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I adjusted the cloth and tried to keep my mind on what I was doing.

Saturday, he had crouched in front of me and cleaned mud off my knees. He had been so careful with the scrapes that it had hurt worse than if he’d treated me briskly and been done.

Now he was sitting still while I took care of him.

With the others, I would have done this without thinking. Made them sit. Told them to stop squirming.

With Chief, I kept waiting for the moment he would pull away.

A voice carried from the hall.

I glanced toward the narrow window in the door. Through it I could see part of the walkway and the hard white glare beyond the shade.

“Piper.”

I looked down.

Chief had lowered the pack from his cheek.

“Look at me a second,” he said.

“I was just looking outside.”

“I know.”

He waited anyway.

I gave him my eyes.

His went over my face with that awful concentration I was starting to recognize. I hadn’t gone anywhere. I hadn’t even stopped hearing the room.

He still needed to check.

I let him.

“Put that back on your cheek,” I told him.

He did, without a word.

I lifted the cloth to his mouth again.

Sadie looked up from her book.

“Look at you taking orders, Chief,” she said. “Has anybody notified your father?” She went back to reading, apparently satisfied.

He ignored her completely.

The nurse brought me a little tube of salve and a cotton swab. I set them on the desk while we gave the ice another minute.

Chief’s gaze dropped to my hand.

The scrape across my palm was almost closed. I had forgotten it existed until he looked.

“It’s better,” I told him.

He nodded, but kept looking at it.

“You’re supposed to be letting me worry about you right now.”