Tribute

she reached back for the hook of her bra. “Definitely stiff and sore.”
    “Let me. I have experience with these devices.”
    She smiled, let her arms drop as he moved behind her.
    Fresh fury gushed into him, one hot blast of blind, mindless rage. Bruises purpled across her back, along her shoulder blades, in angry storm clouds. More bruising mottled the skin high on her left biceps, and a raw, red line like a burn rode over her shoulder.
    “Having trouble with the mechanics?” Cilla asked him.
    “No.” Amazing, he thought, how calm his voice sounded. How matter-of-fact. “You’ve got some bruises back here.”
    “So that’s what I feel. It must be from when he shoved me against the truck.” She tipped her head to the side, down, then sucked in some air as she brushed her fingers over her shoulder and across her chest. “Seat belt burn, too. Shit. Well, better than the alternative.”
    “Fuck that.” He said it softly, but still she shifted to look around at him.
    “Ford.”
    “Fuck. That.” He bit off the words now as that gush of fury spewed out, a raging, boiling geyser. “You’ll have to get your calm and your Zen somewhere else, because I’m not up for it. Goddamn it. Goddamn it! The son of a bitch came at you. You’re all bruised and bashed up. He did that to you. Did you see your truck? For Christ’s sake, did you see what he did, what he tried to do? He hurt you.”
    She’d turned to face him, to stare at him. With hands stunningly gentle in contrast to his face, his voice, he unhooked her work pants, crouched to ease them down her legs.
    “Your truck’s in a fucking ditch, and the only reason you’re not is because you took him out. There were skid marks on the road as far as I could see.” He took off her shoes, her socks, lifted her foot, then the other to free them of the pants.
    “Better than the alternative? Better comes when I kick that crazy, murderous bastard’s teeth down his throat. That’s when better comes.” He turned her around, unhooked her bra.
    He picked her up, eased her into the bubbling water where she just sat, staring at him.
    “I’ll get the aspirin and that robe you brought over.”
    After he strode away and up the stairs, Cilla let out a long breath. “Wow,” was really all she could think of.
    Meditation might not have worked very well for her, but Cilla found fifteen minutes in hot water with pulsing jets helped considerably. Especially with the image of Ford’s anger playing behind her closed lids.
    Steadier than she’d have believed possible, she carefully climbed out. As she wrapped herself in a towel, she heard him coming back down the stairs.
    “I’ll do that,” he said when she started to flip the lid back over the tub. “Here.”
    He handed her pills, water, and when she’d taken them, helped her into the white terry robe she’d left at his place.
    “Sorry about before. You don’t need the ravings of another maniac.”
    “You’re wrong. You helped me, you gave me exactly what I needed by staying calm when I was the shakiest. You stayed steady, and took me to the cool and the quiet. You gave me magic peas, and you let me lean on you. There have been a very limited number of people in my life that let me lean on them.”
    She laid her hands on his chest, on either side of his heart. “And after I got through the worst of it, you gave me something else. The outrage, the anger, the blind thirst for revenge. It helps to know someone could feel that on my behalf. That while he was feeling all that, he could still take care. It’s no wonder I fell for you.”
    “I’m so in love with you, Cilla.”
    “Oh.” She felt a jolt, nearly as violent as she had while under attack. “Oh, Ford.”
    “Maybe it’s lousy timing, but that doesn’t change a thing. It’s not what I was looking for. It’s not simple and easy, just picking which bed we use and who walks home in the morning. That’s how I figured it, and I was wrong.”
    “Ford—”
    “I’m not finished yet. When that woman—Lori—called, she was careful to let me know right off you were okay. But all she had to do was say accident , and my heart stopped. I never really understood what it was to be afraid until that moment.”
    Everything he’d felt, and was feeling now, swirled in his eyes. So much, Cilla thought. So much in there.
    “When I got there, and I saw you sitting on the side of the road. So pale. The relief came first, waves of it. Waves. There she is. I