I glanced past him at Maisie's bike, still lying on its side as water pooled around the wheels. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I've got Maisie's bike."
He stared as rain streamed down his face. "So I'll come back for it."
"But I can't leave it unattended," I protested. "Like…what if someone takes it?"
"How about this?I'lltake it." And then, before I could object, he left my side and splashed through the driving rain to retrieve Maisie's bike.
By the time he wheeled it back to me, I was nearly sick with worry. "Is it okay? I mean…it's not damaged, is it?"
He gave me an odd look."That'syour concern?"
"Yeah…well, like I said, it's not mine." And then, I whirled to look at the flower bed that had cushioned my fall. "Oh, my God. And I squashed some of those flowers."
He leaned in, lowering his voice like the storm might overhear. "The bike's fine. The flowers are fine. Butyou'reshaking."
He was right.I was. But I couldn't stop staring at the flowers. Someone had probably worked really hard to plant them, and a few of them were definitely squashed. Absently, I murmured, "Maybe I should try to straighten them out or something."
When I looked back to Ryder, he was staring like I'd just suggested building a sandcastle in a hurricane. "You're shaking, and you want to fix the flowers?" His jaw clenched. "That's crazy. You know that, right?"
I squinted through the rain. "Are you mad at me?"
He didn't hesitate. "You bet I am."
60
No Time for Landscaping
Ryder
Seeing her upright should've been enough to slow my pulse.
It wasn't.
Upright didn't mean okay. And the way she kept minimizing it made me want to shake some sense into her – gently, preferably someplace warm and dry.
Regardless, there was no way in hell I'd let her sink to the dirt and start fixing flowers.
If it came down to it, I'd do it myself, but not while she was cold, soaked, and pretending she was fine.
She stared at me with rain dripping down her face. "So youaremad? But why?"
I barked out a laugh. "Because you went down in the middle of a storm and you're trying to fix everything but yourself."
"Yeah, well…maybe I don't need fixing." Her chin lifted. "And so what if I want to make things right? Maybe it's responsible."
Just then, a crack of thunder sounded overhead, and the rain started hitting harder, as if that were even possible. And right there in the middle of it, stood Tessa, streaked with mud and dripping wet.
I gave her a look. "See? Even the weather thinks you're crazy."
"Yeah? Well maybe you're the crazy one."
I didn't bother denying it. "Gotthatright."
She blinked. "Seriously?"
