Mr. Miracle by Debbie Macomber Page A

blunt. Then she figured, what was the point of hiding her eagerness to escape this situation?
    “Like who?”
    “Don’t you have someone who cares?” Because, clearly, she didn’t, and she wanted to be sure he knew it.
    He rotated his head and looked away from her. “Not currently.”
    So much for that. “What about a friend?” She was beginning to sound desperate.
    “Listen, Addie, you’re not obligated to do this.”
    She was well aware of that.
    Julie, who must have been listening in on their conversation, stepped around the corner from the kitchen. “The insurance company is providing a nurse to stop by once a day. She’ll see to bathing him and so on. I asked about increasing the time she spent with Erich, you know, like a private nurse,” she added, “but the cost was astronomical, far and away more than we could afford.”
    “My friends work during the day,” Erich explained. “Even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t ask them to be my caregivers. Not this time of year … or any other time,” he qualified.
    All the solutions they’d tried were the ones Addie had hoped to suggest. She felt her heart sinking.
    “Then I guess it’s up to me.” Her attitude was fatalistic at this point.
    “Don’t bother,” Erich insisted, glaring at her. “I’ll be just fine without you or anyone else.”
    “Sure you will,” Addie murmured sarcastically. He couldn’t do anything on his own. She’d literally have to spoon-feed him.
    His mother dropped her voice as though that would prevent him from hearing. “He hasn’t been feeling well this morning, and that makes him a little cranky. I think it might be one of the side effects from the pain medication. I know you two had your differences when you were teenagers, but you’re adults now, right?”
    “Right,” Addie admitted reluctantly.
    “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Her look was strained, but hopeful. “He won’t always be this … unpleasant, I’m sure.”
    “Actually, I think his bad mood is related to the fact that he’s about to be stuck with me,” Addie returned, mustering a smile.
    Erich smiled, too, for the first time since she’d arrived, letting her know she was spot-on.
    “I’ll leave you two alone to sort all this out,” Julie said, rubbing her palms together as though to generate heat in a room that had gone decidedly cool. “I’m going to finish packing my carry-on.”
    Addie moved across the living room to stand in front of the fireplace. His mother had tacked up two Christmasstockings that looked crocheted. She focused her gaze on them.
    “My grandmother made those for us when I was just a kid,” Erich explained. “Mom still puts them up every year, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re going down as soon as she walks out the door. I can’t stand Christmas.”
    “Fine, if that’s the way you feel. I’m not going to force you into a Santa suit.” Nor was she interested in discussing how he felt about Christmas decorations. She had more important matters on her mind. Gathering her resolve, she faced him and asked the most important question, the one that had been on her mind most of the night. “Can we do this?” she asked.
    From the intensity of his returning look, she knew she didn’t need to explain the question. It went without saying that they didn’t like each other. But were they capable of putting aside their differences long enough to survive the next two weeks? It wouldn’t be easy on either of them. It would be more difficult for Erich than for her, being that he was the injured party and the one in need of help. He must hate the thought of being in her debt.
    “Do we have a choice?” he returned, with a question of his own.
    “I don’t think we do,” Addie murmured. She’d spent a good portion of the night seeking alternative solutions, allof which they had already considered and eliminated before she could even propose them.
    “I don’t like this any better than you do,” Erich said, as