Page 97 of Sheltering You

He chuckled. “She’s a nightmare. It was a joke. She’s nothing like you.”

“Hmm. We will see.” She tried a joking tone as well. “Hold still.” She tipped the bottle and squeezed liquid over the wound.

He sucked air through his teeth, his muscles tightening.

As if her own body felt the pain, her stomach flopped. “It is to clean,” she said. “I am sorry for the pain. Michael said gunshots infect easily.”

“Yup.” The word was clipped. “It’s fine.”

She capped the bottle and set it on the table.

Behind her, the bed shifted. Rabie climbing in.

She pressed the gauze to the wound, then taped it snug. “I am finished.”

Derrick eased onto his back and sat up. “Let’s do that again soon.”

“We must clean it at least twice a day.”

He groaned. “I was being sarcastic.”

Rabie laughed.

Derrick leaned forward. “You think that’s funny?” He was smiling.

“I thought you would cry like a girl.”

“Only manly crying for me.”

“Ha. No such thing.”

Jasmine gathered all the first-aid supplies and returned them to the plastic bag. “You two are like little boys. And it is time for all the little boys to go to sleep.”

“Aw, do we have to?” The whine came from Derrick, the silly man.

She reached to flick off the light between the beds, but he stopped her with an upraised hand and leaned past her to face Rabie again.

“Hey, son?”

“What?” Rabie sounded annoyed again,

“I had no choice about your backpack, so I’m not going to apologize for that. I am sorry I had to do it, though. And I’m sorry I wasn’t more patient. Will you forgive me?”

Rabie’s eyes widened, then narrowed as if he were trying to figure Derrick out.

Derrick’s expression held nothing but sincere regret.

After a few beats, Rabie nestled under the covers. “I guess.” The words were faint, but it was something.

“Thank you, son.” Derrick nodded at the lamp, letting out a very loud, very put-upon sigh. “I guess if you say, we gotta go to sleep.”

She flicked the light off, then leaned down and kissed Derrick on the forehead like she might a child.

But he wasn’t a child, and she should not have done that.

In the glow coming from the bathroom, she watched his eyebrows hike. He caught her hand and held on, gazing at her in that way he had, his expression filled with tenderness. “You were amazing tonight.”

“You saved me, Derrick. I owe you everything.”