Unforgettable (21 page)

 
Ethan set the crate down with more force than necessary, but I didn’t blame him.
         
 
“Oh my god let me see.” There was blood seeping from his hairline. I pulled his head down closer to my eyes and I could see three tiny puncture marks in his scalp.

 
“She got this side too,” he said as he turned his head to show me. I felt like an ass. He said she was after him and I didn’t believe him. Now he was injured and it wouldn’t have happened if I would have let him put her in the laundry room.

 
“I’m so sorry, Ethan. I didn’t think she would go after you like this.” I led him into the kitchen and tore off a paper towel that I wet in the sink. I started dabbing it on his puncture wounds and realized they weren’t as bad as I had originally thought. Whew.

 
“I tried to tell you, she’s the devil.” He said it with such sincerity that I couldn’t stop the smile.

 
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. Well, you don’t need stitches, anyway, and there’s too much hair for using a Band-Aid. We can just keep it clean.” I paused and looked over to the cat crate. “We can set her up in the laundry room.” I knew we were going to have to board her now. There was no way I would feel comfortable knowing Sparkles was capable of this kind of behavior. She had never shown me this amount of aggression. She must really hate Ethan. He hadn’t done anything to her since she got here, but I knew she must have been planning this all along.

 
I walked over and picked up the crate. Sparkles looked at me as if
she
were the victim. I wasn’t going to fall for it. She had hurt my man. Yes,
my
man. I may not remember him fully, but I was claiming him. He was just too good to pass up. If I didn’t already know him I would be falling for him on my own right now. He was great company and he was polite and caring. I’m not going to even go into what a wonderful lover he is. That was a whole other issue.

 
I set the crate down in the laundry room and turned to see Ethan behind me with her food and water bowls. He set them down as I bent to open the crate.

 
“Wait. Let me get out of here first.” He bolted to the door and shut it behind him. I carefully opened the door of the crate expecting her to launch herself at me angrily, but she just walked out calmly and went to her food bowl. If I hadn’t just seen it for myself, I wouldn’t have believed she could be so vicious.

 
“You’ve got to stay in here now, cat.” I didn’t even care to use her name. She had betrayed me by attacking Ethan after I had gone to bat for her to keep her from being locked up. I was totally on Ethan’s side and I wasn’t ashamed. I shut the laundry room door and walked back to the kitchen where Ethan was wetting a dish rag.

 
“I spilled my mousse,” he said as he walked back to the living room. I followed him and saw the long brown stripe across the floor. Luckily the glass hadn’t broken; it rested on the floor next to the mess.

 
“At least it didn’t get on the rug,” He just looked up and kept wiping. I could see his wounds were still oozing so I held out my hand. “Here, let me.” He took my hand and I pulled him up before taking the rag from him. “You should probably go clean your head up.”

 
He looked down at me and my heart started thumping. I wanted him to kiss me in the worst way but he just smiled and turned toward the bathroom. I looked down at the mess on the floor and sighed. Fucking Sparkles.

Chapter Eighteen

 
I looked down at the mousse covered rag in my hand and went to wash it out in the sink. I got some paper towels while I was in there and went back to cleaning up the mess. I felt overwhelmed with guilt. It was my fault Ethan was in the bathroom cleaning his injuries right now. If only I would have listened to him about Mom’s cat.

 
I finished in the living room and went back to the kitchen, my refuge. What now? I wanted to go and check on Ethan but what if he was mad at me? I was still feeling out of my depth a little bit. Even with all of the revelations my mind had exposed to me today. I was going to have to do something that was outside of my comfort zone. I had to make sure he was okay.

 
I could hear Sparkles screwing around in the laundry room. She was probably tearing something apart in an act of revenge, but I wasn’t about to go look in. After witnessing her treatment of Ethan, I wasn’t completely confident that she wouldn’t attack me, as well. I trudged to the bathroom to see what was up with Ethan’s head. The door was shut so I gave it a light tap.

 
“Ethan, are you all right?” He didn’t answer but he opened the door to let me in. I could see the claw marks standing out against his skin and tiny droplets of blood were still coming out of the punctures. He was holding a wet washcloth up to the other side of his head. My eyes met his in the mirror.

 
“I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t realize she would go lion on wildebeest with you.”

 
“This isn’t the first time she’s savaged me, Juliet.” He pointed to a white scar on his forearm. “This is what she gave me last time she was here.” I looked closely at his arm. It was really a magnificent arm, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted.

 
“Why didn’t you say something when Gloria called?” I mean geez, if I had been fully informed of the danger I would have at least listened to him about putting her in the laundry room.

 
“It was too late after you got off of the phone, and to be honest, I thought some of the trauma from her last visit might have come back to you.” I looked at him in confusion. What trauma? “Does diarrhea ring a bell?” He waited expectantly for an answer.

 
Diarrhea? Did the stress of cat watching give me diarrhea? Ewww. If it did I certainly didn’t feel comfortable talking about it with Ethan. That was too personal even if we were living together. He must have gathered that I wasn’t up for talking about my bodily functions right then because he put me out of my misery.

 
“The
cat
had diarrhea and she didn’t limit it to the cat box.” Oh my god, gross. “She really did a number on the couch and the rug in the bedroom.” Worse and worse. What good was this cat anyway?

