“Thanks again, Doc.” Arlo hangs up. “Well, looks like this is going to be a long night of concussion watch.”
“I’m so sorry, Arlo.” I push myself up, but my head swims a bit. Luckily, there is a chair behind me, so I prop myself against it.
“I don’t mind, Birdie,” he teases me with a wink. “I get to sit up with you and talk all night.”
“I haven’t done that with anyone since I was a teen.” I wince a little, because that’s a lie. I just did this with the girls at the graveyard. “Okay, maybe when Lark was a baby.”
“First things first.” He stands, brushes off his jeans, and walks over to a door in the corner of the room. I can just make out a bathroom. He returns a moment later with a first aid kit in his hands. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“I feel like role-playing is a twentieth date concept.”
“Lean forward,” he grumbles as he carefully maneuvers himself behind me. “You have a goose egg back here.”
“I know, I could feel it forming.”
“I don’t think you can feel a knot forming.”
“I beg to differ.” I feel him tugging at my hair and parting it, then more tugging. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to braid your hair on this side so I can keep it off the wound,” he answers, saying it so simply that it doesn’t even register for a minute.
“You can braid?”
“Birdie, I have three sisters.”
“Having sisters doesn’t automatically mean you know how to braid. My brother has me, and I know he doesn’t know how.”
His deft fingers barely pull at my head as he continues on. “Tie?”
I flip the one off my wrist and hand it to him.
“I was the only boy, and there aren’t a lot of kids in Silent Springs. More often than not, I spent most of my time with my twin. She kept getting her hair caught, so I learned to braid.” He explains it with such nonchalance that all I can feel is wonder.
Then the sweet man pours something on my head that makes me hiss in pain. I try to jerk away, but dizziness washes over me, and Arlo just pulls me right back. “What was that?” I cry out.
“Peroxide.” He dabs at the wound, then goes to braid the other side. “Autumn and I always got into something, and more often than not, ended up hurt in some way. Most of the time it was unintentional, and we tried to hide it from Mom before we got back to the house.”
“Autumn seems like that kind of girl.” I think of the rough around the edges woman with warmth.
“She is. But she is also a sweetheart. Avoids relationships at all costs.”
“She told me that she’s afraid of getting hurt.”
“You two can relate to that.”
“Hey!” I scold him, but there’s no heat there, only truth. He tugs my head back again, smoothing my flyaways, and I dig another hair tie from my pocket and hand it over when I feel him getting to the end.
“It’s an enormous bubble, but the skin split a bit. I’m going to leave it open for now.” He gently prods my scalp, and I imagine him as a teen, cleaning up his sister’s wounds and taking care of her.
I turn in his arms, lean my head on his thigh, and glance up at him. “What’s the one thing in this world you love to do above any other?”
He cups my face, leisurely stroking his thumb against my cheek. “Explore.” I raise a brow at him, hoping he continues. “I love to just take a weekend and go, and find those hidden areas untouched by civilization. I love to find those concealed waterfalls and the areas unknown.”
“That sounds incredible,” I say, with a genuine desire to join him next time.
“Do you think that you and Lark would want to join me?”
“I think we’d both love that.”
