by Tess Oliver
I leaned down and picked up the roll of surgical tape. I straightened. He glanced up at me for just a second. I heaved the tape straight at his head.
He hardly flinched as it bounced off his forehead and fell to the floor. He finally showed a small sign of life by reaching up to rub the red spot the tape had left. “Not too sure about your nursing skills, Sulli.”
“No? I think they’re just fine, only I was hoping to draw just a little blood from that thick skull of yours. I was going to change the bandages for you.”
He lifted the controller to the side as if he was aiming it at his foe.
“Why do you guys think that by sweeping the controller around it will shoot better. Kind of useless, isn’t it?”
He shrugged. “Makes you feel more powerful. And why the heck do you women open your mouths up to brush on mascara? Seems kind of useless too. Sexy, but useless.”
I was done with this. “Well, I’m tired. Guess, I’ll leave you to your silly game.” I turned around, thoroughly disappointed with how it all went and still fretting about the state of his burns. Not that I should have been worried because he obviously didn’t deserve it.
I’d thrown the tape at him and ridiculed his gaming technique, but I had one more trick up my sleeve to get his attention off the stupid game. It was probably a little crazy, but I knew if I left there without actually seeing his back and the cut on his arm, I was going to be up all night imaging giant oozing boils and gangrene. So, my first aid was no longer about him but about my own peace of mind.
I walked across to the television, unbuttoned my pants and dropped them to expose my butt. I pulled them back up the second the game paused. Unexpectedly, red heat flamed my cheeks. I turned cautiously around to face him, hoping my blush wasn’t too obvious. Apparently, mooning someone was a lot easier when you were a teen with a bunch of friends doing the same thing.
Tommy’s jaw shifted back and forth once as he stared at me. “Sulli, if you’re going to flash that perfect little ass at me, you’d better be prepared for the consequences.” Something in his deep tone stirred me physically, and suddenly, it seemed my silly, harmless prank had turned serious.
I lifted my chin. “Consequences?” I found myself flirting back, a completely unexpected reaction. But my mind and body just went that direction.
“A spanking to start.” His eyes flickered with something deeper than harmless flirting.
I should have stopped it right then and walked out, with my nose turned up in insult. But I didn’t. His erotic little tease had gone straight through me, and warmth pooled between my legs. “I’d like to see you try, Thomas Sawyer.”
He leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs, still gripping the controller. His unblinking gaze was, to say the least, making me unsteady on my feet. God, Tommy had grown up into an incredible looking man. The element of danger that was always circling him only added to his appeal.
“Sulli, you’re stepping into treacherous territory with your teasing.” His jaw clenched tight as he gazed at me.
I reached up and nervously tucked my hair behind my ear. The man sitting in front of me was no longer the troubled boy I’d grown up with. He’d changed. The intensity was still there, but he was wearing it on a much more masculine physique. For a frightening, fleeting second, I was looking not at Tommy but at a stranger, an intriguing stranger who in one quick moment of flirting had made every inch of my body vibrate with energy.
He dragged his eyes away, shading them quickly with his long lashes. “You should go, Andi. My back is fine.”
“Let me just look. You don’t know they’re fine. You can’t even see them.” I stepped toward him. “Just lift your shirt for a second.”
He ignored my plea, lifted the controller and started the game again.
“You’re a fucking ass, do you know that, Tommy?”
“Yep, I know.”
I spun around and stomped toward the door, making sure to slam it extra hard behind me to add an exclamation point to my earlier declaration about him being a fucking ass. I’d walked out tough and filled with rage, but the second I stepped outside, I broke into a blubbering mess.
I raced to the car and nearly fell into the driver’s seat. I stared through watery eyes at the cabin. What a confusing, frustrating, hurtful mess my small gesture to help had turned into. A small gesture to help. Is that what this had been about? Was it my worry about his injury? Or was it the aggravation over Tommy’s cold attitude toward me? I’d done nothing to deserve it.
