12. Lachlan
Lachlan
It was torture listening to her cry. To know I couldn’t go in there and comfort her. I should be calling Birdie. She’d want to know what Lainey had been through. That she was here, and she was hurt, and she was still hurting.
My back rested against the wall as I slid down, placing all of my weight on my strong leg.
As soon as my cane was propped up next to me, leaning on the door trim, I let my head fall into my hands.
I couldn’t betray Lainey like that. It was her story to tell.
Lord knows I’ve held in some dark shit from my accident, and even after, that I didn’t want anyone else to know.
I’d been lost in my spiral when Lainey called out to me. I hadn’t heard her crying for at least a few minutes, but that didn’t mean everything was okay.
“Lach?” There was my name again. Quiet. Not much more than a whisper. I turned hard and pressed my ear against the door.
“Yeah?”
“Oh. Don’t come in. I just…I just wanted to see if you were still there.”
“I’m still here, Trouble. Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. Remember? I can’t get off the porch.”
I’d meant for it to make her smile, knowing she’d been with me when I first did break free. But there was only silence between us for a second before I heard her scoff. “Tell that to the guy who drove into town to rescue me today.”
Huh.
The drain pulled, and I heard water begin to rush through the pipes. A few minutes later, light spilled out over me as Lainey opened the bathroom door. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, and as I pushed up off the floor, I couldn’t help but look her over.
Shit. She looked good in my clothes—really good.
They fit her almost perfectly, after a few adjustments.
The sweatpants were rolled a couple of times, the waistband sitting thick under her belly and over her hips.
My shirt was pulled tight across her bump and breasts, but it covered her up completely.
Lainey cleared her throat. “I hope you don’t mind, I used your brush to try and get some of the tangles out before I put my hair up.”
“Don’t mind at all. How about we go sit and I’ll take a look at your leg?”
“It’s really fine—”
“I’m still gonna look at it.”
She held up her hand, and it was then I noticed the other one was carrying the empty plate and glass. “I just need to set these in the sink.”
I nodded, watching her slip by me into the kitchen. I waited as she turned.
“Uh, should I sit at the table?”
“I put the first aid kit in the living room. I figured we’d sit in there…and talk.”
Lainey’s eyes went wide, but she nodded, her shoulders sinking as she walked in front of me.
She sat at the far corner of the couch, probably not expecting me to sit down on the middle cushion beside her.
“Leg up here, please.” I reached over to the coffee table and placed the first aid kit open next to my hip.
“Lach, I…”
“I’d do it from the floor, but my leg is bothering me. Putting yours up on my lap is the easiest option.”
“Oh.” Lainey twisted in the seat, her back pressing against the arm rest a little as she lifted her leg up. I grasped her ankle through the sweatpants, pulling her leg a little to settle it where it needed to be across my legs.
“Is this okay?” I asked, watching as she brought her hand up to rub the top of her belly.
“It’s fine.”
I slowly rolled up the fabric until it nearly reached her knee. The cut was thin, but long, and I couldn’t tell if the redness was from the initial irritation or maybe something more sinister already setting in.
“It doesn’t look deep enough to scar,” I said, finally settling my hand on her skin.
Lainey stilled beneath my touch, and I tried my hardest to not read into the way her breath hitched.
“I’m still going to put some antibiotic ointment on it and bandage it, though.
And you need to tell me if it starts hurting or feels hot in the next day or two. ”
“Sure thing, Florence.”
I ignored the jab, or rather, the weird way it made my heart feel. Antibiotic ointment would be enough, I tried to convince my mind. She hadn’t been in more pain since she got here, and I was taking care of her leg, which I had plenty of experience in. It was going to be okay. If she’d just let me—
“I think I should call Birdie,” I blurted out.
“No!” Her leg jerked back, like she planned to pull it off my lap and run, so I settled my hand over her ankle and applied pressure. Not enough to hold her there if she really wanted to go, but enough to let her know I hadn’t meant to spook her.
“She’s a midwife, and I’m just a washed up mechanic.”
Lainey was hurt. I could make her pain better.
At least, the pain from her cut. I had no idea what the hell we would do if the baby decided to come.
No. I did—I’d call Birdie, no matter what.
And we’d get Lainey to the hospital. An ambulance would get her to the hospital… I’d get her to the hospital.
My hands shook as I ripped open the packaging of the alcohol wipe.
I’d have to go inside. The hospital. There would be nurses and doctors and machines that made that awful beeping sound. And Lainey would be in pain. Pain that I couldn’t help her with…just like my leg.
Fuck! I hadn’t had time to think about this situation.
