Carver’s volume didn’t change as he said, “Obey my orders to leave and you won’t ever have to find out what those are. But, if you stay…” He winked, and I shuddered right as Jamie stepped foot on the stairs. Carver’s attention crept over to the spot, then his eyes narrowed on the bandage on the floor before falling back to me. More specifically, my leg. His jaw flexed, and before Jamie could start talking again, Carver turned and made his way back to the barn with a heaviness to his gait.
“Did you say anything to him?”
“What?” I asked, my focus unable to snap away from the hard lines of muscle across Car’s rippling back where a large tattoo of an eagle spread from shoulder-to-shoulder, accented more by his tanned, sweat-dampened skin. The Devil himself couldn’t have made a man more physically perfect.
“…like that, it’s hard to want to be around him for long periods of time.” I nodded my head, having heard mostly nothing of what Jamie said as Carver reached for the breezeway door and slammed it shut behind him.
I slapped my hand on the railing. “You know what?”
I could feel Jamie’s concerned look even before I turned to face him. “What’s up, pretty lady?”
“I think I’m gonna go into town and stop by the new place. Make sure everything is ready for whenever the movers show.”
Jamie nodded, his lips thin. “I was going to see if you wanted to hitch a ride back to the facility. Give you that tour you asked for.”
I threw on a saccharine smile. “Rain check?”
TEN YEARS AGO
A week flashed by faster than I’d ever seen. Carver walked me home on every single one of those days—each day asking more and more about anything that popped into that head of his.
As frustrating as it was that first day, his presence became calming, as if he saw the storm that brewed in my mind and had figured out how to clear it. The darkness didn’t completely leave, but after wading for years in black, murky waters, any sliver of light was like submerging in a crystal-clear river.
I wondered if that was what having a friend was always like.
Lunch in high school was almost as arbitrary as trying to rid the shadows from my mind on my own, but if I kept skipping the parts of school I hated, they’d never let me graduate.
A bag slid down onto the seat beside me, and I was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t jump as a familiar voice whispered in my ear, “Brought you somethin’.”
I buried the smile that threatened to spread into my hands as Car sat down, his elbow nudging mine before he slid a plastic bag in front of me.
I frowned down at it, my stomach roiling for more than one reason.
“What’s wrong?” He started pulling the bag back. “Not a huge sandwich fan?” I went with that and half-shook, half-nodded my head. The sandwich was only part of the problem—his kindness was another. Or maybe it was the way I was dressed that told him I needed to fill out my clothes a bit more. Was this pity? “It’s the crust, isn’t it?”
Before I could tell him it wasn’t, he shot up from his seat and told me to stay put, then hollered to a group of guys in their JROTC suits—just like Carver was wearing.
His friends threw odd glances and smirks my way as Carver grabbed a plastic knife from one of his friends. In less than a minute, he was rushing back to me, his hands hidden behind his back.
“Close your eyes.”
I rolled them instead.
“I’m serious, Ly. Close ’em. You’ll like this.”
I heard snickers from his friends’ table and pictured them pointing at me as I pinched my eyes closed.
“Don’t mind them any,” he insisted. I kept my eyes closed as a rustling sound filled the space in front of me. “They’re just giving me shit for cutting this for you.” The minute I tried to open my eyes, soft, yet firm hands covered them.
“You don’t like to listen, do you?”
“I shouldn’t have to listen to a man.”
“Alright,” he said through what sounded like a grin. “Will you look down for me,please?”
His hands lifted from my face, and when I looked down, my chest swelled.
“You did this? Just now?” I lifted the bread, checking the contents of the sandwich. Not like I knew what was in it before—but the bread—
