The Touch (Healer Series) (11 page)

  
“AJ, wait up!” he heard from behind him.
“I’ll walk with you!”

  
He turned to see Addie jogging towards him.

  
“Addie, I said-”

  
“I don’t care. I’m walking with you. Fresh
air would do me some good, too, and Gram already said she’d take Rose.”

  
He sighed and resigned himself to the fact
that she was coming with and there was nothing he could do short of being
extremely rude to stop her – something he was not going to do, considering he
wanted to make this place a home.

  
“Fine,” he muttered to her.

  
“Is it the little girl that has you so upset?
Did you have a sister or something that died?” The words sounded crasser
escaping her lips than they had in her mind.

  
He shook his head, never looking at her.

  
“Then what is it? I mean, I know it’s
depressing. The doctors are going to fix her, though.”

  
He wanted to yell that they weren’t going to
fix her and he knew it for a fact. He knew better. She’d never understand. He
just smiled at her like he’d done with hundreds of others before and said,
“You’re probably right.”

  
“What is it with you?” she asked after a
pause. “I don’t understand you.
 
Your
mood swings are like a woman.”

  
“I’ve been alone a long time. I’ve lost a lot
of people. This is how I protect myself.”

  
It was the most honest answer he could give. Maybe
she’d take the hint and let him be.

  
She stepped in front of him now that they
were a safe distance from peering eyes. She could say what she’d been thinking
about since the night at Gram’s house.

  
“I’m not one to beat around the bush. You
scare me,” she said, hands tucked in her pockets.

  
AJ was stunned by her brazenness. He knew his
height and features were daunting. He hadn’t thought he’d be the type to scare
people though. His mind scoured his recently banked memories for any words or
actions he might have let out that painted him as less than a decent human
being.

  
“Why would you be scared of me? I haven’t
done anything cruel or said anything rude. Well, overly rude.”

  
“That’s not why you scare me,” she said,
looking up at his eyes. “This,” she said, pointing back and forth between them,
“This scares me.”

  
The only sound was the air rushing through
the branches and fields, pushing the crops back and forth. He understood. In
that moment he knew he had to put an end to anything that might be between them
so that he didn’t hurt her further. His mind was made up and she wasn’t a part
of it.

  
“There is no
this
,” he said in almost a hushed whisper. “I don’t want there to
be
a
this
.”

  
She looked at him and felt her heart drop,
the same way it had the moment Rose’s father had left town and never looked
back. She knew she felt something for this stranger and was sure it had been
mutual. She had never felt so embarrassed in her life, not even when people
gossiped about how Joseph treated her.

  
She turned her back and started walking and
AJ flipped his head up to the sky knowing full well what he had just done to
her. He kicked the dirt with his sandal, sighing heavily.

  
“Addie. Addie, wait up!”

  
He began to jog until she turned around, put
her arm out to signal him to stop, and shook her head. He could see from the
sunlight touching her face that her eyes were filled with tears.

  
“What a shitty day,” he said to himself.

  
He watched her from a distance as she put
quite a bit of ground between them until she was walking so quickly she
disappeared over the horizon. He had felt uneasy all day, beginning from the
moment he had woken up. He had known the day was not going to go well and all
he wanted was to retire to his room for the night and sleep.

6
Protector

His
conscience grew heavy as he approached the B&B, deciding he had to tell
Helen he wasn’t feeling well and wanted to skip dinner. He knew how much it
would hurt her – she seemed to look forward to having someone new to care for. His
desire to be alone was outweighing his desire to please anyone else. If he was
going to hurt people, he figured doing it all in one day and starting fresh
tomorrow was the way to go.

  
Once in his room, he peeled off his shirt and
flopped back on the bed, the decades-old quilted comforter disheveled from his
body. The whole house was warm and lying on a blanket didn’t help. He was too
mentally exhausted to move. He hadn’t had this much difficulty in his life. In
the span of a week he had somehow hurled himself into a thick web of
complications when he had only been looking for a simpler existence for awhile.

  
He sunk into the mattress, arms outstretched
above his head for hours. On top of the anxiety over Addie, the guilt was
beginning to creep in about not having healed anyone. He hadn’t even been
looking, partly because he realized it might be a bit difficult in a town like
this. Not being able to change Isabelle’s future was painful and he was angry
at Addie for bringing him there, even though she had no callous intentions.

  
As the sun set around his visibility of the
windows, his mind went over and over and over again all the day’s events. The
thoughts were only broken by the sound of rain starting to fall, thunder
clapping in the sky high above him. He turned his head to the open window,
curtains waving in the breeze. Since the rain seemed to be falling straight
down, he left it open. The storm permeated a unique smell through the air and
brought a welcome coolness to the room.

