by Ann Walker
"Is it bad?" I demanded, following in line beside him as he practically ran toward our volunteer huts. I could already see men crowded outside Grant's—the work day wasn't done yet. They shouldn't be back at the village for at least another two or three hours.
"Looks that way," Eli told me after a moment's hesitation. I swallowed thickly, a panicky feeling taking hold of my body. My legs were stiff in that moment, as if they weren't attached to me anymore, and I struggled to keep them moving. My hands felt cold and clammy, despite the summer heat, and my mouth was suddenly so dry it hurt to swallow.
Grant's fellow workers cleared a path for me as I approached. By now, there wasn't a soul in the village who didn't at least have an inclination that we were an item. No one had said anything about it, though Gloria had been a little smugger than usual when we were all together. I spared a quick look to Eli, grateful that he'd come to find me even if Grant and I hadn't made any "official" announcements about our status. It was all still fresh—only two weeks in to my volunteer relationship, and here I was almost having a heart attack because he'd hurt his leg.
If he was hurt bad enough, he'd have to leave. There was no room for my selfish desire to keep him with me until the last possible moment. I wouldn't hold him back if he needed real medical attention beyond that of what could be provided in the village. As I pushed into his hut, throwing the door open and scrambling inside, I briefly wondered if I should have someone contact Henri so the organization could document the accident.
And possibly send medical supplies.
The first thing I heard inside was the sound of Grant groaning, and it was a sound that sent a chill down my spine. There were a number of people crowded around his bed, his hut still infinitely cleaner and more organized than mine would ever be, and they scattered almost as soon as the door swung shut behind me. Grant lay in the midst of it all, his right leg heavily bandaged, red liquid seeping through.
"Hey," he said shakily when our eyes met. When he tried to sit up, I dashed forward, trying my best to force the panicked expression of my face.
"Don't get up," I insisted. Those who'd been with him, the men he spent each and every day with, sidled out as I kneeled by his side, no doubt to give us a few minutes of privacy. "What happened?"
He shrugged as I wrapped both of my hands around his, then spared a quick look at his leg, muttering, "Accident."
"Care to elaborate?" I asked as I leaned forward and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Despite the heat radiating off him, I thought I saw his teeth chattering together. Not good.
"I was up on a ladder," he told me after a brief pause, his voice sounding a little distant, "and then I slipped. Caught my leg on a metal pipe sticking out of the wall… It was my own fault."
I shook my head, biting the insides of my cheeks. Stay calm. I could tell he was trying to do the same. We were both trying to look brave for the other, and I wished he wouldn't. He was the one hurt. He was the one on the bed with a bleeding leg, and he was shivering which is a clear sign of a fever.
"I doubt it was anyone's fault," I muttered, shuffling up so I could sit down beside him. "How bad is it?"
Grant swallowed thickly with a wince, and I wanted nothing more than to cradle him to me. Outside, I could hear men chatting animatedly with one another, perhaps trying to decide what to do about all this.
"Not terrible," he told me once he'd settled again, letting out a heavy sigh. "Pretty sure it'll need to be stitched."
I glanced down at his leg, noting the red stain was getting bigger beneath the bandages. It made sense that they at least had a first aid kit out on the worksite, but how would he get someone to stitch him up out here?
"I think you should go to the hospital," I insisted, as much as it killed me to do it. If he went to the hospital, the volunteer organization might make him leave, just to say they'd covered all their bases. The thought of being here without him made my heart ache, but I could sacrifice my feelings for the sake of his health—I'd do it in a heartbeat, in fact.
Grant, however, was having none of that. "No."
"Grant, you can't—"
"They'll do it here," he groaned, gripping my hands tightly now. "I'm not leaving. I'm going to see this thing through?"
"What thing?" I met his eye, his stare a little more focused now. "The building project? They can do it without you—"
"The buildings, yes," he said quickly, cutting me off, "but also us. I'm not going to cut our time short."