I smacked my steering wheel. “Not a damn thing to deserve it.” I got back out of the car. I needed to get it all off my chest now while I was filled with anger. Otherwise, I’d chicken out.
I threw the door open with the same force I’d used to slam it. It popped off the adjacent wall.
The television was off. Tommy stepped out of the kitchen with a beer.
“I don’t deserve this.” I blinked away tears, deciding they were definitely not helping my cause. “You’re an asshole. We’ve been friends for a long time. I was the one you came to whenever you were in trouble with your stepdad. You searched me out. You came to me for friendship, and I always gave it. I was there for you, and you were there for me. And now you’re gone. The old Tommy is gone, and it seems I’ll never see him again.”
The only sign I noticed that my words were getting to him was the deep swallow he took as I spoke.
I lifted my finger at him. “And let me just mention that I don’t like the new Tommy at all.” I turned to leave and grabbed the door. Tommy’s large hand smacked the door, holding it shut.
“Don’t leave yet, Andi. You’re right. I’m an asshole.”
I spun around and had no idea the impact his nearness would have on me. Suddenly, I was standing not inches from Tommy Sawyer. I was standing just a breath away from a man who I hardly seemed to know. Again, my senses went into overdrive. He wasn’t touching me, but he might just as well have been. His warm, beer scented breath brushed my face. And all I could think was how damn close his mouth was to mine.
I shook my head to push the notion away. Clearly the insane move of me shining my pale, white butt in his face had done something to vanquish any rational thoughts from my head.
Unexpectedly, Tommy reached for the silver heart pendant around my neck. It had been a gift from Gary, and even though it was not even remotely my style, I’d felt compelled to wear it. The silver charm looked tiny in his giant callused fingers. I sensed that the beer had finally caught up with him. It was more than likely the reason he’d softened his attitude toward me.
“Did Dr. Douchebag give you this?”
I yanked it from his hand and laughed. “Shit, for a second there you had me convinced the human Tommy had returned. I was going to credit the beer, naturally, but it seems you still haven’t had enough of it.”
His dark lashes fluttered down, and his mouth pulled tight beneath his moustache. “Don’t leave here hating me, Sulli. I never meant for you to hate me. This is just something I need to deal with. It’s got nothing to do with you and everything to do with me.”
Another laugh, this one slightly less controlled. “Oh my god, did you just use the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ breakup line on me? Kind of funny since we’re not a couple.”
He dropped his hand with a sigh. “You sure don’t make apologies easy. Now I feel like a dick. It’s complicated, Andi. Just know that you’re important to me.”
He’d always had such a tough life and he, more than anyone else in my life, knew how to sweet talk me. “Fine. I won’t hate you too much. Especially if you let me check those damn burns and that cut.”
He hesitated for just a second before reaching back and grabbing the collar of his shirt. He winced as he pulled it off. He tossed the shirt on the couch and held out his arms. I took a step back, completely unprepared for my reaction. It was no longer just my senses in overdrive thinking about his nearness or his mouth near mine. I was feeling every inch of his muscular
body in my erotic imagination. My pussy was tingling with the thought of him taking me into his powerful arms, stripping my clothes off and . . .
“Damn,” I muttered involuntarily on a half breath.
He glanced down at his chest. “What’s the matter?”
I gave my whole body a small, almost imperceptible shake to get out of my unexpected state of arousal. What the hell was I thinking? Tommy was, well, Tommy. I must have been overly tired.
I stirred my finger in the air to motion him to turn around. His broad, strong back was just as amazing as his chest. Every shoulder tattoo seemed to have been perfectly planned to accentuate his muscles. He was a damn work of art in every sense of the word.
I lifted the corner of the bandage on his cut. The stitches were still intact and there was no redness around the cut. “You’re still taking the antibiotics, right?”
“Yes, Ma.”
“Good.”
He tensed up some as I walked around to his back. I brushed it off as him being sensitive to the idea that someone might touch the tender skin.