 
I didn’t have anything left. “Sorry.” I was suddenly enraged at Gloria. Surely I must have told her what had happened after the last time she left Sparkles here. She had obviously either used the amnesia to her own benefit or she really didn’t care how badly she was putting us out. I was leaning toward the latter. She was selfish enough not to put a bit of thought into how much this was inconveniencing us. No, this went beyond inconvenience. She was putting us in physical danger. What sort of a mother would do that to her only child?

 
“She must have known all that, right?” He nodded. “Why would she bring her back here?”

 
“I guess she was hard up for a cat sitter since the trip came up on short notice.”

 
“She really doesn’t care, does she?”

 
“I do.” Ethan reached over with his free hand and pulled me into a hug. I was embarrassed by Gloria’s lack of maternal love. I knew Ethan couldn’t even fathom how it felt. Ellen showered affection on Carrie and Ethan. She went out of her way to make sure they knew they were loved. Carrie was always receiving care packages from Ellen when we were roomies, even though we lived in the same city. Family dinners at their home, while usually unpalatable, were warm and wonderful. Gloria’s…not so much, although things were a little better since she married Bill. He was pretty cool, and I think she tried to put on a front for him. Oh, but she said she divorced Bill. That was just another mark against her in my book.

 
I let myself stand in his arms, absorbing his pity like a sponge. I knew it was weak since I have had almost thirty years to get used it, but, as always, it hurt. I let him comfort me for a moment more before I remembered he was bleeding from the head.

 
“Sorry. I came in here to see if I could do anything for you and you end up making me feel better.”

 
“Stop apologizing. It’s done, but I am calling a kennel first thing tomorrow.” He spoke decisively. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer and I found that highly arousing.

 
“Okay.” I gave in on the kennel without a second thought. Who cares if Gloria didn’t want to board her
baby
? Not me, that was for sure. “Now, let me see the damage.” I stepped back from him and took his head in my hands.

 
It was ugly and to be perfectly truthful, the sight of blood usually made me feel sick, but knowing that I was partly responsible for the damage and the fact that he really was too good to be true seemed to hold off the nausea. I felt strong in the manner of a WWII nurse treating soldiers under fire. I just did what had to be done.

 
“I should put some antibiotic on it,” I told him knowledgeably. I went to the cabinet and pulled out the first aid kit. I found some in both cream form and spray so I pulled out the spray figuring it would give lots of coverage without me actually having to touch the blood and cuts.

 
I held the can near his temple and pushed the button. A weird stream of medicine came spurting out, punctuated by big droplets of white.
Hmm, the nozzle must be clogged
. I was about to turn the can so that I could look at it more closely but Ethan grabbed it out of my hand and set it on the counter. He shook his head as looked at the gooey mess on the side of his face and used the wash cloth still in his hand to wipe it off.

 
“I’ll just use the cream.” He grabbed the tube out of the box and started smearing it on his lacerations as I stood there feeling superfluous. So much for my nursing fantasy; he was obviously fine without my help. I turned to leave the bathroom but he stopped me. “Don’t leave. I like you in here tending my wounds. I don’t think I’ve ever had a prettier nurse.”

 
Omigod. It’s like he read my mind. I couldn’t help the smile that bloomed across my face at his words. He always knew just what to say to make me feel better. I realized instantly that I was recalling this from some time in my hazy past, but nothing in particular stood out, just the knowledge that it was true. It kind of freaked me out to be honest, this half remembering. It reminded me of this time in college when I ate a pot brownie. I was still mostly in control, but parts of my brain felt scrambled.

 
The kitchen was still filthy and I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving it like that so I figured now was a good time to leave Ethan to his own devices and get my own head together.

 
“I’m going to go take care of the dishes. You can finish up in here without me.” I smiled as I fled to the kitchen. It was a relief to be out of Ethan’s orbit for a bit. He still had the ability to get me flustered. I wondered if I usually reacted like that or if I had gotten used to being around him. I assumed everything was okay since I couldn’t imagine inviting him to live with me if I felt even the slightest bit uncomfortable around him, but who knows? Maybe he dazzled me or something.

 
I was steadily cleaning the kitchen and thinking of various scenarios under which I would have asked him to move in. Did his apartment have a flood and he came to stay but then never left? Was it a weak moment after sex? That was a possibility now that I had experienced some of his sexual prowess for myself, but still, that didn’t seem like me. Maybe he was hard up for money and needed a roommate so I generously offered him my home. Hmm, that was even more unlikely than any of my other ideas. For one thing, the Ross family had money. All of them. Carrie got a pretty big inheritance when her grandma died so I figured Ethan did too. I was probably the one in need of financial help and in need of a roommate to share expenses. God, I hoped that wasn’t the case. How humiliating. I couldn’t even be someone’s sugar mama in my daydreams.

 
Before I knew it the kitchen was clean and I was standing there, with nothing to do. Lucy had been hovering around my feet since her own encounter with Sparkles so I picked her up and carried her with me into the living room. Ethan wasn’t out there like I was expecting. I walked down the hall looking into the bathroom and office which were both empty. I opened the door to the bedroom and saw him standing in front of my night table with his back to me.