“Fell?” Corbin asked.
His head was still leaning back, his eyes closed, and I had to force myself to focus back on my task of cleaning the wound. A man’s neck should not be so freaking sexy.
“Yes. You fell and cut yourself on some rocks. It looks like a few smaller wounds, but they’re in one area. Did you hurt anything else? Did you hit your head? Do you feel pain anywhere?” I asked.
Corbin opened his eyes, looking confused. I looked at his pupils, but they looked okay. I hoped he wasn’t going into shock or hiding a worse injury, but he only seemed slightly disoriented.
I went back to work on his arm, asking Jude and Toby for supplies as I needed them. Jude had a surprising number of first aid supplies on hand, and it wasn’t long before the wounds were cleaned and bandaged. I’d thought that stitches might be required, but when I suggested it, Jude had laughed and Corbin had huffed, so I figured that wasn’t going to happen.
Honestly, it really didn’t seem that bad, and if Corbin didn’t mind a scar, then I wasn’t going to drag him in for a few random stitches. My initial assessment had been off, because I’d thought it was much worse than it was. I guess I’d been distracted by the sexy man (who was injured, so it was kind of mortifying that I was thinking how hot he was).
By the time we were cleaning up and I was washing off, he was already looking better.
“Some food and water would be good. I don’t think he lost that much blood, because the cuts weren’t as deep as I thought, but it’ll definitely help,” I instructed Jude.
“I’m okay,” Corbin said.
I was standing in front of him again, and he was still sitting in the chair. He was staring at me, and I felt oddly tongue-tied. I always had something to say, but words completely left my brain at that moment.
“Alright, let’s go get you cleaned up, then we can all have brunch,” Jude chimed in.
I looked over at him, and he was smirking. Toby had been suspiciously quiet, but when I looked over, he was scribbling in a notebook. That figured.
Corbin stood up, and he was suddenly really close to me. I could almost feel the heat pouring off of him. I hoped he didn’t have a fever (What? You can’t just turn the healthcare worker off, you know), but then I was thinking that he was a beautifully sexy man.
He smiled at me, and then he stepped away. He seemed steady on his feet as he walked toward the hallway.
“You guys stay here. We’ll make some food in a minute,” Corbin said.
Jude followed behind him, adding, “Drink your coffee and chat while we get cleaned up.”
Then they were gone.
I sat down at the table, looking at the three mugs of coffee we’d pushed to the side. Jude had poured them for us when we’d come over, insisting we stay and have a cup with him. Coming over had been Toby’s idea, because of course he fully supported my crush on Corbin. When I’d gotten to his house, he’d made up some research questions to ask, only Corbin hadn’t been here. Jude had assured us he’d be right back, then the crows had started making a ruckus, and Corbin had been injured.
Toby finally finished taking whatever random notes he was working on and sat down next to me. “Well, that’s a pretty good meet-cute. Nurse helps bleeding man who calls him beautiful. They stare longingly at one another, and romance blossoms.”
I snorted, picking up my cup. “Meet-cute? First, we already met. Second, the two times wehavemet have been a disaster. Once we were in a crazy cult-lady’s basement, and the next time Corbin looked like he was bleeding out. He probably thinks I’m the worst luck ever.”
“You guys saw each other again when we all got together and had dinner. That wasn’t a disaster,” Toby said.
“Yeah, because we didn’t talk to each other. And, I’ll remind you, it was the same day as the cult house.”
I sighed. I really did have the worst dating luck in the world. It seemed like people were always dying, bleeding, or choking around me, and it wasn’t very conducive to romance.
Toby put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Seb. I promise, this crew isn’t scared off by a little blood or death. I think you and Corbin would be great together.”
There was a rustling and a creaking then, and I realized we must not have shut the back door all the way, because the large crow that came to visit me hopped into the room. Toby and I just stared, and the crow tilted its head, fluffing its feathers. When we didn’t move or shoo it away, it flew up onto the table. It had something in its beak, and it dropped it in front of me and cawed softly.
“You seriously weren’t kidding about crows bringing you gifts?” Toby said, and then the notebook was back out. Well, there went any possibility of conversation with him.
The stone was light gray and brownish-red, and it looked layered. I’d seen plenty of stones like it before, but the reddish color was interesting. It was almost like something stained the stone.
“Thank you,” I told the crow, picking it up to look more closely at it.
“Crow, what are you doing?” I heard Corbin’s voice ask.
I closed my hand over the stone, gripping it and wincing a bit as it cut into my skin. Oops. Apparently it was sharp. I looked over to see Corbin and Jude walking back into the room. I’m not sure why I didn’t show them the stone—maybe they’d think it was silly? But I slid it into my pocket, glancing at my palm. Just a little cut and barely any blood.
