Read Online Forever Grace by Linda Poitevin - Free Book Online Page B

questioned the wisdom of that decision, especially in the face of the trek he still had to make back to his own cottage. He shuddered at the thought. Oh, yeah. Codeine was definitely in order before he did that. At least it would take off some of the edge. Not much, but some.
    He finally unglued his eyelids to find Grace regarding him ruefully.
    “I think that answers your question about helping, don’t you?” she asked.
    “I’m fine.”
    Grace glanced over her shoulder, then back at him. “Bull,” she said. “I appreciate the offer, Sean, but you’re in no shape to be helping anyone right now. You need to be off that leg and looking after yourself.”
    She’d called him Sean.
    He was still absorbing that—and trying to wipe a second silly grin off his face—when Josh and Annabelle came down the hallway. Annabelle spotted Sean and broke into a trot, making a beeline for him.
    “Raff owie,” she announced, holding a stuffed toy aloft.
    Sean looked to Grace for translation.
    “Her giraffe is hurt,” Grace said. “She wants you to look at it.”
    Sean accepted the animal and chuckled. One entire foreleg was covered in adhesive bandages sporting Spiderman in varying poses. He glanced at Josh. “Your handiwork?”
    Josh ignored him, looking sideways at Grace. “She kept saying big owie ,” he said. “It took six bandages before she was happy.”
    “A small price to pay for peace,” Grace assured her nephew, tugging him in to drop a kiss on his head. “Especially this early in the morning. Thanks for looking after her for me.”
    “Raff owie,” Annabelle said again.
    Sean handed the bandaged critter back to her. “Giraffe has a very nice owie,” he agreed. “Josh did a good job.”
    “Man owie.” Annabelle patted his cast, then pushed aside the pant leg flapping along its length. Blue eyes gazed up sadly. “Man owie. No spyman.”
    “She’s sad because you don’t have—”
    “Spiderman,” Sean finished. “Yes, I got that.”
    “Josh can draw one on your cast for you,” a new voice offered. “He’s really good at it.”
    Lillian, the pig-tailed girl from the night before, climbed up on the stool beside Grace. Her other sister—Sage, he remembered—hid behind her, peering at him with those great, dark-fringed eyes. They both wore expectant expressions. Josh, on the other hand, retreated to a position behind his aunt, who stepped in smoothly to cover his obvious discomfort at the suggestion—and to rescue Sean from having to find a polite way of declining the offer.
    “Maybe another time, Lilly,” she said. “Right now, Mr. McKittrick needs to sit down and put his leg up while Josh and I try to get his cottage unlocked for him.”
    Saved by a break-in operation. Sean reached for his crutches.
    “I’ll come with you.”
    Grace snorted. “And what, watch? In your bare feet?”
    Damn. He’d forgotten about the barefoot thing.
    “Besides, I need Josh’s help and I can’t leave the girls alone,” she pointed out, “So you’ll be far more help if you stay here to watch them for me.”
    She downed the rest of her coffee in one long swallow, set down the cup, and added dryly, “That way I know you’re all safe.”
    “Funny,” Sean muttered.
    “Truth.” She slid off the stool and nudged Josh. “How about it, kiddo? Feel like crawling through a window for me?”
    Sean followed them to the mudroom, hampered by the unforgiving throb in his leg—and by Annabelle’s insistence on clinging to one of his fingers as he gripped the crutches. Grace shot him a sympathetic look as she slipped into her jacket.
    “We’ll be as quick as we can,” she said. “I’ll bring back your pain meds for you, and then we’ll get you home where it’s quiet.”
    He nodded. He had no more argument left in him. “That would be nice.”
    She tugged open the door, and she and Josh stepped outside into the early morning light.
    “Side window,” Sean called after them. “The small one. It opens onto