Ryan flicked on the heater light switch…she didn’t want to know how he could tell she was cold…and noticed a small tattoo under his right arm. It was just one word. Forever.
‘Stay there while I get some stuff to clean you up with.’ He’d cleared his throat before he spoke and when he did, the pitch was all over the place.
Ryan came back with a small towel and a got out a first-aid kit.
Ryan began to remove his bloody singlet from her wound.
‘Ouch.’
Fresh blood appeared as he threw away his temporary bandage. With a knowing speed he cleaned up the area. Then Jaz nearly fainted when he produced a needle and a thread of some sort.
‘What the Hell!’
‘You need a few stitches, Jaz. Now I’m sure that if you can take on five guys, then you can handle a little pinprick.’
Jaz gritted her teeth as she waited for the needle to pierce her skin. ‘Damn you Ryan. Where did you learn to sew people up anyway?’ she asked, half curious and the other half just as a distraction of some sort as she felt the first pull of thread. She sucked in a shaky breath.
‘With my job they teach you how to be self-sufficient. It comes in handy.’
‘Really? You gotta sew people up? What are you, a Rambo medic?’
He laughed but he kept stitching her wound together with precision while she tried not to pass out.
‘Mainly it’s for sewing myself up.’
‘Say what? You stitch yourself. Sounds scary and awful.’ Slow breath in and out. She was not going to faint on him now. Instead she willed her body to relax and not think about it.
‘You see that mark on my left arm near the top?’
Jaz let her eyes gaze past his chest over to his arm and found a thin long scar. With her free hand, she traced it, causing Ryan to flinch under her touch. ‘You stitched this up?’
He nodded and she heard him snip at the thread.
‘You did a good job.’ Hell, an amazing job if he did that one-handed. ‘How long ago did you do that?’
Ryan finished putting the needle away and straightened up. ‘Two years ago, give or take. So what do you think?’ He held her arm up so she could see his workmanship.
Jaz rolled her arm around for closer inspection. Eight neat little stitches closed up the cut. ‘Wow, I’m impressed. Mum will never notice.’ She glanced at Ryan, whose eyes were trying to politely avoid her chest. ‘Thanks, Ryan. Not only did you save my arse but you fixed me up real good. Thanks. I owe you one, no actually, that’s two now.’
‘It was my pleasure, but let’s just call it even. The info you got at the club puts us at even,’ he replied as he finished putting a bandage over it to keep it clean. Then he leant past her to wet a flannel so he could gently dab at her split lip.
Jaz got another good look at his tattoo as his hand held her head gently.
‘Forever. Does that have some sort of special meaning?’
Ryan tensed a little before nodding.
‘Well, are you going to share?’ He paused and looked Jaz in the eyes. She felt her heart pick up the pace as his dark eyes clouded over in mystery. ‘Come on, did I not endure you sticking me with a needle without complaint? Share a little, it won’t kill you.’ But the pain she saw in his eyes made her think otherwise. Damn, he had a tormented soul and it was melting her heart. ‘I’m sorry, you don’t have to.’ Now she felt like a jerk, making him all gloomy. She didn’t like seeing him this way.
‘There is more to this tattoo, you just can’t see it,’ he said it so quietly.
‘Huh? What do you mean?’ Jaz instinctively looked to his lower torso and then wished she hadn’t.
Ryan turned and left the bathroom, his damp trackpants hanging divinely low on his hips. Had she just upset him?
She was just about to go find Ryan when he returned with a hand-held light. He flicked off the bathroom light, covering them in darkness. She felt Ryan move closer, his waist nudging her legs. Hairs on the back of her neck twitched in suspense.
Then a purple glow filled the bathroom.
‘What is that?’
‘It’s called a black light.’ Without further explanation, he waved it over his ‘forever’ tattoo and suddenly, as if by magic, more appeared.
‘Wow, that is cool.’ Jaz couldn’t stop her hand from reaching out to his arm and with a finger she traced the two angel wings. Ryan’s breath faltered.
Two beautiful layered wings glowed around the words etched in ink on his arm. Under the word ‘forever’ were the recently invisible initials C.C and the year 2013.
‘C.C? Who’s that?’ Jaz was thinking an old girlfriend or family.
‘My mate Chris, he died this year.’ Ryan’s voice was scratchy and deep. ‘Forever means I will never forget him or the way he died.’