April Embers_A Second Chance Single Daddy Firefighter Romance Read online

  “You first,” I said plainly.

  “I’m here, aren’t I?” he asked. “And to let you know, I might just take you up on that showering suggestion you offered earlier. After all, you are my nurse.”

  My eyes connected back with his as I crossed my leg over my knee. I smirked and shook my head as I tried to suppress a giggle. Whatever got him out of that damn room was fine by me. He was joking around and opening up, which was exactly what I’d wanted.

  But I couldn't deny the heat that slid up my back at the idea of seeing him wet.

  “Why were you in a wheelchair?” Hayden asked.

  “Track and field. Back in high school. I was a pole vaulter.”

  “Wow. Impressive.”

  “I know. It’s fascinating how women can actually do things,” I said.

  “Not what I meant, but I enjoy your sarcasm.”

  “Do you now?”

  “It’s refreshing, yes.”

  I watched him lean back into his wheelchair as he threaded his fingers together. His attention was wholly on me and I found myself growing nervous. I wasn’t expecting something like this. I wasn’t expecting us to actually speak. To talk the way we were talking.

  It was… nice.

  “I was in practice after school one day and I was working on breaking my own record. I moved the bar up half an inch and kept trying all day to get over it. And when I finally did, I was so proud of myself. But in my want to get over the bar, I didn’t take into account that another half inch of bar meant another foot of falling. I overcorrected, missed the pad, and came down wrong on my heels.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Very. Shattered both of them. It ended my track and field days and took months to recover from. Three surgeries, multiple pins and screws. Months of physical therapy. And I still can’t walk in heels or anything like that.”

  “Trust me. With legs like yours, you don’t need them,” he said.

  “I have no idea if that’s a compliment or a completely inappropriate comment.”

  “The look on your face says ‘inappropriate’, but the blush in your cheeks says ‘compliment’.”

  I brought my hands up to my face and felt how red my skin was. I turned my body back towards my food and reached for my orange juice. I had to calm down. I was enjoying this dinner a little too much and that wasn’t the point. I could see Hayden grinning out of the corner of my eye, and it sent a shiver down my spine.

  What was he doing?

  Was he trying to make me uncomfortable so I wouldn’t make him come out again for food?

  Because it wasn’t quite working if that was his plan.

  “Setting matters of your legs aside, however, it means you can understand why I don’t want to come out,” he said.

  “No, it doesn’t. I didn’t allow that wheelchair to stop me. There was a handicapped sports league in my area I used to fill my time after school. It helped me with my anger towards the situation.”

  “So you were angry.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t let it swallow me,” I said.

  “I’m not letting it swallow me.”

  “Says the man who’d rather lock his door to the only person tolerating him instead of coming out and making decent conversation.”

  “Tolerating? Is that what you’re doing?”

  “Why would I be anything else?” I asked.

  “Because this is not a dinner you cook for someone you tolerate.”

  “Then what kind of dinner did I cook?”

  Hayden leaned forward in his chair and brought his face closer to mine. He continued to scoot forward in his seat as I leaned heavily back into the breakfast nook. His blue eyes were captivating. I could see the storm raging behind them. His body heat was radiating against me and his grin was devious, and there was part of me that wanted to reach out for him. To cup his cheek and bring his pouty lower lip to mine.

  I held my breath as I waited for his words.

  “This is a dinner you cook for someone you enjoy.”

  His voice was lower and his tone was gravelly. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. His eyes lowered to my heaving bosom, no doubt taking in how flushed my skin was. Then he lifted his head before he grabbed his plate and his drink.

  “Where… are you going?” I asked.

  He wheeled away from the table and started for the living room.

  “Hayden?”

  “I’m going to my room, Grace. And I promise I’ll be a good boy and eat.”

  My name.

  It sounded so good falling from his lips.

  Chapter Ten

  Hayden

  The flush of her skin. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I found myself coming out of my room more simply to see if I could pull it from her skin again. Compliments on her outfit and staring at her lips. Raking my eyes down her form as she helped me with my physical therapy. A brush of my hand against her ass accidentally if I wheeled a little too close and my breath hot on her ear if I accidentally stumbled getting up from my chair.

  And every time, that beautiful blush would creep across her cheeks.

  The more time I spent with Grace, the more I wanted to get to know her. I knew a woman like herself would never view me as a man while in that damn chair, but I could settle for her embarrassment until I could treat her the way she deserved. Until I could pin her against the wall and tie her down to my bed.

  Oh, the things I would do to her body.

  She was captivating, but she was also right. I was having a hard time cleaning myself. Some days were better than others, but I could tell when a part of my body wasn’t being reached the way it should. And the idea of Grace washing me down in a tub or standing with me in a shower was striking.

  So, I caved.

  “Grace?”

  I was met with silence and I furrowed my brow.

  “Grace?”

  I turned my chair around and wheeled out of my room.

  “I’m about to take a bath without your help,” I said. “I might fall and break another hip or something.”

  And still, I was met with nothing.

  Where was she?

