Page 19 of Protecting Charity

Someone knocked on the door, causing me to leap from my seat to look in the peephole. Max stood as antsy as I was, waiting for me to answer. I unlocked the door and let him in. “Welcome to the house of chaos. Enter if you dare,” I joked.

He followed me back to the couch, attentively looking around at the mess of medical supplies on my coffee table.

“What did you do?” His eyes went wild, searching for the source of blood. Once he found the culprit, he grabbed my hand and looked at the wound.

“Cut my finger.”

“Hmm.” He took over, holding pressure on the wound.

“I thought you were mad at me?”

“I said I wasn’t.”

“But you were,” I retorted. I knew when someone was mad at me. Call it a gift, or maybe it was because I pissed people off all the time. I had learned to recognize the signs.

“I had a moment. I’m over it now. I shouldn’t have expected you to leave without a fight. That’s not you.”

“Thank you.” Awe, was he finally understanding me? I gave him a cheesy lopsided smile, then looked away.

His jaw tightened as he looked at my cut again. “You should get stitches. I can see the bone.”

I shook my head and swallowed. “Nope. I’m just going to glue it and move on with my bruschetta.”

He shook his head and moved on to tend to my finger. Maybe he finally came to the realization that I was headstrong and liked things my way.

“Max?”

“What?” he said while manipulating my finger to get a better view.

“I think my brother called me. Or, at least, someone called from his phone.”

“Okay. What did he say?” Max wasn’t as concerned about it as I was, apparently. To him, it was a standard phone call that was long overdue. Because, to him, Josh is an asshole that allowed his baby sister to take over for him. He wasn’t a man in Max’s eyes. It was a viewpoint I secretly shared with him; nevertheless, he was still my brother.

“Nothing, that’s just it. I could hear someone on the other line, but they didn’t say a word.”

“Well, maybe he was letting you know he was okay without having to explain himself. He’s a coward like that.”

It’s possible. I wouldn’t put it past him to take the easy way out, but this didn’t feel like that. I doubt he would worry that others were out there worrying about him. Much less take time out of his day in order to let me know that he was alive and well.

“Maybe.”

“There,” he said, showing me my finger, “All fixed up.”

It didn’t look so bad now that it wasn’t wide open, showing in great detail what a phalange looks like underneath all that skin. He wrapped a small bandage around it to keep the glue in place. The sting was still there, and it slowly morphed into a throb as my blood was now being contained.

“Thank you.” Tears burned my eyes, and I wiped them away.

“Come here.”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me over. I curled up on the couch and laid my head in his lap while he traced the shell of my ear, then put his feet up on the coffee table and flipped the TV on.

Max’s phone blew up with messages while we watched the beginning of the Matrix. Business never ends.

Another knock sounded at my door, and I stiffened. “Come in,” Max said without checking to see who it was.

Nico walked in with grocery bags in one hand and a briefcase in another. “Didn’t I tell you to lock the doors?”

I pointed my finger at Max, ratting him out immediately.

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