Chapter Eight
Marla
His face looked like it’d been put through a meat grinder. My stomach threatened to be sick every time I saw it. Not the gore, with three brothers and the Lakeland boys. I’d seen my share of that growing up.
No, it was because it was Tank. My insides turned over every time I thought about him getting hurt. Now, here I was going to have to hurt him more.
Gently wiping at the cuts with peroxide, I held my breath. But the big lug didn’t even flinch. He just stared off into space.
I knew he was thinking about his father. What must it be like to go through life with that constant tension? That sense of not being good enough for your own parent. I couldn’t imagine it.
“You’re going to need stitches,” I said as I pressed on the cut at the top of his forehead. “Or you’ll get a scar.”
“Good,” he said, “it will remind me what an asshole he is.”
“I’m serious,” I said, “you need to go to the doctor’s.”
“So am I. No doctor. Just hold it until it stops bleeding, then put a bandage on it.
“Tank,” I said with a touch of desperation.
“Marla, please, just bandage it up. If it doesn't stop bleeding in a bit, I’ll get Jason to take me in.”
I slowly shook my head. The man was impossible.
“Take your shirt off, you’ve got a couple of cuts on your neck.”
Tank nodded and gingerly pulled his shirt over his head, wincing when it caught on one of the bandages.
My heart jumped. The man was so big, so strong. His hard muscles rippled as he gathered his shirt and dropped it on the floor.
For a moment, I was transfixed. Then I was embarrassed by my obvious reaction. The guy had to have seen me staring at that wide, hard chest. He had to.
Sighing to myself, I pulled myself together and focused on the patient. The last thing I needed was Tank thinking I was affected by him.
Nope, not going to happen.
Once I had cleaned the cuts on his neck, I cleaned the rest of his cuts on his face, then the raw scratches on his fists. I looked at his lips and sent up a silent prayer of thanks. They seemed to have gotten through the fight without incident. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for his left eye. It looked like it was half swollen shut and the skin color of his cheekbone was already starting to turn an ugly blue. It was going to be a real shiner.
Without thinking, my fingers reached up and gently touched the edge of his cheekbone. Tank, hurt, injured. It was enough to make my world seem unsteady. Nothing ever hurt Tank.
As I held my hand there, our eyes locked. For a long slow minute, we looked into each other’s eyes and read the other’s soul. There can be no other words for it.
My heart pounded in my chest. My fingers trembled, and I thought my head would burst. But I could not look away. I could not pull myself out of his stare.
Tank continued to look into my eyes, then his glance traveled down to my lips, and I felt my world begin to move.
He continued to stare, and I swear I heard our two hearts pounding the same beat.
Then, with just a slight movement, I knew he was going to kiss me. There was no doubt, and my mind exploded with hope and anticipation as I moved towards him.
It was all he needed, a gentle hint from me, and our lips met. As if they had always meant to come together.
Heaven, pure, sweet, strong heaven.
My heart raced as he slowly caressed my lips with his. This was what I had always wanted. This moment, this now.
Sighing, I moaned softly and sank into him. My arm going around his neck to make sure he didn’t change his mind. This was mine. No one would ever be able to take this moment away from me.
I felt him shiver as his tongue tasted my lips. The burning need in me pushed me to get closer to him. Every dream, every hurt, and denial over the years. All of it came together in that moment.
I was lost, and I could feel him becoming lost as well.
It could have been but minutes or a thousand years. I will never know. But slowly, Tank began to pull back. My lips demanded that I follow him. Follow him wherever he went. But I grabbed onto the last bit of my self-respect and pulled back as well.
We looked at each other. Neither of us able to believe what had just happened.
“Marla ...” he started. A pinched, hurt look crossed his face, sending my heart to my feet.
“Do not say you are sorry. Do not do it. You wanted that as much as I did. I might not know everything. But I know that.”
Tank gulped and shook his head. “I wasn’t going to say I was sorry. That was too special. But ...”
“But what,” I demanded as I backed away from him. My world was spinning. I had just kissed Tank Gunderson. What was even more shocking? He had kissed me. Suddenly, I needed room to breathe.
“What?” I asked. “You are going to tell me I’m too young. I’m only sixteen. Let me remind you that you are only seventeen.
“I’ll be eighteen next month,” he said quietly.
The look on his face didn’t give me a clue as to what he was thinking. It was just a shocked, dumb look of disbelief.
“Or are you going to try and tell me that I’m Jason’s little sister. And that you think of me as a little sister. Just a silly little girl who doesn’t know anything about real life.”
He slowly shook his head as if unable to believe the raging banshee in front of him.
I really should shut up. If I had any brains, I would have gotten out of that room before I made an even bigger fool of myself.
But me, being me, kept on digging that hole even deeper.
“Or, I know, you were going to say something about we are friends. And that is all we could ever be.”
He smiled slowly. Wincing when his cheek muscles stretched over his cuts and bruises. Slowly his hand reached out and gently touched my shoulder.
