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Matt didn’t know how long he had slept. An hour? Two? Twelve?

If he didn’t have to use the bathroom, he would have gladly gone on sleeping another hour, two, or twelve. Sleep had never felt so good. Not nearly as good as kissing Rachel had felt, but... yeah, pretty close. Which was more of a reflection on how badly he needed the sleep.

He blamed the headache for his sluggish response in the car. When she leaned across him to fasten his seat belt, all he’d wanted to do was drag her onto his lap and kiss her senseless. His brain didn’t know what to do when she plopped onto his lap and started kissing him senseless. By the time he realized what was happening, she was leaping off him like he was on fire—well, he sort of had been—and looking for any excuse to wipe her hands clean of him.

Why did it always look so easy for men like Noah? A few days after coming home and he was already hanging out with Aunt Gracie just like old times.

Matt shuffled to the toilet and relieved all the fluids the hospital had pumped into him during his short stay. Thoughts of Rachel were going to be much harder to get out of his system. What was it about her? No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t shake her.

Granted, he hadn’t really tried all that hard. But still. Even now, he could still taste a hint of her cinnamon gum on his lips. Feel her soft hair beneath his fingertips. Hear her trademark snort-laugh.

Wait.

He finished washing his hands and paused. He did hear her laugh. Her voice. Here. Now. Downstairs.

Matt crept to the top of the staircase. The lights from below weren’t all that bright, but it pierced through his skull just the same. He squinted his eyes and inhaled a few deep breaths while the voices continued floating up from the kitchen.

“Isn’t it great,” Gracie said. “My dad’s favorite dialysis nurse is the same girl Matt’s taking a shining to. I think that’s just great.”

A shining to? Really, Aunt Gracie?

“I love Buck. Everyone does. He’s one of our favorite patients. But anyway,” Rachel’s voice continued carrying up the stairs. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. Matt left his discharge instructions in my car, so I just wanted to drop them off.”

“You’re not interrupting anything,” Gracie said. “Stay. Drink coffee. Eat a brownie. They’re a little overdone because Noah didn’t trust me when I said it was time to take them out of the oven, but they’re edible. Mostly.”

“I did the toothpick thing and they weren’t done yet.”

Matt continued hobbling down the stairs as quick as he could, which was not all that quick. He clung to the banister to steady his balance. He needed to catch her before she left. Try to redeem himself somehow. Hopefully work out the potential for another chance at that whole kissing scenario—preferably when his head wasn’t spinning or his stomach threatening to revolt.

“Hey, is it okay that he’s sleeping?” Noah asked when they stopped arguing about toothpicks and brownies. “I remember an episode of Wings once where they couldn’t let the one gal sleep all night because she’d had a concussion or something.”

“Well, if you saw it on Wings ,” Gracie said, “then by all means rush on upstairs and wake him up. Did Northern Exposure happen to have any episodes about pelvic injuries? Is that why you thought you knew how to take care of me?”

Rachel giggled. “I think it’s okay to let him sleep.”

“Don’t dis my shows,” Noah said.

“I’m not dissing your shows,” Gracie responded. “I’m dissing your medical knowledge. It’s a wonder I survived more than forty-eight hours under your care.”

Matt finally made it to the bottom of the staircase and rounded into the kitchen.

Rachel’s eyes widened. “Hey. You’re awake.” She sprang out of her seat. “I just came by to drop off your discharge papers. I forgot about them when we were... um... talking.”

Matt pretended not to see the way Noah’s eyebrows wagged up and down at Gracie while Rachel motioned to her vacant chair. “Take my seat. I was just getting ready to leave.”

“No, you weren’t,” Gracie said. “You were going to stay for coffee, remember? Hey Noah, grab the pan of brownies. And probably some steak knives.”

“They are not that burnt.”

Gracie smiled at Noah, and Matt did a double take. Gracie’s smile actually seemed genuine. Like she was teasing Noah and enjoying it.

Nah. Probably just his head injury playing tricks on him.

Matt slid into Noah’s empty seat, glad to be off his feet. Bed was already sounding good again.

“So any idea who hit you?” Gracie asked.

Matt adjusted the sling on his left arm, then dropped his forehead into his hand. “Police are looking into it.”

“Person probably panicked,” Noah said. “Maybe didn’t have insurance or something. Fool could have been drunk. Who knows?”

“Either way, they really need to do something about that curve. It’s such a bad spot for accidents.” Gracie nibbled on a brownie. “Where were you coming back from?”

“Ace’s bar.”

“Who’s Ace?” Gracie asked the same moment Rachel sputtered on her coffee and Noah said, “Rachel’s Ace?” Which made Rachel sputter harder while Gracie asked, “Who’s Rachel’s Ace?”

“You went and saw Ace?” Rachel wheezed out in between more coughs and sputters.

Gracie handed her a napkin. “Wait, Ace? As in beer-on-the-head Ace?”

“What did you say to him?” Noah said.

