Page 38 of Plain Sight

I’m definitely going to hold still until the washcloth touches the cut on my cheek, and then I jerk backward without meaning to. Gabriel catches my head with his hand on the back of my neck and shushes me like a startled animal.

It still stings like a motherfucker, but that’s good. It’s keeping me awake.

Gabriel cleans up the cut. He has some antibiotic cream from somewhere, and he puts that on, then dabs at my lip with another wet washcloth.

“Your lip is swollen.” He dabs at it a little more. “What are you going to tell Lily?”

“That I fell.”

“Not about the cops?”

“No cops this time. Scout’s honor.”

“You were never a Boy Scout.”

“Yes, I was. That one summer.”

“Sure.”

Gabriel sets aside the bloodied washcloth and wraps a dish towel around the ice pack, then helps me press it to my cheek and part of my lip.

“Ow.”

“Jameson.”

“That’s my name.” Should I sleep? No. Probably not. “What can I do for you, Loverboy?”

“There is one thing,” Gabriel muses. “You could stop doing this.”

“What? Going out?”

“Yes. You could stop going out.”

“I’m an adult.”

Never mind that he’s doing most of the work of holding the ice pack to my face.

“Also—”

“Don’t talk so hard. You have a swollen lip. And you have to stop. You’re scaring Lily.”

“She doesn’t know.”

Gabriel looks me in my single open eye. “Jameson.”

Several beats pass.

“Fuck,” I say.

This means Lily’s talked to at least Gabriel and probably Mason. If they both know, then⁠—

“Remy doesn’t know.” Gabriel shifts on his chair, but doesn’t put any more pressure on the ice pack. “I’m not going to tell her unless something happens. Although I don’t think she’ll buy the tripped and fell story.”

“I’ll tell it to her very sincerely.”

“Hear this sincerely. Mason’s worried about you. I’m worried about you. He thought you might not take this conversation well.”

“Like, that I’d cry?”