“Do you ever eat cookies?”
“Sure, when I make them myself.”
“What’s the difference, and for the record, I don’t indulge in junk food either. Very rarely does the mood strike.”
She nodded, and started stacking their dirty dishes right there on the table. “The difference is that my cookies won’t have preservatives and added junk in them. Sometimes, if I make a cake, I replace the oil with applesauce.”
“Healthier versions.”
“Correct.” She stood and took the dishes to the sink. When she heard him stand, she looked at him with a shake of her head. “I got this, rest.”
Shay sat back down and watched as she worked. He enjoyed that her movements were with very little effort. What he observed was like poetry in motion. No extra movements to get the job done. He wondered what she would look like on the back of a horse, hunched over and flying down the track.
“Do you need anything?” Faith asked, and had to reach out and touch his arm to get his attention, he seemed lost in thought.
“What, no, why? Did you need anything?”
“Before I started the dishwasher, I wanted to take a shower.”
“Oh, go ahead. I’m sure you saw the bathroom attached to the bedroom. It’s okay to do both. I’ve never had any problems in the two weeks I’ve been here.”
“Have you taken a shower while the dishwasher ran?” she asked with a smirk, then laughed at his expression. “I thought not.” Still laughing, she went down the hall to the spare bedroom. Thirty minutes later, she came out, and headed to the kitchen. Shay still sat there, and she turned on the dishwasher, and prepared the coffee pot for the next morning.
“Hey,” she said quietly as she joined him at the table. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just thinking.”
“About?”
He looked at her intently. “About what it would be like to watch you fly around the racetrack on the back of a horse.”
She smiled, reached for his laptop, and pulled it to her. After doing several things, she turned it back around. “You know Champ, right?”
“The horse in the barn?”
“Yes, what you’re about to watch is me riding his grandfather, in his first and only Triple Crown win.” She had him look at the laptop, and reached around it to press the play button. Instead of watching the race, she watched his face. She enjoyed the expressions he exposed. Reserved all the way to awe. When it was done, he looked up and stared at her.
“Wow, that was like poetry in motion. Why was that the only time he won the Triple Crown?”
Faith frowned, and shook her head. “I’m not putting you off, but it’s getting late, and we have a lot of traveling to do tomorrow. Why don’t we save this conversation for the drive?”
“I can wrap my head around that.”
“Do you need to take a shower?”
“Are you volunteering to help me?” he asked with a grin.
“No, but I am volunteering to stay up until you finish, and then take your pills.”
“Shit, I forgot about them. Thank you, I’ll open my bedroom door to let you know when I’m done.”
“Yell out if you need anything.”
He nodded and headed to his bedroom. It took him forty-five minutes to get everything done, and by the time he opened his door, he was exhausted. She was there within seconds of him calling out to her, with his pill bottle. “Come inside,” he said as he hobbled to his bed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m exhausted, I think I’m going to hold off on the Oxy tonight.”
