Page 29 of Finding Love on the Slopes

Now that she could see the full extent of the damage and was satisfied there were no more injuries hidden beneath the layers of blood, she picked up the antiseptic wipe and leaned back a little to see his face more fully.

“Now comes the really fun part. Take a breath; this is going to burn.” Once again, she pulled his face down with two fingers on his chin while she gently applied the antiseptic over the large gash on his forehead, wiping away the fresh blood beginning to trickle down and hopefully cleaning any germs away. A slight wince was the only indication that her ministrations were hurting him. As quickly as possible, she applied two butterfly strips to hold the wound together and then placed a piece of no-stick gauze with a large bandage over the top of that.

After removing the blue latex gloves from her hands, she took another deep breath. “Okay, now I need to probe and make sure there aren’t any other injuries we have overlooked. I’m not surewhat I will be able to do if I find any, but at least I will know. I will be as gentle as I can, but this will be unpleasant.”

Enrique used two of his fingers to lift her chin until she was making direct eye contact with him. “Relax, Leighann. None of this is your fault. I know you are doing the best you can, and I thank you. Come here,” He pulled her between his legs and held her against his chest, rubbing her back comfortingly. He felt the tension that had been slowly pulling her shoulders tighter begin to release. After a few moments in his embrace, she stepped back and took a few more deep breaths.

“Curtis is all about breathing. Sometimes, I forget to hold them and wind up needing to take more. I was pretty well known on the slopes for my hyperventilating panic attacks,” she smiled shyly at this admission. “I can hear my brother saying, ‘Hold it, hold it. Now exhale. Again. Count to eight. It worked every time, but even after all these years, when I get stressed, I remember to breathe but not to hold. I don’t know why this is affecting me so much. The worst of the danger has passed.”

“It’s because you are an empathetic person, and you can feel other’s pain,” he said once again, holding her blue gaze.

“You can’t possibly know that about me,” she pulled back and glared at him. “I have certainly felt pain around you, but it has been in my backside, and you weren’t feeling it. Although I certainly wanted to kick you in yours and share the experience.” Her arms were crossed now, and she leaned against the small sink counter behind her.

“What can I say? I have insider information. Curtis thinks your empathy for others is one of your greatest qualities but also a significant weakness, as you don’t know how to turn it off or guard yourself from it. He is very worried about your emotional well-being when you are away from him for long periods of time. You moving to Florida nearly killed him. I can’t imagine what it took for him to take that job, wherever he is, while you are here in Colorado on vacation. Not spending this time with you must be challenging for both of you.”

“First of all, I thought you didn’t know I was his sister. Now you suddenly know all these private little facts about me?” She was glaring at him again, but he secretly liked it when she was a little riled up. “Secondly, I didn’t know I was going to take this vacation until I did it. We are at a place in our research where we wait and simply collect data. My team can do that without me. This was the perfect opportunity to see my family and hunt for donors to support my research. If I can get the financial support I need, the next year is going to look very different. When I told him I was at the airport on my way to Colorado, he was surprised and devastated. Like you, he wouldn’t cancel his contract with this group because his little sister was coming to town. It has been nice getting to spend time with my grandmother, though. Your turn, fess up.”

“I didn’t know you were his sister because he referred to you as Leigh. I assumed it was Lee with two e’s and never made the connection. He very rarely calls you Leighann. You are always Angel or Kiddo when he talks about you. Or, he just calls yousister. Replaying the conversation in my head, I can’t help but wonder if he purposefully misled me.”

“Hm, I wonder why he would have felt he needed to do that. Maybe because you are a sexist jerk who has issues with women and won’t take directions from them?” Her statement dripped with sarcasm, but she was smiling nonetheless.

“Touche. I do struggle with women and have never taken kindly to receiving orders from anyone, much less females. As for being a jerk, I apologize for that. I was trying to push you away; it’s my default setting. If I make women miserable, then they are less likely to get attached and cause me grief. I should have handled the situation differently. I just… didn’t. I’m sorry for being a pain in the butt when you were clearly doing me a favor. In my mind paying a million bucks for the ten days gave me the right to treat you however I wanted. That was wrong. Please forgive me.”