“Marla,” he said, his voice washing over me like a gentle stream. “I don’t know what I was going to say. It sort of surprised me. I didn’t plan this.”
“What? You didn’t plan a fight with your dad just so you could get me alone to kiss me?”
He laughed. “No, although, if I had known it would be like that. I probably would have.”
My insides relaxed. “You’re not mad at me?”
He smiled, then pulled me into an embrace and slowly lowered his lips again.
Kissing Tank a second time was even better. This time I had some idea of what was going on.
Eventually, he pulled back and smiled at me. “I don’t know about you. But I think we have a serious problem here.”
“What?” I asked breathlessly as my mind fought to get back to some kind of normal.
He smiled again. “Well, I’m mooching off your parents. You are too young, you are Jason’s sister. And I no longer think of you as just a friend.”
My stomach turned into a solid rock again. Here it comes, I thought. The gentle let down. The sweet push to the side of the road. Grimacing I looked into his eyes and tried to prepare my heart for the pain coming my way.
“But?” I asked
“But,” he continued, pausing for a moment, dragging out my misery. “But, I don’t know what is going to happen. Between us, I mean. It is sort of scaring the crap out of me, to be honest. I mean, are you feeling what I’m feeling? Or, is this just you, feeling sorry for me?”
I immediately hit him in the shoulder with my best punch. I really was going to have to toughen up my hands if I was going to spend any time around this guy.
“Tank Gunderson,” I said as I put my hands on my hip. “If you don’t know how I feel about you after that kiss, then you have got to be one of the dumbest people in the world.”
He smiled slowly then nodded. “Yeah, that was what I thought. Which is a good thing. I didn’t want to be the only one having these feelings. It makes things a bit awkward.”
“Tell me about it,” I said as I relaxed. That was the thing about Tank. I knew him. I understood him.
“So, what next?” he asked as his brow creased around the bandage on his forehead.
I shrugged my shoulders. My mind a blank. In all my daydreams, I’d never really gotten much beyond this point. Not on the non-physical aspects of things at least.
“I think we should keep this to ourselves,” Tank said with a frown. “At least until we figure out what this is. Besides. I don’t exactly want to get into a hassle with Jason. One fight a day is my normal rule.”
All I could do was nod my head. It seemed my voice had decided to go on vacation all of a sudden. He wasn’t pushing me away. He wasn’t acting like there was nothing there. Sure, I wanted to scream it from a roof top. Tell the world that Tank Gunderson liked me. But I could understand. For now.
Stepping back, I put my hands in my back pockets and tried not to blush.
“I’d better go help Mom,” I said as I started to gather the first aid stuff. Suddenly, all I could think about was getting away from him. Here I had been dreaming about being with him, and now all I wanted was to be alone to think about what had just happened.
He smiled, and I could tell that he was thinking the same thing. What an emotional rollercoaster he must be on. I thought, first his dad. Now me. What must he be going through? One of the many things I knew about Tank. He didn’t like change. Now here I was, introducing a whole new set of problems to his life.
I got out of there before I could make it any worse.
Later, at dinner, I sat there, my hands folded in my lap, holding my breath, waiting for Tank to come in.
When he stepped into the room, my mom gasped and asked, “What happened to you?”
Tank bit his lip and turned a bright pink. I could tell how much he wanted to avoid this. So, I jumped in.
“He got into a fight with his dad. He’s okay, I cleaned his cuts. What’s for dinner?”
My mom looked back and forth between the two of us, frantically trying to figure out what was going on.
Dad frowned. That deep Dad frown of his that lets you know he wasn’t pleased about something. Then he smiled slightly and said, “I’ve seen worse.”
Tank’s shoulders relaxed just a little. Smiling at me in silent thanks he sat down next to me and waited for the meatloaf to be passed.
Under the table, I pushed my leg over next to his. Resting it against his knee. My heart stopped while I waited for him to shift away from me. But he didn’t. Not my Tank. He kept his leg there, next to mine, sending shivers of pure joy up and down my spine.
“So, I’ve got to hang some cabinets this weekend,” my dad said to Tank. “You available to give me a hand?”
“Yes, Sir,” Tank said as he took a roll and passed me the platter.
“What about me?” Jason asked with that pouty face of his that irked me to no end.
“I only need one,” Dad said, “besides, you’ve got a list of chores a mile long that need to be done.”
“Too much time mooning over Amber,” Michael said, relishing getting a shot in at his older brother. “What she sees in you I will never know.”
“You be quiet,” Mom said to him. “Your list is almost as long.”
Tank laughed, and I felt the world shift back to an even keel. My family. Happy, content, and completely unaware that a short while earlier, Tank Gunderson and I had been making out in my basement.
If they had, things might have been a bit more awkward, I realized. To say the least. Tank had been right. Until we figured things out, best that no one has any idea what was going on.
Sighing to myself, I started eating, making sure my leg was touching his throughout the meal.
They might not know what had happened. But I did. And no one could ever take that away from me.