“Like I’ve been run over by a truck.” Her throat was scratchy, sore. Issy picked up a bottle of water from her bedside table. She tried to sit and groaned. She was not only sore, but her muscles were like jelly.
“Here.” He sat next to her, then helped her half recline against his chest. He held the bottle up to her mouth. She tried to untangle her hands from the sheets, but they were trapped under the covers.
“Let me,” he told her. “Just relax. You’re in no state to do anything today.”
She gulped a few drinks of water. Then he set the bottle aside and moved her, so she was back to lying down. He rested a hand on either side of her body.
“You didn’t look after yourself yesterday.”
“I know,” she said guiltily.
“I trusted you to follow my orders.”
“I know.”
“I’m not happy that you disobeyed me and that you pushed yourself so hard that you ended up with a severe migraine.”
It actually wasn’t as bad as some she’d had, but she figured now wasn’t the time to tell him that.
He sat up then grasped hold of her wrist, taking her pulse. “It’s better. It was racing yesterday. Too much stress and caffeine. Did you have plans for today?”
The look on his face told her there was only one answer to that.
“I thought I might take the day off.”
He grunted. “You’ll likely be taking more than just one day off. You’ve pushed yourself too hard for too long, baby doll. You’re reaching breaking point and I don’t like it.”
She didn’t much like it herself.
“I know,” she whispered. “I’ve been trying to lose myself in work since Dave died. But it’s not healthy. That’s not the first migraine I’ve had, not even the worst one. I’ve gone more than twenty-four hours without sleep because I was working so much then collapsed into bed for days. I never had trouble with sleeping before. And I never worked more than fifty hours a week. And some weeks a lot less. I only developed these migraines after he died.”
“All right. So, that was easier than I thought. I had a whole speech prepared.”
She had to grin at that.
He narrowed his gaze. “Can still give it to you, girl.”
She wiped the grin off her face. “I think I’ve got the gist of it, Issy.”
“Do you? Because from now on, there will be no more working yourself into a state. You knew what I expected from you while I was gone, and you didn’t follow the rules.
When you’re feeling better, you’re going to be punished for that.”
She bit her lip. Drat.
“The answer to that is ‘yes, Issy’.”
“Yes, Issy.”
“Bought a few gifts for you while I was in town.”
“Do I no longer gets them ‘cause I was naughty?”
His eyes widened and she realized how childish her voice had sounded. She waited for the worry, the panic. None came.
He blinked then his shoulders relaxed. “No, baby, you still get your presents. But some of them you might not like.”
How could she not like a present?