I stared for a moment, my lips pressed together, and I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't be stupid."
"I'm not. I'm thinking perfectly clear."
"You need medical attention," I argued. What if he caught an infection? Blood infections were probably pretty damn serious… I'd rather have Grant in a different country than dead.
"You don't think they have medical personnel here? What do you think happens when someone gets hurt here? They go die in the bush?"
My cheeks darkened at the suggestion. He raised his eyebrows at me, waiting for a response, and I begrudgingly said, "I don't… Obviously they have someone here for… that"
"It looks bad, but I'm not too worried," he promised, stroking his thumb over the top of my hand. I let out a sigh; here he was comforting me, when really, it ought to be the other way around. I leaned forward and kissed him, my lips briefly grazing over his.
"You know," he rumbled, reaching up to push the hair out of my face. "I've never had a nurse fantasy before, but I think one might be growing."
Laughing, I leaned back and shot him a smile, too relieved to care about the crassness of it—I mean, the guys outside could probably hear us just as clearly as we could hear them.
"Well, put a cork in it for now," I told him, cupping his cheek and sighing. "I'm not exactly a nurse, but I'm going to make sure you're back on your feet as soon as possible."
"Thank you."
"Thank you," I whispered, sniffling back the swell of emotion that threatened to overtake me. Grant frowned, his head cocked to the side.
"Why?" he asked.
"For wanting to stay," I murmured in return, giving his hand one final squeeze before climbing off the bed. "Don't go anywhere… I'll be right back."
"No promises," he croaked, and I offered another laugh, though it wasn't quite as genuine as the others. Because, the stress of losing Grant overwhelmed my speech. . Pushing open the door, my eyes narrowed at the men standing around.
"Someone needs to examine his leg now," I snapped, too far gone in my worry for niceties. I noticed a duo jogging back to the village. "He needs stitches and pain relief."
Among other things, but I could do that. I couldn't do much for the medical mending he'd need, but I'd be damned if I left his side before he was comfortable again. Even if I had to wait up all night with him, I'd do it.
I couldn't stitch a wound or brew a pain reliever, but I could give him love
Chapter Eight
“Maybe I should fall off a ladder too,” I laughed, my hands gripping the cool leather steering wheel, "then I'll get special treatment… and a new car."
Grant shot me a look in the passenger seat while he adjusted the vents, a blissful blast of AC hitting us for the first time in months.
"It's not really my car," he told me for the umpteenth time, though he showed no signs that my constant teasing was getting to him. Instead, he looked at me with affection in his eyes and a smile on his lips. I'd always wanted a man to look at me like that—forever. "I can't take it with me when I leave." said Grant.
"Well, we should make the most of it until then," I insisted, fiddling with all the buttons as some of my students admired the car from a distance. Well, it wasn't so much a car as an off-road terrain-tackling beast. I'd never driven anything so big in my life;; deep down I was a little nervous about maneuvering it across the local landscape. I kept the fears to myself, not wanting Grant to volunteer to drive in my place.
A few weeks had passed since his accident, and thankfully t
here was no need to send him to any hospitals in the bigger towns or cities. The same day it happened a village healer managed to patch the wound. I stayed by Grant's side, keeping him as cheery and pain-free as possible, until a doctor from the volunteer organization arrived. As we suspected, he needed some stitches, but it was nothing worse than a bad cut. In fact, the doctor had praised us for keeping the wound spotless and clean, stating that if it had gotten infected, Grant probably would have left and not come back.
He'd been off his feet since the accident, occasionally puttering around as the deep gash healed. I knew, along with everyone else, that he was itching to get back to the work site, but it was too far to walk in the immediate aftermath. I kept him as busy as I could at the time, bringing him into my classes to help the time pass. He'd been restless, and occasionally a little short with me, but given the limited supply of painkillers left behind by the doctor, I couldn't blame him.
I'd have been a monster if I had to heal in the village, surrounded by less than modern amenities.