“Did you pour beer on his head?” Gracie said.

“Did he pour beer on your head?” Noah said.

“Are you insane?” Rachel wheezed out.

Matt was about to be, if they kept firing off questions without ever giving him a chance to answer. He scooted his chair back. “I told him if he ever thought about hurting you again, just be sure to direct it at me because I’d much rather suffer than ever see you get hurt again. Or something like that. I don’t remember. I’ve been in an accident since then, and to be honest, everything’s a little bit fuzzy now. Except for you kissing me in your car. I remember that.”

Rachel’s cheeks flushed. Gracie clapped her hands together. And Noah said, “I knew I saw something.”

Then Gracie and Noah both rose at the same time. “Hey, Grace, didn’t you say earlier we needed to—”

“—do that thing,” Gracie finished. “Yep. That’s what I said. We should definitely go—”

“—do that thing. Yep. That’s what I thought you said.” Noah nodded. “Probably should do it in the other room.”

“Right now.”

“I should probably go too,” Rachel said.

“No,” Noah and Gracie both said at the same time. “You should do this thing,” Gracie said as she stumbled toward the back kitchen door.

“In this room.” Noah slipped an arm around her waist before she tripped over her own feet and fractured something else.

“Right now,” they both added before slamming the back kitchen door shut behind them.

“Subtle, aren’t they?” Rachel smiled.

Matt tried to return it, but even just moving facial muscles hurt his head at the moment. “Rachel, I—”

“Don’t say anything.” She held up a hand. “I can tell you’re miserable, and right now I don’t feel like I can yell at you the way I want to yell at you for seeing Ace until your head feels better.”

“I don’t feel like I can kiss you the way I want to kiss you until my head feels better.”

Her cheeks flushed even darker. He smiled, not caring how much it hurt his head. “Wow, Rach. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so blushy before. At least not back when we were just friends. Maybe now that we’re—”

“Nope. We’re not having that conversation right now. Not when your brain is making up words like blushy. Right now we’re just friends.” She started for the front door.

“I love you.”

“Stop it,” she said, spinning around. “We’ll figure this out later.”

“Hey, pretty sure a medical professional said I might have one of those secret head bleeds where I’ll be wearing a toe tag by midnight. If that’s the case I want you to know for sure and for certain that I love you.”

“Great. Now I know. But not another word about it until you’ve gotten some rest. I can’t have the man I love puking all over my shoes.”

The man I love. A slow sensation of warmth spread inside Matt’s stomach, a welcome exchange for the nausea. He could almost believe his head even hurt a bit less. Almost. “You love me?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You did say that.”

“Okay, I might’ve said that. But it doesn’t mean I mean what you automatically think I mean.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you need to go to bed and rest. We’ll talk about this later.”

“When?”

“When you’re not about to drop dead.”

“I’m not about to drop dead.” But the whole puking-on-the-shoes scenario might have some validity. Matt gripped the doorknob, waiting for the ground to stop moving.

“Matt,” Rachel whispered. Her hands gently pushed him away from the door. “Go to bed.”

“I love you so much.”

“Would you knock it off? We’ll talk later.” She squeezed through the door, then met his gaze with another rosy blush, and murmured, “Please don’t die tonight,” before clicking the door shut behind her.

Matt made it to the stairs, then sank onto the bottom step and cradled his head in his hands. He took it all back. He was about to drop dead.

Footsteps approached, followed by Noah’s voice. “Well, don’t you look pathetic.”

“Just bury me right here on these stairs.”

“And now you sound pathetic.” Noah got under Matt’s good arm and hefted him onto his feet. “Come on, partner. I’d say you’ve got too much left to live for to get buried on these stairs tonight.”

“Isn’t Rachel so pretty?”

“She’s a doll,” Noah grunted, dragging Matt up the remainder of the stairs to the spare bedroom. “You ever heard of picking up your feet?”

“My head hurts.”

“What’s that have to do with your feet?”

Matt dove for the bed. Either that, or Noah shoved him. Hard to say. Matt grabbed his head and groaned. “Rachel kissed me.”

“I know. You told everyone about it ten minutes ago.” Noah cracked his back side to side.

“I didn’t kiss her back.”

Noah turned in the doorway. “Why not?”

“My head hurt.”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry. Judging by the way she was looking at you tonight, I think you’ll get another shot at it soon.”

“I just never imagined it could hurt this bad.”

“Concussions?”

“Love.” Matt rolled onto his side, still clutching his head. “How did you do it? How did you survive after losing Aunt Gracie? I know you guys went through some stuff, but I just don’t get it. How could you guys love each other and not stay together? I thought I understood when I was with Aimee. I thought I knew how it was supposed to be. But now... with Rachel.”

Matt rolled flat on his back. “With Rachel, I feel like I can’t breathe at the thought of her not being with me.” He dropped his hand and met Noah’s shadowed gaze in the doorway. “How have you been breathing all this time without Aunt Gracie?”