Mark looked up and saw her. “Hi,” he said, sounding sheepish. “I’m sorry to bother you.”
“We’re neighbors. I didn’t mind helping.” She moved closer to the bed and pointed at the swelling on his face. “You hit your head?”
“On the way down. I didn’t lose consciousness and I don’t have a concussion. It looks a lot worse than it is.”
Darcy had the sudden desire to make it worse. Just as a payback. But she’d never been the violent type and wouldn’t have a clue as to where to start.
He waved a piece of paper. “I have my instructions. Rest for twenty-four hours. Keep the ankle elevated, use ice. So I’m ready to go.”
“All right. I’ll go pull my car up to the entrance.”
He pushed the call button for a nurse. “We’ll meet you there.”
Maneuvering Mark into her small car wasn’t easy. His injured ankle banged against the door once and she was almost sorry for him. As they drove back to the duplex, she had a silent but heated conversation with herself during which she told him exactly what she thought of him. She was acerbic, pithy and completely cool. Unfortunately, she wasn’t likely to be any of those things if she started talking out loud.
When they reached his place, he opened the door but waited before getting out.
“Thanks for taking the time to come get me,” he said.
She nodded.
“I know you’re busy with your holiday baking.”
She nodded again.
He glared at her. “Aren’t you going to talk to me?”
She turned to face him. “What do you want me to say? I came to get you because we’re supposed to be friends and that’s what friends do for each other. Although some people seem to define friendship by acting weird and then disappearing off the face of the planet.”
He gave her a tentative smile. “Would you feel any better if I had actually been off the planet?”
She didn’t respond to the twinkle of amusement in his gaze. “Were you off the planet? Did you involve yourself with space travel this week?”
His smile faded. “No.”
“I thought not.”
She got out of the car and came around to the passenger side. He swung himself around until he was facing the open car door, then pulled himself to his feet without putting any weight on the injured ankle. She had to reach around him to grab the crutches he’d been given.
As she did so, her arm brushed against his side. Heat jumped between them, making her nervous as well as crabby. She hated that he could get to her without doing anything but standing in the snow, looking pathetic.
She pulled out the crutches. “I’ll need your key to open the door.”
He dug it out of his sweatpants and handed it to her. She was careful to make sure they didn’t touch again.
His progress to his front door was slow, hampered by five or six inches of fresh snow on the ground. More was promised midweek. Darcy tried to admire the beauty of the white world around them, the way the snow clung to the trees and decorated the duplex like so much icing, rather than feeling badly for Mark as he made slow and awkward progress.
Finally they were inside. Darcy got him settled on the sofa, which apart from a television sitting on a nightstand, was the only piece of furniture in the room. She set the crutches on the floor, then asked him where he kept his spare blankets.
“I don’t have any. There’s one on the bed.”
“Figures.”
She headed for the small hallway. His apartment was the mirror image of hers. At least the layout was. Nothing about the interior was the same. The walls looked as if they hadn’t been painted in years. There weren’t any pictures on the walls, and when she reached the bedroom, she saw he filled the room with a king-size bed, one nightstand and a tall dresser. Nothing else. Nothing personal.
Some of her anger began to fade in the face of his empty life. Why did Mark choose to live like this? Her apartment had been old when she’d moved in, but she’d painted the walls and dressed things up with inexpensive prints and knickknacks she’d brought from Arizona. She’d wanted to make a home for herself. Mark’s place had all the charm of a prison. Did he expect to be moving on soon?
She collected the down comforter from the unmade bed, along with two pillows. Back in the living room, she slipped the pillows under his injured leg.
