James rolled his eyes. Actually rolled them like some annoyed teenager. Yet, the look was oddly intriguing on him. Like a massive man being called Tiny. He was at odds with his own image. Rose couldn’t help but give him a questioning look in return.
“I’ve never been in this situation before, but I think you’re really underselling the whole saving us from a bomb thing,” he said. “Most people would probably have already filled this room up with flowers and cards and would be trying to name their kids after you. I think waiting for you to wake up to say thanks is way less than you should get.”
Rose felt that heat again, moving up her neck.
Again, it wasn’t embarrassment, but she couldn’t quite figure out the feeling.
Instead, she tried to match the man’s casual attitude with her own.
“I don’t do what I do for praise.” She sighed. It hurt.She certainly was going to be sore for several days. “If I wanted flowers, I’d buy them myself. If I wanted a kid named after me, I’d have my own and name them myself too. Helping people is the job. I shouldn’t be doing it in hope of getting something in return.”
After the bus incident she had seen the room full of flowers, heard the cries of gratitude, and undying promises to return the favor. Rose understood wanting to thank someone who had helped them, but to do so much and stretch that gratitude out… Well, it made her skin crawl.
Did that mean she wanted James to leave now?
She wasn’t sure.
His eyes seemed to find something in her expression that was interesting enough. His gaze didn’t leave her as he opened his mouth to say something, but the door opening to her left stopped him.
It was the doctor—someone Rose was more than familiar with. He had a nurse with him, and he looked caught between a man doing his job and a father about to scold a child for doing something reckless.
This was what she was used to, this was what she wanted.
No special treatment, just treatment.
Rose didn’t speak to James again after that. Not in as much detail as before at least. Somewhere between the doctor summarizing her injuries and talking about what happened next, James left.
After the doctor and nurse had gone, Rose looked at the spot where he had been sitting. She closed her eyes after a while.
The next time she opened them, sun was peekingthrough the slit in the blinds over the window. Someone was taking up the same space, but it wasn’t him.
Deputy Price Collins had his phone in one hand and a coffee in the other. He grinned when he saw that she was awake.
“Even on her off days, Deputy Little manages to set the world on fire,” he said in greeting. “When I say you could have your own TV series, I’m not at all exaggerating.”
Rose didn’t mean to, but in the moment, all she could think about was the man who had sat there before, smiling at her.
Then, she wondered where James Keller was.
Then she wondered why she had wondered that at all.
* * *
THE MAIN MECHANICat Keller Auto might have survived the explosion but the shop itself hadn’t been as lucky.
James fiddled with the bandage on his forearm before dropping his hand deep into his coverall pocket. There was no reason to wear what he normally worked in, since the building in front of him could no longer be considered a building. Or, at least, a safe one.
The explosion had been small, he was told. Minor compared to what most thought of when the wordbombcame into play. That was the only reason why he and Rose had survived at all. It had been a targeted attack, meant to decimate the vehicle it was hidden in.
And the people sitting inside.
“On top of that, I’m not sure the person who made it knew their stuff. I’m told it wassloppy,” the sheriff had said at their last conversation earlier that day.
Sloppy had almost been enough.
For the building, it surely had been.
Keller Auto had stretched across the middle of a two-acre lot and was just over 4,000 square feet, shop, lobby and office included. Most of that space had been the two bays themselves.
