Tender Loving Care

“Medium?”

“Yes. Medium height, medium-brown eyes, medium-blond hair. I wear it short, just past my ears, with bangs. I’m the middle child and I got average grades in school.” Boring.

“You don’t sound medium. You have a lovely voice.”

“Thanks.” His compliment pleased her. In a social situation, he wouldn’t have looked at her twice, but here, in the safety of his bedroom, she allowed herself a brief moment of fantasy. When the bandages came off and he returned to his regular life, he’d forget all about his nurse. But she’d remember him.

Logan pushed the tray away. “I can’t eat another bite.”

She finished her last strawberry, then moved the dirty dishes to the table by the fireplace. “I need to change your bandages. Just let me go wash my hands first.”

He nodded. The tension returned to his jaw.

Melissa quickly washed her hands, then hurried back to his room. She picked up the scissors from the nightstand and carefully cut through the gauze.

“Did I ever tell you about the first time I saw a naked man?”

Logan felt his mouth drop open. “Excuse me?”

“When I was about sixteen, I had this crush on a guy named Steve. He was on the swim team. We had a social studies class together. I’d spend the entire hour staring worshipfully at the back of his head and wishing that just once, he’d notice me.”

Logan smiled as he pictured the scene. Melissa knelt beside him on the bed and he moved over to give her room.

“One day, the teacher had us debate an issue. I don’t even remember what it was. Anyway, he and I really got into it. We were arguing back and forth.”

The pads were gently removed from his lids. He saw light and tried to open his eyes.

“Keep them shut, Logan. I’m going to put in the cream, then patch you up again. After class, we continued our argument. About halfway down the hall, he put his arm around me. I thought I was going to die. Hold these against your lids.”

He held the circles in place while she started wrapping the gauze around his head.

“The next thing I knew, we’d stopped walking. I looked around and realized I was in the boys’ locker room. I don’t know who was more embarrassed, me, Steve, or the naked guys milling around and ducking for cover. I ran out of there as fast as I could and never spoke to him again. Actually, that was the first time I thought about going into nursing.”

Logan laughed. “You made that story up, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but it worked.”

“What do you mean?”

“It took your mind off the pain when I changed the bandages.”

She began to smooth salve over the wounds on his face. He grabbed her wrist and held her still. Search as he might, there was no way to penetrate the thick coverings and study her face. She’d said she was medium, but he didn’t know what that meant.

Her breath fanned his face. He could smell the strawberries she’d eaten and the scent of her subtle perfume. He was still holding one hand, and her other pressed against his shoulder for balance. Her fingers felt small yet sure, as if the power to heal and comfort was captured within her delicate touch.

She was very close. Her breasts must be a scant inch from his chest. He remembered the curves pressing into his ribs when she’d helped him into the house. But there was no way to know the exact weight and contour of the feminine flesh.

A hunger started deep within him. He’d been without a woman for far too long, and this sweet creature catering to his every need was a temptation hard to resist. If it wasn’t for the lessons in his past, he would have pulled her next to him and shown her that a man without eyes was still a man in every other sense of the word.

He let her go.

“Tell me about the accident.” The husky sound of her speech rubbed against his skin.

“I had it out with a sandblasting machine. The machine won.”

She continued to smooth the ointment onto his injured flesh. “I guess that’s how you got these burns.”

He nodded. “The hose ripped and the guy holding it got pinned down. Like a fool, I raced in and pulled him free.”

“Sounds brave to me.”

He drew his lips together. “Maybe. But the construction worker was wearing goggles and a protective jacket. I was in a business suit. The hose shot me right in the face.”

“And then you didn’t follow the doctor’s orders and landed in the hospital.” She finished her work and moved away.

“Something like that.”

He heard her walking around the room. Was she going to leave him? Being alone with the blackness wasn’t something he wanted to think about.

“You must be pretty tired,” he said.

Melissa looked up. Logan was sitting against the headboard, but there wasn’t anything relaxed about his pose. He’d suffered her changing his dressings without a fuss, but she knew he’d felt discomfort. The best thing for him would be to sleep through the night. Yet she didn’t want to leave him, and if her hunch was right, he didn’t want her to go.

“Let me take the dishes to the kitchen, then I can come back and read to you.”

The phone rang before he could respond.

She picked up the receiver. “Phillips residence.”

“Oh, totally cool, Melissa. I love the way you answer the phone. If a boy calls for me, could you call me Miss Wendi?”

Melissa laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. You want to speak to your father?”

“Yeah. Is he…okay?”

“He’s fine. Here.”

She handed Logan the phone and picked up the tray.

“Hi, Wendi. I’m feeling great….”

Melissa was still smiling when she returned to his room. “Everything all right?”

“Wendi’s spending the night at her friend’s house. I think she’s scared I’m going to die in my sleep or something and she’d rather not be the one to find the body.”

Melissa looked over the books resting on the floor by the nightstand. “I’ll reassure her in the morning. Don’t you have anything fun to read?”

Logan turned toward her. “I read lots of fun books. Maybe you have no taste.”