“She’s right here,” Daphne said.
Walter turned and looked at his daughter. “Do you have a problem with this?”
“I’d like more information about what their protection entails.”
“It just means we’ll help keep you safe. We can accompany you to any showings, escort you home from work, make sure your house is safe, or whatever else you need. You don’t have to decide on anything right now. We can figure out the details later,” I told her.
“Thanks,” she said, followed by a yawn.
“You didn’t get to take much of a nap, did you?” I asked.
“No, but that’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” Walter said. “You need to get some rest. Buck and I can come back later. Unless you want us to stay.”
It was obvious to me that Walter wasn’t quite ready to leave his daughter. I was about to offer them rooms at the clubhouse when Daphne made her own suggestion.
“You could stay at the lake house. That way you don’t have to drive back and forth just to check on me.”
“That’s a great idea,” Buck said. “We can keep an eye on the house and do some fishing.”
“I suppose that’ll work. Are you sure you don’t need anything?”
“I’m sure. We went by the house before we came here.”
“All right,” Walter said and leaned down to kiss the top of Daphne’s head. “You call me if you need anything.”
“I will,” she promised.
Once they were gone, I helped Daphne back to her room. She moved slowly, and her body seemed stiff, but she didn’t complain. After a quick trip to the bathroom, she got settled in bed, with Diablo by her side.
“Do you need anything?”
“I think I’m okay for now.”
With that, I closed her door and left her to rest, though I would have much rather stayed with her.
5
DAPHNE
When I woke from my nap, it took me a few moments to remember where I was and why. Everything hurt, and I couldn’t decide if it would be better to get up and take some pain medicine or stay perfectly still and hope it would pass. After a few minutes, I knew I needed to get up, but I was struggling to make myself do it.
Diablo jumped off the bed and went over to the door where he used his body to repeatedly bump against it. “Diablo,” I whispered harshly. “Stop that.” But my normally well-behaved dog didn’t obey me and continued what he was doing.
Moments later, someone knocked on the door. “Daphne, it’s Dice. Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” I croaked and cleared my throat. “You can come in.”
He opened the door and looked down at Diablo before entering the room. “Does he need to go outside?”
“Actually, he probably does.” I pushed myself up to a sitting position and grimaced in pain. “But that’s not why he was pushing against the door. Can you hand me my pain medicine?”
Dice picked up the bottle from the dresser across the room and brought it to me. “He was trying to get someone’s attentionbecause you’re in pain,” he said knowingly. “You should have text me.”
“I would have if I couldn’t get up and get it myself. I was still working on that, but Diablo was being impatient.”
“Where’s his leash? I’ll take him out for you.”