Page 30 of Her Hidden Smile

“Your pain. It’s nerve pain, right?”

“How do you know?”

He crouched down beside me and handed me the glass of water, then looked at each bottle. He shook out one pain pill and two ibuprofens.

“Here you go.”

I took the offered pills, then downed them with a sip of water.

“Finish the glass.”

I frowned at him.

“You need to drink all of the water with your medicine.”

I huffed out a breath, then finished the glass of water. He took it from me.

“I need to get you something to eat. Definitely something more substantial than chocolates. I peeked in your fridge. It looks like you have the makings for a sandwich, but there are a lot of containers in your freezer. I’m thinking you like to cook comfort food,” he teased.

I stared at him. He wasn’t going to give me any grief for the romance books? I thought all men thought those were silly.

“Uhmm.”

“Cariña?”

I squinted at him. “What does that mean?”

He smiled. “It’s just an endearment.”

“Yeah, but what does it mean?”

“You sure don’t take anything at face value, do you?”

Just then, my leg seized. I cried out as a debilitating cramp fired from my knee to my eyes. An inferno of agony shot through my whole left side.

“Millie. Where’s the pain? Your leg? Your⁠—"

I grabbed my thigh through my jeans, cursing the denim. I needed to push in on the different parts of my thigh until I found relief, but I couldn’t press hard enough.

“Cariña, Millie, what are you trying to do? How can I help?” He sounded calm and comforting. In a world of agony, his soothing tone was a blessing. I tried to get the words out. His strength could help with the percussive massage that I needed, but I was beyond speech.

His hand eased mine aside, then pushed down, again and again, at different spots. He never kneaded, he just pushed.

“Harder,” I pleaded.

“Like this?”

“Yes,” I hissed. “But not there. I don’t know where. I’ll tell you when you’ve found it.” I gasped the last words. It was as if I’d run a marathon.

I closed my eyes until he finally found the spot that brought some relief. It was where the cramp was hitting the nerve, and with the massage, it was releasing the cramp so that it wouldn’t surround the nerve and torture me. Plus, I thought the pain meds were doing their work.

Renzo continued to massage my thigh, but now he was doing it lighter, which was perfect. My body was more relaxed and I wasn’t crying anymore. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The last thing I remembered was Renzo putting a blanket over me. I thought he kissed my forehead, but that was just a dream.

I woke up to the smell of meatloaf and macaroni and cheese. I didn’t want to get up, I was so comfy, and I was in the middle of the nicest dream. Renzo Drakos was actually in my house, and I wasn’t all agitated. In fact, I’d enjoyed his company.

And he’d kissed me! That was such a good dream!

Only on the forehead. Yeah, I didn’t care how good the food smelled, I wasn’t going to open my eyes. I started to roll over, and that was when I realized I was on my couch.