“It’s higher, so we can see the lake better over the crest of the hill, each corner of the deck has a spot for citronella candles to fight off the bugs, and since we aren’t on the grass, they’ll bother us less. It’s also easier for you to navigate than the uneven terrain of the yard. I want you to find solace and happiness here without worrying about falling or hurting yourself on your crutches.”
I dropped my crutches and put my arms around him, loving the way he picked me up around the waist and buried his nose in my neck. “Thank you,” I whispered, my voice choked. “It’s moments like these when I don’t want to think about not being part of your life and your home. I know eventually, I will have to leave, but between last night and today, you’ve made that exponentially harder.”
He laughed into my neck, raising goosebumps on my skin. “My evil plan is working then.” He set me back on my feet, and before I could object, he captured my lips with his and suckled, teased, licked, and kissed until I was wet with desire and pressed against him to feel his own need between us.
“We should go take a nap,” I murmured around his lips. “I’ll give you a proper thank-you.”
He laughed against my lips and then kissed my nose. “We aren’t done with wedding gifts, and we have plans.”
I shook my head a bit at him. “You shouldn’t be buying me gifts, Bishop. I didn’t know wedding gifts was a thing.”
“Well, in your defense, you didn’t have much notice that you were getting married, so you’re exempt.” He grinned and picked up my crutches, handing them back to me. “We’ll have a fire later, but for now, we have somewhere to be.”
“We do?” I asked, and he nodded, motioning me back to the house. I crutched up to the patio doors and inside. “The ramps make it much easier on the crutches,” I said, lowering myself to the chair. “I don’t know if I can do much more moving around, Bishop. My arm is sore from using the crutches again. Normally, I only use one under the right arm to avoid the pressure on my left one, but that’s impossible right now.”
He nodded and kissed my cheek. “I know and that brings me to your final wedding present. They came yesterday while we were gone, and I found them in the garage this morning. Hang tight.”
He disappeared, and I wondered what on earth he was talking about now. I rubbed my forehead and sighed. I didn’t want to go anywhere other than to bed. I was exhausted, and the idea of crutching around for another few hours was almost too much to bear. I could handle a night out around the campfire, but I wasn’t sure I could force my body to move much further than that. I had a busy week coming up with work, interviews, and finishing the office at the bakery. I had to rest a little bit, and something told me I’d find myself in his bed again tonight.
My mind raced to the package being delivered from Amazon tomorrow, and I smiled. Maybe I had a wedding gift for him after all. Time would tell. I heard the door close again, and then he was walking back into the room with a long rectangular cardboard box. He set it on end and held it out for me to take.
“What’s this?”
“Open it and find out,” he said, holding the box, so I could stand up and balance while popping the tucked in flaps open. I peeked inside, but I still couldn’t tell what they were as I pulled them out of the box. The white sticks were confusing until he pulled out the rest and put them together.
“What am I looking at?” I asked in confusion. “They look like forearm crutches, but they can’t be.”
“They aren’t,” he assured me, holding them out for me. “They’re a new crutch designed out of the UK. They use your elbows and forearms to balance your weight rather than under your arms. Haylee told me you might have fewer problems with these since the injury to your arm ended above your elbow.”
I nodded, biting my lip as I eyed the contraptions. “That’s why I have so many problems with that arm,” I said, clearing my throat.
He bought crutches for me. He sought out a solution to a problem I had and then checked with my best friend just to make sure he wouldn’t make something worse. Part of me wanted to pinch myself and see if I was awake. Was he for real, or was he a dream?
He slid his arms inside the straps and grasped the handles that jutted upward like a video game joystick. “The crutches are fully adjustable, including the handgrips,” he explained, flipping them down. “You can also move them out of the way and watch,” he said, lifting his arms. The arm cups stayed on his arm but separated from the crutch on a swing-away motion. He put his arms around me and hugged me, then lowered the crutches to the floor and snapped them down again. “You can let go, and they don’t fall off your arms, but they will break away if you fall.”
“That’s seriously sci-fi stuff, Bishop. Crutches have been the same since the Civil War. No one ever made them easier. These are a gamechanger.”
He nodded and took one off his arm, flipping it over. “They are because the feet are completely different than most crutches. Instead of just a cap over a metal tube, these act more like those shoes you see kids hopping around on. They rock forward, squish down, and then pop back up on return to make walking with them more natural. They also have ones for ice and snow to keep you from falling.”
He righted the crutch again and handed it to me, helping me adjust
