Looking around Jessie, Grams cheerily said goodbye to her nurse. Jessie watched the woman leave, then turned her attention back to her grandmother. She patted the edge of her bed, and Jessie sat beside her. Putting an arm over her grandmother’s frail shoulders, Jessie noticed some new magazines, a warm blanket, and a bag full of knitting needles and yarn. “Did someone bring you some stuff, Grams?”
Grams looked at the new additions to her room and smiled. Glancing at a bouquet of daisies in the window, her aged eyes glowed with pride. “Kai. He came in late last night.” She returned her gaze to Jessie, and Jessie tried not to seem too surprised by her comment. Kai must have come to the hospital after she’d gone home, and that had been pretty late. Grams watched Jessie’s face, then patted her knee. “He said he couldn’t sleep, still adjusting to the time zones.” She nodded at the door. “He charmed his way past the nurses, tried to leave me gifts while I slept, but I woke up, caught him red-handed.”
Grams laughed, and Jessie found herself shaking her head and smiling, as a warm feeling settled in her chest. “That was sweet of him,” she quietly said.
Grams patted her knee again. “Yes, it was. He’s a good boy. You’ll see that, the more time you spend with him.” Her grandmother gave her an odd look as she studied Jessie. “He told me you got everything moved into his place.” Careful to not show any of her turmoil, Jessie nodded. Being in his place had been hard, especially at first.
Her grandmother’s expression shifted to concern. “Is he okay there? Does he have enough? Does he have any food?”
It amused Jessie that even though Grams was the one laid up in a hospital bed, she was still trying to take care of others. Noticing how her grandmother’s thoughts were so in line with her own made her smile. Maybe the desire to help was genetic. “He’s fine, Grams.”
She didn’t look convinced as she relaxed into Jessie’s side. Her face overly serious for the situation, she clasped Jessie’s hand and gave her a hard stare. “We need to look out for him. We’re all he has here.”
Jessie swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. Praying her eyes didn’t water, she nodded at Grams and then rested her head against the older woman’s. “You just worry about you, Grams. I got Kai,” she whispered. Just saying the words made her heart constrict painfully. They were true though. No matter what, she would take care of Kai.
Her grandmother let out a relieved breath as she squeezed her knee in approval. “Good, dear. He needs you.” The words made a surge of delight run through Jessie. She liked the idea of Kai needing her. Liked it far too much.
After making sure Grams didn’t need anything else, Jessie gave her a kiss goodbye and left the room. As she walked back to her truck, she flicked a couple of tears off her cheeks. Really, she needed to let this go. Sure, Kai was amazing, funny, attractive, and exceedingly sweet, but he was first and foremost her cousin. And not even a distant cousin. He was her first cousin.
Climbing into her truck, she drove to a grocery store. Despite the internal conflict, she was determined to fulfill her promise to take care of Kai. She started loading up a cart full of foods that she thought he might like. It was tricky, since she didn’t really know him. Not in that way at least. About halfway through the store, she gave up trying to guess what might interest him, and just bought foods that she loved. If she couldn’t guess his tastes, then she could at least introduce him to her favorites.
Pushing the squeaky cart past the produce section, she came across some fresh pineapples. Immediately reminded of him, she plopped one into the cart. When she had a full load, she headed to the checkout line. As she watched the cashier ringing up her groceries, Jessie hoped Kai wasn’t offended by her bringing him bags of food. Well, if he was, she would just tell him that she hadn’t had a choice; he had no food, and he couldn’t carry that much on his motorcycle. She didn’t want to see him starve to death. Silly boy. Who moves to Colorado in October and buys a bike? He was going to freeze his ass off when the weather changed in the next couple months. While he was right, and it usually was sunny and dry here, it also got pretty damn cold. Below freezing cold. Much chillier than the tropical boy was used to, she was sure. Jessie absentmindedly smiled as the cashier talked her ear off. He was a bike guy. Ridiculous man.
A half hour later, Jessie was knocking on the ridiculous man’s door. Well, really she was lightly kicking it with her toe. Her arms were lined all the way from her hands to her elbows with bags that were quickly cutting off the circulation to her fingers. Hoping Kai was home, she kicked a little harder. After another few seconds, the door finally opened. When he pulled it back enough that she fully saw him, Jessie instantly forgot about her numb limbs.
Apparently, he’d just gotten out of the shower. He had jeans on, but they weren’t buttoned yet, and he was rubbing his hair dry with a towel. He didn’t have a shirt on yet, either. Jessie’s eyes immediately snapped to his chest, mesmerized. She couldn’t stop staring at the tattoo peeking up over his shoulder.