“Mmmm,” I mumbled, “that’s kind of complicated.”
I finally turned and looked at him. He was looking at his watch. “Two a.m. complicated?” He raised his eyebrows at me and I didn’t know what to say. I opted for the truth.
“Harun stole my phone and then he ran all the way here. Which he shouldn’t have done, because of the surgery. I had to follow him in my car and that’s why I’m here. To get my phone . . .” I bent down and picked it up and then slipped it into the pocket in my gown. More silence between us. I hoped this explanation was vaguely believable, because when I heard it coming out of my mouth I barely believed it myself. It was right up there with “Sorry, ma’am, an alien stole my assignment.”
We both looked over at Harun at the same time and I wished I knew what Mark was thinking. Whether he believed my story, or thought I was a complete creep. And then his eyes moved back to me and I stood up straight and uncomfortable as he flicked them up and down my body.
What was he looking at?
“Oh,” I said flatly when I looked down. I was in my nightie and a thin satin gown. “I was in a hurry,” I added defensively, just in case he thought I’d come here to seduce him. Not that I was wearing red lace or anything, but still.
“You sleep naked!” I snapped, trying to move the focus away from what I was wearing to what he wasnotwearing.
“It’s not like I was expecting company!” he retorted.
“Still, you shouldn’t sleep like that,” I said. “Not here.”
“It’s my home. I can sleep naked if I want.”
I gestured around us. “In case you hadn’t noticed, your house is in the middle of the desert. Dangerous. No fences. Snakes, possibly jackals. And I would imagine that if you had to run away from a hungry predator, that thing,” I pointed a little south of his belly button, “flapping about and all, it might attract . . . you know. They might think it was an animal running, a mouse or something—”
“MOUSE?!” He choked on the word and I realized my faux pas.
“You know what I mean.”
He cleared his throat. “I hope I do, or else I would be very offended. Not to mention mortified.”
“It’s not a mouse,” I mumbled, glancing at the sheet around him. “A meerkat, or a squirrel maybe, or a—”
“Just stop.” He held his one hand up.
“Thanks.” I breathed a sigh of relief, because I was running out of ideas here for tasty rodent treats that a predator might eat and clearly I was rambling too. He reached up and touched his nose again. It was still bleeding a little.
“You should probably . . .” I tailed off and pointed to his nose.
“Yes.” He grabbed the top of it, squeezed, and then walked into the house and straight to the kitchen. He grabbed a tea towel, put some ice in it and held it on the bridge of his nose.
“You probably think I’m a bit of a baby for fainting,” Mark said.
I shook my head. “No worries. Lots of people hate blood. I tried to give blood once at a blood drive and couldn’t watch. I had to close my eyes.” I offered this up to him, hoping it would make him feel a little better. He forced a small smile as if he appreciated the gesture.
“When I was young,” Mark said, “I was trying to show off to these older kids in the neighborhood. I climbed up on my roof because they dared me to, and then because we watchedJackassso much, one of them suggested that I jump off the roof onto the trampoline . . .”
“Ooooh,” I cringed, imagining what was next.
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“And did you?”
“I did. And I totally missed the trampoline. Instead, I landed on the fence pole.”
“Shit!”
“It was a small, thin pole and it pierced all the way through my upper arm.” He pointed at a scar.
I winced at the sight of it. “What happened then?”
“It was terrible. I remember everything about it, especially the pain. And when I looked down and realized that it was all the way through my arm, I fainted.”
