Page 49 of Unlikely to Stay
Chapter 12
Brant hated how the color had left Colleen’s face when she looked down and realized she had cut herself.Cut was an understatement.He didn’t know what she used to sharpen her scissors but she had really done a number on her finger.He wouldn’t be completely sure until he got her to the clinic, but he figured at least four, maybe five stitches to get it closed up properly.
“I’m so sorry, Freckles,” he said, gently wrapping her finger in the towel she had pulled from a drawer.
“Why are you sorry?You didn’t cut my finger,” she said, trying not to grimace when he accidentally wrapped the towel a tad too tight.
“Because I startled you when you were cutting.I should’ve kept my mouth shut.Then you wouldn’t have cut yourself.I feel responsible.”
Colleen shook her head.“You shouldn’t feel responsible.I wasn’t paying enough attention.”
“What do you sharpen those scissors with, anyway?I might need to get the sharpener for my scalpels.”
He smiled when a little color returned to her cheeks as she rolled her eyes.“I don’t do anything to my scissors.When a pair gets dull I just buy a new pair.”
“Well, isn’t that boring?And here I thought I had my in with the new sharpening technique for all surgical tools.”
“I hate to disappoint you…but I do not have that in.”
Brant leaned down and looked into her eyes.“Well then, what good are you for?”
“I bought the shop from my mom,” she said suddenly, biting her lip.Brant resisted the urge to take that plump, red lip between his teeth and bite it.She had beautiful lips.
“Your mom?”he asked.
“Yep.I went to cosmetology school right out of high school.I knew I wasn’t smart enough for college.College was for Annie and Breckin.My mom bought this shop after she and my dad hitched a ride to Parker with a friendly protester.When his car broke down, she saw the sign in the shop window and convinced my dad to stay.Stayed even when my he took off with a bartender from Griff’s.”
“Something tells me you would’ve been fine in college,” he replied.
She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly but Brant could see the uncertainty reflected in them.“Nah.I barely scored high enough on the ACT toget intocollege.Anyway, I had seen my mom cut enough hair in this very shop that I decided to buy it from her when she said she was finished.”
“Why didn’t she just give you the shop?Did she owe anything on it?”
“Nope.And she got her house for dirt cheap when we moved here when I was a kid because everyone thought it was haunted.No one wanted to buy it.For my mom, that was thebestreason to buy it.”
“It seems wrong to make her daughter pay for it, especially since she didn’t owe anything on it or her house.But that’s just me talking out loud.It’s really none of my business.”Still, he couldn’t help but think if he tried to buy anything from Betty she would laugh him right out of the house.
Again, she shrugged her shoulders.“Who knows what was going on in her head?I quit asking why my mom does the things she does when I was in fifth grade and had to start buying my groceries on my own.”
And Brant thought he had it rough.At least he always had food on the foster home table where he was staying.It sounded like she had her fair share of struggles growing up, too.
“Are you going to take me to the clinic now and stitch me up or are we going to keep talking about my weird mom?”
“I thought you didn’t want to go to the clinic and be stitched up.”
“I don’t, but I don’t like the throbbing pain in my finger and I don’t want to bleed out on my black and white tiles.That will be a bitch to clean up.”
Brant started laughing.“That’s a lot of don’ts.”
“They’re all very serious, accurate don’ts.”
“Well, Idon’tthink you’ll be bleeding out any time soon.I think Romeo the donkey’s cut was worse than this one.”
She glared at him, her nostrils flaring.“If my hand didn’t hurt I would totally punch you in the arm for that comment.”
Brant smiled before leaning down and kissing her cheek.He loved the blush that bloomed on her face and the way her eyes widened in shock as his lips met her skin.“Fine.I’ll quit talking.Come on, Freckles.If you’re a good patient I might even give you a lollipop when we’re finished.”
CC couldn’t believeshe cut her finger.She couldn’t believe she was walking to the clinic with Brant so he could stitch her up.And she sure ashelldidn’t believe he had kissed her.Sure, it had just been on her cheek.It was innocent and sweet and friggin’ adorable.Even so, at the touch of his lips the throbbing in her finger had moved directly to her girly parts, which had danced and cheered in glee.At a kiss on the cheek.She mentally rolled her eyes at herself.She was pathetic.