by Sarah Gay
Wrapped in his muddled thoughts over Julia, Dax had forgotten about the prank until Stone yelled out something that resembled a profanity. Dax snapped a photo before Stone had a chance to guzzle down his glass of water. Dax took a quick bite of the pasta, then fanned his mouth. “Dang, Blue. What’s in this?” Once again, Dax’s acting skills were put to the test.
Blue brought his plate to his nose and sniffed. “Smells okay.” He placed the plate back onto the table and took a small bite before turning a mad eye to Jeremy who sat at the end of the table, his eyes tearing with laughter as he shoveled his pasta into his mouth.
Dax’s stomached grumbled and he stole another bite when Blue focused on Jeremy.
Blue’s head shot back to Dax. “Wait a minute. Why are you still eating?” Blue reached his fork out to taste Dax’s dish, but Dax pulled his plate away before Blue could stab a noodle.
“Nikola’s eating it too.” Dax pointed to Nikola, who sat quietly eating mouthful after mouthful.
Nikola had been known to eat spicy food, but by Stone’s reaction, the pasta sauce was a twenty on a scale of zero to ten. Blue scraped Nikola’s empty plate with the side of his fork and tasted it. “That’s hot.” Blue turned his attention back to Jeremy. “You ruined my sauce.”
That was too close. Dax sighed out his relief as he gave Jeremy a congratulatory kick under the table.
Jeremy doubled over in laughter. When he came back up for air, tears streaked down his cheeks. He reached up with his right hand and swiped across his face and eyes with an open palm. His eyes immediately scrunched shut as he jumped up and let out a high-pitched wail. “I can’t see!”
Dax grabbed Jeremy by the arm and pulled him to the industrial kitchen sink. He quickly pushed the faucet back with his elbow and thrust Jeremy’s face under the cool running water within seconds of the irritant pepper contact. “Open your eyes and let it flush.” Dax shook his head. “I told you to wash your hands after,” he scolded softly.
“I did,” Jeremy shot back. “That pepper you bought is sick strong!”
“That. Pepper?” Blue stepped over to them and crossed his arms, his steel eyes glowering down at Dax. “You bought?” Blue’s herculean form tensed, accentuating his chiseled body.
“A little pepper could never down the great Bluecules.”
The alarm rang over the intercom system. Saved by the bell.
“Stop with the mixed nicknames. You know I hate that.” Blue grabbed Dax by the shirt. “And when we get back, I’m taking you down, then you’re going to make us all another lunch.”
“You got it, Cap.” Dax would no longer be the mastermind behind Jeremy’s pranks. It was fun while it lasted, but he had more important things to focus on. Like how to get Julia to fall for him.
Dax threw a kitchen towel at Jeremy as they ran to the engine. “How ya doin’?”
“You ever get sunburned, the kind that blisters?”
“Yeah.”
“Then your little sister comes along and scratches you with her jagged fingernails?”
Jeremy’s lobster red eyes and blotchy skin would have normally caused Dax to laugh, but he felt responsible. “Ouch. Sorry, man.”
“It’s okay. It’s like that lunch analogy; don’t offer punch if don’t want a knuckle sandwich.”
Dax chuckled. “Sorry I can’t help you with your pranks anymore.”
“It’s okay.” Jeremy jumped into the engine. “You’ve been missing out on the action for too long.”
“Bring on the punch.” Now Dax allowed himself to laugh.
“Jules, you still want to back country?” Abi’s voice wafted through the air like a muffled squawk.
“Sorry, sis.” Julia swallowed down a painful lump in her throat. “I’m sick.” She coughed, causing menacing phlegm to reverberate in her chest. “Could you bring me another blanket and a glass of water?”
A cool hand pressed into her forehead. “Jules, you’re burning up.”
“But I’m so cold.”
“Makes sense. Looks like you have a nasty cold.” Abi’s hand slipped down to Julia’s arm.
“I think I’ve got the flu. It hit so hard last night.” Julia strained to keep her voice from shivering. “You should stay out of my room. I don’t want to make you sick.”
