“Huh?”
Jed grinned a wry grin that made him seem much younger than his thirty-two years. “You might want to watch that dog of yours. She talks.”
Max scowled. “Very funny. I switched before you moved in, if you must know.”
“Why?”
Max chewed on his lip as he debated his answer. It was difficult to explain the way he’d seen Jed’s eyes light up when Max had shown him the room with the view. Until that moment, there’d been no life in the weary stranger at all. “It made you smile, and I thought maybe it had been too long.”
Jed let out a sigh that was soft and long suffering all at the same time. “You’re probably right. And thanks, I do like the room. That window makes me feel like I’m out in the open. I like that. Sleeping inside still feels kinda weird for me.”
It was probably the most Jed had ever revealed about himself in one breath, but Max let it pass without comment. Jed didn’t like to talk about himself, and some days he didn’t like to talk at all. “Where did you go yesterday? You weren’t stuck at the hospital all day, were you?”
“Hmm? Oh, no. I went to Seattle for a meeting. I had PT in the evening, but Carla took it easy on me.”
“She did, eh? That doesn’t sound like her. What’s in Seattle for you? Work?”
“Yeah, I suppose,” Jed said. “I’ve got all this linguistic shit in my head, so I figured I might as well use it.”
He went on to explain about the translating work while Max tried to comprehend how anyone could speak as many languages as Jed did. The dude was smart. Seriously smart. Even Max was sharp enough to know he’d been wasted in the Army.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, actually,” Jed said, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over them. “Though I guess now isn’t the best time.”
Curious, Max rolled onto his side and propped his head up with his upturned palm. “What’s up?”
Jed shifted his body too, facing Max in a position that felt natural and intimate. “Is there any reason you don’t have an Internet connection? Does it mess with your epilepsy?”
Disappointed, though he couldn’t say why, Max shook his head. “I have the access points, it’s just not hooked up. I can’t really afford another bill. Do you need it for your work?”
“Yeah, but I guess I could work at the library—”
“That would defeat the point of working from home. But I don’t have a computer anymore.”
Jed grinned. “Neither did I until yesterday. What happened to yours? Did you break it?”
Max glared again, though it was halfhearted. Jed had lived with him long enough to learn his propensity for breaking anything even remotely technological. “No, I sold it. I figured the tools I needed were more practical.”
He made to turn away, but suddenly found himself captivated by the sight of Jed stretching his arms over his head. Jed was wearing a hoodie over his T-shirt, but Max could see the outline of his tattoo poking out over his wrist.
Naturally, Jed caught him staring before he could look away. “You like ink?”
Max shrugged. It wasn’t something he’d ever really thought about until he’d met Jed and become transfixed by the dark flame design that circled his entire forearm. “Sometimes,” he hedged. “What does the writing mean?”
In answer, Jed rolled his sleeve up and revealed the script that ran through the flickering flames. “The script was done a few years after the artwork. It’s Indonesian and means ‘death doesn’t bargain.’”
Max shuddered as the air in the room seemed to shift, but this time, it wasn’t his brain playing tricks on him. This time it was the flicker of torment in Jed’s eyes, a flash of haunted darkness that told him the tattoo was far more than a simple piece of body art.
With a shaky hand, he tugged Jed’s sleeve back down. “I went to Indonesia once. Jakarta, I think, but I was a baby. I don’t remember it.”
Jed dropped his arm back to his side and curled it close to his body. “That’s a long way from home. How did you end up there?”
“My dad worked away a lot when we were little. He took us with him sometimes. I don’t remember most of it, but the pins on the map remind me where I’ve been.”
A look of comprehension colored Jed’s features. “You get around.”
Max shook his head. “Used to. Apart from coming here, I haven’t traveled since I was six years old.”
“I never left the damn state until I was eighteen.”