“I’m…okay. But, shit.” He laughed the word but immediately grew serious. “Good thing we tried this out. I can’t have that happening to Wyatt.”
“It wouldn’t,” she said, massaging the flinching muscles. “It was just reacting to your sudden movement. I can’t imagine he’d move like that, but…” Concern seeped in. “Maybe I should program in some safety levels. Or create some noise filters, to guard against the rig responding to muscle spasms.” Her eyes searched out his. “Wes, you’re going to have to be with him when he uses this. It’s not like anything on the market. The physical therapist won’t know how to use it or control it. Christ, I don’t want this to hurt—”
He reached up and cupped her face. “I’ll stay with him whenever he uses it.”
“Maybe you should keep it with you. I wouldn’t want someone else to try it….” Suddenly this was sounding problematic. “God, Wes, I don’t know…”
He ran his thumb over her cheek, his eyes warm and reassuring. “I’ll keep it with me. No one else will use it with him until I train them. And I’ll train Wyatt. It’ll be fine.”
Still, panic fluttered in her chest. “Maybe…maybe this isn’t such a good idea… I mean, it’s a great concept and an awesome rig, it’s got a hell of a lot of potential, but, maybe it’s not ready for—”
Wes pressed his thumb against her lips. “Rubi, it’s going to be fine. It’s going to be amazing.” He paused, and thought drifted through his eyes. “Hey, why don’t you come with me?”
The words didn’t immediately sink in. When they did, the panic in her chest ignited in flame. She pulled back. “What? No—”
“No one knows how this works better than you,” he said. “You could supervise. You could work with the therapist—” He stopped suddenly, his gaze clouding over. But it cleared a second later, refocusing on her. “Or just me and Wyatt after I talk to the therapist.”
“I can’t go, I’m working—”
“You can work anywhere, and you know it.”
“I have a deadline, Wes, and your family…” Oh God, yeah—there was a red flag. His family. “No,” she said, steadfast. “Thank you for offering, but no. You can handle it.”
She unstrapped the rig from his thighs, once again tense and uncomfortable. Pulling the disc from the unit, she slid it into a baggie with the others. “They’re labeled according to which he should start with. He needs to start with the strongest power and work backward, which is not intuitive. So, please, Wes, if you don’t remember that or explain it to others—”
He rested his hands on her shoulders. She couldn’t read his eyes now, as if he’d closed off. “I get it, Rubi. I’m not stupid or careless.”
Pain zinged across her ribs. “I never… I don’t mean… I know you’re not. I’m just…worried.”
“Which is why you should come with me. We don’t have to stay with my parents. We’ll get a hotel nearby.”
“Stay with your— What are you thinking? I can’t even manage a decent relationship with my only relative. You can’t expect me to jump into your family as if I know what I’m doing.” She held up her hands, palms out. “Look, I trust you with the rig. You can handle it.”
“Fine, fine.” He released her, but frustration filled his voice and disappointment tightened his expression. “Relax.”
She sat on the edge of the sofa, closed her laptop, and rested her head in her hand, rubbing her temple. “Sorry. The whole family thing just… I don’t understand it, and I’m not… I just don’t do family.”
“I get it,” he said, curving an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry too. I’m not thrilled with this change of plans, and I’m going to miss you. Come on. We should get over to Jax’s before he calls looking for us.”
Fifteen
Wes stood still while Rubi unsnapped the rig’s straps—again.
After that bizarre shock to his thigh muscles, she’d insisted on bringing the computer and rig to Lexi and Jax’s so she could add some safety measures to the program.
He was zero for two with Rubi today. He’d really stepped in it when he’d sprung his schedule change on her earlier. The look on her face when he’d told her he’d be leaving in a day instead of a week or more had shot an icy cold streak through him. The dismay and hurt had lasted only an instant before she’d expertly shut off her emotions like a light. But that moment had given him a glimpse of what she must have looked like as a kid, receiving word her father had left town again without notice. She’d denied caring when he’d tried to explain the schedule change, but he could tell she was still out of sorts. Then he’d gone and done it again when he’d asked her to go to Missouri with him.
He hated knowing he’d upset her. But what really bugged him was that both incidents were minor, everyday, normal events—a schedule change and an invite to meet the parents. But for Rubi…obviously trigger points. On the other hand, she could climax on a crowded dance floor without pause, get caught giving him a blowjob and grin.
He was trying to understand—he was—but he just didn’t get it.
“It’s not something someone who’s had a normal upbringing would understand.”
Lexi’s words drilled into him, making him even more frustrated. How did he cope with something—or help Rubi cope with something—he couldn’t understand?
“Are you okay?” Rubi’s concern drew him out of his daze. She had that one vertical line of worry between her brows as she looked up at him, her hands unhooking the bands from his thighs.
He ran a hand over her hair and nodded.
She pulled the rig off his hips and swung it clear of his body, pushing to her feet. Without heels, the top of her head just cleared his chin, and as he looked down at her now, she seemed so much smaller, somehow more fragile than he’d ever thought of her before.
Her hand lifted and cupped his jaw. “Hey,” she said, voice soft, so much real emotion in her eyes it made his stomach clench. “Really. Are you okay? You’ve been…I don’t know… distracted since we got here.”
He covered her hand with his, turned his head, and kissed her palm. “You’re worried about me, while I’m worried about you.”
“These are my issues, Wes, not yours.”
“Yours are mine.”
“Go play with Rodie.” She stepped back. “You two seem to make each other happy.”
Rubi walked back to the table where Jax and Lexi talked about the new house as they cleared dishes from the table. She connected the rig to her computer with a cable, sat, and propped her feet up on another chair. Her fingers started flying over the keyboard. How her mind worked that fast, he couldn’t fathom.
