Mary Sullivan - These Ties That Bind

Rem wanted to know why.

He stretched his neck to ease the tightness there, where his resentment of Sara had settled since last summer.

Finn poured coins into the pop machine. When a ginger ale fell into the bottom, he pulled it out and sat on a chair in the same row as Rem, holding the can level on his thigh.

Rem stared at the boy’s smooth profile, at his straight nose and square jaw, as nonplussed as if Finn were a strange kind of animal Rem had never encountered before.

He wanted to touch the boy, to acknowledge him as his son. He was ready. Did Finn ever ask about his father?

With the utmost care, Finn popped the tab, then took a long gulp, all while Rem stared at Sara’s reflection in his young face.

Rem pointed to the cast on Finn’s left wrist. “What happened?”

“Skateboarding.”

Rem nodded. “Shit happens.”

Finn nodded, too. “Yeah, shit happens.”

SARA STEPPED OUT OF THE emergency hallway and what she saw brought her up short. Rem sat beside her son. They were talking. Get away from him, she wanted to yell but didn’t. She had more self-control than that. Instead, she brushed a quick hand down her torso to ease her panic.

When Rem bent toward Finn, motioning to his cast, Sara noticed what she’d spent most of the past eleven years ignoring—how her son often tilted his head the same way when he was curious about something, and how their lush dark hair curled in the same direction. If Finn didn’t use product to keep his bangs straight across his forehead, they would flop forward like Rem’s did.

It made Rem look like a rebel, like James Dean, but less sulky, more dangerous.

When Finn took a pencil out of his sketchbook and handed it to Rem to sign his cast, she called, “Remington Caldwell,” too sharply.

Rem looked up at her and frowned at her tone, then deliberately took his time with his autograph. He knew what this was doing to her, how it unnerved her, but he did it anyway.

He’s mine, not yours. Only mine.

Rem smiled at her son, stood and then walked toward her.

Sara didn’t want to stare, but couldn’t help it.

As a teenager, she’d worked hard to ignore Rem’s charms. As a grown woman, she tried not to drool.

Why was it so hard to turn off her attraction to him?

He wasn’t the only man on earth.

He’s the only one who makes you feel alive.

That had been brought home to her too clearly with the recent situation with Peter, yet another man who couldn’t measure up to Rem. She’d broken up with Peter simply because he wasn’t Rem, and wasn’t that ridiculous considering how unsentimental she was supposed to be. No-nonsense, dependable Sara.

Wasn’t it serendipitous that shortly after, she’d moved home with Finn to get him away from that gang’s influence? She no longer had to see Peter at the hospital every day and be reminded of her own foolishness. She didn’t have to see that bewildered look on his face whenever they met. He had no clue why she’d ended their relationship after his proposal. She hadn’t been able to explain fully to either him or herself exactly what her problems were.

She continued to stare. Rem was the handsomest man in Ordinary, Montana, and she was only human. Usually, she coped. It was just that she hadn’t seen him since Christmas and now without a shirt. That was all.

Her stomach rebelled when she noticed the scar on his abdomen and remembered the terror of the night last summer when he’d been stabbed in a bar, and her own helplessness, of how little she’d been able to do for him while they’d waited for the ambulance.

She’d almost lost him that night. He’d been drinking in Chester’s when it was still the Roadhouse and a biker had hassled one of the waitresses. When Rem stepped in to protect her, the biker stabbed him in the stomach. Foolish, courageous Rem who never thought of the danger to himself.

It didn’t matter that it really hadn’t been his fault. Trouble stalked Rem and that scared her.

The strawberry birthmark above his left nipple had faded over the years. The last time she’d seen it in daylight, they’d gone swimming with Timm. Her brother and Rem had been only ten and she nine.

Time had changed them all.

Rem’s arms and chest had been scrawny back then, but weren’t now.

When he lifted his hands to his hair to tidy it, his biceps flexed. Those unruly locks fell back onto his forehead.

He winced. He’d hurt his hands.

The small scar that bisected his upper lip—from a minor childhood mishap she no longer remembered—served to accentuate how full it was. The things that would be flaws on regular people looked like heaven on Rem.

To a plain woman like Sara, it smacked of unfairness.

He was still the best bad boy Ordinary had ever produced and Sara hated that she was so aware of him.

“Follow me,” she said.

“What do you want?” he asked, belligerent as hell.

“I’ll take care of your back.”

“Someone else can do it.” His lips barely moved. He was being rude.

“Little pitchers have big ears,” she said.

“What?”

She motioned with her head toward Finn. “Mind your manners.”

He blushed, obviously only now remembering that Finn would hear every word they said.

“There is no one else to do it,” Sara said. “They’re busy with the accident victims.”

He approached and said under his breath, “You live to make my life miserable, don’t you?”

“I do my best.”

She led him to an examination cubicle, all the while too aware of how close he was.

“You look like you’re chewing on a mouthful of finishing nails,” Rem observed.

He wasn’t far off. She felt that tense. With a flick of her wrist, she pulled the privacy curtain across the opening of the cubicle, closing them into a space too small for Sara’s comfort.

“What did I do wrong?” Rem muttered.

“Shut up and sit.” She pushed him onto the bed.

“Nice talk, Sara.” Rem sat gingerly on the edge of the mattress. “Great bedside manner.”

She ignored his sarcasm and examined his back. Despite her feelings, she made sure to keep her touch gentle. She checked out the burns on his hands.

“Ouch,” he said. “I didn’t even realize those were there.”

“They must hurt.” Sara sterilized the wounds.

“They do now. That poor little girl has worse burns on her hands and the top of her head.”

Although she was being careful, he flinched. Burns were tricky to clean without hurting the patient.

“Have you heard how the girl is?” he asked.

Sara’s tension eased a bit. Rem had a soft spot a mile wide for children. And animals. “No. If I hear anything I’ll let you know.”

Rem stared at her clothes. “Why aren’t you in scrubs?”

“I’m not scheduled to work today.” She glared at him. “That was a stupid stunt.”

“Excuse me? What stunt?”

“Climbing into a burning car.” Sara tore open packages of gauze so hard she nearly ripped the bags in half. When she started to clean the cut on his back, he hissed, and she struggled to relax, to ease her pressure on his cut. He’d terrified her when he’d climbed into that car.

“Do you think you’re invincible?” She knew full well how vulnerable people were, how easily they could be hurt, and how hard it was to come back from some injuries. Like burns.

She’d spent her teenage years helping her brother recover from his burns.

“Saving someone is wrong?” Rem asked. She watched him grit his teeth, but she couldn’t be any more careful than she already was and still do the cleaning and patching that needed to be done.

She secured his injury with gauze then handed him a scrub top to wear. He shrugged into it.