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And then she crawled into the shohere she had herself a nice, private cry When she was done, she turned off the water and stared at herself in thefrom head to toe, her damn hands hurt, and her knees hurt and so did her butt She was still staring at herself when someone clicked open the bathrooht out of her towel

Aidan

"Hey, I lockedon the counter It had a white cross on it and read: first aid

"And the bathroo?"

"No"

Looking pained, he let her have the lie as he gestured to the closed commode "Sit"

She instantly put her hands to her backside No as she going to be sitting Maybe not ever again

He stared at her, clearly trying to decide whether to force her or not And ain She was teure it all out, she brushed past hi Now if you won’t sit, then lie down" He dropped his bag on the bed

She decided to put up with his annoying boorish behavior, because she figured he had Band-Aids in his bag and she didn’t have any

So she very carefully sat on the bed, sucked in a breath at the pressure on her sore butt, and ca down seeo She lay back

Without another word, Aidan perched a hip on the bed and went to work, doctoring up both knees first

She hissed out a breath when he sprayed antiseptic over the abraded skin "Hurts"

He lifted his head and aze "You fell down the stairs without a peep, but this hurts?"

"I don’t want to talk about it"

"How about the baby bunny?" he asked "You want to talk about that?"

She crossed her arms over her chest

"Fine," he said "Let’s talk about why you’re mad at me"

"I’m not mad," she said Lied But there was no way she’d explain that the anger was really self-directed and caain And not just a silly crush want, either, but much, muchwas o anywhere Aidan and his lifestyle--putting his neck out on the mountain daily--would kill her

He shook his head, but he bent over and kissed the Band-Aids over her knees, one after the other