After talking with Henri over the phone, I was surprised when he showed up with the beast of a vehicle; I was now in charge of getting Grant back and forth from the work sites. All of Grant's construction crew piled in every day, more people seated in the backseats and trunk than allowed, but Grant seemed happy to share. We'd even taken to teaching some of the older teens to drive. The ones headed to universities in bigger cities needed all the extra skills they could easily learn.
Even though Henri had played the car up as a necessary work vehicle, I had a sinking suspicion he'd lent it to us in an effort to appease Grant after sustaining an injury. I could never see Grant suing anyone, but it had to be on the mind of the company who sent us out here. For now, air conditioning and plush seats were a pretty agreeable silencer.
"Make the most of it, huh?" Grant purred, running his hand over my arm and nodding to the backseats. "Did you have something extra in mind for this trip?"
I raised an eyebrow at him, a heated flush covering my skin at the suggestion. We'd kept it pretty PG13 since he hurt himself, though it'd been hard to keep my hands off him. There was a lot of snuggling, a lot of cuddling, but all I'd wanted to do for days was to climb aboard and take him for a good long spin. Even a joke about it was enough to get me going—what was wrong with me?!
"Yeah, with all the dust and dirt," I teased, playing it off like the suggestion didn't affect me. We both looked back at the seats, which were coated in a good layer of red dirt and work grim from the construction crew. "Gets me all hot and bothered."
Our eyes met just then, and I suddenly realized I wasn't the only one experiencing the heat amidst the air conditioning. It was like his eyes had darkened with lust, a look in them that I knew fairly well at this point, and I licked my lips, holding back my desire to act on my urges.
My urges to climb onto his lap and yank off his shirt.
Grant reached out and brushed his fingers through my hair this time, his mouth quirking up into a little smirk. What a tease. I leaned in, not bothering to resist, and soon enough it was our lips brushing against one another's, my hands working into his hair. Normally we would start off slowly, let the passion build until we couldn't stand it any longer, but it seemed we were at that level from the beginning. His mouth slated over mine, tongue swiping over my lower lip, and I could barely hold back my moan.
Just as I was about to clamber over the divide between us, my fingers itching to undo the zipper of his pants, I heard hooting and whooping from outside. We broke apart slowly, and when I glanced over my shoulder, the children jeering at us scattered, their teasing replaced with laughter. I sighed and settled back in my seat, lips tingling and face flushed.
"I like this car," Grant mused, his head resting back against his hands. I swatted at his hard midsection, which made him chuckle. "I like you."
"I like you too," I offered in return, but I think at this point we both suspected our feelings were something more than a like. Love. Regardless of how short our time had been together, in a few months, I think I'd fallen in love.
"So where are we headed?" he asked as I finally switched gears and got the car moving. Usually this beast was driven by one of the villagers, and they'd always handled it so gracefully. I, on the other hand, slammed my foot down on the gas a little too hard, and we both groaned when the car lurched forward suddenly and the seatbelts cut into us—safety mechanism, sure, but damn if it didn't hurt.
"Sorry," I muttered, slowly getting a better feel for the way everything worked. The road was still pretty bumpy, and I was basically driving off memorized directions from Gloria. "And that's for me to know and you to find out."
"Ugh, Clara," Grant sighed with a slight roll of his eyes, something I caught in the mirror. "Don't say that… That's awful."
I shot him a wink as we rumbled away from the village, a trail of red dust flying up from behind the wheels. "Awful, but true…"
****
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Clara," Grant said firmly, hobbling up the rocky path behind me, "if you ask me that one more time, I'm going to throw you into the falls."
I noticed a slight hobble to his movements, and I bit my lip, holding back my offer of help. He wanted to do this on his own, I got that, but that didn't mean I could just stand there and not worry about him. The rocky path was slick with mist, and one wrong step meant either falling over the side into the pool of rocks below, or tumbling all the way down to an equally rocky walkway behind us.
