Page 10 of The Heart Remembers

We’re quiet for a second, perhaps holding our breath in hopes not to wake AJ.

“I didn’t mean to be intrusive,” she says, hardly more than a whisper. “He was crying. That’s all.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I was rude. Thank you for helping him out.” I tip my forehead into the back of her neck and inhale her own sleepy floral scent. My palm flattens over her belly.

“Want me to prescribe something for you?” she whispers, and I shake my head.

“Katie girl, it’s nothing. I drank too much.”

“Does it happen often?” Her voice hitches as it rises a bit, and I detect something else in the sound. More than concern but a touch of panic.

“What’s going on?” I lean back and shift so I can turn her to her back. She looks up at me as I’m perched on my elbow, and her wide eyes hint at things. “Did he hurt you? Does he drink too much and touch you?” I’ll fucking kill him. Images of my older brother Trent touching Tricia come back to me. Images of my father filling his mouth and then raising his hand to me also return.

“No, no, nothing like that.” A warm hand cups my cheek, and those blue eyes look up at me, so innocent, so sweet. I want to kiss her again, and again, and again, but something still holds me back. Or maybe it’s the shift in Katie because the next thing I know, I’m on my back, and she’s between my legs, massaging the upper thigh of my right leg.

“Oh my God,” I moan for two reasons. It feels good to have her hands on me, helping the ache in my leg, but also, she fucking has her hands on me. The way she’s working the muscle, tender yet tight, causes my dick to rise to full mast. There is no way to disguise it, either. Her shift moved the blankets off me, and I’m in perfect view, wearing only my boxer briefs.

Katie continues to massage, then lifts my upper thigh. With her hands underneath it, she presses my leg upward, working the stretch. Her eyes focus on the stump of my shin, the loss a few inches below my knee. She inspects it as she presses my leg into my chest, and fuck if I don’t want her to kiss it. Kiss it like I have a goddamn boo-boo instead of a missing limb. I turn my head, closing my eyes and hating myself while she rotates my leg, working it to the side to open the hip. A small crack loosens some of the tension and actually feels good. Katie moves my leg back to the left, brushing my inner thigh over the thickness in my shorts, and I moan.

She stops, lowers my leg, and freezes. Her eyes focus on the wedge in my briefs. It’s dark in the room, but I never closed the window blinds, and the moonlight outside highlights what’s happened to me.

I’m fucking hard as a rock.

“I . . . I’m sorry. I know it happens. I just . . . I’ve made it awkward again.”

Her eyes remain on my dick, swollen to the max and seriously bulging in my briefs. Her hand lifts, hesitant and slow, reaching forward as if she intends to grab me.

Holy fuck.

If her hand touches me. If she wants to touch me. Please God, let her touch me.

But she retracts.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so . . . awkward.” Katie leaps over my left leg and stumbles a bit on the floor before making it to the door and gently opening it. She stops only for a second, and I will her to turn around. With all the power in me, I silently beg her to turn around, come back to this bed, and lay on me.

But she doesn’t.

She slips into the hallway, and my head falls back on the pillow, groaning in the moonlight at the loss of her.

And taking matters into my own hands to relieve the new tension in me.

5

[Katie]

Could I be any more awkward?

I rushed back to my room and leaned against the inner wall. Standing here, knowing he’s just on the other side of the plaster and wood, I tip my head back.

I almost touched him.

My eyes close. I’m so embarrassed. While it’s happened a few times in physical therapy—a man getting aroused—I’ve learned to ignore and deflect. With Levi, I was one thousand percent unprofessional because he isn’t my patient. He is a man I’ve crushed on for over ten years, and I had my hands on him. And he was aroused. I’d never seen an arousal so large, so thick, so ready.

My head tips against the wall, banging softly.

What was I even doing in his room?

I’d never been so intrusive, but AJ was crying, and I thought I might be able to help. When I saw the whiskey bottle next to the bed, I just went for AJ. Something inside me triggered, and I couldn’t let him cry with no one comforting him. We both needed to calm down, and the balm of that glider did the trick. Then I saw Levi tossing and turning. His body flinched a time or two. He was muttering something until his lids flipped open. Staring at the ceiling a minute, he got his bearings before sitting upright and finding me in his room.