Page 44 of Mac
All resistance in him melted away.
"All right,athasgaidh."Mac kicked off his boots and lay down beside her.
Elyse wiggled until the back of her body pressed firmly against the front of his.Mac wrapped his arms around her and felt her sigh and relax against him.He marveled for a moment at how good, how right she felt in his arms.It only took a few minutes for her breathing to settle into the short, even breaths of sleep.Mac thought about getting up.Thought about all the things he should be doing but couldn't bring himself to leave her.
CHAPTER20
By the time Elyse woke the second time, just before dinnertime, she felt much better.She wasn't back to one hundred percent but that would take a couple days.
"Feeling better?"Mac asked as she sat at the kitchen table watching him fix the two of them dinner.She'd started it herself, but he'd taken over and insisted she sit.
"Much.But I could get used to this being waited on."She shot him a grin so he would know she was teasing.At least a little.
"You look better.Almost back to normal."
"I'm not quite back.I'd say eighty percent.By tomorrow morning I'll be about ninety percent."
"Damn.Does it always take that long to recover?"
"No."She watched him move around, then look back and forth."What do you need?"
Mac stared at the stove a moment then turned to look at her."Do you have any potatoes?"
"They're in the pantry."She pointed toward a door on the other side of the table from where she sat.He disappeared through the door, was gone a couple minutes then re-appeared.
"Wow, you've got that place stocked!"
Elyse laughed."I do."She kept an eye on him as he continued cooking.
"You were telling me about getting over a headache.You said this isn't normal, but you seem to know how it's going to work."
"I do."She shrugged."This may seem normal, but it's not."Elyse paused trying to find the words."There's a pattern, but this was an uncommon one, in that it was a lot worse than they usually are.I can usually knock them down with one dose of my rescue medication.This one was so much worse, that it will likely follow the same pattern, but there's farther to go, so it will take longer."
Mac stared at her for a second, then nodded and turned back to the stove where the food needed his attention."I guess you'll be going back to work tomorrow?"
Elyse glanced down at the table then looked back up."Yeah.I've been off for two days.People have had to cover for me.I don't like it, but I've learned to deal with it while I'm sick.I can't justify not going back once I'm able and leaving someone else to cover for me when there's no need."
Mac nodded."As an employer I wish there were more people out there like that.As someone who's seen you through this, I wish you'd take another day."He shook his head slowly, without looking at her."I don't know.I guess I'm just afraid you'll have a relapse or something."He turned and looked at her, spatula held upright in one hand."Does that happen?"
"Once in a while, but not often, and for me, usually only if I push myself too fast."
"See, so you should take another day."
Elyse took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.She'd been half afraid that was the tact he would take when she'd admitted that relapses do happen, though the more she thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she'd had one.She'd experienced it, she knew, but she'd gotten better at managing her migraines and the recovery, over the years since she'd started experiencing them and she couldn'trecall when the last time she'd had a relapse was.
"Pushing too fast would have been insisting I could go back today, despite the fog and my brain being so slow.I'm sure I'm not up to speed yet, but it no longer feels like I'm slogging through pudding for every thought.I feel pretty good this evening, no worse than after a full day of work.A good night's sleep tonight and I'll be feeling even better tomorrow."
Mac shot her a look that she interpretedto mean that he wasn't sure he believed her, but he wasn't going to argue, at least not right now.She could handle that.She tilted her head to one side and let her gaze slide down his body.At some point while she'd been sleeping, he'd gone home and changed clothes, as the t-shirt he wore now was a dark colored band t-shirt, and the jeans were different too.She suspected he'd showered but didn't know if it had been here or at his place.She didn't care but wanted to move up against him and take a deep breath.She wanted a whiff of his scent.For some reason having him near, holding her or just close, made her feel good.She found herself moving close to try to pick up a hint of it when she least expected it.
She watched him cook and found it hard to take her eyes off him.The t-shirt fit well without being the second skin like too many guys wore these days, the ones who spent hours working on keeping in shape and wanted to show off their body at all times.Sure, those guys were fun to look at, but Elyse found they were typically lacking in anything to talk about but exercise, working out and their twisted ideas of nutrition to keep their bodies in peak condition.She found guys like that boring.Hell, she'd found most guys her age boring, maybe that was why she was still single at thirty.
Boring was the last thing she found Mac.She had yet to find a subject he didn't know at least a little about, and there was a lot she didn't know much of but was more than willing to listen to him tell her about it.He was far from boring and Elyse was half convinced that made him look even more attractive to her.
Even if she hadn't admired him from afar since she'd first spotted him several months before.
"You still with me?"Mac's voice drew her back to the present.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"Elyse glance up to find him watching her.
