Page 60 of The Seduction

“Well, yes, you could put it that way. Coffee addict is another way.”

“I’m afraid he’ll have to stop for a while. Let’s hope he recovers enough by the time those midnight feedings start, eh?”

Oh, poor poor Granger. As if things couldn’t get worse…no coffee??

Granger’s various surgeries took three days. Bliss was released from the hospital right away, but she didn’t feel safe at her apartment. The man in the elevator had disappeared. She’d given a statement to the police, and even worked with a sketch artist, but no one had any reassuring words about how long it might take to catch him.

So she went home only to pick up some essentials—basically Moses and some extra clothes, her knitting, and all her prenatal vitamins. Then she booked herself a room in the closest hotel to the hospital.

She visited Granger as often as possible, even though he rarely regained consciousness between surgeries. When he was awake, he seemed happy to see her, babbled a few words, sipped the water she gave him, then went back to sleep.

The day shift nurse got a little sick of her. “We can call you when he’s awake.”

“That won’t work. He always goes back to sleep right away. I might miss it.”

“What is he, your husband?”

“No.”

The nurse eyed Bliss’ belly.

“It’s complicated,” Bliss finally said.

“Well, if I was you, I’d try to make it simple in the next five months. Just saying.”

Bliss picked up one of Granger’s hands, those big, capable hands that were always there for her, that always made her feel so good. “How about you get him healthy again and I’ll take things from there.”

“Fine. Just invite me to the wedding. I know love when I see it.” She winked and hurried out of the room.

Bliss didn’t bother to contradict her. Granger was unconscious most of the time. The nurse had no more idea how he felt than…well, than Bliss did.

Alone in yet another hotel room, Bliss paced the carpeted floor, Moses nipping at her heels, and forced herself to think. She couldn’t live in a hotel forever. That wasn’t a proper life for the podling, and besides, she wasn’t necessarily safer here anyway. If someone really wanted to track her down, it would just be a matter of time before they found her here.

She sank into an armchair and picked up her knitting. The baby blanket was almost done. After this, she wanted to make something for Granger. Could she knit him a new gallbladder?

As the calming effect of knit-purl set in, she thought about Granger. He’d gotten hurt protecting her; now it was her turn to look out for him. He was going to need some serious recovery time.

But they couldn’t go back to her co-op. At least not for the time being. He still hadn’t explained how he’d ended up with a knife wound. No one had witnessed anything, although Mrs. DeLuca had seen him rush toward the stairs after the elevator had taken off. Bliss could fill in the blanks. He’d tried to come to her aid, and gotten stabbed.

You could contact his sister. Let his family take care of him. You have enough to handle, with a baby coming in five months (or less!)Dr. Rishi had warned her that the stress of the attack might affect the due date. She recommended close monitoring, and potentially bed rest.

Bed rest? What bed? Where? Without Granger, who would take care of her?

She could call her mother. Serenity Om would be on the next plane from Bali, no doubt. At first she’d be furious that Bliss had gotten pregnant.What about your career? I’m too young to be a grandmother!

But then she’d come around. She’d hover relentlessly, ban all junk food from the premises, and make a birth plan. She might also find a way to profit from the baby. She’d stage a photo shoot. Bliss might find herself on the cover of Motherhood Magazine—did that exist? She’d have to check. But of course there were mommy blogs and articles and TikToks, etcetera etcetera … her mother would come up with a million ways to promote and profit from Bliss’ baby. Bliss wouldn’t have the energy to resist, not when she was so awash in hormones and sick all the time.

That was another reason she wanted to wait as long as possible to share the news of her pregnancy.

Feeling a wave of nausea, she climbed to her feet and hurried into the bathroom. The effect of the anti-nausea meds she’d been given at the hospital were wearing off. The bathroom felt so empty without Granger holding her hair back. When she went out into the kitchen there was be no Granger to make her hot milk with ginger.

God, Granger. She really missed him. But this wasn’t just about her. She had to do her best for him. That probably meant calling in someone else. A constantly sick pregnant woman wasn’t going to be much help to him.

Making up her mind, she called Kirk Williams back in Lake Bittersweet. He’d known Granger much longer than she had, and might know how to reach his sister.

“Hi Kirk!” she said when he answered. And then she froze. Should she tell Kirk that Granger was injured? He was going to be fine, so it wasn’t an emergency any more. Shouldn’t Granger get to tell the people he wanted to, in his own time? That was how he was, based on everything she’d learned about him over the past months.

“I was wondering if you have a phone number for Granger’s sister.” She dredged up the name from her foggy memory. “Marqui.”

---