“Will you be a brave girl and let me fix up your knee?”
Her gaze darts from me to her mum and backbefore nodding again.
“Awesome,” I say with a warm smile. “I need to clean the dirt from the wound, okay?”
Tinsley lets out a moan and grips her knee tighter, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
“It’s okay, princess,” Juliet coaxes. “Let Blake clean you up, and then we can have cake.”
“Okay,” she says in a small voice.
“Do you have a clean cloth?” I ask Juliet.
She grabs one from the cupboard and passes it to me.
I wet it under the tap, then look up at Tinsley.
“I’m not going to lie to you, this might hurt a little, but I have to get the gravel out, okay?”
Fear flashes in her eyes, but then she squeezes them tight and reaches for her mum’s hand.
As gently as possible, I clean the wound. When I’m sure I have all the tiny stones out of it, I rummage around in the medical kit for some antiseptic.
Before I put it on, I look up at Tinsley again, seeing that she still has her eyes squeezed shut.
“You’re doing great, Sprout. This next bit will sting for just a second, but then you won’t feel it, okay?”
She scrunches up her face and nods.
When I dab the antiseptic cream on her knee, she lets out a small gasp. “That’s it. The worst is over. Now for the bandage.” I find one that will cover the large graze and secure it over the wound. “There you go. All done.”
Tinsley pries her eyes open and peers down at her knee, all the blood now cleaned away.
“Can I check your hands?”
She holds them out for me to inspect. There’s some blood on them from where she was holding her knee, butotherwise there’s no damage, so I turn on the tap and help her wash them with soap.
When she’s done, Juliet passes us a towel, and then I grin down at the birthday girl. “Good as new.”
Juliet leans down and kisses the top of her head. “Go out and play, princess, and I’ll get the cake ready.”
“Okay,” Tinsley says, bouncing. She grins up at me. “Thanks for fixing me, Blake.”
I laugh. “Anytime, Sprout.”
She runs out of the bathroom, and then it’s just me and her mum in the confined space. Her very attractive, very single mum.
“How lucky are we to have a paramedic on standby,” she says with a laugh. “Thanks for coming to her rescue.”
“It’s no problem,” I say, packing away the medical kit and handing it to her. “It was just a scrape.”
Our fingers brush, and a jolt of electricity shoots through my arm. Her eyes widen, and I wonder if she felt it too. My pulse quickens, and my chest expands as all the air is sucked out of the room.
I clear my throat, and her gaze drops, landing on my chest.
“Oh, no,” she says, reaching for the cloth. “You’ve got blood…”
I lower my eyes to the small bloodstain on my white shirt. “It’s fine. I doubt I’ll wear it again.”
