Page 37 of Burke (The Haven #2)

S hirley woke the next morning and stretched, wincing, stopping the movement almost immediately on the one side, but overall she felt a whole lot better.

She had to admit that she felt quite decent.

She knew that it would be a problem to not do too much, particularly when she got back to the Haven, but it was something that she was really looking forward to.

She rolled over and realized that Burke wasn’t even here.

Whether he had left in the night, she didn’t know, but he was long gone. She frowned at that, and then the door opened almost immediately, as he stepped in, carrying coffee.

He handed her one cup and said, “I figured that this might go down pretty well.”

“How did you know I would be awake?”

“You started to snuffle a little bit ago,” he shared, with smile. “So I headed out to get you some coffee to wake up to.”

She laughed in appreciation. “Now this is something I could get used to.”

“I don’t think you’ve been used to anybody looking after you in a very long time.”

She frowned, then nodded. “I don’t think that’s an experience I’ve ever had.”

“Right, well,… that’s just one more thing to fix.”

“Oh, and you’ll be chief fixer, will you?” she teased.

“Absolutely,” he agreed, with a big grin. “Besides, I wouldn’t want anybody else to do the job.” He handed her the coffee.

She sniffed the rich aroma and smiled. “How is it that anything resembling coffee is just the perfect answer after a long day?”

“And is this a long day?” he asked, looking at her in astonishment. “Personally I figured it wasn’t even the start of a day.”

“No, you’re right there, but that’s okay. It feels as if it has the makings of a long day already.”

He laughed and added, “You’re going home today, so maybe that’ll help.”

“That’ll help a lot,” she murmured. “However, I’ll need to get cleared by the doctor first.”

“Yeah, you will, and then it’s home time.”

While she sipped the coffee, the nurses came around, did their check of her vitals at each shift change, and then shared, “The doctor will be in before long.”

As soon as they left, Burke suggested, “I’ll go pick up the groceries, then I’ll come back and pick you up too.”

And that’s what they did. By the time he returned, she had been released and was just maneuvering back into her clothes. As she stood here, he stepped in just as she was done. He frowned at her and shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t think to bring you anything clean.”

“That’s okay. I can get changed when we get back.”

“Good enough.” He pushed her in a wheelchair back to the vehicle, which was already fully loaded.

She smiled. “I guess this is just a normal grocery load for Timber, isn’t it?”

“It is when you constantly need supplies to keep the new construction going. Plus, he’s got a lot of mouths to feed out there.”

“Right. It seems like such a long time ago, and yet it was only yesterday.”

“Yes,” he agreed, giving her a bright smile. “It was both a long time ago and just yesterday. Somehow, it seems as if a lifetime since then.”

“Right, because a lot of things transpired. Did I ever thank you for coming into town with me, even when I was so determined that you shouldn’t?”

He laughed. “Yeah, well,… we wouldn’t let you go alone,” he stated. “So you would either go, knowing we were there, or you would go, thinking you were alone, but either way we would be there.”

She smiled, then bent closer and whispered, “Thank you.”

“You still got shot, so I can’t say that we did a great job.”

“Oh my, that’s not the point. The point is that you cared enough to even think about it.”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t mind trashing that father of yours for the treatment you received at his hands.”

“Ah, that’s an old story,” she muttered. “I really don’t have any intention of going back there.”

“Good,” he agreed, “because I don’t really want anything to do with him either.”

“It’s not as if we’ll have anything to do with either of them. Plus, they won’t want anything to do with us after this.”

“Perfect,” he muttered. Then he looked over at her as he drove through town, heading back toward the Haven, and in a low voice he asked, “So, I guess that means we can have a small wedding, huh ?”

She gasped in shock. “What did you say?”

He burst out laughing. “Was that a little too much, a little too fast?”

She stared at him. “I know you’re joking because you don’t even know me.”

“But I do know you,” he countered. “I know everything that counts, and, besides, we were great friends before.”

“We were,” she agreed, “and that’s one of the reasons I felt so terrible when I realized she was stealing from you.”

“We’ll park that and not worry about it anymore,” he said, “because that isn’t today’s issue.”

“Maybe not, but it still feels very much like something I should have known about.”

“And what could you have possibly done?” he asked. “You did everything you could, as soon as you found out.”

“Do we still have to go see the detective?”

He froze, swore, and muttered, “Yeah, we do.” He quickly changed directions, then added, “I forgot.”

She laughed. “I wish we could forget about it. That would be a whole lot easier.”

“But if we go and get it done, then we can go home and forget all about it for now.”

And that’s what they did. It didn’t take very long, and since it was obvious that she was fading quickly, Detective Martin went through it as fast as he could and then said, “Now you better get her home.”

“I was planning on it, but then she remembered that whole stopping on the way home to give you our statements thing.”

“Well,… I appreciate the fact that you did, but now get her home, and enjoy life for a change. That’s the Haven doing its job again.”

She looked at him and asked, “What job is that?”

He just smiled and didn’t say anything. “You’ll figure that out over time.”

She just smiled and nodded, but it made no sense. When she got back in the vehicle, already exhausted from the rigors of the day, she asked in a tired voice, as they headed back out of town again, “What did he mean?”

“I’m not exactly sure myself, but I think it may be something about matchmaking in the sense of people who are needing a haven to get out of the storm. Then they have a tendency to find each other,” he shared.

“Ah.” She nodded. “That makes the Haven an even more perfect name, and I really like that connotation.”

“Me too,” he agreed, patting her knee.

She grabbed his hand with hers and said, “Home, Burke.”

He burst out laughing. “Your wish is my command.”

He drove as carefully and yet as quickly as he could. As they pulled in, Timber strolled out and walked over to greet them. “How are you doing, Shirley?”

She looked up at him. “Honestly, I’m so ready to go to bed.”

“Then get your ass up there,” he said, “and no more fighting with bullets on my time, you hear me?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t planning on it this time,” she noted.

He nodded, then helped her out of the vehicle, as the dogs came running. It was all she could do to calm the dogs down enough to make her way upstairs. As she moved toward her room, Burke was there to help her.

As she crashed on her bed, wincing in pain, he pulled some blankets up over her and whispered, “Get some sleep.”

“I’ll be very happy to take that advice,” she whispered, then almost immediately drifted off.