Scattered Seeds

Chapter Thirty

Tom’s naked body stirred on the mattress. The gauzy sheet wrapped between his legs and over part of his abdomen slid over his skin as he drifted awake. When his eyelids finally opened Tom forgot where he was for a brief moment.

Memories of the terrible day he’d survived bombarded him with a fury, but then Tom’s mind fast-forwarded to what happened just before he’d fallen asleep the night before.

Jess.

At last, they’d made love.

He could still feel her body against his; her kisses on his flesh and the way it felt to be inside of her.

Wonderful.

Sweet, wonderful bliss.

Tom smiled sleepily up at the ceiling as he recalled telling Jess that he loved her. Instinctively, he reached out to touch her, to hold her.

But he was alone in the bed.

Tom moved his arm from the empty spot on the mattress and lifted his head to scan the workshop. Jess’s clothes from the night before were still on the floor.

“Jess?” he called out. “Jess?”

Silence, except for distant voices coming from the street outside, was all that returned to him.

Tom pulled himself from the bed, eager to find his Love and start the day with her. With no other immediate option, Tom put his pajama bottoms back on, and then picked up his grey tee from the floor. After slipping on his flip flops, he made for the porch.

The Somali sky was overcast, but that did nothing to dim the bright light beaming in Tom’s heart.

He scanned the lane for any sign of Jess as the screen door banged shut behind him.

Rick Beckett was headed for his motorcycle when he spotted a shirtless Tom coming out of the workshop. He was never the scholarly type, but even Rick could put together what had transpired between Tom and Jess the night before. His broad grin and the spring in Tom’s step as he tugged on his shirt, and then bounded down from the porch were evidence enough that the Englishman had finally gotten what he wanted.

Good.

Maybe now Tom would stop giving the doctor such dirty looks and everyone could just get along.

Rick thought of his Michela, and great despondency overcame the Aussie. She’d yet to answer any of his calls. Rick wondered if Micky would have even cared if he’d died in that fire yesterday….

“Rick!” Tom hollered as he came down the dirt street.

Tom jogged up to the blonde man, and Rick chuckled at how ridiculously happy the lanky bloke looked.

“Have you seen Jess this morning?” Tom asked in a rush.

“She’s in the clinic with Luke, Harry, and Samuel,” Beckett replied with a nod back at the building.

Tom didn’t even recoil at the mention of the doctor. His crisp blue eyes, keen and hopeful, shot to the clinic, and Tom patted Rick’s shoulder in appreciation.

“Many thanks, my friend!” Tom shouted back over his shoulder as he hurried away see his lover.

Tom greeted Nadifa, and then made his way down the hall to Luke’s and Harry’s room. When he turned into the doorway, Tom saw Samuel and Jess standing beside the publicist’s bed. Samuel had a clipboard with a chart attached to it, and he was reviewing Luke’s stats with Jess. Harry was sound asleep in the cot across from Luke’s.