Seducing My Dad's Best Friend novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: First Aid

Vicky cuts her hand in the shed and Gabe cleans it, and Devon arrives to take over kindly while Gabe tells Vicky not to come to the shed alone again.

By Thursday I had covered eleven boats, learned the new work order system, and found out that nobody at the yard ever closed a drawer.

On Thursday afternoon I walked into the boat shed to ask Gabe for a key.

He was alone, under the Carol Ann's stern, working a wrench on the rudder post.

The shed doors were shut against the wind.

It smelled of cold resin and sawdust and the oil he rubbed into his hands.

"Key to the paint locker," I said.

"Hook by the door."

I took the key and reached up to the shelf above it for the sander my father had sent me for, and got a hatch cover instead.

The hatch came down on my hand with its sharp metal edge.

It laid my palm open from the base of the thumb across to the heel.

"Ow," I said, and then I saw the blood and said something worse.

Gabe was across the shed before the wrench hit the floor.

"Let me see."

"It's fine."

"Vic. Let me see it."

He took my wrist in his left hand and turned my palm to the light.

It was the first time he had touched me since the porch, and I felt it through my whole arm.

His thumb sat on the inside of my wrist.

The cut was deep and clean and I was bleeding on his boots.

"Sit," he said.

I sat on the sawhorse.

He took a roll of shop towels, pressed one flat to my palm and wrapped his hand around mine to hold it there.

"Tight," he said. "Hold it up."

"You're not going to faint, are you?"

"Not me. Hold it up."

He lifted my arm with his other hand and held it against his chest.

I could feel his heart through the jacket.

It was going much too fast for a man standing still.

"Your pulse is high," I said.

"I ran over here."

"You were thirty feet away."

"It was a long thirty feet."

He did not let go.

The pulse beat in his thumb against my skin, and neither of us moved.

Then the shed door banged open and cold air blew in.

"Oh no, oh no, who's bleeding?"

Devon came in with a white plastic first aid box under one arm and her red coat flapping.

Gabe's hand left my wrist so quickly I felt the air on my skin.

"It's Vic," he said. "Hatch cover. It's deep."

"Move, move, I've got it."

She dropped to her knees in front of me, snapped the box open and unrolled the gauze.

"Four years at the charter desk," she said. "You wouldn't believe how many tourists try to jump the gap."

"Thank you," I said, and meant it.

She cleaned the cut with something that stung.

Her ring flashed under the shed lights and her red lipstick had worn off at the center, which made her look younger.

"You'll need stitches," she said. "I'll drive you. I'm good at waiting rooms."

"I can drive myself."

"With one hand?" She grinned. "Gabe, tell her."

"Let Devon take you," Gabe said.

His voice was perfectly flat.

He had picked the wrench up off the floor and was looking at it.

She wrapped my hand in a white mitten of gauze and taped it.

"Come to coffee tomorrow," she said, packing up the box. "I mean it. I've wanted a girl to talk to since I started here. Your dad is wonderful, but he thinks lipstick is a sailor's tattoo."

I laughed before I could stop myself.

"Okay," I said.

"Good. Come on, we'll go in my car."

She stood and held out a hand to help me.

Her key ring swung at her hip, a heavy loop of keys, with a small brass one that said STUDY on a paper tag.

"I do the charter books at your father's desk," she said, seeing me look. "He's generous. It's a good desk."

I stood up on legs that were not entirely steady.

Gabe was already back under the Carol Ann with his back to us.

At the door I looked behind me.

He had put the wrench down.

His good hand lay flat on the floor beside him, open, the fingers spread.

Devon went out ahead of me into the cold.

"Gabe," I said.

"Vic."

"Thanks for the first aid."

"Don't come into the shed alone again," he said without turning around.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not going to be able to say that twice."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend