“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kade Harrison looked dubiously at his twin as he handed him a bag full of Duoderm, bandages, and ibuprofen. He dropped the overnight bag he had brought at Travis’s request to Ally’s house.
“We can stay with Ally,” Asha suggested quietly, looking at Travis quizzically.
“I’m staying with her,” Travis growled, not willing to relinquish Ally’s care to anyone after watching her nearly get plowed down by a truck in the parking lot of Harrison. “This is my fault. I made her run in front of that truck. I should have explained everything to her immediately.”
Kade shifted and folded his arms in front of him. “I’m not going to ask exactly how this happened because I doubt you’d tell me, but Ally’s lucky that all she has is a bad case of road rash. I have a feeling you took most of the impact and you kept both of you from getting smashed by that truck. I’m asking if you’re okay.”
Travis wasn’t about to tell his brother that his leg and back hurt like a son of a bitch. After what Kade had been through, Travis’s aches and pains were minor, and the slight road rash on his face would heal. Ally had gotten it worse, her bare arms and back scraped by the unforgiving gravel and pavement. He hadn’t quite been able to save her from the skid across the concrete from the impact of his body plowing into her. Since he’d been heavily covered from the neck down, all he had to bitch about was the soreness from the impact. “She could have died,” Travis told his brother huskily.
Travis knew he’d never forget the moment he saw the truck come barreling into the parking lot, Ally running right into its path. He shuddered as he thought about what could have happened, what had almost happened. Although he’d managed to throw them both clear of the oncoming truck, Ally had still gotten hurt. Because of him.
“She didn’t, Travis,” Kade told his brother solemnly. “You were there.”
I caused it. It was my fault.
Travis suddenly wanted to unload his guilty conscience, tell Kade everything, but he didn’t. “I’m sticking around to help her. You two can go on home. It’s not like we haven’t both had road rash a time or two.” That was putting it mildly. Since they were both addicted to moving at high rates of speed on anything with an engine, they’d both had their fair share of accidents in childhood and as adults.
Kade gave Travis a knowing grin. “I brought everything you’ll need.”
Travis had taken Ally to the hospital, and they’d cleaned the debris from her wounds. But he knew from experience they’d start to hurt like hell very shortly. Road rash usually hurt more later than right when it happened, the small nerve endings starting to protest some hours after the actual injury.
“Call us,” Asha insisted. “I want to know how you’re both doing.” She walked up to Travis and kissed him on the cheek, avoiding the area that was scraped up.
Travis shifted uncomfortably, still not used to Asha’s open affection. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it…exactly. He just wasn’t used to it. The only woman who had ever shown him that kind of affection was Mia, and Tate’s sister, Chloe.
Travis caught Kade’s smirk and he scowled at him. Kade knew damn good and well that Asha unsettled him when she treated him like a brother. He was a cold bastard, an asshole, and he didn’t handle open affection very well.
“Thanks,” Travis grumbled to Asha awkwardly, giving Kade another dirty look.
“I’ll handle the stuff at Harrison for a while. Just take care of Ally,” Kade suggested, wrapping his arm around his pregnant wife. “And go easy on the hero stuff, would you? You took ten years off my life today when I heard you were at the hospital.”
Travis shot his brother a grim look. “Now you know how I felt,” he admitted, remembering the day of Kade’s accident.
“I’m supposed to be the wild twin,” Kade told him with a chuckle as he led Asha to the door. “Seriously, call me if you need anything. Harrison will survive without you for a while.”
“It will have to,” Travis replied, not even giving business a thought at the moment. His main concern was Ally.
Travis locked the door behind them, grabbing his bag and the medical supplies as he returned to the living room.
“Why are you still here?” Ally’s hollow voice came from the bottom of the stairs.
“You’re hurt. I’m not leaving. Once those road burns start to hurt, you might need help.” He shot her an obstinate look, a warning that he wasn’t going anywhere.
“No offense, but you look worse than I do,” she answered matter-of-factly, coming the rest of the way into the living room, dressed in a thick, green robe that covered her from neck to ankles.