“I’m sure I’ve already been exposed. If not by you, then by someone else.” She waved an arm in the air for Julia not to worry. “I’ll get you some Tylenol and water.”
“Thanks.” Julia pushed up off her mattress, attempting to turn on her side but she couldn’t move.
Her muscles acted as if they hadn’t been utilized in months and were now completely atrophied. No, not atrophied, sore. Every muscle in her body ached.
Abi was back with the Tylenol in record time. “Can you sit up?”
Julia released a painful whine that transformed into a humorous chuckle.
“Why are you laughing?” Abi gave her a stern look. “You need rest.” Abi reached behind Julia’s back to help her sit up.
“At least I got the flu on my week off.”
“Always the optimist. You’re the only person I know who would rather be sick in bed than on vacation.”
Julia tried to laugh but it came out as a cough.
“No more laughing.” Abi reached down and kissed Julia’s forehead.
“You shouldn’t do that.”
“Stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself.”
“Now, where have I heard that one before?” Julia said facetiously.
“Exactly. You’re no one to talk. I’ll be back later to check on your fever.” Abi stopped at Julia’s door. “Call to me if you need something, but please try to get some sleep.”
“Thanks, Abi,” Julia responded, but she doubted if her sister could hear her small, sickly voice.
She plucked her phone off the nightstand and checked the time, noon. How could she have slept that late? She had two texts from Dax. One was a picture of her favorite peppers on the grocery shelf and the other was a picture of Stone grabbing at his throat over a plate of spaghetti. The scene came together in her mind and she couldn’t help but laugh, which of course converted into a hacking cough.
She moved on to check her email, mostly spam, then her Facebook. Dax didn’t send her another message, but he did post to his page: New Year’s Resolution: Be worthy of the wonderful new woman in my life.
That was a bold statement, and perplexing. Why would three-date Dax suddenly be ready for a relationship? Julia went back to the photo of Stone. He would make Abi happy. It was time for Julia to finally let go and embrace the new course their lives were taking. She laid her head back into her pillow, enjoying how the medicine trickled through her body, softening her sore muscles and clearing her mind from its feverish fog.
She turned her head at Abi’s touch on her forehead.
“Jules?”
Julia rubbed her dry lips together. “Yeah,” she responded, her voice hoarse and crackly.
“I brought you ibuprofen and some chicken soup.”
“Do I still have a fever?”
Abi pulled Julia’s feet out from under the covers and started rubbing them. “Feels like it. Are you cold?”
“I don’t have the chills anymore, but I can’t seem to get warm. How long has it been since the Tylenol?”
“Six hours.”
“Six hours? But, it only seemed like a few minutes.”
Abi couldn’t hide the concern in her eyes. “Can you sit up?”
Julia wrestled into a seated position as Abi adjusted the pillows behind her back.
Abi turned for the food tray she had set on the dresser. “You have more color in your cheeks now. That’s a good sign.”
“Thanks. I’m not hungry though.” Julia’s stomach did a turn. “I feel full for some reason.”
“It’s homemade,” Abi encouraged, offering a spoonful.
Julia moaned as the warm salty goodness moistened her parched mouth. “It’s delicious.” She finishe
d the bowl in a few minutes and settled back into her pillows.
Abi pointed to the TV hanging on the wall opposite the bed. “Why don’t we pick out a musical like Grease or something?”
“Okay,” Julia agreed.
Abi turned on the TV and scrolled through the options. “Ooh, how about Labyrinth?”
“That’s fine,” Julia responded.
Abi wiggled in at her side and they began watching one of their childhood favorites. It was a pleasant diversion until her stomach grew progressively more nauseated. When the characters in the movie entered a stinky bog, her body broke into a cold sweat. She rolled from her bed and sprinted for the bathroom. Her body used the energy it didn’t have to painfully expel the soup. When she had finally emptied her stomach, her doting sister was at her side with a cup of water and helped her to the sink.
“Here, swish, then I’ll skip the movie to the end, so you’ll have happy thoughts to put you back to sleep.”