  
As day faded to dusk and the moon signaled
evening, the rain kept falling and lulled him to sleep. While the thunder raged
above, he never stirred. However, the softer sounds of voices in the street
below roused him from his much-needed nap.
 
The shouting sounded like nails on a chalkboard to his ears and snapped
him to attention as he strained to listen to the scene play out. The screaming
was obnoxious. Matthew had warned him to mind his own business; AJ didn’t want
to make anything worse for Addie.

  
“Addie, I told you to get in here woman, and
I meant it!” the raspy voice yelled, obviously obscured by whiskey or something
of the sort. “You better start
listenin
’ or you’re
gonna
end up alone!”

  
“I told you to get out Joseph! This isn’t
your home. Go find someone else to schmooze and milk for cash.”
 

  
Addie knew she should have walked away or
gone to Grams or done anything other than fight. Her inherited southern
stubbornness was a hard thing to break. She always stood her ground and would
do so even when the competition was sure to be the victor.

  
“
Ya
got a big mouth
when your little girl isn’t here to keep you quiet now, don’t
ya
?” Joseph hurled back, his voice sounding even angrier.

  
It was silent for a moment, even the thunder
ceasing as if to eavesdrop on the argument. Through the tattered screen AJ
heard the vibrations of a movie-caliber slap followed by the sound of Addie’s
breath being knocked out of her as she hit the ground. Without a second thought
he was bounding out through his bedroom door, down the creaking stairs, through
the front door and over the white porch railing in one swift movement, his legs
hurdling over the top of the wooden slats and landing squarely on his feet in
the grass.

  
He swiftly ran through the yard in the
night’s mask to stand barefoot and half clothed between Addie and Joseph. The
rain pelted his body. Disregarding the watery assault he stood firm. His stance
was that of a fighter; someone who had been in a scuffle before and knew what
to do. He hadn’t been in many fights in his life yet had always been prepared,
just in case. With the anger surging through his body it didn’t take much for
him to look wildly scary to Joseph, although Joseph foolishly stood his ground.

  
Addie was lying on the cold, damp grass, her
teeth clenched, her nightgown dirty and her eyes terrified. The rain had
already soaked her attire through, although she didn’t even feel it as it
continued to trickle down her. Blood seeped down her chin and mingled with the
raindrops to form a continuing river of red to the ground. She was stunned.
Joseph had roughed her up a time or two but he’d never used such force. He was
angry and she was afraid.

  
She looked at Joseph standing in front of
them, nearly a foot shorter than AJ and only half his weight with most of that
being fat. She knew a fight wouldn’t be in his best interest.

  
“I think it’s time you leave,” AJ growled,
his fists tightly bound at his sides and ready to swing if needed.

  
His heart raced, and anger filled his veins
with a power he hadn’t felt before. In the moonlight and soaked to the core,
with every muscle in his chest, stomach and arms flexed, he looked as fierce as
a warrior from a movie.

  
“Is this him, Addie? The one you kicked me
out for?” Joseph asked, his hands thrown up in the air like it was all a big
joke. “What, you
gonna
run and make yourself a little
family with some stranger you’ve known less than a week?”

  
He laughed, trying to appear much tougher
than he was.

  
“Addie kicked you out because you’re a
jackass,” AJ countered, the words coming out through a tight jaw in a very
fearful fashion.

  
He could hear Addie shaking behind him, her
cries and gasps louder than she imagined as she tried to hold them in. Joseph
took a step as if he would walk around the muscled stranger and AJ shifted his
body to remain a barrier between the drunk and Addie.
 

  
“You’re not touching her again.”

  
Joseph took another step as if to challenge
AJ.

  
“I said you’re not
touchin
’
her again. If you want to be able to use those fists in the future, I suggest
you turn around and leave before the bones all need to be reset. If you want to
fight someone, you’ll fight a man, not her.”

  
Joseph stared at him for what Addie felt was
an hour before turning with a grunt to leave. His truck peeled out of the
driveway, kicking up rocks and mud.
 
AJ
watched until he was a mile down the road before turning around to look at
Addie.

  
She sat there, her lip bleeding and her body
wet and shaking. She looked scared and embarrassed, as if she’d been crying all
night. AJ realized it was possible she had been. She was looking at him
intently.

  
“You okay?” he asked, crouching down in front
of her.

  
“I- -I think so,” she stammered, touching her
lip with her fingers and pulling them back to see the crimson dotting the tips.

