In the bathroom, the scent of dust intensified, and I immediately saw why.
“Ta da,” Raphael said.
The combination bathtub and shower had been completely remade. Before, it had been an ordinary tub with a great deal of toys strewn about. Now, it was like the most accessible tub in the world. There were handrails all along the walls of the shower. All the bottles and toys had been tossed into a large plastic bin outside of the tub. And a white plastic shelf with metal tubing was attached to the wall opposite the faucets.
Raphael followed my gaze and leaned forward, flipping a little latch. The hard white plastic folded down flat, forming a seat with metal legs to support it. “Thought it might be easier if you didn’t have to stand the whole time.”
“None of this was here this morning,” I said in amazement.
“We figured it was best to do it while you were out of the house. That way we wouldn’t disturb you—and you couldn’t argue about it, either.”
I tried to take a step closer before remembering that I wasn’t supposed to put any weight on my bad leg. I suppose I could’ve hopped, but I’d tried that just once yesterday and it had killed my ribs. “I definitely would’ve argued. You’ve changed the whole bathroom, just for me.” Well, perhaps not the whole bathroom, but there were also handrails by the toilet and little mounds of sawdust on the floor.
“We wanted to make things easier for you.”
“But… the twins share this bathroom, and now it looks like it’s for a senior citizen.”
Raphael grinned. “They thought the idea of a chair in a bathtub was cool. Plus, it folds up.” He fastened it to the wall again. “And you haven’t seen the best part.”
After a moment to make sure I was steady, he stepped to the front of the tub, reached up, and plucked the showerhead down. It was a handheld one that had a flexible silver hose attaching it to the wall.
“Was that like that before?”
“Nope. We figured that it would be easier to have the showerhead move to you rather than vice versa.”
Tears unexpectedly prickled at my eyes. “I can’t believe you did all this for me. Where’s Spencer? Did he go back to the school? He’s already missed so much work for me this week.”
Raphael shook his head. “Spencer didn’t do this, Flynn did.”
“Flynn?” I was pretty sure my jaw dropped onto the floor and then bounced across the tile. “You mean the guy next door who won’t even look in my direction?”
Raphael glanced away. “He’s been busy, but he wanted to make it easier for you to take a shower.”
It was still hard to believe that Flynn had done this, but there was no doubt it would help. “He did a fantastic job.”
“He’s the best at this kind of thing. He made the deck, you know.”
“The deck out back?” The enormity of that project made the bathroom remodel look like child’s play. “The whole deck?”
“Yep. About five years ago.”
“Wow.” That was an understatement. I’d already decided that that deck was my favorite spot in the entire state of Louisiana. It was hard to believe that Flynn had built it. “He must be quite talented.” And also quite standoffish, but that was another matter.
“He is.” Raphael gestured to the tub. “Ready to try it out?”
“Sure,” I said, though I could foresee some issues.
“Great. All we need to do is to get you undressed, put you in there, get you back out again, and then dress you in clean clothes. How hard could that be?”
My stomach did a weird flip flop at the thought of how difficult—with the potential for lots of embarrassment—that process was going to be. “Yeah,” I echoed weakly. “How hard could that be?”
10
Raphael
I had it all planned out. A way for her to get clean with her dignity intact. But my plan crashed and burned at step one.
“No way,” Alyssa said, eyeing the flowery fabric in my hands.
“It’s Nana’s. It’s big and loose, so you can just pull it over your head, and then I can help you cover your cast and get into the shower.”
“It’s a house frock, and it’s the size of a tent,” she protested.
Frowning, I looked over the garish purple and orange fabric. “I’d say it’s more of a house dress.”
“That’s not better.” She looked like she was ready to flee, even though that was physically impossible.
I tried again. “It’s just me here. No one else will see you in it. You can take off your clothes and put this on, and then let me know when you’re ready for me to come help you.”
“I’m pretty sure I’d rather be naked.” Alyssa said it flippantly, but certain parts of my body missed the sarcasm. The house frock — or dress — was at least good for holding in front of my groin.