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Once she was in the shower, Marcus asked Kyle, “What’s up with her wanting to shower alone?”
Kyle shrugged and made his way to the edge of the bed. “She was an only child, and she’s used to having alone time. When she’s stayed with me for a few days at a time, she occasionally just needs time to herself without me around. Don’t take it personally. If she doesn’t get some time to herself, she starts snapping at people. Sometimes, just giving her fifteen minutes to herself is all she needs. But if youreallywant to experience full-on-grumpy Heather, keep her waiting to go to breakfast. She takes her food seriously.”
Marcus noted that Kyle did seem to be moving quickly, so he headed towards his bedroom to shower and change.
But he wasn’t so sure the alone time was due to being an only child. Perhaps that was part of it, but he had a feeling Heather’s sensory issues probably required her to find a time and place to ground and recenter. People on her end of the spectrum were basically living in a state of tactile sensory deprivation, which tended to make people snappy. A hot bath might help, or a hard workout. She’d found her own coping mechanisms and wasn’t likely to appreciate him trying to help her with it, but he’d keep an eye out to see if he could recognize when she was nearing the point of needing time to herself. Maybe he could suggest they work out together, to get her out of the habit of asking to be alone.
* * * *
Seventeen minutes later, Heather arrived downstairs, hoping the guys would be waiting for her, butknowingKyle would be there and Marcus would not.
She immediately went into Kyle’s arms for a kiss, and she molded into him, letting him control the kiss and hold her. His embrace and his lips had become comfortable for her — not sexual, but Kyle was always there for her when she needed him, and his arms represented safety. Solace. When he ended the kiss, she pulled back a little to look at him. “Thanks for giving me some time alone, and for not getting your feelings hurt.”
“Sometimes you just need some time to yourself. It’s all good. Also, I figured you were thinking of what would get us out the door and towards food the fastest.”
She laughed. “Yep. Speaking of which, where is His Highness?”
They heard footsteps, and then Marcus said, “I’m right here — have you decided where we’re going?”
“If it’s up to me then my choice is wherever we’ll get food the fastest, which is probably the buffet place. Are we all driving separate, or together? Does anyone have somewhere to be later today?”
Marcus pulled his keys out of his pocket. “I’ll drive. I don’t have any plans for the day, and I’m pretty sure Kyle is free, and you told us yesterday you’re free until tomorrow morning. I vote we get something to eat and then maybe head somewhere and toss some Frisbees around.”
Heather headed towards the door. “I’d love to get a run in, maybe park at Signal Point and do the trail by Rainbow Falls and then out to Edward’s Point?”
She heard Kyle groan, but Marcus said, “How far of a run is that? Sounds like fun.”
“It’s only about a six or seven mile round trip, but there are a lot of elevation changes so it really gets the heart rate going. Kyle is groaning because he doesn’t like to be near the edge of a cliff.” She looked at Kyle. “I promise, if we go, I won’t stand right on the edge of the cliff when we get there. I’ll sit or lay, but I won’t stand.”
Kyle opened the passenger door and helped her in. “You always make me nervous when we hike on mountains. You’re almost five feet tall, so you should stay atleastfive feet from the edge, so there’s no way you can fall off the mountain.”
Heather looked at Marcus in the driver’s seat for help, but it didn’t look like he was going to offer any, so she put her seatbelt on and asked, “How about three and a half feet from the edge while standing, or I can lay with my head towards the edge and close, but crawl to get there? I want you to feel comfortable, but I also want to get the full effect of being there. Is that a good compromise?”
Kyle settled into the backseat and clicked the seatbelt on. “I’m being a whiny ass about this, aren’t I? Sorry, it’s my issues, and I know the two of you would rather go hang-gliding or rock climbing or something, so I’ll figure out how to deal with the hike.”
Marcus finally spoke up as he pulled out of the driveway. “Kyle, I think it might be good for you to stand on the edge, but to do it in a safe way. Perhaps Heather could bring some rope and tie you off, so you could safely stand near the edge. Would you be willing to do that?”
“If it’s not too much trouble to carry some rope, I’ll consider it, but I’m not making any promises.”
Heather responded before Marcus could. “Fair enough. When we leave the restaurant, I’ll need to drop by my place and change clothes, get my five-finger shoes and my basic hiking kit. I can grab twenty feet of rope while I’m there. I have a small wilderness first-responder kit in my pack, so ya’ll won’t need to worry with any of that.” For a day hike so close to civilization, it was the bare basics, but it had come in handy to help others on the trail more times than she could count.
Marcus glanced at her before focusing on the road again. “We’re the doctors, but we’re used to working in a controlled setting. If someone gets injured on the trail, it’s possible you’d be more qualified to stabilize them.”
Kyle chuckled from the back seat. “You could help them if they suddenly thought the trees were talking to them, and I could help them if they needed something stitched up, assuming Heather has that stuff in her pack, but yeah, Heather would probably be fastest at patching someone up enough to get them out of the woods and into one of those controlled environments where doctors work best.”
Heather shook her head. Her First Responder certification and EMT license were both up to date, but she figured the doctors would still know more than her in an emergency. “I have a suture kit I take on long hikes, when we’re days away from civilization, but for short trips like today I depend on butterflies, tape, and medical grade super glue. I end up giving someone on the trail first aid maybe a dozen times a year — usually not someone in my party, but someone we come upon who needs help. It’s rarely more than a twisted ankle or a bleeding blister, though.”
Marcus pulled into the restaurant parking lot and said, “Yummm, bleeding blisters. Wonderful pre-breakfast conversation.”
* * * *
“I know Kyle first got you to his house with the promise of making a few barrels of wine,” Marcus told Heather over breakfast, “but I’d like to hear the story from you.”
“We met at the hospital, and it should’ve just been a random encounter and we never saw each other again, but the woman I was there to see told me to go get something to eat, and Kyle keyed in on that, and the next thing I know, we’re at this all-you-can-eat meat place, where they bring it to your table and carve it for you, and we’re talking about birdwatching and winemaking, and then it turns out he does paintball tournaments, and the next thing I know, he’s challenged me to a paintball competition, and we make plans for the following Saturday.”
“And she kicked my ass all over the place. I had so much paint on me, I looked like a demented piece of abstract art.”
Heather laughed. “It was probably two months later, after we’d been birdwatching together twice, and had eaten dinner together at least once a week, before he invited me to his house to make wine.”