With my fears for Grant's safety weighing on me, I had to actually remind myself to take a step back and admire the natural beauty around me—because it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Located an hour away from our volunteer village, the waterfall Gloria had hyped up was everything I'd hoped it would be and more. At first, we saw the trickling river trailing down from the foothills, which we followed until we reached the falls themselves. It was a cavernous drop to the pool below, but once we parked, Grant found a well-worn rocky path that would let us explore the waterfall at a safe distance, and yet still feel like we were truly immersed in it.
The lush greenery was a pleasant and welcome surprise, given the way the summer had dried out much of the plant life around our huts. Therefore, I spent some time running my hands through the grasses. The thick air was both humid and cool, an odd combination courtesy of the unflinching sun and the roaring waterfall.
At first, I was leery of actually climbing the thing, but Grant noted the path continued behind the falls themselves, and once we were aware of that, we couldn't just sit by the car and watch from a distance. A part of me would have preferred that, I suppose. Grant's leg was nearly healed up, but sometimes he fumbled with it, and I wasn't keen to watch him plummet to his death because his body decided it had enough.
I felt like a nagging mother hen, constantly checking up on him to make sure everything was okay. He was fine. He scaled the path just as well as I did—in fact, out of the two of us, I was the one who'd slipped more often, always caught in his strong, large hands before I hit the ground. He was always looking out for me, when it should have been the other way around.
We continued along the path, me in front of him, the borrowed car forgotten on the outskirts of the strange dip in the earth. Thus far, we'd only seen birds—no signs of dangerous predators anywhere, which was a relief.
When we reached the point where the path dipped under the falls, I looked back and shot Grant a smile. There was no one else I would have rather shared this hidden treasure with, and my lip wobbled as emotion swelled within me. He seemed not to notice, too busy admiring the falls, but when he was done he took my hand and brought me close, and we moved behind the water together.
And found ourselves in a dark cave. Grant pulled out the flashlight we'd borrowed from the village, and a quick scan of the area showed numerous flat rocks we could sit on. It was wetter than the path we'd climbed thus far, but the cave sloped inward, not out, so when I slipped, I fell away fr
om the falls.
"Careful," he chuckled, helping me to my feet and wrapping an arm around my waist. "Everyone will be very suspicious if I come back without you…"
"What a tough time that would be for you," I teased, pinching his side and poking my tongue out at him. It was then that we shared a kiss that I knew would be our most memorable. Behind the falls, we fell into one another's arms, Grant's leg forgotten. Seated atop one of the rocks, we carefully savored one another's touch, making round… oh, there'd been too many rounds to count. Fifty? We called it fifty when we were done, though I was fairly certain we hadn't had fifty intimate encounters, but it made us both giggle like idiots as we redressed.
My clothes were beyond drenched at that point, coated in sweat and water from the falls, but it didn't faze me—not even a little. Lust satiated at last, I settled in his arms, happily watching the water plummet passed the little cave's opening.
"You know, when this is all over," Grant started, and I tensed at the last word. Over. I didn't want it to be over—not for a long time. We only had about two months left in the village, and lately it seemed each day was flying by faster than the last. Before we knew it, we'd be packing up and heading back to the airport. "I want us to keep going."
My sigh brought the tightness from my body, the soft exhale bringing with it all the fears and concerns that had been mounting over the last month. I felt him tilt his head down, and when I glanced up, there was a strange expression on his face. His brow furrowed, and his eyes were almost… desperate. The lightbulb went off in my head at that moment, he was scared too. Wrapping my arms around him, I snuggled closer on his lap, letting him bury his face in the crux of my neck and shoulder.
"I want that too," I whispered, stroking his hair. "I really do."
It wouldn't be difficult. We'd already learned that we only lived about four hours from each other—two and a half if we took the train. At the time when we'd realized that, we laughed about what a small world we lived in, but now I was just grateful for it.