  I wheeled into the kitchen and looked around, but she wasn’t there. I wheeled all the way down the hallway to the library, figuring I’d find her with her nose in a book like I had a few times already. But still, she wasn’t there. I wheeled back out to the front door to see if she’d left a note. Maybe she had gone somewhere.

  But there wasn’t anything there.

  “Grace?”

  I heard some shuffling around coming from down the hallway and I wheeled as fast as I could. Was she hurt? Was something wrong? I felt this odd sort of panic rush through me as I wheeled myself into her room. She wasn’t in her bed and she wasn’t on the floor, and as I turned my chair around to go get my cell phone I saw her.

  In her bathroom.

  Toweling off quickly in the mirror.

  Her leg was stuck out and the towel was catching the droplets of water rushing down her soft skin. Her thigh flexed with muscle and her well-defined calves were twitching with every stroke she made. She fluffed out the towel and I recognized the sound. The shifting around I had heard was really her trying to dry her own damn towel off.

  And when she shook it, her luxurious breasts bounced with joy.

  “Oh my gosh. Mr. Lowell!”

  I jerked from my trance and averted my gaze.

  “Are you okay?” Grace asked.

  “I’m uh… yes. I was looking for you because I wanted to let you know I was about to shower myself.”

  “Is it that late already? I’m so sorry. Um… give me some-”

  “I’m the one who should be sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude,” I said. “I’ll be in my room waiting for you.”

  “Of course. Give me five minutes to… um…”

  “Yes, of course. Whatever you need.”

  I chanced a peek of her body and found her blushing, and it tugged at my gut. Her chest was flushed and her chee
ks were tinted pink, and it lended a beautiful color to the frame of her body. Grace was really a deliciously attractive woman, and I felt the veins of my groin beginning to throb with life. The towel was wrapped tightly around her and the slip slipped right up her thigh. All the way to her hip bone before the dip in her waist disappeared beneath the shadows of the fabric.

  I cursed that fabric.

  “Five minutes,” Grace said.

  Her voice pulled me from my trance and I began to wheel away.

  “Five minutes,” I said.

  I made my way back to my room and closed the door behind me. I sighed and closed my eyes, allowing my mind to conjure her again. Fuck this wheelchair. Fuck that moment we shared. At any other point in time, I would’ve walked over to her, grabbed fistfuls of her ass, hoisted her onto the bathroom counter, and made her beg for more of me. But I couldn't do any of that. I couldn’t give her anything a woman like her deserved.

  Wanted.

  Desired.

  I was a pathetic excuse of a man, and I had no right to think of such a strong woman in such a sinful way.

  Not now anyway.

  “Mr. Lowell?”

  A knock came at my door and I sighed.

  “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “On second thought, I’m getting pretty tired,” I said. “Mind if we leave the shower for the morning?”

  There was a beat of silence before I heard her sigh behind the door.

  “Do you need help getting into bed?” she asked.

  “No,” I said as I hoisted myself from my wheelchair. “I’ve got it.”

  “If I hear you fall-”

  “I said I’ve got it, Grace.”

  That statement was angrier than I wanted it to be and I cursed myself. I heard her sigh again before her light feet padded away. I was an idiot. An idiot with a beautiful woman in his home. I fell into bed and wiggled myself underneath the covers, relegating myself to a night of pain. I didn’t want to exert the energy to take my pain medication and I wasn’t willing to call on Grace to get it for me.

  Not after seeing her like that.

  Not after being faced with what I could have had I been paying more attention.

  Not been on my fucking phone.

  Been more aware of my damn surroundings.

  “Fuck,” I said with a grunt.

  I turned over and beat my fist against my pillow before I laid down. It was going to be a long couple of months.

  But if I played my cards right, maybe that could be my present.

  Maybe having her in all the way we both deserved could be my prize for cooperating.

  Chapter Eleven

  Grace

  “I’m not going out.”

  “Mr. Lowell, it isn’t good to be cooped up like this,” I said.

  “I gave you dinner. I gave you a trip to the grocery store. What more do you want?”

  “I want you to go out and see that people aren’t going to judge you the way you think they will.”

  “Trust me, they will. They are. I was lucky no one saw me at that store.”

  “Mr. Lowell-”

  “No,” he said.

  It was like pulling teeth from a tiger. I convinced him one time to go to the store with me and he practically disguised himself from head to toe. A baseball cap. Sunglasses. A massive jacket and a blanket over his lap. He drew more attention to himself that way than anything else. For the love of everything, all we needed was milk and some cookies for dessert that night!

  “What if I told you I would pay?”

  “Is that supposed to make this better? The beautiful nurse paying to go out with the gimp?”

  “You really have an odd way of paying compliments, you know that?” I asked. “I’ll be with you the entire time. Come on. I know the trailer for this movie caught your eye on the television a few days ago. Let me take you to see it.”

  “Why is this so important to you?” he asked. “Like I said, in one phone call I can have a copy of the movie sent over and we can watch it here. Why the movie theater?”

  “Because you need to see that you can be comfortable in that chair out there in a world you think is going to judge you for it,” I said.

  “They’re already judging me for it.”

