In Between Seasons

Chapter 8

"I think your shoulder bruised my ribcage," I said when Hunter finally put me on the ground, and I was able to stand up straight.

"Did I now?" he asked, running his hand through his dirty faux hawk.

My eyes landed on his soft lips twitching into a grin, and my heart stopped and started pounding all at once. I shouldn't have felt it, but his smile was so genuine—as if he rarely used it, and now he'd found a reason to.

Yup, I was definitely crazy.

I looked away as the blush crept up my neck to my cheeks.

"Yeah, I think so," I said, taking a breath to regain my composure before leaning forward to touch his eyebrow. "You need this stitched up. It's still bleeding."

Hunter flinched at my touch.

"Well, that'd be kind of hard for me to do seeing I don't have a mirror," he answered with the effected eye shut.

"Do you have a suture kit somewhere in your bag of tricks?" I asked as my hand dropped to his arm. His muscles flexed in pain as my hand landed.

"Yes," he replied, turning to try to stop me from seeing the pain filtering into his face.

"Let me see your arm," I ordered as he turned back to face me.

"It's fine."

"I'll determine that," I replied, looking at the large black and blue mark. "I heard the impact, and it sounded like something broke."

Hunter allowed me to look over his arm, and I pressed at it gingerly and moved it this way and that before settling it back down.

"What's the verdict?" Hunter asked after a moment.

"It's just a bruise," I replied as I watched his smug reaction. I rolled my eyes before taking the kit from his hand.

"I'll sew this up for you," I said.

His eyes locked on mine as he replied, "Thanks."

I gave him a smile while my stomach flipped in a way it shouldn't before I took the supplies from the kit he handed me. I pulled the needle through his bruised skin carefully, but even so, I knew it hurt. Hunter didn't react, though; he stayed still and let me finish before speaking again.

"How do you know how to do that?" he asked.

"My father did teach me some useful skills, but only because he got sick of suturing me up himself."

"So you've always had a knack for injuring yourself?"

I shrugged. "Less now that I'm older."

Hunter looked up at me as I snipped the excess string, and I could tell he saw the pain in my eyes as I admitted it. It was something I always hated about myself. I could do things that required coordination and thought, but when it came to doing something that required little thought, like walking, I had a great talent of getting injured.

"I'm sorry I've teased you about it," Hunter said.

"The truth can't hurt," I replied, my hands still resting on his brow.

Hunter's hand reached up and covered mine as he looked up at me. "It depends whose truth it is."

"It's funny how that works," I replied as I tried to ignore the heat of his palm against mine.

I reluctantly took my hand away and sat down beside him on the log.

"So who were they?" I asked.