Page 85 of After We Fall

My heavy eyes open. My heavy eyes close. In and out. In and out. Despite the lack of pain, I can’t get comfortable. I shift to my right, curling into the chair.

“Careful of the IV, baby,” Luke’s low voice rumbles.

I open my eyes to see him freeing the IV tube from between my chair and my knee.

“Hi,” I whisper.

He leans in and shifts a piece of hair off my forehead. “Hey.”

“How are you?”

He studies my face. “Better than you.”

“I don’t think so. I have the good drugs.”

He offers a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. Eyes so burdened, they cut through the pain meds and it almost hurts me to look at them.

“What are you thinking?” I ask him.

“You’ve never had anyone to drag you out of your pain.”

“What?”

“You’ve been in pain so long because no one got in it with you and helped you get out.”

I inhale, trying to take in what he’s saying. Something warm and sweet fills my chest, but it has nothing to do with the sedation. How would he know about helping someone climb out of their pain? “Did someone do that for you, Luke?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened?”

“Ever spent time in a trailer park?”

“No.” One of the girls at my group foster home talked of her trailer, but I’ve never visited an actual trailer park.

He grinds his teeth before he answers. “My mom lived in a single-wide. Poorer than dirt. Had an affair with someone in the park and conceived me. The guy was married. Mom’s choices didn’t sit well with the neighborhood.”

“Luke,” I whisper.

“We were shunned in the park, but Mom was too poor to move. So it was pretty tough living. Kids roughed me up. People spat on us. Our trailer was vandalized and robbed on several occasions.”

The World’s Most Beautiful Nurse reenters the room, studies the progress of the IV bag, asks if I need anything, and exits after I say no.

Luke’s attention never wavers from me. “One day when I was twelve, Robert Kitson shows up. Young guy, good-looking, in his twenties. Full of life.” He shakes his head. “He was clean. Man, he was so clean. That has to sound stupid, but, baby, life in that trailer park felt dirty. I took one look at this guy and I thought, ‘I want whatever it is he has.’”

I swallow. “What did he have?”

A hint of Luke’s spark returns to his eyes. “Heart and a rifle.”

I giggle. “Heart and a rifle?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What does that mean?” My eyes droop, and I strain to stay awake.

“Story for another day.”

“Will you be here another day?”