Page 130 of Just One Look

“I need cold water,” she said, as she did it.

He said, “It’s on your shirt, too,” and pulled it over her head, then said, “Right. Bathtub. Come on.”

“I just need a … wet dishtowel,” she said. “Ouch. That stings.”

“Bathtub,” he said again. “Bugger. Broken glass.” And picked her up in his arms.

“Yourneck!”she shouted, and he said, “Bugger my neck,” and carried her into the bathroom.

“Luka.” She slid out of his arms. “No.” She had her hands on the back of his neck. “What hurts?”

He was already twisting the lever on the tub. “Nothing. Assume that I know how to hold my neck still and lift from my core. Get your legs in here.”

She sat on the edge of the tub and splashed cold water over her lower thighs. It was freezing, and when Luka handed her a wrung-out towel and said, “For your ribs,” it was even more freezing. The porcelain was cold under her butt, and …

Oh, no. Under herbutt.She happened to be wearing a pair of pink Agent Provacateur string bikinis. With, she realized in a sort of delayed shock, a fairly large cutout in back.

In the shape of a heart.

“Lord have mercy,” she breathed. “Shut the door.”

Luka did it, then said, “Want me to get rid of them so we can take care of you?”

“No,” she said. “These are barely going to be first degree, as fast as I got in here. Did my dad get splashed?”

“Not that I saw,” he said. “If he did, he’s a doctor. You good here?”

“Yes,” she said. “Go out there and, uh …” She put a hand to her head. She’d left her hair loose and messy today, because Luka loved it that way, and she loved the way it felt when he brushed it aside so he could kiss her neck. “Wait. Are you OK with Lauren?” She could hear talking from out there. They were bothstaying?Really? How civilized were they going to be here?

“Yeh,” Luka said. He was standing on one foot, pulling something out of the other one.

“You got cut,” she said.

“Couple of slivers, that’s all,” he said, dropping the latest one into the wastepaper basket. “You’ll need some clean clothes.”

“I’ve got so little here. I took almost everything to your place. There should be some shorts and things in the drawers, though. Summer things.”

“I’ll go look,” he said.

He opened the door again, and Elizabeth thought,Pretend it’s surgery, and you’ve got a bleeder. You focus on finding it, and then you focus on fixing it. Calmly. For as long as it takes.

Why, oh why, was life so much harder than surgery?

* * *

When Luka gotinto the kitchen again, Baxter was still at the kitchen table, a mug of tea in front of him. Lauren, on the other hand, was sweeping up porcelain shards.

He said, “I’ve got it.”

She said, “Not after neck surgery, do you think? And in bare feet?”

“Considering that I just carried Elle into the bathroom,” he said, “I reckon it’s too late to worry about that now.”

“That was certainly heroic,” she said, tipping her dustpan into the rubbish bin in the corner. “Wet paper towels, I think, and then the hoover. Ceramic’s always so splintery. Maybe you two should go sit on the couch until I’m sure I’ve got all this up.”

“I’ll wait outside,” Baxter said stiffly.

“Good idea,” Luka said genially.