“This is so thoughtful,” Melissa said as the girls set their boxes on the kitchen table and began taking out covered dishes.

“I brought lasagna and a small tossed salad. You’ll need to add dressing. There’s also a meat loaf and some scalloped potatoes you can freeze,” Ruby said.

“I brought a loaf of homemade sourdough bread, some orange breakfast scones, and a loaf of apple praline bread. There’s also a mini-cheesecake. Just right for two,” she said, and winked.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Melissa said, which made the girls laugh.

“I’m heading back,” Rachel said. “We’re really having an influx of guests right now. Besides Sully, I still have three elderly ladies, but they’ll be checking out after breakfast tomorrow, and another couple due tonight, so I need to prepare for all that. Enjoy your supper. I’ll let myself out.”

She hugged Melissa, and then she was gone.

Ruby saw the happiness on Melissa’s face and knew Sully was responsible.

“I’ve known you a long time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you happier.”

“Sully and I go back a long way. He’s easy to be with, and you are a wonderful friend. The best people in the world are living in Blessings.”

After Ruby left, Melissa locked up the house and headed for the kitchen. She took out a serving of lasagna, then put part of the food in the refrigerator and part of it in the freezer, and tossed the load of laundry into the dryer.

When she finally got around to eating supper, she reheated the lasagna, added salad and a glass of iced tea, and ate it in the living room while watching the evening news.

When it came time to go to bed, she went upstairs to her bedroom to spend the night. The sooner she resumed her normal routine, the better she would feel.

She stripped in front of the full-length mirror on the bathroom door, turning first one way and then another, checking the bruising she got from the wreck.

Her shoulder was still sore from hitting the door, and her chest was sore from the seat belt. But nothing was broken, and she was blessed to be alive.

She thought of Sully again and shifted her perspective to how her body would fare in his eyes. She’d always been lanky. Long legs and arms attached to a less-than-sexy body. There were no voluptuous breasts, just a handful apiece, as Andy used to say. When she was younger, people used to say she looked like actress Sandra Bullock, but she never saw it. All she’d seen were dark hair and green eyes.

Sully, however, had grown from a really cute teenager to a drop-dead sexy man with a body to match. And after seeing him without a shirt in the ER, it was easy to understand how he had been strong enough to pick her up and run. Staying fit had to have been part of his job.

She turned away from the mirror and headed to the shower. A short while later, she came out with her nightgown on and her hair still damp from being washed. She checked to make sure the security alarm was on, then set her alarm clock and got in bed.