Leighann had dropped her eyes during his uncomfortable revelation about women, trying to reason out what his life must be like if that was his opinion of the fairer sex. He bent lower, trying to catch her gaze, a moan escaping from his lips at the compression of his ribs.

Leigh instantly sprung into action, “We need to get you off this table and into a more comfortable position. Let me finish, and we can move this closer to the fire; it is chilly over here.

She reached up and started running her fingers gently over his scalp, searching for any more bumps or lacerations. He moanedagain, and she instantly stopped her probing. “Did I hurt you?” she asked concerned.

“No, my head has been pounding for hours, and that actually feels really good. At the risk of sounding inappropriate, I wouldn’t mind if you continued that scalp massage for hours.” His voice sounded a little dreamy, and she worried that his concussion had moved into the disorientation stage.

“Your head feels fine. I will consider a scalp massage later. Now, um, I need you to um… Lift your shirt, please.”

“Ooh lah lah, you want to see what I’m packing huh? What’s your guess, six, eight, or ten pack?”

Leigh’s face flamed at his jesting, “If my brother were here, he would knock you right off this table. Don’t you dare get fresh with me! To answer your question, my guess is that it is a bird chest. My brother has at least ten-pack abs, not that I have bothered counting. That would be weird. You don’t strike me as being in even a fraction of the kind of shape that he is in. You’re a birdbrain who hates women. You have tiny little chicken legs… bird chest fits the image.”

“Chicken legs! You think I have chicken legs?” Insulted, Enrique lifted a leg off the table to analyze it in the snug-fitting thermals. “Really? No one has ever said that before.”

“Compared to the logs for thighs my brother has, yours are definitely the size of chicken bones,” Leigh insisted, directing her gaze to his legs and looking unimpressed.

“You wound me! No one can compare to your brother. He’s a giant. Although my brothers Gabe and Anthony could givehim a run for his money. I’m a mere human. I don’t possess the blood of Greek gods that obviously run through the veins of your brother and mine. Please, fair lady, do not compare me to men such as these but to the other mortals that roam the Earth beside me. Look once more, do you persist in your opinion that my legs resemble the skinny legs of fowl destined for the dinner table?”

Unable to keep a straight face any longer at the ridiculousness of the conversation, Leighann burst into laughter. It wasn’t the twittering fake laugh of a woman putting on a show of good humor, but the laughter that wells up from the belly of someone who has truly had their funny bone tickled and cannot stop the pleasure from overflowing.

Enrique joined her and grabbed his side with a moan as pain shot through him from his injured ribs. “Please have mercy on me. Don’t make me laugh,” he begged, trying to stop the chuckles that were still coming from the hilariousness of their conversation.

“Stop being silly, and I will stop laughing. Lift your shirt so we can get this over with. I will try not to poke you too hard as retribution for getting fresh with me earlier.” Leigh stepped closer, ready to examine his ribs as soon as the fabric no longer obstructed her view.

Her instant sharp inhale of breath told him it looked as bad as it felt. His eyes flew to hers, and he could see tears welling up on her lids.

“Breathe, Leighann,” he commanded softly, seeing her composure start to slip as she imagined his pain. “It’s not as bad as it looks, I promise.” He started to lower his shirt, but she put her hand out.

“No, wait. I need to see the back. It needs to be wrapped.” A sob escaped her lips, and she covered her mouth with her hands to hold it in, looking sorrowfully into his eyes.

“Come here,” he spread his legs again and took her into his arms, smoothing her hair and holding her close to his chest. He could feel her tears soaking through the front of his shirt. She was trying to be brave and cried silently, but her tears revealed the pain in her heart. “This isn’t your fault. It was my own stupidity and pride that brought us here, remember. I’m alive by the grace of God. If He allowed me to get a little banged up on the way down, it was His way of banging it into my thick head that I needed to change. No pain, no gain, right? I’m okay. I promise. It hurts, but not enough for your tears. Please don’t cry over me. Trust me, I’m not worth it.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

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