Heart Song Anthology by Carolyn Faulkner (summer reads txt) 📗

As she took his tray away, he hobbled to the bed when her back was turned. She scowled at him and he smirked at her. It had become a game of sorts between them.

She helped him lift his injured leg as he climbed in and then she smoothed the blankets that covered him. This time she bent down and told him she was leaving for home. “Before I go, I will make sure and call your friend to schedule his visit for Thursday afternoon. That is two days from now. He will be happy to see you. He has been calling every day.” She stopped before she reached the door as if just remembering. “Your father has called again also. He wants to visit as soon as you are feeling up to it. He said to tell you he will be bringing your stepmother, of course,” she finished.

Ike frowned. “Tell my father I will talk to him alone. I don’t want to see that woman he married.”

Mindy nodded. Same message as always. “Yes, sir, I will relay the message.”

“Thanks, nurse.” He looked at her nametag for the first time. “Mindy. Thanks for everything.”

Mindy smiled as she walked out the door and down the hall to the nurses’ station. After making her phone calls, she walked out into the evening. Darkness was just falling as she hurried to her beat-up old car.

Mindy

Mindy was tired. It had been a long day, and although she loved her job, it was emotionally draining. She smiled as she thought of Ike. He was a big man. Six foot four and he still had plenty of muscles although he would definitely need to begin working out. He needed a haircut. Maybe she would suggest it tomorrow, so he looked nice for his visitor.

The doctor said the cast could come off his arm tomorrow. Maybe she would suggest he get into the shower himself. She could wrap his ankle cast in plastic. He hated being dependent on her. She could see it hurt his pride to have to ask for every little thing. As soon as he could, he’d insisted on going to the bathroom on his own. She giggled when she thought of him growling at her. She would suggest he get spiffed up to look better for his visitor. It would help him feel better about himself.

She turned into the driveway of her small one-bedroom house. It was all she could afford. After quickly unlocking the door she entered, closing, and locking it again. This was not a good neighborhood. Drug dealers stood on the corner most nights. After dropping her keys on the table, she looked around for her companion.

“Peanut, where are you?” she called and soon a lazy, stretching calico cat came meandering out of her bedroom.

Peanut rubbed against her leg, purring as Mindy opened the canned cat food and put a good amount in her dish. “There you go, good girl,” she cooed before she walked to the bedroom and carefully removed her scrubs to put into the laundry.

Stripping down, she walked into the shower and relaxed as the hot water washed over her petite body. She washed her long hair first, enjoying every minute of her gentle massage. Then she began running her sudsy hands down her body, stopping as her fingers found her nipples and she pinched and twisted them with her slippery fingers. She continued, enjoying the building tension, the tingly feelings in her core begging for a cock. Her fingers left her breasts and continued down as she spread her legs. They reached her clit and she ran soapy fingers around and around, rubbing harder as her breathing became more and more labored. Her head back, her eyes closed, she let the water run over her head as her fingers found her core. She inserted one and then the other, pumping quickly in and out. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She pumped deeper and faster, daydreaming it was Ike and his cock inside her. She felt her pussy spasm as her finger continued. Soon she felt her world break apart. She rinsed off as she moaned in delight.

She was coming to care for Ike. His determination and strength. Her dreamy thoughts continued as she realized he would be a perfect daddy. She had been struggling day to day on her own for so long. It would feel so good to find someone who would take her burdens as his own. She sighed. Drying herself, she continued thinking, things like that didn’t happen to poor girls like her. She sighed as she sat down to put on her pants before making dinner. She groaned as she planned the meal, another night of plain spaghetti. She had to stretch her food budget.

Her parents had died when she was a toddler. Her gram raised her as best she could, working well into her sixties to put Mindy through nursing school. Just before Mindy graduated, her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. The medical bills were astronomical, but Mindy had to try and save the beloved woman that raised her. Her grandmother insisted she finish and graduate, and in turn, Mindy made her promise she would retire and start her chemo. She found out later her grams did not stop working for the two months it took her to finish school. In that time the cancer advanced. When Mindy came home, a newly licensed RN, she found out her grams had continued working to make sure she didn’t have to borrow money to finish school.

Tears rolled down Mindy’s cheeks at the memories. They had gone to every kind of doctor, tried everything possible, but to no avail. The frail old woman could not fight anymore; she was ready to go and be with her beloved husband. But, twenty-two-year-old Mindy was left on her own with all the medical bills to pay. She got hired at the veterans hospital in