“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. I’m a professional,” I joked. Nearly all of the tape had lost its grip. I peeled away the bandages. Most of the blisters were gone and only red, rough patches of damaged skin remained. “It actually looks pretty good.”
“See. I’m not a complete caveman.”
I glanced around at the myriad of empty beer cans, food wrappers and dirty socks. “Yeah, you are, but I know your cave mate very well and I know he’s half responsible for the mess. Sit on the couch, and I’ll put on some new bandages. I’d say another few days and you can lose them altogether.”
“Whatever you say, Nurse Sullivan.”
“See, that’s better. A little obedience is always nice.” We sat on the couch, and he turned away from me. We were talking again. While I still had no real idea what was happening between us, confusion that had now been compounded by my seriously erotic reaction to him, I was pleased that we weren’t parting as enemies.
In the distance, the six o’clock coal train was blowing its horn on its way across the railroad bridge. It was a sound that always felt nostalgic to me. It was the sound of home. I loved being in the city, but coming home to Bluefield always gave me a sense of belonging to something much bigger than myself. It was where my friends lived, like the incredible and completely complex man sitting in front of me.
“Question,” I said as I pulled off the remaining bandages. “Dawson claims that when you were sixteen, during that month when you disappeared from town and no one knew what had happened to you, you went traveling the country in boxcars. Riding the rails from town to town on your own.”
“Best damn month of my life. I’ve got some vacation time coming, and I might just try it again. Only this time I’ll have money so I won’t have to eat out of garbage cans.”
I leaned over to look at the side of his face to see if he was kidding. He wasn’t. “Lunch from the garbage but it was the best month of your life?”
“The food and accommodations, mostly park benches and barns, weren’t five star, but that didn’t matter.” This time he glanced back at me over his shoulder. “Total freedom and the world as your resort.”
“Huh, never thought of it like that.” I pressed down the final strips of tape. The heat and tension we’d generated between us earlier had dissipated, and we were two friends who’d known each other for years. I was relieved and, at the same time, still puzzled about those few strained moments. The anger and unease hadn’t just come from his side. I’d felt it too.
I patted his shoulder in a friendly, I’m done gesture. His body tightened below it. “I’m sorry, did that hurt?”
“Yeah, Sulli, but not in the way you think.” He stood up faster than necessary. “Want a beer?”
Another unexplained moment. I was too tired to analyze it. “No, I’m beat. I’m going to go home and shower and drop onto my mattress like a sandbag. I’ll leave the rest of these bandages in case you need them.”
He was having a hard time looking directly at me again. “Yep, thanks.” He headed off to the kitchen for the beer.
I walked to the door and opened it. “See you around, Tommy.”
“Later, Sulli.”
Chapter 11
Tommy
I could never completely explain it, but whenever the three of us, Kellan, Dawson and I walked through the crowded barroom in The Hole people just naturally parted like the Red Sea. It wasn’t fear. They had no reason to fear us except that the three of us were the top fighters in The Hole’s fight club. Before Scott Lowe, an ex-Highlander and ex-asshole, bought the place, The Hole had been a shabby saloon where retired miners hung out to recount their most harrowing days on the job. Lowe had turned it into a successful bar slash gambling club. The gambling club was in back. You had to know someone to get in, sort of like the old speakeasies in the days of Prohibition. The Hole was a cool place to hang on the weekend. In fact, unless you were up for a twenty mile trip to the city, it was the only local place worth spending your hard earned wages. Even some of the snobs from the north side of town held their noses to cross the tracks and have a few beers.
“Where’s Rylan?” I asked Kellan as we reached the bar counter.
“She and Becky had some girls’ night out thing happening, but they’re coming in later.”
Becky was Scott’s girlfriend, an oddly matched pair if there ever was one. But they were both Highlanders who preferred hanging out with us Trogs.
“Here comes Lowe,” Dawson said over the rim of his beer. “Wonder who he’s got us matched up with tonight.”
