Haddie turned on the faucet and let it run. “Give me your hand,” she told him.
Levi complied, sighing as the cool water soothed the sting of the open wound.
She left him like that as she rummaged in the cabinet, finally producing a small first aid kit. Haddie nudged his hand away from the stream of water and proceeded to wash her own hands. Then she turned off the water, dried her hands, and removed a square paper package from the kit, tearing it open to produce a large piece of gauze. She folded the gauze until it was only slightly bigger than the pad of his finger.
“Hold this against the cut with some decent pressure, and let’s give it a few minutes to dry. If the bleeding slows after that, we’ll bandage you up, and you’ll be as good as new.”
“And if it doesn’t slow?” he asked, trying to contain his complete and utter wonder at how she could go from terrified to grace under pressure in the span of a lightning strike. For the record, there had been two since they’d fled her room, and Haddie hadn’t so much as flinched.
She shrugged. “ER for a few stitches?”
Levi scoffed. “For a tiny cut on the tip of my finger? I don’t think so.” But when he glanced down to see the bright red blooming through the layers of gauze, he swallowed back his bravado.
Haddie slid down the wall opposite the toilet and pulled her knees to her chest. “It’s still wet from the water. Give it a few. I’m sure it’s fine, and if it’s not?” She shrugged. “You’ve got a plus-one for the emergency room.”
Levi rested his elbows on his knees, making sure to keep pressure on what he hoped was nothing more than a superficial wound. Stitches didn’t scare him, but a hospital? That was another story.
“Why didn’t you tell meyouwere afraid of storms?” he asked softly.
Haddie smiled nervously, hugging her knees tighter. “I was getting there. I mean, I did text to see if you were up when the rain started. I guess the storm beat me to it.” Her eyes widened as if she was just registering him sitting in front of her.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re in your underwear!” she told him.
Levi glanced down at his nearly naked body and then back up at her with the same delayed reaction as he took in her fitted tank top and bikini briefs.
“So are you!” he informed her, then squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the feeling of his heartbeat in the tip of his finger instead of on Haddie’s long, bare legs or the braless breasts he knew were barely hidden behind her knees beneath the thin cotton of her tank.
Lean in to the pain,he told himself. The tiny cut hurt enough to notice, so he focused on that, on the throbbingba-BUMP, ba-BUMP, ba-BUMPof the blood pumping through his extremities and praying to every deity in existence that his blood did not rush anywhereelse.
For a nonreligious man, Levi had certainly taken to praying in recent weeks like he never had before.
“It’sfine,” Haddie assured him. “I was just caught off guard. We’re both mature adults, right? And all of our delicate spots are covered, so you can open your eyes.”
Levi hesitated, then opened only one eye to start. When Haddie backhanded him on the knee, he finally opened the other.
“What’s the matter?” she teased. “Are you worried you’ll be turned on by a disheveled, thirty-one-year-old woman who is afraid of storms? Because let me tell you hownothot that is.”
She rose onto her knees, and Levi looked past her rather than at her. “Look…Haddie…” he finally said. “Setting aside the argument that you are unequivocally hot no matter what you are wearing or what you are afraid of, I don’t want to mess up this friendship. But sometimes my…um…physiology takes a second to catch up to my brain. And I would feel like the biggest asshole to ever asshole if a physiological reaction to your unequivocal hotness made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. So…yeah. I am afraid I’ll be turned on by all of those other things you said.”
“Oh,” Haddie replied. She swallowed. “Let’s…um…take a look at that cut.”
She wrapped her hand around his and urged him to lift the gauze from the wound.
“Good news,” she said, and he could hear her smile without seeing it.
“Yeah?” he asked, still glancing over her shoulder.
“Yeah,” she assured him. “We don’t have to amputate. So I’m just gonna…” She grabbed a couple more items from the first aid kit, and Levi finally allowed himself to at least watch whatever was going on on the counter.
A Band-Aid was opened and ready to go, but first she squeezed a dab of antibacterial ointment on her index finger. Then she gently spread it across the length of the cut before wrapping the bandage tightly around the wound and taping it closed.
“Good as new!” she said, then climbed to her feet.
There was nowhere to avert his eyes when she was just there. In front of him. Taking up his whole field of view.
He wanted to tell her thathotwas too basic a word to describe someone who, without even realizing it, put someone else’s needs before her own basic need for safety. Or would it be too bold of him to imagine that she was able to do so because she felt safe with him? Either way, Haddie Martin was stunning inside and out—whether she was preparing a meal, hiding under a blanket, or growing rainbows.
