Page 59 of A Soft Kiss in Summer
“What does what mean?”
“The sheriff saying nothing was filed.Does that mean we’re not legally married?Or just that the paperwork hasn’t been filed yet?”
He blew out a breath and wiped his hand over his face.“I have no idea.”
She stared at him a few seconds before turning and walking down the sidewalk toward the small newspaper office in town.He stood by the door when she went in and placed the ad for a new doctor in Silver Falls.Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long to find a replacement for Doc Tibbens.Lord knew the man wasn’t able to do much with his health getting worse by the day.
They headed toward the hotel when she was finished.He followed her without another word and tried to distract himself from the swish of her hips by wondering what she was thinking.She hadn’t said much of anything after their brief conversation about the marriage license and the missing reverend.
He shut their hotel room door, giving it a hard push when the bottom corner tried to catch.Violet’s audible gasp made him turn.“What?”
“Your back.”Her eyes were wide, her mouth gaped open.She was hurrying across the room before what she said fully registered.When she touched his back, he winced.
“Your shirt is ripped and there’s blood.”
He tried looking over his shoulder but couldn’t see much.He did remember something happening to his back, but hadn’t thought much about it.He’d been crouched down near the wall when it happened.“I think it was a nail.I was next to one of the stores and felt something scrape across my back.”
Violet was pulling at his shirt, but stopped to look up at him.“Take your shirt off.”
He raised an eyebrow at her, but the look on her face said she wasn’t taking no for an answer.He did as she asked and took the shirt off, her eyes widening when she got a good look at his back.
“Josiah,” she screeched.“This isn’t a scratch from a nail!You’ve been shot!”
“What?”
Violet ran a finger across his back from one side to the other, just underneath where his flesh was torn.“The skin is open all the way across your back, Josiah.”
“Huh.It must have been a wild shot,” he said.“I felt the sting but didn’t think it was a bullet.I just assumed it was a nail or splinter from the building I was leaning against.”
Her heart was racing as she looked at the bloody trail across his back.It had to have hurt worse than a nail scratch or a splinter, but she knew how adrenaline worked.It could numb you from almost any type of pain.“Well, that's no nail or splinter scratch.It's too wide and there’s too much blood.You were grazed by a bullet.”
She turned and walked across the room to the small dressing cabinet.There wasn’t much water left in the pitcher, but poured what remained into the bowl before grabbing one of the washcloths the hotel provided.Meeting his gaze, she motioned to one of the chairs at the table by the window.“Come sit down and let me clean it for you.”
He strolled across the room in that loose-hipped way he walked and the clomp of his boots hitting the wooden floor wasn’t enough to distract her from the fact he’d been shot.In a drunken bar brawl, more or less, and a few inches over, and that bullet would have done major damage.As it was, there was only a deep scratch that would heal with time.
He flipped one of the chairs around when he reached the table and straddled the seat, draping his arms over the high back.He stared out the window, watching the commotion going on down in the street, and she glanced at the people still lingering on the sidewalks for a moment before focusing on his back and how deadly the wound could have been.
She wet her washcloth and wiped away the blood under the cut.Her heart thumped hard when she realized how close she came to losing him.“Do you realize, had that bullet moved several inches deeper, it would have gone clean through you, or hit a major organ, and not just grazed your back?I would be a widow and none the wiser while I hid in the back room of some random store waiting for you to come get me.”
He turned his head in her direction but didn’t say anything.She re-wet the washcloth and dabbed at the cut again.It only took a few minutes to clean the blood away, but she had nothing to put on the wound or any sort of bandages.
She retrieved his discarded shirt and grabbed the edges of the rip the bullet made and tore the fabric in half.It was a horrible bandage, seeing as the material wasn’t even clean, but it would have to do for now.
Wrapping it around him, she tied it as best she could then stood back to look at it.“That has to be the sorriest bandage I’ve ever seen.”
He shifted in his chair and tugged on it.“As long as it work, it's perfect.”
She stared at the makeshift bandage, the entire day playing again inside her head and dread settled in her stomach like a rock.“You could have died today, Josiah.”
“I could die on any number of days, Violet.”
She lifted her eyes to his and nodded.“So could I.Married or not.”
The entire day played inside her mind's eye as she stood there staring at him.That bullet grazing his back could have been so much worse than what it was, and her life would have been altered forever.
The day had started so simply.Unburden him from his obligation by finding the preacher and going on with their lives, but it had taken a turn neither of them could have foreseen.
She leaned one hip against the table and crossed her arms under her breasts, staring out the window toward the mercantile.She could see people going in and out of the store and it was a distraction from the fact she could have lost Josiah forever.
