I don’t miss the weight behind her words. They sit heavy on my shoulders.
That’s why, whispers a voice in the back of my mind.
A knock hits the door.
“I’ll get it,” Bennett calls as Lucy murmurs something about that being her ride.
I step into the living room while my brother throws the door wide to reveal a striking woman with big energy, lethal eyes, and battle-ready posture.
“Stella,” he says,voice flat.
“Bennett,” she snaps. “Seriously? You body-checked a woman on crutches?”
“Wouldn’t have happened if you’d picked her up on time.” My brother draws himself up to his full height and glares down at the woman on my porch.
She looks as bothered by him as she would a baby bunny. “I was just heading out when she told me about this whole thing.”
“Oh, look at that,” Bennett says dryly, “all these years later and still, nothing’s ever your fault.”
Charged silence descends between them and suddenly I’m the one looking for an exit strategy.
Lucy struggles to her feet with a heavy sigh. “That’s enough, you two. Thank you, Dr. Kincaid, for looking at my ankle and for the help you’re offering.”
“Please, call me Nash.” I hand her the bag of ice wrapped in a paper towel, not sure what I find more disconcerting, the flash of feeling jolting through me when our fingers brush, or the palpable tension thrumming between Bennett and Stella. “And my offer to help is genuine. Text me when you’re ready to take me up on it.”
Stella watches me like she’s memorizing my face in case she needs to kill me later. “Appreciate you looking after her.”
“Anytime,” I say. Weirdly, I mean it.
She and Lucy head out, the door shutting behind them. Bennett watches them go, then blows out a breath like he’s been holding it the entire time.
“What was that all about?” I ask, crossing my arms.
“The sexual tension?” He widens his eyes and holds out his hands, almost like he could wipe it away. “I thought I was imagining it.”
“Definitely not your imagination. I thought you hated each other.”
Bennett snorts. “Lucy? I could never hate Lucy.”
“No.” I recoil, because how in the world is he confused here? “Not Lucy. Stella.”
“There waszerotension between me and Stella,” Bennett says, completely lacking self-awareness as per usual.
“You’re kidding, right? You two practically had a standoff on my porch. I’m shocked the windows didn’t fog over from the heat.”
He guffaws. “That’s what they call projection, my friend. Or maybe transference. You took all that pent-up tension between you and Lucy and slapped it right onto me and Stella.”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“Am I?” Bennett drops onto the couch with a look only a younger brother could get away with. “Because if she’d blushed any harder or you’d stared any longer, Jane Austen herself would’ve crawled out of the grave to write a sequel toPride and Prejudice.”
I raise a brow.
“Don’t look so surprised. I’ve had girlfriends.”
I scrub a hand down my face, almost ready to push him out the door.
But he’s not done.