  
“I’m so sorry!” she said, beginning to cry.

  
This hadn’t been the same girl he thought he
was getting to know. He hadn’t witnessed her vulnerable side and it hadn’t
occurred to him that she owned one. She seemed so different, so scared.
 
He couldn’t leave her out there like that.

  
“I’m going to pick you up, okay?” he
continued, stretching one of his strong arms underneath her legs and wrapping
the other firmly around her back.

  
The warmth she felt from his hands
overpowered her; it felt so comforting. As he lifted her, his eyes looked
across the yard to Matthew standing on the porch, gun in hand. AJ nodded to
him, he nodded back and stepped inside. Slowly and carefully, AJ carried her
into her house and set her on the kitchen counter.

  
He picked up a towel from the counter and
lightly wiped her rain-soaked face.

“Let
me see your lip,” he said, brushing the coffee colored strands back to get a
clear look.
 
It wasn’t deep, although it
was big enough to spill quite a bit of blood.

  
He wanted so badly to heal the wound and make
it disappear. He also knew he couldn’t explain it. Those types of healings were
reserved for those who wouldn’t remember, like coma victims or those who were
asleep. It was too risky to try such a maneuver on someone who would know what
happened, even if he tried to explain it away. He lowered his hand, stopping
himself with everything he had in him. The visions didn’t give him anything,
and he couldn’t heal without knowing if he should. For all he knew, maybe she
needed the bruise for a few days to remind her to stay away from Joseph.

  
“Rose could have been here…” she uttered,
tears forming in her eyes again and her voice raising its pitch.

  
“She wasn’t though. She’s okay,” he
continued, lifting her chin to see the damage. “Let me get you some ice.”

  
She pointed him in the direction of the clean
towels and he wrapped a few ice cubes inside and placed them on her lip, her
hand reaching up to take over holding it.

  
He stepped back, his hands resting against
the cheap laminate countertop behind him. She wouldn’t look at him, focusing
her gaze firmly on the floor.

  
“Addie, you can look at me.”

  
“You’re judging me.”

  
“I’m not judging you. Trust me; I’ve had my
secrets and my mistakes. I’m not here to judge anyone.”

  
“I still think you’re judging me even if you
don’t think it.”

  
“I just want to be your friend,” he said,
moving back over to her. He was drawn to her. His heart physically ached when
he saw her in pain – those were feelings he couldn’t stop.

  
“I want to be here for you.”

  
“As just a friend?” she asked, lowering the
ice from her lip and finally looking into his eyes. The tears made her eyes
seem even larger than normal. More beautiful if that was a possibility.
 
“As just a friend,” he managed to get out. A
lie, but one he felt he had to tell. She wasn’t ready for someone new he assured
himself, muttering internally that he was doing the right thing.

  
Or so his mind said.

  
She looked back down and moved the ice up to
her lip. “Thank you for stepping in tonight,” she replied. “I…I still owe you
that tour, stranger.”

  
She was scrambling for things to say.

  
“Friend,” he countered. “I’m not a stranger
anymore.”

  
“I’ll settle for friend,” she said, sniffling
again. Her ego had taken a bigger beating than her lip tonight, she thought.

  
“I’m going to sleep on your couch,” AJ said,
taking a look out the door.
“Just in case.”

  
“People will talk.”

  
“Let them. I’d rather people say a thousand
bad things about me than any good things about you at a memorial service.” He
looked back over his shoulder and she laughed.

  
“You really are different, you know.”

  
“Yeah, I know,” he said, shutting the door
and turning the lock.
 

  
Addie set a pillow and blanket on the couch
while AJ walked around and checked all the windows and doors.

  
“Do you need more?” she asked. “I have plenty
more. You can sleep in Rose’s bed if it would be more comfortable, she won’t be
home till tomorrow.”

  
“I’m fine, really, this is plenty,” he said,
unfolding the blanket. He smiled at her. He probably wouldn’t sleep anyway.

  
“Don’t smile. What a shitty night,” she
replied, a smile escaped her lips.

  
“I’d have to agree. It’ll get better now.”

  
“I hope.”

  
She headed off to her room and curled up in
the middle of her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. She knew she wouldn’t
be able to sleep. Every noise that echoed through the house from a branch
scraping a window or a cricket chirping sent shivers up her spine. She sat
there for an hour, tracing the pattern of pink flowers on her bedspread,
opening and closing the blinds, peeking out of her door around the corner to
the couch. When she was sure he had ample time to fall asleep, she tiptoed out
into the living room and watched his chest rise and fall with each breath that
he took, stretched out on his back.