Page 70 of Charlie and Her Sweet Escape
“Can you hold the gauze here?” I asked. I shrugged off my coat and soaking wet shirt, then shucked off my shoes and pants, not wanting to drip filthy water onto her. Then I grabbed our bucket of washing water and scrubbed my hands and arms clean. The last thing I needed was to introduce bacteria to her cut and cause an infection.
“Don’t feel too bad for him,” I said as I returned to her side. “I ordered one of those huge dog beds online for him and put it right next to my bed.”
“You did?” She blinked at me, and I assessed her pupils. Still dilated.
“And a cozy blanket. And a little doggy cuddle toy. He’s living the life of luxury. In his own bed.”
I slipped my fingers under Charlie’s cold ones and eased the gauze up from her silky skin. The blood was still coming out in a trickle, and the area around it was looking darker. She hissed in pain when I helped her turn onto her side so I could get a better look at the gash.
“So finally,” I continued, “I looked in my closet a third time, more carefully. And I found him fast asleep, not a care in the world, inside one of my shoes. Curled up like a little baby shrimp. He has a whole luxury bed, and he chose to sleep in my shoe.”
I ran the pads of my fingers along the ridges of her ribs, feeling for anything jutting or out of place. Goose bumps erupted along her skin, and Charlie shivered. I glanced up to find her watching me. “Thank you.” I didn’t know if she meant for helping her here, or for taking care of Hansel.
I swallowed hard and continued with my assessment. Her skin was smooth against my touch.Focus on feeling her for injury, not on how this feels.It was a good, productive command, but one that was hard to follow, as I slid my fingers along the edge of her rib cage. I could see her heart beating against her chest, and her breathing grew rapid.
I did the same along her other side, making sure to feel along every ridge of her rib cage until it met in the middle at her sternum.
“Your ribs aren’t noticeably broken,” I said, my voice a little husky. “Which doesn’t mean they aren’t fractured.”
“I know,” she said too breathlessly for my sanity.
Our gazes met, and I exhaled slowly before forcing my attention to her injury. “I’m going to clean this out and get it bandaged.”
“Alright.”
I got our freshly boiled water from dinner and poured some over a fresh package of gauze. I dabbed at the jagged cut. She must have landed on a branch or something that stabbed into her. It probably needed stitches, something I was definitely not equipped to administer.
I riffled through the first aid kit for antiseptic. “This is probably going to sting.” I sprayed her cut, and she hissed, her eyes watering as I met her gaze, but she didn’t move. Charlie trusted me, and I wanted to do everything I could to be worthy of that gift. I found a butterfly bandage and put it on next, before covering it in fresh gauze, and taping it on with the medical tape.
“Do you want me to help you take your pants and shoes off?” I asked. It was a bad idea for me to help her undress. A really,reallybad idea. If there was any time I needed to call her buddy, scout, or pal, now was it.
But she couldn’t undress herself without pulling at her new injury. I attempted to put on mysister’s best friendblinders I’dsomehow managed to wear from the moment I met her until our wedding night. I tugged off her shoes, and then we stripped her soaking wet pants off next, leaving her only in her gray underwear.Focus on her face.
Her legs were chilled and shaking. If only we wereanywherebut out here, in the cold. But if we weren’t out here, we wouldn’t be together. And I was having a hard time imagining a life without Charlie in it. It was dangerous, and I needed to keep focused on the real reason we were here.
I brought the sleeping bag closer to the fire and unzipped it all the way. “Get inside.” I changed into my long johns, then climbed in behind her and zipped us up.
I pulled her icy cold, shivering body into mine. I woke up with us tangled in each other almost every morning, but I was usually half-asleep then. Now, I was fully awake and aware of every place our bodies touched.
“Bennett? You’re really intelligent,” she said through chattering teeth. “Getting a high school degree isn’t a measure of that.”
“We don’t have to talk about this.” I’d hoped she’d forget about our earlier conversation.
“I just wanted you to know. That’s how I feel.”
I bit my cheeks to keep from getting emotional. Charlie was sincere, like always. One by one, she was knocking down the barriers I’d erected to keep myself from falling in love with her.
“We still have to find the last plant,” she said after another long silence where I hoped she’d fallen asleep.
“No.” We were done with that challenge. I couldn’t even say where the pail had landed in my race to make sure she was okay.
“But the punishment.” She took a shuddering, emotional breath.
“We have to go home tomorrow. You need real medical attention.” I spoke softly, knowing that me saying this was going to kill her.
“No.” She tried to sit up, but we were too tight in the sleeping bag, and she eased back down. “We can’t. I’m fine. I swear.”
“We’ll have to see in the morning,” I said, noncommittally. No money was worth getting permanently injured.
