She had watched him sew himself back together. She had cleaned his wound. She had undressed him.

“I have to grade papers.”

“No problem.”

And somehow, for the rest of the day, they managed to work around each other. She graded papers. Drank tea. He slept on the couch. At some point, she got her tablet and watched TV, sitting at the kitchen table. He slept some more.

She made soup for dinner, and she brought it to him on the couch.

She gave him pain pills when he needed them.

It felt strange, and it felt companionable.

And it was a relief when no bad guys came and knocked the door down. Because yeah, she felt a little bit of paranoia. It was impossible not to.

On Sunday morning, she realized that she had to get some supplies.

“We’re going to need some more first aid things, and some food. I’m going to go into town and get it. Stay put. And don’t hurt yourself.”

“I’m neither a child nor a dog,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt myself.”

“Yeah right. I see you getting restless. I would put a cone of shame on you if I thought it would help.”

She decided to go to the nearest store. A little all-in-one market with a weird collection of things specifically tailored to the area. Pyrite Falls was hardly a town. More of a row of buildings. To do serious shopping, you had to go farther afield. But she just needed some vegetables and meat, and the great thing about the little store was that it stocked local fruits and veggies. As far as meat went, she made a quick stop at Garrett’s Watch for that. She also stopped by the community garden at the Sullivans’ for some fruit.

So much of this place was self-contained. It made things easy.

When she got home and opened the door, Clayton was gone.

CHAPTER FOUR

HE DIDN’T HAVE a very good idea of where he was, not yet. He paced around outside the cabin, taking in the scenery. No, he’d gone some hella wrong direction in the dark, delirious from the blood loss. No doubt about that. He hadn’t done himself any favors. That was for damn sure.

He didn’t know where his cabin was. Or his money, for that matter.

And he was already exhausted, winded from walking around for the last half hour.

This was some bullshit. He wasn’t used to being incapacitated. Not in any way. He didn’t like it at all.

He took note of a few things on the outside of the little house. It was in good shape, mostly, but there was a shutter in the back that was hanging, and there was a big stack of firewood that was in want of splitting. He wanted to do some things for Tala. She had gone above and beyond. He didn’t know very many people who would do this kind of thing for a stranger. Hell, he didn’t know anyone who would.