they had the proper arrangements to catch the shuttle first thing in the morning.

Julie gripped hold of Addie’s shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze. “I can’t thank you enough for doing this. I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

As soon as she had her room key, Addie’s mother hugged Addie close. “I hardly know what to say,” she whispered, tears in her eyes. “You made this trip possible for us.”

“Mom, you’d do it for me. Now go, and promise me you’ll have the time of your lives.”

“We will,” Julie assured her.

“I’ll buy you something wonderful from one of the islands,” her mother said.

The two women chatted like monkeys as they headed off to their room. Her mother was as excited as Addie had ever seen her. You’d think they were schoolgirls from the way they giggled.

After dropping them off, Addie returned to the house and parked out front.

She stood outside for several minutes as the wind and winter cold whirled around her. She dreaded another confrontation with Erich, but it was unavoidable. From a few hints his mother had let drop, Erich was still in a bear of a mood. He hadn’t exactly been Prince Charming earlier, and it sounded like his temper hadn’t improved.