“Thanks, Abi.” Sleep? Sleep is the only thing she could fathom doing. “I’m suddenly really dizzy.”
That evening and the following day were a complete blur of bathroom runs—runs being the operative word—and coughing fits. Luckily, Abi didn’t seem to come down with the flu, not yet at least. Julia would need to recover, or she wouldn’t be able to care for Abi when she contracted the illness. Both of them incapacitated wouldn’t work. Work? Didn’t Abi have to go in to work?
“Abi?”
No answer.
Julia patted the mattress for her phone.
No phone.
She scanned her surroundings until she caught sight of her phone plugged into a charging cable on the dresser across the room. She didn’t have the energy to walk around the house to find Abi, but she could reach her phone. Her chalky legs dangled off the side of the bed like the pasty, stiff appendages of a porcelain doll. She willed herself to stand. The carpet cut into her toes. What was wrong with the carpet? Or was it her toes? Her vision reduced to a fuzzy circle of light, like a camera lens focusing out before everything went black.
“Jules?” Abi’s voice was suspiciously low.
Julia turned on her side and pulled her cold legs into her chest, wrapping herself into the fetal position for warmth. The t-shirt she had on barely reached down past her upper thighs. She blinked away the bright light in her eyes as she tried to comprehend where her covers had disappeared to and why her head ached; at least her stomach didn’t hurt anymore.
“Jules.” Abi’s voice altered to a deep echo as she applied pressure to Julia’s wrist, but it wasn’t Abi, it was a man.
Julia pried her eyes open. Large, fuzzy apparitions circled above her before slowly transforming into familiar shapes. Her brain took a full minute to grasp that Dax’s crew stared down at her in her bedroom.
Her heart raced. “Is my house on fire?” Julia jumped to her feet too quickly and nearly fainted a second time.
“No fire.” Dax scooped her up in his arms. “We came to check on you.”
Being cradled into him, her body suddenly woke, filling with a renewed energy. “I’m fine.” She nestled her face into his neck and drew in a deep breath. His scent provided her with a comfort that she couldn’t quite peg. What she did know was that it was a comfort she never wanted to let go of. “You guys should be out on emergency calls.”
Dax settled her into bed and pulled the covers up over her bare legs. “When we get a call that a woman is unresponsive on the floor, that counts as an emergency.”
She found herself momentarily distracted by his warm caramel eyes. “Look at me. I’m an invalid.” She motioned to her limp body. “Wasn’t it just the other night that I pulled you on top of me and pinned you on your back?”
The crew chuckled until the tilt of Dax’s head snuffed out their amusement.
“Abi called you?” She strained her neck to look around the muscly men to find Abi.
Stone stepped forward with Abi. “She called me.”
Abi sprinted to her sister’s side. “I was so worried.”
Dax pulled an IV from a medical bag. “Julia, you’re dehydrated. We can take you to the hospital, but Abi told us that unless you lost a limb, you wouldn’t be caught dead in an emergency room.”
Julia coughed out a laugh, then continued coughing, her chest suffering through every miserable hack.
Dax ran a thermometer across her forehead. “Your fever broke, but I would bet you’d test positive for the flu.”
“To answer your next question, no.” She would beat this the old-fashioned way and be stronger for it. “I don’t want to take an anti-viral medication.”
He blinked his eyes and nodded. “You okay with me getting you hydrated?”
She tried to swallow before responding but didn’t have the moisture or strength to complete the action. “Yes. Thank you.” She turned to Abi. “Didn’t you have work today?”
Abi scrunched her lips as if she was determining whether or not to lie. “I called in.” She waved her hands dismissively in the air. “Not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal.” Julia couldn’t allow Abi to lose her job. “I’ll be fine after this IV. You need to go in tomorrow.”
Dax quickly slid the needle into her arm, taped it down, and clicked on the IV. Julia’s forearm tickled as the room temperature fluid cooled her veins.
“I can come by after we’re off in the morning.” Dax pulled at his earlobe. “And stay until Abi’s back from work.”