He approached the table and picked up the Frisbee. Rodie danced on his hind legs beside him.
“You don’t have time for that, Lex,” Jax was saying. “I’ll hire an interior designer. They’ll make it just the way you want it.”
“Why is it going to be the way I want it?” Lexi asked. “It’s your house.”
Jax wrapped his free arm around her shoulders, pulled her against him, and kissed her hard. “Our house,” he said as she smiled up at him. “Let’s practice. Repeat after me. Our. House.”
Lexi stretched up on her toes, her hands filled with plates. “I kinda want to practice something else.”
And she kissed him again. Jax groaned. He set the dishes in his hand down without breaking the kiss and gripped Lexi’s face, pulling her in and kissing her hard. Wes didn’t know how he knew, but he just knew—those two were going to last the distance. He was both thrilled for them and envious of them at the same time.
Rodie let out one impatient bark, dragging Wes’s gaze down to his brindle-and-white face. He took one look at those lopsided ears and smiled. He was one really freaking great dog, which, he knew from a lifetime of raising animals, said a lot about his owner. He glanced at Rubi once more and found her fingers still, hovering over the keys. When his gaze lifted to her face, she was staring, puzzled. The Are you really okay? look in her eyes propelled him toward the beach with the Frisbee.
The phone in his back pocket buzzed. He flung the Frisbee for Rodie, then pulled his phone out. “Yep.”
“Hey, stranger.” His sister’s bouncy voice instantly quelled his unease. The tension slipped from his shoulders and his jaw loosened with a smile. Somehow, the simple sound of her voice brought balance back to his topsy-turvy world. His family had always grounded him.
“Hey, yourself. What’s new?”
“Let’s see,” Whitney quipped in a way that made him smile. “Mom and Dad’s clothes drier caught on fire this morning while Tori was at the hospital with Wyatt and Abby and Emma and their new puppy were at Mom and Dad’s—”
“Puppy?” He watched Rodie jump the waves and grab the Frisbee. Wes had just talked with Tori, Wyatt’s wife, two days ago, and she certainly hadn’t said anything about a puppy. “Where the hell did the puppy come from?” He didn’t wait for an answer before he moved on to an even bigger question. “And what the hell are they doing getting a puppy when Wyatt—?”
“Tori thought the girls needed a distraction. Said the girls were stressed and depressed with everything going on with Wyatt.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” He was suddenly reminded of the constant chaos that seemed to reign around his childhood home—family, friends, neighbors, pets, church groups, his mother’s bunko club…and during harvest, complete mayhem for weeks. That brought up thoughts of his niece, Emma. “How’s Emma dealing with that?”
“Well, you know Emma,” Whitney said. “Depends on the day.”
Yeah, he did know. Her autism made it difficult for her to tolerate such chaos. “You didn’t suggest that slice of insanity, did you?”
“Bite your tongue.”
He shook his head at just another one of his sister-in-law’s bizarre whims. Kinda like deciding to get pregnant without discussing it with Wyatt, and before they’d decided to get married. Although, Wes had to smile when he thought of his oldest niece, the little result of that whim. “That girl… Shit, you know I love her, but sometimes…”
“Believe me, I know. I live here.”
Wes chuckled. “Lots of room out here in California, not to mention a shitload of messed-up heads for you to shrink. You’d be a millionaire in no time.”
“Ah, California…” she said wistfully, then, “Speaking of, Mom tells me you’re flying in tomorrow. I drew the short straw, so I’m stuck on airport duty. You’ll have to take me out for drinks to make it up to me.”
“Deal,” Wes said. “How’s Wyatt?”
“Little better every day. Depressed, which is to be expected. Tori’s…well, Tori. Up, down, sideways.”
“This has got to be hell on her.”
“It is.” Whitney’s voice turned sad. “It’s pretty much hell on everyone.”
“Well, I have good news.”
“Yeah?”
“The physical therapy rig I’m making is really coming along. I’ve got a friend helping me with it. She’s programmed it to respond to muscle stimuli. She’s just adding some safety features as we speak. The whole thing is pretty slick. But don’t tell anyone yet. I don’t want Wyatt to get his hopes up until I have it in my hands, ready to go. I really think this is going to work great, Whit. Get him on his feet faster and stronger.”
“God, I hope so. It’s an amazing concept, and you could build a spaceship out of a trash can. So how are things with you?”
He reached down to take the Frisbee from Rodie’s mouth, and the pup shook out his wet fur, spraying Wes with cool seawater. He glanced over his shoulder toward Rubi and found her watching him, a soft smile on her face. “Another day in paradise.”
Whitney laughed, and the sound made Wes smile. He did miss his family. He missed the support and sounding board they’d always provided.
Which prompted Wes to say, “Hey, Whit?” before he’d fully thought out what he was going to say, then stumbling through, “Do you know much about…neglect?”
She hesitated. “What kind of neglect?”
“In kids. You know, when parents aren’t around or don’t care.”
“Yeah,” she said, drawing the word out with an uncertain tone. “But that’s a broad topic. What’s this about?”
“I have a friend I’m trying to understand better. She had a shitty father, no mother. The way we were raised…it’s hard to relate.”
“A friend…or a girlfriend?” Whitney asked.
“We’re…kinda trying to figure that out.”
“Oh.” Her voice dropped with dread.
Wes shifted on his feet. “Oh, what?”
“Well…how much time do you have? It’s not simple.”
“Can you just give me the Cliff’s notes?”
“Let me ask you this,” Whitney said. “How deep are you in with her?”
Over his head—that was how deep. “Look,” he backpedaled, suddenly feeling sick. “It’s not a big deal. Forget I asked.”