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Twenty-Two
“Oh, don’t give me that look.” Blaine’s emerald gaze twinkled back at Sarah in undeserved excitement. “I get enough sympathy from Emilia.”
Sarah stood in the doorway, her lips parted, while she took in the scene. Despite the bloody gauze the nurse had carried out earlier and that his smile wobbled a little at the corners, he didn’t look anywhere near as bad as she’d expected.
Her silence lingered a beat longer. The scratches over his face, and especially his nose, brought doubt to even that positive train of thought.
She shook her head and forced a level of control over her reactions, strolling deeper into the hospital room. “Sorry, I’m just not used to seeing you so, so…”
He quirked a brow and a cheeky grin took over. “Irresistibly handsome?”
Her chest jolted with laughter, one that betrayed the conflict churning a mild sick feeling within her belly. “Yeah, that’s it.”
She’d meant to say “fragile,” but Blaine’s joke offered her a merciful escape.
She pointed to his pale blue hospital gown. “Does that thing come with a back or are your ass cheeks just hangin’ in the breeze most of the time?”
He choked out a laugh, only to wince and clutch at his side. “Damn it. I keep forgetting that laughter hurts.”
She stepped around the bed and lowered herself into a chair at his side. “Sorry about that too.”
He swatted a hand, dismissing her apology, then dropped that hand to the bed’s edge nearest to her.
A brief and instinctive moment took over. One that made her want reach out and clasp his palm in hers. Call it a habit, maybe. But she opted to interlace her fingers together in her lap.
“How are you feeling?” She focused on his disarray of auburn hair and the long stubble peppering his jaw, more signs that his good humor merely hid the damage he’d suffered. Somewhere beneath his white cotton blanket lay a deep bullet wound, its existence a tragic ode to how close he’d come to being erased from the world.
“I feel...” His eyes glittered again, that friendly and uncomplicated glimmer that had drawn her to him years ago. “I feel like a guy who just got shot.”
She huffed a short and staggered laugh. “Right, stupid question.”
“Don’t think about it. I’m hearing that stupid question a lot lately.” He jutted his chin at her. “Anyway, how are you?”
She frowned down at his hands, her tummy hollow at how much had happened in so short a time. The genuine care in his tone made her heart twist where it sat. He’d been one of the few people she could turn to, and yet in the wake of the breakup, an entire gulf stretched between them.
Losing Blaine meant losing more than a fiancé. She’d lost her number one fan. A firm supporter. The direction in which her entire life would go…
Even at the best of times, she didn’t do uncertainty, and this, right here, was far from the best of times.
“I’m fine.” She lifted her chin and gave him a wide smile.
He kept a long pause, his stare holding hers, and when he did speak, it was with an analyzing sort of stillness. “Anything fresh from the Harlow rumor mill? This hospital saved me from my injuries, but it’s killing me with boredom.”
She shrugged. “You are the Harlow rumor mill, right now. The hottest topic we’ve had in a long while. Though many people send their regards. Aggie, Ally, Maureen, Frank, Gordon, just to name a few.”
“That’s nice and all, but”—he gave a twisted sort of smirk—“I’m going to need more than kind regards.”
She let out a sigh, shoulders sinking. She would give him the gossip he’d wanted but hide the finer details. “Some teens were caught vandalizing the nursery the other day—”
“Oh, let me guess, the Chadleys?” He sat a little taller in his bed, grimacing as he did so, the action a hint on his high levels of boredom.
“Yep.” A light sensation worked through her body. At least she could give him this small reprieve, even though they both tended to dislike gossip.
“So, the sheriff finally caught them doing something he could pin them with?” He shook his head, still smiling. “I bet that just about made his year.”
“Well…” Her chest sank, her face turned to ice, and she fought hard to keep eye-contact. “Actually, Sheriff Marlin wasn’t the one to stop them. There’s a new guy in town. He caught the Chadleys mid-reign of terror. To the sheriff’s credit though, he did track them down for a much-earned night in the station’s holding cell.”
Blaine pressed his brows together, a hint that he needed a second to process. “A new guy in town?”
