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The drive home didn’t take all that long that late at night. It helped that it wasn’t a weekend. The road into their little neighborhood went from asphalt to dirt with a soft bump and Mari winced at the feeling. “Reiko’s house is the next driveway from mine.” She leaned forward and gestured at the driveway. “Can you send him down there?”
Heath lowered his window and waved Hoss to come up beside them.
Mari looked over and heard Heath explain to his friend.
She was glad to let him do it.
She wasn’t sure if she’d be heard in the raised cab of the truck from her side of the car. She put the car in park and opened her door. “I’ll help with the door and get her in bed.”
As soon as Hoss’ truck pulled up behind Reiko’s where it was parked in the garage, she made her way up the stairs to Reiko’s back door. It was the exact opposite of her own house as they were all built back in the 80s by Hicks Homes, just in different configurations.
Mira opened the screen door and then the wooden interior door, toeing off her shoes just outside the threshold.
She heard the steady footfalls of Heath’s teammate as Hoss made his way up the stairs. She flattened herself against the wall so he could go by. “End of the hall and to… the left. That’s the bedroom she uses.”
She held the door until Heath was in the house and then she went after Hoss.
When she reached the door, she stopped and watched as Hoss turned back Reiko’s covers and laid her down on the bed.
He took off her shoes and set them down on the rug beside the bed.
Mari moved over to the tansu and picked up the bottle of water and bottle of ibuprofen Reiko kept close by.
She shook a couple of pills into her hand and moved to the side of the bed.
When Hoss held out his hand for the water bottle, she gave it to him.
Hoss slipped an arm under her shoulders and lifted her up until she was almost sitting straight up. “Open, honey.”
Mari watched as Reiko’s eyes flickered open. “Take some Tylenol before you go to sleep. You’re going to have a headache in the morning.”
Reiko’s lips turned down in a pout before she sighed and her lips opened.
Hoss put the bottle into his other hand and Mari dropped the pills into his upturned palm.
Reiko took the pills in her mouth and swallowed. She turned, groaning, when she couldn’t find her pillow.
“Water.” Hoss switched the bottle in his hands and touched the lip of it to hers. “You need to drink water.”
Mari hesitated, wanting to step in.
She felt Heath’s arm wrap around her shoulders.
“He won’t hurt her.”
She nodded.
She knew that.
She felt it.
How she went from looking at him with hesitation to trusting him implicitly, she didn’t know.
No, she did.
She trusted Hoss because Heath did.
They were friends.
