in. 'We are really in luck. He's left the hot tub on. Either that or the local teenagers have figured out a good thing.'
'First get me some bandages to fix your arm. We need antiseptic,' Sam observed.
'Fair enough.'
She disappeared again.
Haley found a bathroom and switched on the light. As she did so, she realized that anyone near the house might have seen it come on. A momentary glance took in a frightened, bedraggled woman. Her hair was a mess and it got worse from there. She tried to rub some of the dirt from her face as best she could and then used warm water and soap to finish the job. She wished there were time for a shower.
Quickly she looked in the cupboard under the sink and came up with a large first-aid kit. She switched off the light and looked out over a back porch rimmed with forest.
She audibly gasped. Standing five feet from the window and to the side was a shape that looked like a man. She looked closer and in the moonlight saw him back into the shadow of the house.
She ran back to Sam.
'Someone's out back, just standing there.'
Immediately Sam seemed to come to life. He slipped out the front door, still sopping wet. For a moment she stood there in shock, wondering if they should flee. Then, determined not to be left behind, she followed him around the front corner of the house.
Before she arrived at the back, she heard struggling.
'Stop it!' It was a kid's voice. 'Let go!'
Sam appeared, holding the hand of a teenager in some type of fighting hold where the boy's hand was scrunched to his side and behind.
'Tell the lady what you were doing.'
'Going for a walk. Ouch!'
'You got one more chance to tell her what you were doing,' Sam said. 'If you don't, I'm taking you to the sheriff.'
'I was looking in the window. I'm sorry.'
'Go home,' Sam said. 'Think about whether you really want to be known as a lizard who sneaks around spying on women in the night. The neighborhood pervert.'
Sam let him go and the kid disappeared like a wild trout from the hook.
'He came around the corner and ran right into me, otherwise I never would have caught him,' Sam said. 'Now we have to decide whether to stay here.'
'I don't think he'll be bringing this up at home, but you never know.' Haley shivered.
'It's a chance I'm willing to take to get warm.'
They walked back toward the front door.
'Let's get in the hot tub and then put a bandage on your arm,' Sam said.
'I'm not getting in the hot tub.'
'Then just let me do your bandage.'
'We'll get you out of your wet clothes and in a blanket first,' Haley said. 'Then we do the bandage.'
She was already undoing the buttons on his shirt.
She stripped off his clothes about as fast as a man could peel a banana and she used speed and efficiency to cover for her nervousness. When she got to his undershorts, she hesitated, gave him a towel, and decided she should turn her back. He groaned from the pain of moving as he got the underwear off and the towel on.
'What's bothering you? Surely not a naked man.'
'Nothing is bothering me,' she said with clipped certainty.
Sam was close and massive and she felt like she very much wanted to put her hands on his body. For her it was an uncommon urge. For a second she thought about just letting go and doing it. There was the matter between them. Some things could not be left to fester unresolved for over a decade.
CHAPTER 30
Sam was amused on an otherwise intense day. Haley, for all her brass, was obviously conservative in some matters. Wrapped in blankets and out of the wet clothes, he felt as though he might actually recover from the hypothermia. His clothes were in the dryer.
They found a frozen ham, used the microwave, and ate it half-thawed.
'How many days have you had like this in your life?' she asked. 'This is my first.'
'I've had days like this. But this one's been exciting enough to suit me.'
He watched her as she went through the first-aid kit, pulling out bandage materials.
Her hair came down to her jawline and curled at the ends just below it. There was a slight tautness to her face, so there was a subtle inward curve between her cheekbones and her jaw, making her cheekbones more prominent than soft. It was a strong face; the eyes, reminding him of Sarah, were blue-green and thoughtful; the smile when it came was engaging; her even white teeth gave it confidence. Her brows were neither heavy nor stiletto thin. At the moment she showed no sign of panic or desperation. Being busy with a purpose was a good antidote, he knew from experience.
He was drawn to her face and he knew that under other circumstances he could gaze at it for pleasure. Her arms, he noticed, were firm in the muscle but slender and shapely.
He turned and engaged her eyes and it brought a slight smile.
He tried to handle the bandages but still shook so bad she had to help him. With his knowledge and her hands they went to work. Experienced in emergency medicine, he directed the cleaning of the wound and the slathering on of antiseptic. By the time they reached the bandage stage, he was a little warmer and steady again and he helped her fashion an impressive structure of gauze and tape in just about two minutes. Fortunately, it was an inch-long clean cut that didn't go into the muscle.
Leaning against him with her arm around his waist, she helped him out on the patio and got him to the edge of the tub. They stopped. She ran her hands over his chest and then put her face against it.
'There was a time…,' she said, and stopped. Obviously she was displeased with herself for starting down the path.
He understood and in his own mind came to a dead-end wall. It was a large wall and would take some contemplation if he was to scale it. He climbed in the tub sans the blankets in order to get warm, but also to separate her from him.
'Why don't you find a suit and get in,' he said.
She just smiled and held up her bandaged upper arm as though the answer to the question was obvious. And he supposed it was, but it had nothing to do with her arm.
'You could keep your arm out of the water.'
She nodded but looked unconvinced. 'With me friendly-fun hot tubbing is like a prelude at the symphony. You're about to tell me that sharing a tub is not even music.
Probably that you don't even do music. I don't unpack the instrument if I'm not going to play. And frankly, I'm in a state. And so are you.'
'I won't even take a quick look at the program.' He made a show of closing his eyes, illustrating that she could enter the tub unobserved.
'I can't,' she said.
And he knew she meant it. So he left it alone.
'Sometimes I get the impression that you've become like a priest,' Haley said.
'Consecrated. I do wish you would explain this consecration.'
He could tell this was important to her. Perhaps if he had such a vow, it would make her feel a little less like her mother's daughter. Maybe there was a way for her to escape the shame that haunted her and still leave the memory of her mother with a mother's respect.
He would think on it.
