The bathroom was a narrow, cramped space. Apparently the Ericsons hadn’t upgraded with the help of their son’s money. The house was an older-model, wooden two-story, surrounded with now-dormant flower beds. Photos lined the hallway showing all the colors that grew there in the spring, however. My mom loved gardening. She always fussed on the weekends in winter, never quite knowing what to do with herself. Usually she took up some expensive intricate craft that got dumped the moment the ground thawed. A sudden wave of homesickness washed over me.
Which was silly.
No way did I want to go home yet. After my sister’s farce of a wedding, once all of the fuss had died down? Fine. Then I’d spend some time with my parents, reconnect, and make things right. I’d catch up with my old friends and see what was left for me back home. It was a promise.
“Mom kept all the first aid stuff here.” Mal rifled in the sink cupboard, pulling out a battered white box. “Ah, there you go.”
“It’s not that bad,” said Jimmy. “I’ll just wash it off.”
“Definitely not,” I said.
“And risk letting that handsome face get infected?” Mal tutted, interceding flawlessly. “Please, princess. For me?”
Jimmy gave him a faint smile and accepted the box.
“And I’m pretty sure you’d rather have Lena playing nurse. I’ll leave you two kids to it.”
I flattened myself against the wall and Mal squeezed past, backing out into the hallway. “Yell if you need anything.”
The lid on the old first aid box creaked mightily as Jimmy pulled it open. “Yeah.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at Mal.
He winked.
“Right. Sit on the edge of the bathtub,” I instructed, taking charge.
Jimmy sat, inspecting the dark red stains on the front of his shirt. “This is ruined.”
“You’ve got others.”
“I had this made especially at Saville Road in London. You have any idea what something like that costs?”
Please. The man had more money than god. “You hitting me up for a loan?”
He snorted.
“Because honestly, I don’t know if I like you enough for that.”
“Wasn’t aware you liked me at all,” he said, smoothing down his shirt as if that would help matters. He was right, the thing deserved a one-way ticket to the ragbag.
“Hmm. You’re not so bad. I’ve met much, much worse.” And we didn’t really need to get into that anytime this decade. I snapped my mouth shut and pushed up my glasses, got busy digging in the medicine chest. “What have we’ve got here.”
“Listen, Lena, about today …”
I waited for him to finish. And waited. “What?”
He scowled at the wall, avoiding my eyes completely. “I just … I just wanted to say, ah …”
“Yes-s-s?”
“Well, that um, you were useful.”
“I was useful?” My brows rise to dangerous heights, I could feel them. After everything we’d been through today, useful was as good as it got?
A shrug. “Yeah, mostly.”
“Mostly? I was mostly useful.” Slowly, I shook my head, biting back an incredulous grin. Lucky my sense of self-worth wasn’t dependent on him or it’d be a sad, shriveled wreck hiding out in the corner by now. This man, he did my head in. It seemed only fair to repay the favor in kind. “I think that’s just about the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, Mr. Ferris. It was just beautiful, like poetry. I’ll never think of the word useful the same way ever again.”
He sniffed disdainfully, giving me a dour look. “Great. And it was mostly useful.”
“Yes, sorry, mostly useful. Wow. I just don’t know how to thank you.”
“Less talk’d be a good start. Let’s get this over with.”
“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.” I stopped short of saluting, but only just.
Down the hallway drifted various noises as the wake slowly started winding down. There was the clink of plates and cutlery being gathered. I could hear Mal saying goodbye to someone followed by the hair-raising bang of the front door. It must have been caught by the wind. Some old Bob Dylan tune played low beneath it all.
“You’re welcome by the way,” I said, softening my voice, cutting him a break. His day, after all, had been far worse than mine. Plus, it obviously wasn’t easy for him to say thank you. Not that he’d exactly managed to. “I’m glad I was here to help.”
He looked up at me, eyes unguarded. At least, they weren’t cold and hard for a change.
“Me too,” he said quietly.
For a moment, I actually forgot myself. We just stared at each other in near silence, like we were waiting for something or trying to figure something out. I don’t know. It was weird.
Then he turned away.
“Lena, hello?” He pointed to his cheek. “I’m still bleeding here.”
“Right,” I ripped into a fresh pad of gauze, then got busy wrestling with the lid on the disinfectant. Stupid childproof locks. “Let’s see if we can’t fix you.” When I sneaked a look he was staring off into infinity again, I’d apparently been tuned out.
“This’ll sting,” I said, liberally dousing the gauze. “Who knows how dirty her nails were. We need to clean it really well.”
He wrinkled his nose at the smell. “Don’t pretend you’re not going to enjoy it.”
“You wound me. As if I’d ever enjoy causing you mild pain or discomfort.” I couldn’t quite keep the smile off my face. Of course, I didn’t quite bother. Verbally sparring with Jimmy was fast becoming more fun than I’d had with most other men naked. Which was sad.
Real sad.
Carefully, I started cleaning him up, wiping the blood from his cheek. I was trying not to overthink things but my mind refused to slow down. We’d now touched more in one day than I’d ever imagined possible. Judging by my ongoing heart condition, this was not good. I scrunched up my face, concentrating. This new heightened awareness of him was driving me insane. We hadn’t connected, not really. It was just because of today being so overemotional and everything. There’d been more drama, highs and lows, than I’d experienced in ages and putting it all into perspective would take some time. Tomorrow we’d head back to Portland and things would revert to normal with Jimmy largely ignoring my existence. There was no need to freak out.
At any rate, I couldn’t quit on the guy right now. Talk about kicking someone when they were down.
He winced. “Ouch.”
“Don’t be such a baby.”
If only my stupid hands would stop trembling, giving me away. Happily, Jimmy didn’t seem to notice. The more I tended to his face, the madder I got. Honestly, what an absolute shit of a day. Mal lost a wonderful mother while Jimmy and David suffered via their very alive and deeply crappy one. Where the hell was the justice in that?