“Then you should be more careful. Where do you keep your bandages?”
“There are some in the powder room.”
“Okay, keep holding pressure on this. I’ll be right back.”
He returned in a minute with a few bandages. “I’m not sure these will be big enough. Do you have any gauze and adhesive tape?”
“Jeff, don’t worry about it. The bleeding has died down a lot.”
“Died down doesn’t mean stopped. It’s a pretty deep cut. I want to get it bandaged up right.”
“What do you know about bandaging a cut?”
He looked at the floor. “I worked in the infirmary for a few years in prison.”
She bit her lip. “Oh.” She hated talking about his time. Nausea gurgled in her stomach. The thought of him behind bars sickened her. He should have had a life…a life with her.
But she had screwed that up big time. Her own damned fault.
“Mia, gauze and tape?”
She nodded. “There’s a first aid kit upstairs. I’ll go get it.”
“No, you stay here. Just tell me where it is.”
“It’s in the hall closet, the bigger one. Top shelf, I think.”
“Hold this a while longer.” Jeff left the kitchen.
He returned in a few minutes with the kit. With rapt attention, he cut gauze to the right size and taped it around the palm of her hand. Then he did something totally unexpected. He raised her palm to his lips and pressed a kiss to the gauze.
Her whole body softened, nearly melted. “Oh, Jeff.”
His dark gaze penetrated hers. “Mia, don’t look at me like that.”
She sniffed as tears wet her eyes.
He looked down at her feet. “You know, I used to dream about what our child would look like. I always imagined we’d have a little girl.”
She smiled, despite her tears. “We did.”
“I know that now. But when we were first together, I thought about it. I always imagined her with brown eyes, though.”
“Yeah, I know. I was surprised when Angie’s eyes turned green. Both you and I have brown eyes, and Wayne—” She stopped. “Anyway, Harp and Catie both have brown eyes. Angie got a recessive trait from one of us.”
“She’s special. I always knew our little girl would be special, if we ever had one.”
“Yes. Yes, she sure is special.” Maria’s heart nearly broke. Again the guilt nagged at her, the pain, the life of unfulfilled love. All that could have been…if only they’d both been honest with each other back when it mattered.
She touched his cheek with her good hand and drew his gaze back to hers. “I’m so sorry, Jeff. I’m so, so sorry.”
“Mia, I told you not to look at me like that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“That little pout. That same little pout. Oh, Mia.” He crushed his mouth to hers.
The kiss was deep and passionate…