Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.
“I’ll get it!” I chirped, probably a little too enthusiastically.
Blake continued glaring at Ryker, who bit back a smile.
“Harper! So good to see you.” I swung the door wide, grinning like a maniac. “Come on in!”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re being weird.”
I laughed.Well, here’s the thing: my brother suspects I just gotbusy with his best friend, so distractions are welcome.“Long day. Come in.”
Harper entered like she suspected a trap, then froze when she spotted not only Ryker, but also my brother.
“Harper, this is my brother, Blake. Blake, Harper.”
Blake offered a polite nod, and then his eyes zeroed in on the darkened skin around Harper’s eye. It was probably the only thing that could’ve diverted his attention from the did-they-or-didn’t-they question.
Thank you, medicine.
“Harper lives next door,” I explained quickly. “We’re becoming fast friends. She’s really nice.”
God, I sounded like a kindergartener, introducing her new buddy at show-and-tell.
Harper noticed my stammering. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Blake, meanwhile, stayed fixated on her bruise. Say what you will about my brother being intimidating and maybe even dangerous, but someone hurting a woman? That was a hard line he wouldn’t tolerate.
He closed the distance between them slowly, like approaching a wounded animal. Harper watched him with a look that could only be described as,What the actual hell?
Couldn’t blame her. She had no clue my brother was an ER doctor.
“May I?” Blake raised his hand toward her face, stopping inches from her skin.
“Uh, no.” Harper leaned away so far, she nearly fell over. “You may absolutely not.”
Blake frowned, hand still hovering. “I’m just trying to?—”
“To what? See if my face is real?”
“There’s edema around the?—”
“Does he know he’s talking out loud right now?” Harper looked at me desperately.
Ryker made a choking sound that might have been a laugh.
“I’m trying to assess your injury,” Blake said, looking genuinely confused. Like he couldn’t fathom why she wasn’t cooperating.
“Oh, is that what we’re calling it now?” Harper held her palm up. “Look, buddy, I don’t know what weird pickup artist manual you’ve been reading, but let me ‘assess your injury’ is not the smooth line you think it is.”
I bit my lip. Hard.
Blake frowned deeper. “I’m not hitting on you.”
“Really? Because walking up to a stranger and immediately fixating on their face while asking to touch them? That screams,I collect skin suits in my basement.”
Ryker lost it. Full-on shoulder-shaking, trying-not-to-laugh-out-loud lost it.
Blake’s jaw ticced. “I’m examining the contusion around your orbital bone.”
