Taken in My Sleep by My Stepfather David and His Friends novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Bernard's Hands

Bernard bandages her cut hand beside the fire and breaks her rule without meaning to. She mocks him for it. He says her mother's cardigan fits her.

I gave up on sleep at five on Thursday morning and went down the ladder in my socks.

The kitchen was empty and the stove was already warm.

Through the window I saw Bernard at the woodpile behind the cabin, in an undershirt, in snow, with an axe.

He split a log with one stroke and set another on the block.

I put my coat on and went out.

"You're up," he said, without turning around.

"I couldn't stay in there."

"Nobody's keeping you in there."

"Everybody is keeping me here."

"True." He grinned and swung. "I meant the loft."

The log fell in two clean pieces.

I stood at a safe distance and watched him do it five more times.

He was the biggest of them. Sandy hair going grey, a sunburned neck in October, and forearms that moved when he did anything.

I noticed that.

I noticed it and looked at the trees.

"Make yourself useful," he said. "Kindling is on the stump. Hatchet is in it."

"You said you wouldn't touch me."

"I said I wouldn't touch you. I didn't say I wouldn't put you to work."

I picked up the hatchet.

It was heavier than I expected.

I set a thin piece of pine upright and brought the blade down, the way he had.

It skidded off the knot and the edge came back across the heel of my left hand.

It didn't hurt at first.

Then there was blood running down my wrist into my sleeve, bright red on the snow.

Bernard dropped the axe.

He was across the yard in two strides and had my wrist in both hands before I said a word.

His grip was warm and hard.

"Hold it up. Higher. Over your heart." He pressed his thumb into the inside of my wrist, and then his whole palm over the cut. "Look at me, not at it."

I looked at him.

His eyes were hazel with a ring of green.

His hands were not entirely steady.

"You touched me," I said.

"Yes."

"Rule one."

"Yes." He didn't let go. "You were bleeding on a woodpile, Zelda."

"You didn't ask."

"No. I'm asking now. Can I walk you to the sink?"

I thought about it.

I thought about it for longer than the cut deserved.

"Yes," I said. "You can walk me to the sink."

He walked me to the sink with his hand under my elbow.

At the sink he ran cold water over my palm and looked at the wound.

"Not deep," he said. "Ellis would stitch it. I won't. I'll tape it and you'll live."

He took a first-aid kit down from the shelf above the stove, which was a bigger kit than any cabin kitchen needs, and went through it with the speed of someone who did this at work.

"Fire captain," I said.

"Twenty-two years."

"Do you save people often?"

"Every week." He wrapped gauze across my palm. "Usually they're less annoyed about it."

"I'm not annoyed about being saved. I'm annoyed about being carried."

"That's fair."

He tore the tape with his teeth.

His thumb had been resting on the inside of my wrist the whole time he wrapped, on the pulse, and it stayed there after he was done.

I could feel it going under his thumb.

Fast.

He must have felt it too, because he looked at my face, then at his own hand, and slowly lifted it away.

"Sorry," he said.

"You're not."

"No," he said, with a small crooked smile. "But I'm told it's polite."

I held my wrapped hand against my chest.

I knew that I should say something sharp.

"That's twice," I said. "Two rules in ten minutes. Someone should take your badge."

"Take it."

"I'm keeping count."

"I hope you do."

He went to the stove and started cracking eggs into a pan. His back was to me, wide under the cotton, and the back of his neck had gone red under the sunburn.

I sat down at the table.

I watched him cook for a while.

It was easier than watching him breathe, which I had also been doing.

"Yesterday," he said, to the pan, "you looked at me like I'd stolen something from you."

"You had."

"I know. I'd do it again, and I'd still say sorry for the way it felt."

"Why did you carry me?"

"I asked to." He turned the eggs. "Garson wanted to. Ellis said a doctor shouldn't. David said he'd do it, but only if you wouldn't wake, and you moved a little on the bed, and he stopped."

He set a plate in front of me.

"He stood in that hallway outside your door for ten minutes," Bernard said, "with the key in his hand."

I looked at the eggs.

"Why?"

"He was waiting for you to say come in."

← 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