Page 26 of Roads Behind Us
“Can you get your underwear off by yourself, or do you need me to do it?”
“I think I can get ’em.”
“I would tell you just to keep them on, but your ass is soaked in paint. Sit on the toilet, and when you get them off, use those strong arms and just slide over to the tub and sink in. I’ll clean up later.” She twisted and bent to shut off the tub faucet. “I’m gonna go find a big cup so I can wash your hair.”
“Thanks.” Technically, I could wash myself. My arms weren’t broken, but if she wanted to run her fingers through my hair, I wasn’t about to stop her.
She turned back to me before she walked out the bathroom door. “I put some of your body wash in the bath water.” Swirling her hand in a circle over the deep vee between her legs, she said, “You know, so you can cover all your bits and baubles with bubbles.”
A snort escaped my mouth when I saw the awkwardness all over her face. What was the big deal? She’d already seen my bits and baubles.
Bea gasped softly, watching my mouth as I laughed, and then slowly raised her eyes up to mine. She whispered, “Be right back,” and she closed the door with a quiet click behind her.
Strong arms? I flexed my biceps and looked down at them. I mean, I supposed they were strong. I’d worked on a ranch my whole life, but why was Bea noticing my arms?
Oh, well duh, probably ’cause I’d stripped in front of her twice now.
Fuck. Could this get any worse?
Athena wasn’t due home for hours. She had that drama-club thing after school, and then Abey called and said she’d have time to take Athena for new riding boots, so she’d pick her up after drama club. There was little danger of my kid walking in on this disaster in the middle of the day, but just what the hell did I think I was doing?
Brand would probably disown me if he knew I was about to be completely naked with his employee. Again. And she was important to him. As far as I knew, Brand and Bea had never had a thing for each other, but they were close friends. He relied on her a lot concerning Lee Construction. Besides me and Abey, there wasn’t anyone my brother trusted more.
After nearly falling onto the toilet seat, I’d almost decided to dig through the bathroom drawer to root around for a pair of scissors, but I finally managed to get my boxers off, and I transferred myself into the bath. Going commando was getting more appealing by the day.
The urge to lean back and relax in the warm water was there, but it was only four or five inches deep. I raised my leg and rested my foot on the edge of the tub as I released the tension in my shoulders and pressed them back against the cold ceramic. More goosechills broke out over my neck and chest. My nipples hardened to two cold, tiny points of pain, and then Bea walked in, holding an empty thirty-two-ounce soda cup from the Stop and Go in town.
She’d found an apron in my kitchen covered in pink flamingos, though, I’d completely forgotten we even owned one, and when she saw me and my bare chest on display for her, she did the lip roll again, then pulled the apron’s strings so tight, I worried they might cut off circulation to the lower part of her body. She tied them and then sat carefully on the closed toilet lid.
My bits and baubles were properly covered in bubbles, but I had an inkling that wouldn’t last very long.
“Um, can you sit up?” she asked quietly. “I need to rinse your hair. You’re gettin’ paint all over the wall.”
“Yeah,” I said, and I used my core to propel me forward.
The laughter and teasing had gone from Bea’s voice. “Fill this up.”
She shoved the cup into my hand, then reached to turn the faucet back on, and I leaned forward and held the cup underneath the flow till it was full.
“Here.” Handing the cup back to her, I risked a glance at her face. She blinked and moved her eyes to my hair. I closed mine but felt the warm rush of water when she tipped the cup over my head.
“I’m sorry I’ve put you in this position,” I said.
It was emasculating, being bathed by a woman I barely knew. But the situation made me realize again that I had a bad habit of not accepting help when it was offered. As the oldest sibling in a big family, responsibility had always fallen to me, so maybe I’d internalized that and equated help to failure.
And then there was Candy. She’d always expected me to take charge, so maybe that had helped to fuel my need to control everything myself. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time, but now I remembered arguments Candy and I’d had, and how I’d wanted her to weigh in on decisions we needed to make, but she rarely did. “You’re the head of this family,” she used to say. “You know what’s best for us.”
I wished I’d realized back then what a load of bull that was.
“What position?” Bea asked.
“You know, the whole ‘bathtime for a grown man’ thing. You didn’t come here to take care of your boss’s brother, but thank you for doin’ it anyway.”
“No. I didn’t. But it’s fine.”
“It’s really not.”
“I said it’s fine, so it’s fine. Quit whinin’.” One of her eyebrows bowed in half, and she narrowed her eyes. “If I didn’t wanna help you and your sweet little ass, I wouldn’t. I’d call Abey or Devo or somebody.”
