“I said,” he said as he rolled over and took my hands within his like it was the most normal thing in the world, “your bruises are healing well. We won’t have to wrap your ankle for support any longer, either. Unless you want to continue to wrap it.”
“Yeah? You think so?”
A slow smile crept across his face. “I know so. But if you still want it wrapped, I can get it wrapped back up for you.”
The instant he smiled at me, all sunshine and fresh air in that pearly white smile, all of my worries melted away. Maybe I wasbeing too hard on him. The crew kept me safe.Hekept me safe. And healthy. And warm. And comfortable. And fed.
“So I’m healing well?” I said, trying to pull out of my hazy mind.
“Yes,” he said with a bright smile as he released my hands and rolled away again on his little stool. “And that’s all thanks to your diligence with listening to me and keeping up with your medication.”
I grinned. “You just like it when I listen.”
He chuckled as he swiveled around, gazing at me from across the room. “Miss Elizabeth?”
I giggled softly. “You know, one of these days, you can just call me ‘Lizzie’.”
His smile brightened. “Have dinner with me by the pool again tonight.”
I paused. My brain forced my lips to speak before I could catch the question. “So youhaven’tbeen avoiding me lately?”
His brow pinched together. “Why would I do that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just…”
I turned my head back to the side, staring at the wall again. I shouldn’t have fucking opened my mouth. I should have bit down onto my tongue?—
My feet were picked up and placed into his lap before I looked down and realized he wheeled back to me. His hands picked up my foot that wasn’t damaged and massaged it, working the pads of his thumbs into the aching arch of my foot.
“Oh yeah,” I groaned softly as my head tilted back.
“I’m not avoiding you, Miss Elizabeth,” he said as he continued his ministrations. “And I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel that way. Sometimes I don’t understand how my actions register with others.”
I found myself lying back on the patient exam table. “I can’t blame you, with all the rushing around your brain must do with everything that you read and experience.”
“Will you tell me about it?” he asked as he moved to the heel of my foot and began applying some sort of a cream to it. “What I’ve done? How it made you feel? I’d like to know, for future reference.”
For future reference.
Did he think about a future with me?
I swallowed the thought down and cleared my throat. “When I woke up that next morning to you not being in the bed after falling asleep with you, it made me feel…”
“Lonely?” he asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft.
I nodded softly, allowing my eyes to open so that I was staring up at the ceiling. “Yeah. Something like that. I thought, maybe, we just hooked up or something and I didn’t catch onto the cues, or whatever.”
His hand paused before it placed my foot back down into his lap. I felt him stand before I saw him hovering over me, my legs swung up onto the exam table just so he could hover over me.
He had such a studious look on his face. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way, Miss Elizabeth. Brutus needed me for something, and I figured it was a church meeting before I realized he just didn’t want to cook breakfast for everyone that morning.”
I thought about my encounter with Brutus. How he said something about Doc being on a mission.
So he wasn’t with the crew?
“You… left to cook breakfast?” I asked.
He nodded, the look on his face so serious. “Anna was in the kitchen with pickles again. He didn’t want to go inside.”
