Loving A STRANGER

Khloe looked at Kylie and said, "You should know that, once daddy is a little better, I am going to go to the police and have you charged with attempted manslaughter. I still think you should kill yourself but, if that doesn"t suit you, you might want to drain your accounts and split."

Kylie chuckled and said, "Dear sister, you are just too funny. You didn"t use your brain,"

"You...You will pay for this!" Khloe screamed, but Kylie had left her already.

***

As soon as Kylie entered the house, she smelled a pleasant odor. She called out to Lucy and asked what the smell was. Instead of yelling, Lucy met her in the living room and explained that Stephen and Cecil were cooking. Lucy looked Kylie over and asked her what was wrong with her leg.

"It is nothing," she replied, "so please don"t mention anything about it to Ethan."

Little did she know; Stephen was within earshot of where they were standing. He casually walked into the room and said, "What"s the big secret?"

"Nothing," Kylie replied as she stepped behind the couch so that he couldn"t see her leg. "Apparently, in the future, I will have to be more conscientious about what I say and about who might be listening." 

"Don"t worry," Stephen sighed. "Your secret is safe with me. Now show me where it hurts. Perhaps I might be able to help somehow."

Kylie walked around the couch so that Stephen could see her ankle. He looked at her and asked her what had happened. Kylie explained how Khloe had smashed a potted plant on the ground and, like shrapnel, a large chunk had flown through the air and embedded itself into her leg. Stephen looked closer and said, "I can treat this if you let me, and I can make it impossible for Ethan to see."

Lucy fetched the medicine bag from the bathroom and opened it for Stephen. Before he did anything, though, he said, "This will help a lot, but it will also hurt a lot as I treat the wound. Try not to scream, though. It will make me anxious."

Stephen cleaned the wound first, with cotton b.a.l.l.s, hydrogen peroxide, and then with an antiseptic cream.

Once Stephen was done treating her leg, Kylie couldn"t believe what a good job he"d done. Kylie said that it barely hurt, and he had actually succeeded in making it invisible. "You have magic hands," she gasped. "You should be a famous surgeon!"

"Not really," Stephen laughed. "This was nothing. Forget about it. Supper is done. "Cecil and I made steak, spaghetti, Pan-fried salmon, potatoes, and shrimp. Let"s eat before it gets cold."

Ethan walked into the dining room. He bowed to kiss Kylie"s forehead and said, "Yes, let"s eat."

Kylie looked at the food and then up at Ethan. With a shy smile, she said, "I am afraid that I will soon be fat if Stephen and Cecil continue to cook for us. Their cooking is so good that I have a very hard time stopping myself from eating."

Ethan smiled and said, "We can work out more in the evening to keep you as slim as you want to be."

Kylie"s cheeks turned red, and she rolled her eyes. In an attempt to turn the attention away from herself, she looked across the table and asked Stephen if Dinah knew that she was back. 

"She is very busy," Stephen replied. "I don"t want to bother her until the time is right."

"You can"t hide forever," Kylie laughed. "She is your girlfriend, isn"t she?"

Stephen scowled and lay his knife and fork down on his plate. "If you"ll excuse me," he coughed as he stood up, "I"m full."

Having said this, Stephen walked away. "What"s wrong with him?" Kylie muttered. "He is often weird like that, but I never know why…"

"Don"t worry about it," Ethan said. "Put it out of your mind. Once we are done eating, we will go for a walk in the garden,"

"I would like that," Kylie replied.

Once the dishes were cleared, Ethan took Kylie"s hand and led her out into the garden. Kylie loved the garden. It was beautiful, quiet, and private. In public, she always felt like she could never let her guard down. Even in her own home, it often felt like she was being watched. Out in the garden, though, she always felt safe.

She looked up and asked him a question that had been on her mind: "Is it true that neither Stephen nor Nate know Dora"s secret?"

Ethan"s brow furrowed, and he asked her why she was bringing up Dora all of a sudden.

"It is not so much Dora that I was thinking of," Kylie admitted. "More than anything, I am curious to know how far you and your boys would go to cover for each other."

Ethan scowled and said, "Don"t worry about my brothers, they are more honest than you"ve been lately. Am I not right? Did you think that I wouldn"t find out about your leg?"

Kylie turned away from him and asked him when he"d figured out that she was injured, and he said, "I could tell as soon as we started walking. If only slightly, you are limping. Now tell me the meaning of these questions, and then tell me what happened to your leg."

Kylie sat down on a bench, and Ethan sat down beside her. "If Stephen and Nate don"t know Dora"s secret, the implications aren"t good. From my point of view, it seems that, if you were actually acting unethically, they would cover for you…"

"If you are that concerned," Ethan laughed, "Please feel free to follow me around all day, every day."

"My biggest concern," Kylie admitted, "is that if you screwed around me, I could get a s.e.xually transmitted disease."