Page 101 of Jep

She pulled him toward her so she could get a better look. When she touched the lump, he flinched but didn’t pull away. “That’s a nasty bump you’ve got there.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe we should have stopped by the hospital.”

“Me? What about you? You refused to get checked out first.”

“That’s different.”

“Why?”

“Because my legs are fine.”

He pulled back. “And so is my head.”

“Let me see your pupils.”

“Em.” He got off the stool and went to the sink to rinse his cup.

“Show me.”

He rested the mug upside down in the sink and turned to face her. “Youdoknow you can’t tell anything just by looking, right?”

“Technically, yes.” She searched his eyes. “But I was hoping it would be obvious you have head trauma, and you’d let me take you to the hospital.” She looked a second too long and almost got lost. “They look normal.” She frowned.

“You were hoping I’d have a bad concussion?”

“Iknowyou have a bad concussion. You were knocked out. I washopingI could detect it and convince you to let a doctor look at you.”

He stepped forward, so she had to lift her head to look at him. “I feel fine.” His words were rough around the edges and made her aware of every breath she took as silence engulfed them.

His hand reached for her face, and he ran the side of his thumb along her jaw. She inhaled slowly, smelling her aunt’s lavender shampoo he’d used. It smelled musky on him. He wasclose now. Too close. A cold fear snaked up her spine, and she stepped back, clearing her throat.

“We should get to work,” she said, lifting her drink to create a barrier between them. She’d felt that anxiety before, when she’d first found herself wanting more from him than she had any right to. She’d blamed it on his lack of faith, but that excuse was gone, and it left a hole she couldn’t understand. “We don’t have much time.”

He nodded, looking sad and confused, but it passed. “Yeah. We should get started.”

He took her cup and put it in the sink.

“We can sit in the garden. It will be nicer out there.”

“Whatever you want.” He turned and glanced at the fridge as he passed it. “What’s this?”

He tugged a postcard from under the magnet holding it and turned it to read the back.

“Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest, Romania.”

“They must not have taken that one,” Em said. “It was one of her earlier cards.”

“The world is so big. I wish you could see it,” he read. “This was from Jade?”

“Yeah. I thought Carla had given Lawson all the postcards, but I guess he let her keep one. She always wrote that. Same thing every time.”

“I hadn’t had a chance to look at them. Where was the most recent one from?”

“Uh, I think it was a temple in Cambodia, if I’m remembering correctly.”

“You were always good with the details,” he said. “I wonder if that’s where the statue came from.”

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