26. Jessica

26

JESSICA

" W here do you think you are going?" Dylan asked as I tried to get out of bed. He was fussing with a necktie.

I sat up and swung my feet off the mattress. With a grunt, I tried to reach for the walking boots the hospital sent me home with.

"If you're going to work, I should get up and take care of Max," I responded.

So far, I had spent the entire morning in bed while Dylan took care of me and everything else. It was time for me to get up and get my work done.

"Max has a nanny," Dylan started.

"Yeah, me."

Dylan shook his head and came to sit next to me. He reached up and brushed my hair back from my face.

Self-consciously, I press my hair back. I hadn't had a chance to brush it yet, and it had to be a mess after last night. "Sorry, I need to brush it."

"I'll bring you a brush. Anything else you need?"

"To do my job," I said.

"I told you not to worry about that. The agency sent over another nanny. She's got Max under control. I told them to leave you alone."

"Am I being fired?" I asked. I had messed up so badly in the past twenty-four hours, I couldn't imagine that my job wasn't on the line.

Dylan let out half a laugh. "That's not a bad idea."

"What?" Panic flooded my entire body.

"I should fire you as a nanny and upgrade you to a live-in girlfriend." His eyes narrowed as he smoldered at me.

My body didn't know how to react. My brain wanted to be shocked, jaw dropping, gasping, shocked. But my skin tingled and my pulse quickened. It made perfect sense that I somehow managed all of it. A gasp, a giggle, a full body blush, followed by the most profound happiness.

"You're cute. I am so glad nothing bad happened to you." Dylan's expression turned from sexy to compassionate.

And then we both looked down at my feet. I couldn't walk and was told to stay off them as much as I could manage. But in the greater scheme of things, my feet were nothing compared to the giant ‘what-ifs' that could have happened.

"I'm sorry," I said again. I had a feeling I was going to be racked with guilt over the past events for a very long time. "I've put you in a bad situation. Having to hire a second nanny, and you still have to go to work and deal with all of that."

"All of that is not your fault. If Carmichael hadn't shown who he really was this early in the process, he would have at some point. Right now, he's causing me a headache and some legal fees. If he had pulled this stunt after the project was underway, who knows how many millions this could have cost me. As I see it, you saved me a small fortune." He reached down and swooped my legs onto his lap.

I let out a nervous giggle. Dylan's concept of a small fortune and mine were so very different.

"You need to stay in bed and recover," he continued.

"Are you staying with me?" I teased.

"I appreciate that invitation, but I have to go to work."

I looked knowingly down at my legs, shifting my gaze from his eyes back to my legs a few times.

He finally looked at what I was trying to get him to see.

"Huh, I trapped myself." He lifted my legs from his lap, stood, and put my legs back on the bed. "I have a nurse coming in for the afternoon."

"A nurse? Is your mother okay?" I asked.

"Not for Mother, for you."

"Dylan, I don't need a nurse." My gaze fell on the padded boots just beyond my reach. "Okay, I'm going to need some help. Certainly, one of the household staff could help out? But I don't know if I need a full nurse, just an adult babysitter, I guess."

"I assume home healthcare means nurses, and that's who was contacted. And everyone who works for me already has a job to do. I've simply brought someone else in, and their job is to make sure you have the help you need. This way, if you need assistance getting to and from the bathroom, or you want a snack, someone will be here for you," he explained. "I'll have Lori have an afternoon snack sent up and make sure you have plenty to drink. You need to be hydrated to heal." He was very thorough. He hadn't missed a thing. Max was taken care of, I was being taken care of, and he still had to go in to work and deal with the rest of the mess I caused.

There were worse things than being stuck in a large, comfortable bed. But I was going to get bored. I could spend some time reading, but I knew that when I hurt, I had a hard time focusing, and I'd want a movie to distract me. And Dylan was doing a good job of keeping my mind from my feet, but I was really aware of the low-grade throbbing. I wasn't due for more medication for another three hours, at least.

"Do you think the nurse will help me get down to the TV room, or will she keep me locked up in here?" I asked.

"If she's doing her job, she'll keep you here. But you can watch TV up here," Dylan said.

"Are you going to have someone bring a TV in for me?" I couldn't believe it. That was amazing. He really had thought of everything.

