Succulents on the Window Sill

Chapter 3

Zach shifted, manoeuvering on the bed until he lay across it, head coming to rest in Corinne's lap. It felt odd to have him lay like this, but not nearly as much as it should do.

"I can see up your nose."

"Shut up." Her words came out softer than Corinne had expected them to. "I thought your head was supposed to be so sore that you could barely see?"

His shoulders rose before falling again in an awkward shrug. Corinne poured a few droplets of the peppermint oil onto her fingertips, before rubbing them together and beginning to massage it into Zach's temples. 

He sighed, body visibly relaxing as she worked it into his skin. 

"See, you do it like this, not slap it on like a..." She couldn't think of a good example. 

"Like how you put on your makeup." He grinned a boyish grin up at Corinne, and she flicked his ear as punishment.

"My makeup is fine, thank you."

"Yeah, I know. It's not like you don't spend hours buffing and blending it in to avoid that cake face you talked about." Corinne was surprised he remembered so much of what she'd said when getting ready for their wedding breakfast on Sunday morning. Granted Zach had watched her every move, asking more questions about the process than what she had expected. He had shown an interest, and it had been kind of nice. 

"Is this helping at all yet?" Corinne pushed her fingers back towards his hairline, watching Zach's expression closely as his eyes slowly slipped closed.

"You have the hands of an angel, I swear, Corinne." 

She smiled at that, not expecting the compliment. She put just a little more pressure on the points before easing off again. "I'll put a little behind your ears, then we'll move on to the lavender." 

Zach nodded, and Corinne poured some more peppermint onto her fingertips before reaching behind his ears. His eyes were open again, watching her face as she worked. She couldn't help but stare back, watching Zach watch her. His expression was unreadable, but Corinne felt so tired right now that she didn't even care to understand it. Zach was entitled to his own thoughts, and she'd leave him to them. 

"What do you want to do tonight?" His voice was soft, sleepy.

"Sleep." 

Zach smiled. "Great minds think alike, huh."

"Can you put on the lavender yourself?" Her hands were massaging, then pausing as her brain cut out, forgetting the movements she was meant to be doing. The bed was beneath her, the pillows so soft she could sink into them, and Zach was a warm weight, the security their joining was making her crave. His breath was even, slow and steady. It wasn't quite at the rhythm for sleep, but it was close enough that it was like a lullaby in the silence of the bedroom. 

"No, I can't do it as well as you can."

"Zach, just try." He had been hopeless at applying it before, to the point where it did Corinne harm to watch. She had shown him how to do it now though, and there was no excuse why he couldn't do it as well as she when she was currently fumbling around his ears seconds from sleep. 

"Why? I have a wife to do these things for me now." Corinne stuck out her tongue at him, and he replied with a lazy grin. "I'm in so much pain that I couldn't focus how you can."

"Stop trying to manipulate me, Zach." With a chuckle he rolled over onto his side, nose pressing against Corinne's stomach. "Get up you idiot! I can only do one side of you with lavender like this." He ignored her, and Corinne reached for the bottle of lavender oil with a frustrated sigh.