SHIVER by Tiffinie Helmer Read Free Book Online Page A

in her wake.
    Raven passed over the thermometer.
    “Hmm,” Eva said as she read it. “Bummer.” She sighed. “I must have left something in there.”
    Fox entered. “Is he going to be all right?”
    Raven’s heart clenched. When she’d awoken and seen her son talking with his father it had thrown her. Why couldn’t life have turned out that way? Waking to see her men having a conversation. She buried the thought. It would do no good to wish for what might have been. She needed to deal with what was. And right now her son was worried that the man he’d saved from death was journeying toward it again.
    “Do you think a patient of mine would dare not get better?” Eva asked. When Fox shook his head and released a breath, Eva smiled and mussed his hair. “Right. Now, I need you to go to school. No.” She shook her head when he went to interrupt. “The best thing you can do for me is to go to school. Aidan needs rest. He’ll be better when you get home. Okay?”
    “Promise?” Fox asked, worrying his lower lip.
    “I’ll do my best. No way will Aidan disappoint the both of us. Got it?”
    Fox took a deep breath. “Okay.” He turned to Aidan who was out cold on the bed. He leaned over and whispered something in his ear that Raven couldn’t hear. Then her son turned and faced her, his young eyes serious. “Take care of him, Mom. He needs us.”
    She felt like she’d just taken an arrow to the heart. When had her young boy become so wise? He’d always been smart, but there was a difference between smart and wise. She wrapped her arms around him, his head already even with hers. Another year and he’d be taller than her. He’d gotten those genes from his father. “I love you, Fox.” She kissed his cheek. “Now, don’t worry. Eva’s right. Aidan wouldn’t dare disobey her.”
    Fox gave each woman a solemn look before leaving the room.
    “He’s gotten attached to his stray,” Eva said.
    Raven nodded. Fox was notorious for bringing home wounded animals.
    “All right, Eva. What do we do?”
    “What?” She raised a brow. “Volunteering?”
    “No. Just…no.”
    Eva laughed. “That was well said.”
    “Listen. I just want him out of here. And that won’t happen if he’s not better. You know Mom, she’ll insist he stay.”
    “Let me get this straight.” Eva opened her bag and took out supplies to change Aidan’s bandages. “You and Lynx hate him for his part in your dad’s death, but Fiona doesn’t?”
    “She doesn’t have it in her to hate anyone.”
    “She hated Earl Harte.”
    Raven frowned. “Yeah, but…everyone hated Earl.”
    “Fiona wouldn’t hate someone because everyone else did.” Eva soaked a gauze pad with alcohol and lowered Aidan’s boxer short past his hips. “What’s this? I don’t remember seeing it last night.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “This tattoo. Look.” She pointed to the tattoo of a sun on Aidan’s hip.
    Raven caught her breath. She had a corresponding tat in the same area. She and Aidan had gotten them together when they were young and stupid, twelve years ago. She took another arrow to the heart at seeing the sun on his hip.
    “Pretty,” Eva said. “Not your usual sun. It has a Native Alaskan design. Interesting.” She tore a syringe from a plastic covering and injected the antibiotic into Aidan’s behind.
    He tossed his head on the pillow and opened his eyes. “What’s going on?”
    “You have a very high fever, idiot,” Raven said. “Why didn’t you say something?”
    “You had your head buried under the covers. And you’d told me to shut up.” He closed his eyes again.
    “You slept with him?” Eva asked.
    Raven rolled her eyes. “I slept in the bed after getting cramped in the rocking chair.”
    “Lynx told me you had been sweet on him. Sure there aren’t any unresolved feelings between you?”
    “Let’s just concentrate on getting him better and getting him out of here.”
    “Humph,” Eva said, turning to the work at hand.