"Why would I do that? There's already one." He pointed at the opposite wall.

Dylan's room was very well decorated. Tasteful framed art that looked original to me, a few display shelves with ancient Greek or Roman looking figurines—also probably real—but no television.

"That's not a TV, and I'm not on the right kind of drugs that would make me think the painting, while very dramatic, is a movie."

Dylan laughed and opened a drawer on his bedside table. He tossed a remote onto the bed next to me. It was a typical TV remote. I stared at it.

"Go on, turn it on," he prompted.

I picked up the remote and clicked the power button. The painting faded away, replaced by a product logo, and then I was looking at a standard smart TV dashboard with a large promo for the latest new release and rows of streaming service icons.

"How? What sorcery is this? No way. That wasn't a TV a second ago." I couldn't seem to wrap my head around the fact that the art on his wall was really a freaking television.

Dylan's smile made my insides flutter. "I didn't want to have a TV taking up so much space in here, so I got one of those frame TVs. If you don't like the painting I chose, you can flip through the selection and pick something else from the gallery."

I was still in awe of the technology. "I guess I will spend the rest of the day in bed without causing the nurse too much grief."

"Good. I have to go. I'm already late, and the investors have been giving Sarah hell already this morning. I'll be back late.' Dylan walked around the bed and gave me a light kiss on the lips.

I grabbed his shirt and made him kiss me again. "I could get used to this."

"The life of luxury?" Dylan asked.

"Your kissing me like you like me," I said. I bit my lower lip and smiled.

He hummed. "I love you."

I wanted to dance in place every time he said that.

"I love you too."

"I have to go say bye to Max. I'll see you later," he said as he headed out the door.

"You can tell the nanny that Max can come visit and watch TV with me if he wants," I called out. I understood why Mrs. Anderson did that, watched TV with Max. It was something she could handle when she wasn't particularly mobile. Now that I wasn't very mobile, I wondered if there was any way I could get to her and we could spend time just sitting in each other's company.

I should take advantage of catching up on my crochet work while I could. I wasn't going to be off my feet for too long. Might as well enjoy it while I could.

After Dylan left, I sat there and played with the TV. The pain medications were probably making me a little loopy, but I was absolutely fascinated with it. Turned off, it really looked like a piece of matted art behind a piece of glass. I was tempted to hobble over and get up close to examine it, but that thought didn't last long as my pain meds were fading, and without Dylan distracting me with his presence, I could really feel my feet.

I turned the TV on again and found the setting that let me find a different piece of art to display. I don't know how long I let this activity distract me before there was a light knock on the door.

"Come in!" I called out.

"Are you Jessica? I'm Anna, Max's nanny for the day," a woman in jeans and a T-shirt said.

"Oh, hi, come on in."

"Max wanted to know if he could see you."

"Jessica!" Max launched into the room and up on the bed.

"Yes, Max is allowed in." I laughed. "Come on in." I waved her in.

"Pleased to meet you. I understand you're the regular nanny, but you've had an accident." She looked around the bedroom.

"Yeah, I took a long walk in some cheap flip-flops," I explained. "I'm not supposed to be on my feet for a few days." I turned my attention to Max. "Have you visited with your nana this morning?"

He scrunched up his face and looked serious.

I looked over to Anna.

She shook her head. "The woman downstairs, I can't remember her name?—"

"Clara?" I interrupted.

"Her," Anna confirmed. "She said he had spent plenty of time wearing out his grandmother, having spent the night with them."

I let out a heavy sigh. "I'm afraid that was my fault."

When Anna and Max looked at me, I gestured at my feet. "The injury. Well, I guess you can hang out and watch TV with me."

"Can I play dinosaurs?" Max asked.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Anna said at the same time I told him to go get them.

Max scrambled off the bed and was out the door in a flash.

Anna looked at me out of the corner of her eye. "You know, you're nothing like what I was expecting after everything Clara said. She doesn't hold back, does she?"

I snorted. "She does not. And you probably know way too much about my business."

Anna smiled awkwardly and nodded.

"Hey, have you ever seen a TV like this?" I took up too much of her and Max's time showing off the TV before we settled in and watched an animated movie.