Love in Many Languages by Jamie Bennett

Author:Jamie Bennett [Bennett, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-05T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

I woke up when I heard the clang.

“God damn it, Tanner! Will you watch what you’re doing?”

“So you’re the paint expert, too? You know fucking everything about everything, right?”

“I know that you can’t carry all that and not expect to drop something. You probably woke up Ione when you let go of the ladder!”

The fighting continued.

I stretched, feeling the soft sheets around me and the cool air in the dining room. I had been sleeping a little better, feeling a little better. I lay with my eyes closed until there was another loud noise, a crash, and the fighting intensified.

It took me a moment, then I started to really wonder what Cooper and his brother were doing outside my window. I slowly and carefully turned to my side, then pushed myself to a sit, acclimating, before I stood up. I deactivated the alarm system, undid the locks, and stepped out into the morning sunshine. “Hi,” I said, blinking in the light. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re painting your house,” Cooper explained.

“What? You are?”

“And we’re arguing,” he continued. “Because Tanner is not listening, as per his norm. Right?”

Tanner didn’t answer. He was staring at me, at my face, at my arms and shoulders, all visible in my tank top. “Ione,” he breathed, and I thought he might cry.

“Tanner!” his brother barked. “Get your ass in gear. Remember what we have in the car?”

Tanner tore his eyes away from me. “Oh, yeah. Right.” He came back with a paper bag. “Here, we got this for you.” Now he couldn’t seem to look at my face at all, and studied his shoes instead of making eye contact.

“Drawer’s jockey serum,” Cooper explained. “They’re little sweet buns, right?”

“Really? You got me drozdzówki z serem?” I inhaled the delicious aroma of the Polish pastries. “Where did you get these? How did you know that I love them?”

Cooper picked up some of the equipment that his brother had dropped. “You mentioned it when we were out to dinner at L’Argent, about your grandmother making them.”

Tanner muttered something about going to five bakeries.

“Thank you,” I told them both. “It’s been years since I had these. Why don’t you come in and eat with me? You don’t really have to paint my house.”

Tanner’s face lit up but Cooper shook his head. “No, thanks. We already ate. It’s better to do this now before it gets too hot.” So his brother reluctantly picked up a roller cover.

I got dressed, taking a long time in the shower, examining the bruises that I could see. They were getting better. It was the internal stuff, the bruised ribs, the fractures and plate in my arm, the concussion—that was what was worried me more. But I wondered about my face, since it had been bad enough to make Sania almost run away and Tanner almost cry. There was a tiny mirror in my grandma’s old compact. It was in a box of her things in my studio, but I hadn’t been in there yet.

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