He leaned back and frowned at me. “How…how—” He glanced around. “You have neighbor who help to get the chair?”
Shit. “Dammit. I completely forgot.” I looked around, seeing a car parked in front of my next-door neighbor’s house. I pointed. “That car belongs to Mrs. White’s son. Knock on their door. Kyle will help. He’s a nice kid.”
Cachi was climbing out through my door a moment later. “I ask,” he said, smiling and then leaning down to kiss me again as I dropped my hand into my lap to hide my massive hard on, which was desperately trying to free itself from my sweats. I pressed on it, praying it would deflate by the time Cachi returned with Kyle. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise…or embarrass myself.
Sure enough, their front door opened and Cachi spoke to him for a few seconds before Kyle glanced over. I waved at him, and the kid waved back.
“Hey, Mr. Monroe,” he said, walking up to the car and leaning both hands on the doorframe. “My mom has been really worried about you but she’s gonna be so glad you’re out of the hospital.”
I looked at him in surprise. “You knew I got hurt on the job?”
“Sure. Mom saw your friends coming around all the time when they started building the ramps, so she asked them what happened. She was really worried, like I told you. Your friend—ah, the Irish guy—”
“Patsy.”
He nodded. “Yeah, Patsy. Anyway, he said that you got shot and couldn’t walk. I’m really sorry.”
“That’s nice of you, Kyle. Tell your mom I’m home now and ask her to stop by in the next couple of days.”
“Oh, sure. She’s working the night shift or I think she’d be here bending your ear about it right now.” He looked at the chair in the back seat. “Your friend, Cachi, says you need help getting the chair out of the car.”
I nodded. “If you don’t mind, thank you, Kyle.”
“Sure, Mr. Monroe.” He and Cachi opened the back door of the car and lifted the chair out, setting it on the ground close to my door. Kyle lifted me with his arms around my chest and together, they helped me into the chair. I had to try hard not to move my legs, otherwise Cachi would know something was up.
“Thanks so much, Kyle.” I stuck out my hand, and he shook it.
“No problem, sir. Gee, I really hope you get the feeling in your legs back. It’d be a shame if you couldn’t walk again.”
“Thank you, Kyle,” Cachi said, looking slightly irritated by how the boy reminded me of the paralysis but patted him on the back anyway.
“Sure, no problem,” Kyle said as he walked away, stopping at his front door and waving before ducking back inside.
I looked up at Cachi. “Come on, sugar. Let’s go inside and I’ll show you my surprise.”
“As long as it’s the sexy one,” Cachi said, kissing me again and chuckling.
Once inside the house, Lola came scooting over. She barked with excitement, wiggling in little circles, almost as happy to see Cachi as when I’d come home. It was wonderful watching the two of them together. Cachi picked her up and started kissing her which made her whimper with joy. After a minute or two, hehanded her to me. I cuddled her for a couple of minutes and then set her back on the ground.
I glanced at Cachi. “You ready to see the surprise now?”
He nodded, looking incredibly excited. “Si. Is in your bedroom, no?”
I laughed. “No, but we’ll get to that in a couple of minutes. This is what I wanted to show you.” I wheeled over to the walker I’d left near the front door which Mars and I had stopped briefly to drop off on the way to Cachi’s, then wheeled back to the middle of the foyer.
“You got a…thing…”
I chuckled. “Yeah, but it’s called a walker.”
“A walker,” he repeated. I watched his lips move as he silently repeated the word twice more to memorize it.
“Let me show you how it works.” I looked down at my feet, willing them to move.
“Rex, maybe you wait and show later.”
I shook my head and smiled at him. “You have no patience, Cachi. Let me show you my surprise.”
“Okay, Rex.” He watched closely, and I went back to concentrating. As I did, my right foot slowly moved off the pedal, flopping onto the floor.