“You wouldn’t mind?” Julia didn’t attempt to hide her eagerness. “You know your way around our kitchen and where the bath towels are if you need to take another shower.”
The room quieted. Dax’s birthmark transformed to a deep purple and his eyes narrowed as he cast a warning glare back at the crew.
Julia leaned into him and whispered, “I need to stop talking, don’t I?”
He squeezed her hand, “Never.”
She tightened her grip on his hand as she melted back into her covers, the heat from his touch warming her core.
8
The cold travertine floor crackled under Julia’s steaming feet as she stepped out of the shower the next morning. At eight a.m., she had already thrown her sheets into the wash and wiped down her entire bathroom with sanitizing wipes to eliminate the lingering smell and sterilize the area before Dax arrived.
Her stomach rumbled with hunger as she threw on a clean pair of microfleece pajamas, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat anything, not yet. And there was a very high probability she’d never eat chicken soup again. With her congested chest, her muscles still weak, and not having eaten, her stamina remained low, but at least her mind had cleared.
A deep thunk echoed off her bathroom window, interrupting her post-shower ritual of leaning over and rubbing down her hair with a thin towel. It was a similar sound to a hummingbird hitting glass, but this was January. Hummingbirds wouldn’t visit these mountains again until the end of April. She opened the wood shutters to find a paper spit-wad stuck to the upper corner of the window. A deep red goo dripping down the glass where it hit.
Thunk. Her body tensed as another wad hit the window at eye level. She scanned her side yard. A thick patch of bushes stood twenty yards away, backed by a rolling, forested hill. She steadied her breath as her heart threatened to thump out of her chest. She reached for a Sharpie from a bathroom drawer and proceeded to draw a bullseye on the window. Whoever this was, silly kid or creepy adult, she would stare down the fear, and they would soon learn they couldn’t frighten Julia Newell.
The alarm suddenly blared through the house. “Abi!” Julia yelled as she sprinted toward her sister’s room.
“It’s okay,” Abi met Julia at the alarm pad on the wall next to the front entrance and disabled it within seconds.
Dax stood in the front entry. “Good to see you’re using your security system.” His face lifted into a tired smile.
Julia gave him a nod. “Just testing it out on our visitors.” Her voice wasn’t ready
for speaking after her run and it sent her into a coughing fit.
“Sorry to set it off. I didn’t mean to make you cough.”
“It’s my fault,” Abi shook her head. “I’m not used to disarming it before opening the front door.” She gave Julia a light squeeze. “I’m headed in to work. Call me.”
Abi left the two of them in a moment of awkward silence.
“Long night?” Julia questioned.
“Couldn’t sleep.” He shrugged. “Not too deep.”
“Do you want to nap on the couch?” Julia offered.
“Maybe this afternoon.” He held up a paper grocery sack. “These need to get in the fridge.”
Julia gave Dax a quick hug. She would have held onto him and given him a thank you kiss but didn’t want to risk infecting him. “You’re too good to me.”
“That’s the idea.” He raised an eyebrow as he walked toward the kitchen. “Where do I stand with the jury?”
“I’d say a verdict is on the horizon.”
He stopped suddenly and turned back to her. “Like on the horizon today?” His eyes lit with excitement.
She laughed. Stupid idea—it caused her to nearly hack up a toe.
Dax led her to a bar stool and quickly filled a glass of water. “Have you eaten?”
The tepid water soothed her cough momentarily. “Nope.” She sighed. “Too scared.”
“Let’s get you fed and back to bed.”
She fought the urge to laugh, breathing in and out slowly instead. “Are you trying to make me cough? That’s cruel.”
He gave her an incredulous look as he placed an egg carton on the counter and fired up a burner. “Why would I try to make you cough?”
“You’ve been Dr. Seuss since you walked in the door.” She tilted her head to the side and lifted her eyebrows. “You’re not trying to make me laugh with your little rhymes?”
Butter skittered across the cast iron frying pan.
“Little rhymes make you laugh?” He cracked two eggs with one hand over the pan. “Like,” he said, casting his eyes from side to side, “how you got a kick out of we lost Blue in Peru?”
