Dani dropped her hand with equal speed. “Sorry!”
Lynn clutched her arm, realized the absurdity of the situation, and burst out in laughter.
After a moment of shocked silence, Dani joined in. She fell back to the bedding and covered her face with her hands. “Lynn.” She shook her head. “This is just—”
“A freakin’ mess. Yeah, I know.” Lynn grinned and sat back. “Great pair we are, huh?”
Dani uncovered her face and revealed a smile. “Well, we’re still alive. You’re fixing my knee. So far, your arm hasn’t slowed you down one bit.” She shrugged shyly. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re a badass, and we’ll get home.”
Lynn opened her mouth to respond to that, but nothing came to her. Was that how Dani saw her? Lynn considered herself to be a lot of things—survivor, hunter, even a killer if she had to be—but a badass?
“Don’t look so shocked.” Dani winked. “I don’t let just anyone undress me.”
Lynn’s heart missed three beats at least. Her eyes widened, and heat flared in her cheeks. “W-what?” Her voice was painfully high to her own ears. She cleared her throat. “I’m just—”
“Applying bandages. I know. I’m teasing.” Her eyes sparkled in the light of the flame. “I do think you’re a badass, though.”
“So are you. You must have been in a lot of pain today.”
Dani pressed her good leg against Lynn’s knees.
Lynn looked down and couldn’t help catching a glimpse of something far more private, only partially hidden between Dani’s legs. She licked her lips. When she looked back up, Dani was watching her intently. She really hoped the reddish glow of the candle’s light helped hide what must be a tomato red color on her cheeks.
Dani continued to scan her face. Seconds ticked by.
Lynn became more and more aware of the way her heart seemed to have lodged itself in her throat, constricting her ability to breathe and think.
Dani swallowed visibly. “Were you… done with my knee?”
It took a few seconds for the question to register. “Oh! Uh, no. No, almost.” She fumbled with the tin still in her hands and pulled out another strip. Dani still looked at her, but Lynn found relief in focusing on Dani’s knee. The bare skin of Dani’s leg still radiated heat against her knees, and she was almost sure she could smell Dani’s scent, luring her attention back to the junction between her legs. Her hands trembled as she applied the last poultice.
“It smells really nice.”
Lynn’s head shot up. “W-What?” Can she read my freaking mind?
Dani frowned. “I just said the bandages smell nice. What’s going on with you?”
“Oh.” Of course that’s what she meant, you moron! Why would she say that about her own—about herself? “Nothing. Just tired.” She plastered on a smile and continued to wrap Dani’s knee. Please drop the subject, please drop the subject, please drop the subject.
Dani did. The muscles in her calf tensed every time Lynn put tension on the cotton. Her jaw set as she bit back pain.
Lynn finally tied off the bandages. “There, done. We’ll leave that on for a while and go from there.” She sat back and tried to regain her composure. Since Old Lady Senna’s death, she had avoided getting close to anyone, either emotionally or physically, and now she felt herself ill-equipped and unprepared to handle her body’s reactions.
Dani pushed up on her elbows and carefully unbent her knee. “The heat feels good already.” She paused. “Lynn?”
“Hm?” Lynn turned her head to look at her.
“Thank you.” Dani sat up fully and took her hand.
Lynn glanced down at the touch.
Dani’s grip slipped on the grease that clung to Lynn’s hand, but she held on. “I really appreciate that you went through the trouble. You could have been sleeping, but you decided to help me instead. Thank you.”
Lynn cursed the blush that flared right back up. The need to deflect the attention was immediate and unstoppable. “Well, I need you to be able to stand on that leg tomorrow, or I’ll have to pull that cart alone.” She regretted the words the second she saw Dani tense.
“Right. Got it.” Dani started to withdraw her hand.
Lynn tried to hold on, but the fat coating her fingers made it impossible, so she put her hand on Dani’s thigh instead. Muscles danced underneath her fingers. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Dani pressed her legs together, seemingly curling in on herself by instinct. “It’s okay. I get it.”
“No, you really don’t. Dani—” She scooted forward, chasing Dani’s body as she held on to her leg. “I suck at this. Being around people is absolutely beyond my skill set. Out there—” She pointed at the window and the world beyond. “I’ve got it down. If I die, it’s because I forget to apply something I know. With you, I-I feel so… so… stupid. I either mess up or think I’ve messed up, and then I want to make it right, and it all gets worse.”
Dani set her jaw and looked down at the hand Lynn now realized was placed really high up Dani’s leg.
Lynn jolted, but she didn’t dare remove it. She didn’t trust her ability to judge which course of action would cause less damage at this point—except, maybe, honesty. “Like now.” She took a shuddering breath. “I just realized that hand’s somewhere pretty intimate and that if I leave it there while you’re angry, you could get even angrier with me. On the other hand, you could also think I’m rejecting you if I pull my hand away, because you noticed that I only just realized where I’d put my hand.” She swallowed. “I don’t know what will make you less angry with me right now.” She carefully drew her gaze up to Dani’s face to check the effect of her words.
Dani was watching her intently, but her expression had taken on that unreadable neutrality Lynn was starting to hate. “You’re trying to control me.”
“I’m not.” Lynn frowned. “Am I?”
Dani took Lynn’s hand from her thigh, then pulled at it as she lay down until Lynn had no choice but to settle by Dani’s side or fall over far less gracefully. “Yeah, you kind of are.”
Lynn stared into hazel eyes and held on to Dani’s hand. “Explain, please?”
“Well, tell me something: you look at the landscape and immediately know where the shadows are that might hide a threat, don’t you?”
Lynn nodded.
“You know where the wind comes from and how strong it is. You know exactly what’s on the ground and how much noise you’ll make when you take a step.” Dani ran her fingers along Lynn’s jaw as she held her gaze. “Analyzing everything around you is what you do to stay alive.”
Lynn nodded again. Where was the problem with that? Of course she was hyperaware of her surroundings; of course she knew what was going on around her at all times—except when she got so lost in Dani that she put them both at risk. “Why is that a bad thing?”
Dani smiled and shook her head. “It’s not, not out there, but in here—” She brought her hand down and pressed the palm against Lynn’s chest. “You can’t control everything that happens.”
Lynn’s heart beat faster as if reacting to Dani’s skin so close by, as if it could thump hard enough to close the distance between them. Either that or it was sheer panic that made her heart pound. “I don’t understand.”
Dani exhaled and slid her hand down Lynn’s rigid arm until she could lace their fingers. “You need to trust me.”
“I-I already told you I trust you.” But even as she said it, Lynn knew how much she was holding back from Dani, how much she guarded her emotions against the impact Dani had on her. She truly didn’t know if she would ever be able to break down those barriers.
“I know what you said, and I think you have shown me more of yourself than you’ve shown anyone else in the world.”