A Long Way Back (Unfinished Business #2) - Barbara Elsborg Page 0,42
more of a hindrance. Keep one hand on the railing and the other on my shoulder. I’ll walk down backwards.”
Tay gave a sigh of relief when he was standing on the grass.
“Shift, Dog,” Ink called.
The dog opened his eyes and closed them again.
“I don’t think I can sit down,” Tay said. His legs were stiff.
“If I hold you under your arms from behind, you can just relax back into me. I won’t let you fall. Well, I will, but it will be controlled.”
“More touching?”
Ink gaped at him. “Aren’t you over that yet? Bloody hell, you’re hard work.”
Tay laughed and after a struggle, he managed to sit on the blanket.
“I’ll go get the things we need and put the swimming stuff in the machine. Take your clothes off while I’m gone.”
He waggled his eyebrows before he disappeared inside, and Tay gulped.
Chapter Seven
INK PICKED A BOOK FOR himself at random from the shelves in the main room. There was a shady-looking guy on the cover so he assumed it was a thriller. He grabbed bottles of water and the suntan lotion, plus a dental chew for Dog, and the game he’d bought from the charity shop. Another weapon in his arsenal. Everything went into the plastic bag he’d been given.
When he walked into Tay’s room to get his book, he hesitated. When would he get another chance to do this with no risk of Tay catching him? He checked Tay’s bedside cabinet, then started on his chest of drawers and found the bag of pills under his socks. There were maybe thirty or forty small white tablets in a Ziplock bag. Ink liberated a couple before he put the rest back, making sure the drawer didn’t look disturbed. He hid the pills in his guitar bag before going back outside.
“You’re still wearing clothes.” Ink gave a heavy sigh as he dropped down next to Tay.
“You didn’t seriously think I was going to be naked when you got back.”
“I hoped.”
“The garden’s overlooked.”
“So?”
Ink took out the books and suntan lotion, and handed Tay a bottle of water before wriggling out of his T-shirt. He knew Tay was watching as he pulled off his boots, socks and jeans, but made sure he didn’t look at him. Ink carefully piled up all his things on a corner of the blanket.
“You’re still wearing your shorts,” Tay muttered.
“I don’t want to freak anyone out with my huge dick. Move, Dog.”
Dog didn’t, so Ink picked him up and put him onto the grass before lying back and closing his eyes. The heat of the sun swept over him, warming his entire body, and he groaned. “It’s like sinking into that lovely, hotter-than-I’d-expected swimming pool. An instant cure for almost everything apart from a traumatic brain injury.” Or a broken heart.
At his side, Tay huffed.
“You did really well going up those steps to the slide,” Ink said. “It has to be good for you, right? All that torturous exercise?”
Ink could hear no sounds of Tay taking off his clothes.
“Want a hand stripping?” Ink asked without opening his eyes. “I have twenty-four years’ experience of removing male clothing.”
“I thought you were twenty-six?”
Stupid! “I needed help with zips, buttons and nappies for the first two years. Laces for the first fourteen. I was so pissed off when I realised adult shoes didn’t come with Velcro.”
Tay chuckled.
“Want some help?” Ink asked.
“I can manage.”
Ink’s brief experience of horse training was coming in useful when handling Tay. When horses freaked out over stuff that wasn’t possible to avoid, they had to learn to deal with it, sometimes through repeated exposure to whatever upset them. Occasionally a trainer just had to give up and make sure the horse never confronted that particular trigger. Tay needed to get used to being touched or he was in for a miserable life.
“How much do you know about horses?” Ink asked.
“I have one.”
Ink opened his eyes and looked at him. “Seriously? Where do you keep him?” His gaze slid to the shed. When he looked back at Tay, Tay’s eyes were wide.
“My aunt’s looking after him in Northumberland. His name’s Blue.”
“Have you ridden him since you were pushed off the ladder?”
“No.”
“But you could ride him now, right?” Ink closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“We back to the one-word answers?”
“Try a different sort of question.”
“Why is the sky blue?”
Tay laughed. “Because the short waves of blue light are more scattered than the other colours in the spectrum, so blue light is more visible.”