She’d brought me groceries.
Her reason was wild but it was also all her. She was always looking out for others, but why would she risk the weather to make sure I got some well-rounded meals? I’d bought groceries yesterday. I’d even gotten some fresh fruit and veggies.
Mom had been after me to keep my doors locked, but no one visited who wasn’t expected. I never would’ve guessed I’d be caught stark naked by Summer Kerrigan.
She’d seen everything. Including when my leg gave out and how utterly painful it was when it happened.
I blew out a breath and inhaled slowly. Exhaled. The sharp thudding was turning dull. I rose, testing the stability of the knee. My foot wasn’t happy either, but it’d hold me up. I rolled my shoulder and tested all my joints so I wouldn’t fall on my ass again.
I shrugged into a loose red flannel and pulled on my jeans. I left the socks off so I wouldn’t slip. As long as the floor wasn’t wet,I should be fine.
Before I entered the hallway, I took another steady breath. I could face her. She’d seen everything but so had other women. I couldn’t remember their names right now. Summer had a way of blowing into my world and taking up all the space.
I snagged a cane, hating the damn thing when I was usually grateful for it, and trudged into the living room. She wasn’t there, so I rounded into the kitchen.
Her back was to me and her shoulders were slumped. Her hair hung loose and was piled around the hood of her sweater.
“Doing all right?”
She spun, her bright gaze stroking down my body and back up. “You’re dressed.”
“Disappointed?” I meant it as a joke, striving for some way to lighten her mood, but goddammit, I really wanted to know.
Her already pink cheeks flushed a deeper red. “I’m so sorry I startled you.”
She’d done more than startle me. She’d given me a moment when I’d thought I’d conjured her. The way my excitement had risen... Then reality had hit—jacking off to her saucy smile and bossy mouthhadn’tmanifested her in the flesh—and the situation had become clear. She’d gotten a full frontal of the scars I hated revealing. Then all hell had broken loose.
I wanted to move on from all that. I’d remember the way her gaze lingered on my dick later. “Thank you for the groceries.”
She lifted her chin. I wasn’t the only one who wanted to leave the last ten minutes behind. “You’re welcome.”
“Have you seen outside?”
She rolled her lips in and her gaze strayed to the window. “I knew I was pushing it.”
“But you came anyway?”
She nodded.
Summer was going to get snowed in with me. Again. The flood of delight was wrong. I quashed it. “Who knows you’re here?”
“Mama. I’m sure she’s told my brothers and Lane and Cruz—Myles’s brothers.”
“Want them to come and get you in their pickup?”
“I don’t want them to risk getting stuck.”
My brain was telling me to shut up, to quit troubleshooting the situation. “Do you want me to take you home? I can stay with my parents.” My mom would be delighted and I’d be smothered and forced to play board games for hours.
“I can’t inconvenience you more than I already have.”
I’d worked more when she was here in my attempts to avoid her. Now I spent too much time trying to forget what it was like to have Summer Kerrigan under my roof. “It’s fine.”
She crossed to the sink and peered out the window. The gentle rise of the base of the mountain and the trees wouldn’t show her much except that the snow was coming fast and heavy. “How bad is it for you to be stuck with me for a few days?”
Staying with her for days would be torture, but that was my problem, not hers. “Dig into those groceries and see what scurvy-preventive meal we can make.”
CHAPTER NINE
