“Don’t,” Hank said to the back of my head.
Shit.
I stopped pul ing away but my body was tense.
“How’d you get in here?” I whispered.
“Tex let me in.”
I closed my eyes.
Betrayed by my own flesh and blood.
“Wel , he’s certainly not invited to my next birthday party,” I said.
Silence.
“I’m okay, Hank. Real y. You can go,” I told him, or more like, lied to him.
More silence and he didn’t move.
“Actual y, I’d rather that you went. I’m feeling the need to be alone.”
“That’s too bad, ‘cause I’m not feelin’ that same need.” Jeez, he was stubborn.
“If memory serves, I was the one who was just abducted.
I’m not sure your feelings count about now,” I told him, sounding so uppity I was borderline bitchy.
His body got as tense as mine, I felt it like a warning.
Then, his mouth came to my ear. “I feel the wraps,” he said, his hand running gently along my ribs. “And I know the way Vance found you. I’m sorry you went through that, Sunshine.”
I didn’t answer and waited. I expected he wasn’t done.
I wasn’t wrong.
“But, I came home from a run the morning after the best date I’d ever had, a date with a girl who talked about pigs wearing toupees, who could quote Springsteen lyrics, who whispered to horses and who grew up in Indiana and was scared of cornfields. I came home thinkin’ that I was gonna make love to that girl, shower with her, get her breakfast, get her to trust me and final y, start to get to know her better.
Instead, I found my house a disaster, what I could only assume was her blood on the wal in my bedroom and she was gone.”
Dear God. How’d my blood get on the wal ?
He must have been out of his mind. Uncle Tex must have been out of his mind.
I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath.
“Was that your blood?” he asked.
I let out my breath. “Wel , I tried, but unfortunately, I was the only one who ended up bleeding.”
I should have stayed silent or, possibly, I shouldn’t have been flippant. For one reason or the other, the air in the room changed so much I found it hard to breathe and it had nothing to do with his arm tightening around my ribs.
“Hank, my ribs,” I whispered.
Instantly, his arm loosened and his mouth went away from my ear. I waited while he got control. The air changed back to normal and he spoke again.
“I guess I’m sayin’ that my feelings do count about now,” he finished.