I leaned against the bar counter. “At least you know you’ll be on the roster. He hasn’t been able to find anyone to step in the ring with me in months. And after a long week filling coal cars, I’m ready to fight.”
Kellan shrugged. “That’s what you get for scaring away all of your playground friends. Big, fucking bully,” he added with a grin.
Scott reached us. “How’s the arm feeling, Huck?” Only my closest friends called me Huck, a nickname that’d evolved from my real name Thomas Sawyer. I was always far more of a Huck Finn than a Tom Sawyer. Scott had slowly become a part of the circle of people who could get away with calling me Huck. He seemed to like that he’d earned the privilege. I hadn’t heard him call me Tommy since.
I glanced at my arm. “It’s still there. Why do you ask?”
“Stitches are out?”
“Last week. Dawz cut them out for me.” After Andi’s first house call, she hadn’t returned. I was both relieved and disappointed. As hard as it was to see her, it was equally hard not to. But she was busy with her life, and I just needed to get over the fact that she was never really going to be part of mine. A fight was a good start. “Lowe, I’m hopin’ you’re not asking me these stupid questions because you’re concerned about my health.”
He laughed. “Nope, I’m not. I’m more concerned about collecting a nice pile of wagers when I put you in the ring tonight.”
“Fuck yeah.” I slammed my beer down hard enough to slosh it over the rim. I lifted my fist to his. “Who is it?”
“I haven’t met him yet, but I heard that if he didn’t have two eyes he could easily be called Cyclops. He’s some monstrous sized cousin of one of the Grunge Devils. Now that I lifted the ban on the MC members hanging out here, I think that fight ring is going to get a lot more entertaining. But you guys need to keep your cool around them. I’ve already warned them that Jigsaw isn’t welcome here. So no extra-curricular fights, otherwise you’re all going to be out on your asses.”
“Ah, come on, Scotty,” Dawson said, “you’d never kick out your three favorite patrons.”
“Yeah? I know Jigsaw started that fight, but you guys seemed to take just a little too much pleasure in finishing it. I don’t need the police coming down on me. That would be the end of this place.”
“Come on, Scott, your daddy’s a lawyer in one of those big city buildings. Y
ou’d figure a way out,” Dawson reminded him.
“Yeah, I’d probably just find myself out of an inheritance. Anyhow, I’ve got to go ready the fight room. See you back there in an hour.” He looked pointedly at the beer in my hand. “Go easy on the brewskies, Huck. I hear this guy is as big as he is mean. Hasn’t lost a fight yet and he’s put a couple of guys in the hospital.”
“Then I guess I’ll save my beer money for after the fight.”
Kellan had that fatherly look he occasionally got when he was trying to warn me off of something. “Sounds like you might be drinking it through a straw afterward. Are you sure about this, Huck?”
“Yeah, dude”—Dawson stepped in—“maybe we should get a look at the guy first, before you commit.”
“I’m cool with that,” Scott said.
I drained my glass. “Hell no. I don’t give a fuck what he looks like. I’m up for it.”
Chapter 12
Andi
I’d chickened out and brought the slinky red dress for the cocktail party instead of the green one that Gary hated. But my lack of backbone had more to do with the reality that I’d be at a party with a lot of wealthy women who spent a great deal of time in yoga and with personal trainers. I didn’t want to look like a frump. The skimpy red dress had been a frivolous purchase that I’d come to loathe for the way I looked in it, namely—slutty. On the other hand, I’d come to love it for the way it looked on me, namely—hot. Or at least that was what my magic mirror told me. It was entirely possible that I was delusional.
Still slightly wet from the shower, Gary stepped into the bedroom with a towel around his waist. A burst of cologne scented steam followed him out of the bathroom. He patted his stomach muscles. They had just enough ripple to make a girl bite her lip, but somehow, I’d quickly found myself comparing his physique to Tommy’s. In contrast, Gary was lacking in almost every way. But then, he was a doctor and his mind was to be admired more than his body. Something about that made me laugh.
