Page 39 of A Brother At My Back

14

Zeb…

I built a fire, put the soup on low and slow to heat and started to make her some hot tea to warm her up from the inside as much as the bath she was running would hopefully do for her frozen fingers and toes from the outside. She was silent, the strong sound of the water pouring into the tub drowning out any noise she might have been making as she moved around my bathroom. She’d left the door open, and more than just a crack this time. Then again, she’d had her clothes off for most of the night and I liked to think she was more comfortable around me even if we hadn’t gotten completely naked together yet.

The water shut off and I heard her get in. I steeped her tea and the fruity scent of one of the bath bomb things that girls seemed to go crazy over wafted out of the open doorway and permeated the open space of my flat. I liked it. It was nice having her here and it was more than just having something or someone beautiful here to liven the place up.

It was nice knowing she was safe here. That no one knew where it was, sure, but that she could breathe a bit easier knowing no one could find her here was something precious. That she could be herself and not look over her shoulder was nice.

I fixed up another cup of tea for myself after a second thought and carried both steaming mugs to the golden rectangle of light coming from my bathroom.

“Hey, I’m good to come in, yeah?” I asked before crossing the threshold and into her line of sight.

“Yeah,” she said gently. I went in and handed her down one of the steaming cups. She was huddled in the bottom of the bath, hugging her knees, the water pink and swirling with what looked like silver vapor through it.

I sat down on the floor and put my back to the wall, so I could face her. She took a tentative sip of the tea and closed her eyes, savoring it.

“Got some soup on, no worries, though. I don’t want you to rush.”

“Thank you,” she said. “The tea is good.”

“You looked frozen,” I said, taking a drink of my own.

“Kind of running low on clean laundry,” she confessed. “Usually Lia picks me up and I go over to her place with it. She lets me use her washer and dryer while we watch movies and I do some homework.”

“Sounds nice, eh.”

“Things are kind of all over the place now, though.”

I nodded and she looked a little lost, laying her head atop her drawn up knees, one arm around them, the other gripping the handle of her tea mug as it rested on the edge of the tub. I was suddenly more cross with her friend than I’d been before. She had no idea what she was doing with this and needed to leave well enough alone.

“Warm enough?” I asked and she smiled slightly.

“Much better, yeah.”

“Good. Did you bring something to sleep in?”

She closed her eyes and her shoulders dropped, “Shit. I hadn’t thought much beyond the whole I don’t want to go home, you know?”

“Yeah, it’s no worries. I have a shirt, I’m sure.”

“Thanks,” she murmured softly and I reached out, stroking some of her long, silky hair out of her eyes, sweeping it behind her ear and away from her scarred cheek. She didn’t flinch this time, which made me smile in appreciation. She was learning there was no bad here with me. No judgment or anything like that.

“I honestly don’t think I’m going to sleep that well today,” she said, and I nodded.

“A lot going on upstairs, eh?”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

“I get it.”

She shifted and the water sloshed in the tub. I always liked the sound of water any way I could get it. Just something nice about it. Soothing and whatnot.

“You want I should read to you?” I asked.

She smiled and even though it held an edge of sadness, it made her go from beautiful to stunning. “Figured out that I like that, huh?”

“Yeah.”

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