  “They haven't seen you in it, Hayden. They have no idea there’s anything supposedly to judge!”

  I didn’t mean to say his name like that. I didn’t mean to sound so demanding and angry with him. But when his eyes connected with mine, I saw a flash of something dark. It should have scared me. It should have put me in my place. All it did, however, was make me press on.

  “Let me take you to see this movie,” I said. “And if it goes downhill, then we can stay in this apartment of yours however long you’d like. For the rest of your recuperation, if you want.”

  His eyes squinted, like he was sizing me up. They fluttered down my body and I felt like I was on display. I felt like that often with him. He had a way of penetrating through my outer layers and making me feel as if I was standing naked in front of him. Vulnerable. Destitute. Embarrassed.

  “Please, Mr. Lowell.”

  “Hayden,” he said.

  “Hmm?”

  “Call me ‘Hayden’ from now on.”

  He turned and started wheeling himself down the hallway. I felt my heart sink to my toes as I watched him disappear. He rolled himself into his bedroom and I slumped onto the couch with my head in my hands. I had been so close. So close to taking another step with him that was absolutely imperative to his mental well-being. The consult for his hip surgery was in less than a week, and he was in no mental state of being opened up again on an operating table.

  “Well?” Hayden asked.

  “What is it?” I asked with a groan.

  “You’re going to need your purse if you’re paying for a movie.”

  I whipped my head up towards the hallway and saw him sitting there in his chair.

  “You're going?” I asked.

  “Seems like I don’t enjoy disappointing women,” he said with a grin.

  I smiled at him before I jumped up off the couch.

  Assisting someone in a wheelchair at the theater was harder than I figured it would be. The ramps were steeper than they should’ve been and I had to open both doors to get Hayden into the theater. I was glad I was the one paying for the movie, because Hayden’s face almost couldn’t see over the counter and into the ticket kiosk. We bypassed snacks simply so he wouldn’t have to sit in line only to be eye-level with another counter, and I couldn't blame him.

  But none of that compared to the people that were staring at him.

  I knew his family was known, but I didn’t know they were famous. People were staring at him and children were pointing. Some parents were gawking and others were scoffing. Hayden was jumpy. Nervous. His head was on a constant swivel, probably looking for cameras or something of the sort. But what didn’t make it any better was the fact that he looked drastically different than before. His hair was longer and his beard had fully grown out. His eyes were sunken in a bit and his body was now disproportionate to the rest of him. His legs were slowly losing muscle while his arms were slowly gaining it, and it made him look like somewhat of a cartoon character.

  “Believe me now?” Hayden asked bitterly.

  But I kept my mouth shut.

  I wheeled him into the movie theater and pushed him into the level row where the handicapped signs were. I sat in the one lone chair after rolling him into the space, but his eyes weren’t focused on the screen. All around him, people were trying to turn their heads and see him. Get a glimpse of the billionaire in the wheelchair. And while the lawsuit against both the driver and the city weren’t helping his reputation at all, there was no reason for people to be acting this way.

  So, I did the only thing I knew I could do to settle him down.

  I held my hand out for him as the movie started up. The sound was loud and the chair underneath me was rumbling with the opening cr
edits. I could feel Hayden’s eyes staring down into my palm, and I was hoping I wasn’t crossing a line. I wiggled my fingers playfully to signal what I was trying to do in case he was second-guessing himself, then I looked over at him and found his eyes staring back at me.

  Holding my gaze.

  Sizing me up again.

  I felt the warmth of his hand slid into mine and he laced our fingers together. Not an action I expected, but I could feel how much his hand was trembling. My thumb stroked his skin as the beginning of the movie started up and I turned my attention to the screen in front of me.

  But Hayden’s eyes were still locked onto my face.

  Slowly but surely, the shaking in his hands died down. I squeezed him gently and went to remove my hand, but he clamped down onto it. He didn’t want to let it go. He didn’t want to disconnect.

  And honestly?

  I didn’t either.

  We sat there for the entire movie and not another thought was given to the people around us. There were a couple of parts that even made Hayden laugh. I whipped my head over to him and watched his smile light up his beautiful blue eyes. I watched his cheeks pucker up and his entire demeanor change. That was what I was looking for. What I was gunning for. Smiles and laughter held the power of a thousand different medications all at once, and the broader he smiled the healthier he looked.

  Pretty soon it was me the one staring. Trying to get another glimpse of that intoxicating smile.

  The movie ended and I stood up from the chair. I wrapped around Hayden and began to push him out, trying to get ahead of the crowd. I was happy that getting out was exponentially easier than getting in, and a few minutes later I was loading us into his car. I folded up his wheelchair and stuck it in the backseat, then together the two of us sped out of the parking lot and hit the main road.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked.

  “Depends on what you’re offering,” Hayden said.

  “I’ve got McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, and Five Guys.”

  “Given up on me already?”

  I looked over at Hayden and saw a cheeky grin crossing his cheeks.

  “Not at all. But you did what I asked. You went to see a movie, so I figured we could drive through somewhere, get some food, and go back home,” I said.