Chapter 4
Thorne I woke up the next day with a warm body lying on my chest. It felt nice. When was the last time I’d woken up with someone in my arms?
My eyes popped open, and I looked down to see a head with a blonde braid cuddled up to me.
I held my breath and took stock of where all my limbs were.
My legs weren’t wrapped around her. Check.
My arms, however, were. One of my arms was under her torso; my hand held her lower back.
My other hand rested on her arm, which was wrapped around my torso.
My brain went into overdrive trying to remember my location.
Lissa’s. I’m at Lissa’s. Lissa is lying on top of me.
I spent the next few minutes slowly rolling her off me, silently praying she wouldn’t wake up.
The next few days started the same, with me untangling us from each other.
Lissa said nothing, so I followed suit. It wasn’t a hardship waking up with a beautiful woman in my arms, even if I annoyed her during waking hours.
Outside of the waking-up situation, the first few days passed rather quickly. I rarely heard her strong Chicago accent, which I counted as a win. I almost forgot that she didn’t always replace the ‘th’ with a ‘d’ in words like ‘the,’ ‘that,’ and ‘there.’
The way we settled into a silent rhythm surprised me. I honestly thought I’d need to be more self-conscious of my actions. Maybe living together would finally give us a chance to smooth out our professional relationship.
Thorne Lissa walked into the apartment after her first day back at work. I couldn’t be happier. I was bored and fidgety. I tried to will my bones to heal every thirty minutes. Worse yet, I couldn’t sleep past 7 a.m. I honestly thought I’d sleep more. But finally, Lissa walked in at 8:30 a.m.
The doctor released her for full duty two days ago, and she’d danced around the apartment since. She tried to be subtle, but I knew dancing when I saw it.
Now she looked withdrawn. She walked in slowly and dropped her bag at the front door.
“Welcome back,” I said with a wave from the couch. Lissa looked like she was moving in slow motion.
She glanced at me and continued to the kitchen without a word.
“Busy shift?” I asked. With such a small apartment, I knew she could hear me. That and I’m a bit loud.
She shuffled out of the kitchen with a glass of water and sat on the couch. “Three runs with barely enough time to reload the truck between each one.”
She downed the water and leaned back on the couch.
The usual sparkle in her eyes was missing.
After a busy shift, she usually couldn’t stop moving side to side with a little bebop move.
She’d look tired, but her eyes smiled. Lissa loved her job and everyone knew it. She looked like a shadow of that now.
Without another word, she pushed herself off the couch and meandered toward the bedroom.
I stood up and followed her as fast as my crutches could move me.
Stopping in the doorway, I saw her sitting on the bed with her back leaned against the headboard, eyes closed, with a pillow hugged to her chest.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked, crutching over to the bed. I sat down and mirrored her position.
The way she stared at me almost made me leave. Her face screamed at me to go. I stayed, like I always did.
“You sure?” I asked. “We’re partners. We’re supposed to help each other out.”
“At work. We’re supposed to help each other out at work.”
“Well, I bet this is about work. Promise I won’t tell.”
“Ugh.” She buried her head in her pillow, then looked back at me. Tears gathered in her eyes. She blinked and turned her head to stare at the closet door.
“On the first run, I started setting up the hoses.” She gripped the pillow harder. “Everything was normal. Textbook even. But I flinched every time I thought I saw something fall in my periphery.”
“It reminded you of the falling chimney?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “It’s not like I haven’t been injured on the job before, but I’ve never flinched at everything afterward.”
“But you pushed through it. How were the next two runs?”
“Better. I still flinched, but not as often. I keep wondering if I’d be able to do this job. I can’t keep taking my eyes off what I’m doing and risk blasting the water in the wrong direction.”
I scooted closer to her and put my arm around her shoulders. “It got better each time. Before you know it, it won’t bother you at all.”
“Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“I won’t.” I rubbed her arm as she lowered her head to my shoulder.
“Especially don’t tell anyone I leaned on you like this.”
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “Never. They wouldn’t believe me even if I told them.”
“What if I’m permanently broken?”
“You’re not.” I flicked her head. “If it gets worse, we’ll find someone for you to talk to. A professional.”
“The captain would love that.”
“He doesn’t have to know.”
She sat up and stared me down. “This. This right here. You’re a bad influence. If it started to affect the team, den he will need to know.”
I gasped. “I’m not a bad influence. A bad influence would tell you to smoke a bowl or drown in alcohol. You know what? We should do that anyway.”
She pushed me. “Get out. I’m gonna sleep. I had a long night.”
“My arm. You broke my arm,” I cried holding my arm where she pushed me.
“Shut up.” She pushed the sheet down and shimmied under the covers.
“Fine. I’ll go hobble my way to the living room with a broken ankle and arm.”
“If you wanna broken arm, I can give you a broken arm,” she said with the blanket pulled up to her chin and her eyes closed.
I swung my way out of the room on my crutches and closed the door. Just another day of figuring out what to do while immobile. Luckily, I was cleared for light duty and could go back to work next shift. Just forty-eight more hours to go.
Lissa The first week living with Thorne was better than I expected.
I even joined him on his daily walk around the block.
While it felt like I had a shadow and he was still annoying, his antics off the job didn’t bother me as much.
With nothing at stake, I found myself amused but refused to show it. He’d get a big head.
I kept my eye on him during his first week back.
He was stuck on administrative work like counting inventory, making order lists, answering phones, filing reports, scheduling training, and other mundane chores we all avoided.
He took advantage of the rolling chairs and made a game of it with the others, because of course he did.
I wouldn’t let him rope me into the game, even if he claimed it was part of his bonding plan.
“We’ll play teams, Lissa. I know you like to win.” He grinned up at me.
He wanted me to push him in the chair to see who could be pushed the furthest. I looked at the path he’d chosen. At the end was the large window that overlooked the bays where the trucks parked.
“And what happens when I push you through the window?”
He laughed. “That won’t happen.”
“I said when not if.” And walked away from his nonsense.
Now we walked back into my apartment, and he lounged on the couch. No overnight runs, so we slept at the station. And today was training day. I gathered up my gym bag and changed shoes.
“Wait,” Thorne said. “Where are you going?”
“Gym.”
“I want to go. You wouldn’t take me last time.” He stood up and hobbled over to grab his shoe.
“It’s not that kind of gym.”
He furrowed his brow. “What…kind of gym is it? Is it a sexy gym?”
“Huh?” I knew my eyes were wide as I stared at him. “What’s a sexy gym?”
He shrugged as he slipped on his shoe. “I don’t know, but it sounds fun. So, is it a boxing gym? I’m racking my brain over here for the different types of gyms.” He sat up straight. “Do you do gymnastics? Flips and shit?”
“It’d be a whole lot cooler if I could.” I stood up. “It’s a rock climbing gym. There isn’t much for you to do there. You should stay here.”
“No. I’m so bored here. I can only walk around the block so many times. Please take me with you.” He clutched his hands together, begging me.
“You were one of those kids that hugged your parents’ legs while you begged, weren’t you?”
“Yep.” He grinned, then switched back to a frown with puppy dog eyes.
I sighed. How was this grown man so cute? “Fine, but don’t distract me.”