"Any showering, dressing, or undressing will be done with my help." Clay's tone sounded pretty final. "I will not compromise on this, Julie."
Okay, the way he said her name and his dominant tone sent shivers where shivers hadn't been in a long time. If she were being totally honest with herself, she liked it—liked it a lot—and that scared the hell out of her. Mentally smacking herself to think of Bo, her main priority, Julie frowned. "There are certain things that have to be taught, and it's best if I—"
"You tell me what needs to be done, and consider it taken care of." Clay finally straightened away from her. "Or he will continue with sponge baths."
She totally didn't understand why Clay would have an issue with this, but obviously he had a big issue, and Bo needed to shower himself, so she caved. "Okay, but if I'm not happy, then—"
"He will continue with sponge baths," Clay finished for her.
"Damn, you're stubborn." Julie huffed, walking around him and back into Bo's room.
"Yes, I am," Clay replied, following her.
Chapter Four
Clay sat on the toilet after cleaning up the remains of Bo's beard. He waited as Bo showered, wondering what in the hell was wrong with him. When Julie had said she was going to shower his brother, anger had consumed him. When she'd said he wasn't the first man she had showered, Clay had wanted to kill someone.
"You still out there?" Bo yelled from the shower.
"Yeah, not going anywhere," Clay yelled back, noting Bo had been in the shower for a while. "You good?"
It took a minute for Bo to answer. "Yeah, I'm good. I forgot how nice a shower felt."
For the first time real hope flooded his senses. "You can do this, Bo."
The shower turned off and the door opened. Bo took the towel Clay shoved into his hands and wrapped it around his waist. With Clay's help, he stepped out of the shower. "I want to brush my teeth."
"No problem." Clay tried not to sound too excited. He led Bo to the sink, grabbed his toothbrush and held it out to him. When he didn't take it, Clay suddenly knew what Julie meant. There were tricks she could show Bo that he couldn't. "I'm going to get Julie so she can show you how to—"
"I know how to brush my teeth," Bo said, but his voice didn't hold the anger like before.
Clay fumbled as he grabbed Bo's hand, placing the toothbrush in it, then grabbed the toothpaste. "You want me to put the toothpaste on it?"
"No, I can do it." Bo held out his other hand as he stared unseeing at himself in the mirror.
Watching his brother fail to do something he took for granted every single day brought tears to his eyes. Finally, Bo got a little toothpaste on the brush, missed his mouth on the first try, but finally managed to brush his teeth, all the while it remained silent in the bathroom.
"Don't feel sorry for me." Bo finally broke the silence. "Don't ever feel sorry for me."
"Never," Clay replied, turning Bo toward the door. "You're too much of an asshole to feel sorry for."
Both Clay and Bo laughed at that as Clay swung open the bathroom door, his eyes locking on Julie, wearing a pair of Bo's cowboy boots and stomping down the hallway. "What in the hell are you doing?"
★★★
Julie was so focused on what she was doing she actually jumped at Clay's raised voice. "I'm counting the steps from Bo's room to the bathroom," she replied, then frowned. "And you just made me lose count."
"Why are you wearing his cowboy boots?" Clay glanced down her legs to the oversized boots on her feet.
"So I get the count right." She gave him a duh look as she pointed to the boots. "Obviously his feet are twice as big as mine."
Clay chuckled with a shake of his head. "Makes sense."
"Of course it does." She eyed him before looking at Bo. "And don't we look handsome, Mr. Bo Marshall. You clean up very well."
Bo only grumbled under his breath as he placed one hand on the wall to head back to his room. Clay grabbed on to his other arm, leading the way.
"Once you get your pants on, call me before you put the T-shirt on," Julie ordered as she turned and stomped back to his room. Moving to the side, she let them pass into the room and then began her count again. Once she got it, she wrote it on the pad then headed back again to Bo's room. They hadn't shut the door so she stopped before nearing it and waited, tapping the pencil against her nose as she stared at the page of notes.
"He's dressed." Clay's voice interrupted her thoughts.
She wrote something down before looking up into Clay's intense stare. He had a way of making her want something more, which was not good. She wasn't here to get her heart broken, and she knew the man had the power to do just that. "Okay, thanks."
Clay backed away from the door as she stomped her way through and then stepped out of the boots, kicking them out of the way. Barefoot, she headed toward Bo, who sat on the edge of the bed holding a T-shirt. He looked a little pale and was breathing fast.
"Wore you out, huh?" Julie said before taking the shirt from him.