Clay ran his fingers through his hair, clearly becoming frustrated. "I don't care what people say. I only care what you say, and that you say yes."
"Can—can I have some time?" she asked, and it was the hardest thing she'd ever had to say. "I just want to recover some more, and see how we get on together when we're doing more than seeing each other occasionally. I just need some time… to think, to accept what could be."
Clay looked disappointed even though he was trying to hide it. "Sure you can. It's a big decision, I know. I don't want you to feel pressured."
Elodie nodded slowly in agreement. She reached for the ring to take it off and give it back to him, but he forestalled her, putting his hand over hers.
"No, you wear it. It looks beautiful on your hand." It made her hand seem that much smaller and more delicate from the sheer size of the rock. "Only give it back to me if your answer is no."
*****
Elodie recovered quickly, considering. She had no choice, really. Clay wouldn't have it any other way. He hovered over her for several weeks after she had gotten out of the hospital, until one day she asked, pointedly, as he tried to convince her to eat another helping of the wonderful dinner he had made, "Don't you have a large ranch to run?"
Clay had grinned. He'd been doing more of that lately, although she didn't know if he was generally feeling better about life, or if she was just around him more so she saw it more often than she had. "Don't you worry about my job, honey. I have a great team working for me. They have it under control." He frowned down at her. "Are you trying to get rid of me already?"
"Yes—if I keep hanging around you, I'm going to end up weighing more than an elephant."
He snorted. "Not likely. A stiff breeze would blow you over, casts and all."
"It would not," she answered indignantly. She could feel herself gaining weight as she lay there.
"Would too—stop arguing with me, or I'll take you over my knee right now."
Elodie gave him a hearty raspberry, secure in the knowledge that he wasn't about to spank her until she was healed.
"You're getting a mite big for your britches there, young lady." His threat gave her a tingle between her legs. She had grown to love the term 'young lady'. There was something so decadent about those two simple words.
"That's what I told you! I am getting too big for my britches! Stop trying to feed me like I was the Third Army, for crying out loud, or I won't fit into any of my clothes, not that you're letting me fit into them anyway..." she complained.
He was pretty much keeping her in bed as much as possible, and that meant she was in her pajamas all of the time. He had let her sit in the living room for a change of pace, but other than that, he didn't let her out of bed much at all.
She'd been graciously allowed into the living room because Joshua had dropped by. He had come by her apartment and found that it had been rented out, then had driven to the only other place he figured she'd end up, and the two men had stood around congratulating themselves on taking care of her, and looking self-satisfied in the extreme.
Elodie had wanted to smack the both of them, but she had refrained. At least she'd gotten Clay to let her decide whether or not she wanted pain pills, or she'd still be sleeping twenty hours a day. Elodie was very wary of the two of them being in the same room together, but apparently they had worked out some sort of uneasy truce, because they both behaved like gentlemen, and when Clay escorted Joshua to the door, she heard him say that he could come back any time he wanted to, and he actually managed to sound like he meant it.
But after a couple weeks of being forcibly bed bound, she put her foot down. Her casted foot, that was, on the carpet, gently, using the quad cane he'd gotten for her to help steady herself. Clay had taken her to the doctor just that morning, and the doctor himself had said that as long as she felt like it, she could—and should—get up and move around, that the concussion had resolved itself, and that once the casts were off, she'd be fine. Clay hovered around her as if she was going to fall at any moment, but she didn't. It felt wonderful to be up and about, although she did tire quickly, and didn't spend too much time up at first.
The restaurant where she'd worked hadn't been able to keep her job open, of course, so Elodie was unemployed and restless. Clay came home from work to find her staring at the television. The housework and cooking were done by women who came in and did exactly that for him. There was nothing for her to do, and he could see that she was going crazy from boredom.
*****