About how I would handle this for her. There were so many things I couldn’t control, and that thought, that never-ending list of things that could go wrong that I would have no idea how to help with, was moving from my shaking hands.
It was like a black cloud of smoke so thick, it strangled the life from my lungs.
“Hey.” Lainey leaned over, her warm, soft hands wrapping around my arm. “I can call Birdie. I mean, I probably should call her, anyway. I know it’s the middle of the night, but I could drive up—” She hissed as I ran the wipe over her wound. “God, that stings.”
“Better stinging now than an infection later. My second surgery almost cost me my leg again when my incision became infected. It was nasty. I don’t want that to happen to you.”
She sat back, her eyes closing as her hand ran over her belly. She hadn’t winced since the porch, but that didn’t mean anything. My eyes lingered on her extended stomach, trying to see if there were any outward signs of contractions. Her belly began to shake, and my eyes jumped to her face.
Lainey was laughing. “He’s not going to explode out of there.”
“Could have fooled me with the way you doubled over out there. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I don’t know what that was.” Her face fell. “I…I think he’s okay. I just over did it trying to get to the porch as fast as I could.”
“Maybe we should call your doctor? They might want you to go in.”
Lainey shook her head. “It’s not safe to be driving in the storm. Greg’s listed on my file, and I…it’s just not a good idea. I don’t have my phone, but if it happens again, you can call her. If it doesn’t…” Lainey’s lip went between her teeth as her eyes dropped away from my face.
“What is it?”
“I was hoping maybe me being here could just stay between us for tonight. I don’t know what I’m doing here, what I was thinking, other than I couldn’t stay with Greg for another minute. I mean, I don’t even know if your offer from before is still—”
“Of course it is. You can stay here. Tonight. Tomorrow. Until you figure out your next step. Until you have the baby.” Jesus.
What the fuck was I saying? “I have the room, and I’ve gotten too damn addicted to that mac and cheese you make.
I won’t survive without it. And I have to know the secret ingredient. ”
“If that’s the cost of staying, then I better head back out to my car.”
My heart thumped painfully in my chest. “Trouble—”
Then I noticed the smile growing across her face.
“I’m kidding. It’s just using a dash of sweetened condensed milk.
Like just a tablespoon or two depending on the batch size I’m making.
I’m surprised your mom doesn’t make it that way.
Her’s is always so gooey at the diner. ‘Course, I use a little chipotle powder in my base. I think the smokey flavor adds something extra to it.”
“Huh. Alright. Well, now you can stay, and I could try making it for you.”
Her eyes went wide. “Nice try. I’ve heard your own confessions about burning water.”
It was my turn to smile. I could hold my own in the kitchen—Ma certainly saw to that with all her kids. But if Lainey wanted to cook, and it made her feel relaxed here, I wouldn’t say no to that.
We fell into a comfortable silence as I slathered on the ointment and applied the bandage to her skin. After I rolled the fabric of my sweatpants back down, I lowered her leg off my lap and grabbed the blanket I had draped over the back of the couch.
“You tuck me in and I’m going to fall asleep,” she yawned.
“No sleeping on the couch. It’ll kill your back, trust me.
Hayes stays over a lot when he’s not on shift, and he bitched about the couch so much I put a bed in the spare room just so he’d stop complaining.
That bed now has your name on it. Just figured the AC might make your feet cold while we talk. ”
“Thank you.”
I cleared my throat. “Look, I don’t want to push, but…do you want to talk about what happened?”
Her eyes glazed over and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “I deserved what happened.”
The tears lining Lainey’s eyes made my stomach cramp. Her left cheekbone was still swollen and red, and she reached up to run her fingers along it, looking lost to the memory of how she’d been hurt earlier that night.
One tear fell, and then another, but she didn’t break. Shit. I didn’t have tissues out in the living room, and if she was crying, I needed to make sure she had more to drink.
“Just sit and breathe for a minute until I come back from putting away the first aid kit. That’s a good thing to do when you’re pregnant, isn’t it?”
Her fingers swiped under her eyes as she looked at me. “I think it’s a general rule for anyone who’s alive…”
Smart ass. I’d never been more thankful in my life to hear someone sass me.
By the time I’d grabbed tissues from the bathroom, frozen veggies and a towel from my kitchen, then made my way back, Lainey had composed herself. She looked exhausted, and I didn’t want to push, but something in my gut was telling me to.
“Do you want to head upstairs?” I asked.
“Maybe in a minute. Could I have one of those tissues?”
My ass hit the sofa, this time giving a little more distance between us, and passed her the box.
“Thank you,” she said before blowing her nose.
“Don’t mention it.”