Page 36 of Forced Proximity
But they didn’t keep my attention.
No, what held it was the massive gash on one of their arms and the angry look on all of their faces.
Oh, and the destroyed outside world that’d taken even more damage after the sun had gone down and the wind had hit.
Finnian was sure that we didn’t get hit by another tornado, though. Just damaging wind.
We wouldn’t know for sure until we got back to civilization.
“Here,” one of the men said as he got off his four-wheeler and started walking toward us, a cooler of something in his hand. “I brought breast milk and some formula. We weren’t sure which to get you.”
“Thanks, Audric.” Finnian walked forward to take it. “Kid’s not havin’ any powdered milk. We tried, but he definitely didn’t like it. I’m guessing it was breast milk. Formula and powdered milk can’t be all that different, right?”
Audric.
The man who’d lost his wife the same day that Finnian had lost his son.
The one with the baby—though she couldn’t be much of a baby anymore. She was likely a toddler now. School age almost.
“You’re the computer genius.” Another man walked toward me and stared down at the baby in my arms. “Got a set of lungs.”
“Yeah,” I said, not thinking when I shoved the kid at him. “Can you take him?”
He blinked and took the baby, but he did it so expertly that I knew that he had kids of his own.
He didn’t fight me on taking the kid, and instead said, “Finnian, get me set up. I’ll feed him.”
I was more than happy to let them take the reins.
I did, however, walk back into the house for the laundry room where I’d spied the first aid kit.
I caught it up and walked back outside to hear Finnian saying, “…Dru. She was seated next to me on the plane.”
They all looked up to me when I came back out.
I set the pack on the railing and pointed at the scary one with the gash on his arm. “Come here. Let me clean that up.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the scary one said instead of arguing.
I didn’t make a big deal of all the burn scars on his arms, face, and neck—all the available skin I could see—but I did note that they were old. Healed as best as they ever would be.
“Jasper, we’ll leave you here. Gotta go clear more of that road.”
Jasper, obviously the one that I was working on, jerked his chin up. “Ten-four.”
I fixed him up in complete silence while the rest of the men went to help clean up the area so we could get out easier.
I did notice that they’d given a bag to Finnian—they called him Apollo, though—and ordered him to get changed.
He came back out long moments later in worn-out jeans, a t-shirt, and work boots.
They all appeared to be his, too, because they fit him like a glove.
I tried not to let my drool dribble down my chin as I watched him walk away, but it was a close thing.
“Known each other long?”
I looked into the eyes of Jasper, likely the scariest man that was there of the four that’d arrived, and said, “All of about twelve hours or so. We met on the plane. I got upgraded to first class.” I didn’t want to ask what I had to next, but I did anyway. “Do you know anything about the plane crash? If anyone else survived?”
