“Lucky guess. Plus, that’s why I was looking through the window at you.”
“Wow. Stalker much?”
“You like it.”
She shrugs that off, then walks past me to pick up the half-eaten strawberry she dropped on the floor. She places it on a tissue on the nightstand.
“Sorry about that. I was going to tap like a gentleman, but I was looking to see how to get in.”
“Most people would ask to be invited first.”
“I knew I was invited,” I tell her, giving her a smirk.
“There’s that cockiness again.”
“I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t.” She doesn’t say anything in return, just lies back on the bed and picks another strawberry to eat.
The bed is something out of an old money movie. Spacious, ornate. The dresser and wardrobe match. Admittedly, Micah did a good job of making sure Raeann was outfitted like a queen.
“Nice digs.”
“They’re something,” Tab says, peering around the huge room with her brows raised.
“You don’t like it?”
“It almost feels like a museum. It’s hard to get comfortable. But if Micah asks, it’s the best fucking place I’ve ever lived. Which it is, actually,” she says, chuckling. “I’m grateful. He didn’t have to put me up here or pay for the nurse that was here nearly 24/7 when I was first discharged, or any of the number of other things he’s done.”
Her shoulders deflate. I kick my shoes off and crawl onto the bed. She eyes me warily as I lie on the other side of the chocolate-covered strawberry box before plucking one from it and helping myself.
“Now you owe me two…”
I swallow the delicious concoction, the two flavors colliding. “I wouldn’t worry about Micah,” I say, wanting to ease her discomfort. “He has a big heart. He’d probably do those things even if he wasn’t with Raeann.”
“All you football players have enough money, I suppose.”
“I hear you don’t do so bad yourself, money bags.”
One corner of her mouth tips up. “Yeah, when I remember to bring a wallet.”
She looked so distraught standing there by the counter, coffee-less. “Call it fate, then.”
“I’m sure you’ve tried to convince many girls that your chance encounter was fate.”
I laugh, hard. Then I try to cover it up because the last thing I need is to draw the attention of Micah and Raeann during mine and Tab’s secret encounter. “I admit I have, but that was the first time I meant it.”
“Oh, be for real.”
“Okay. Sometimes things come out of my mouth and they sound so good.”
She chuckles. “Not going to lie, it did. Maybe if I wasn’t burned on one whole side of my body I would have fallen for it. But it’s kind of hard to believe any pickup lines right now. Especially since I’m lying here in my robe, and I definitely dropped chocolate on me somewhere.”
“You look beautiful,” I tell her, not even acknowledging anything she just said, admiring the fact that her skin is porcelain and clean. The fact that she can breathe right now without it being labored.
“When’s your next eye exam? He might want to check them twice.”
I finish the strawberry and place the head and stem back in the box next to Tab’s others. “Don’t redirect. I want to know how you got caught in a fire but are still sexy as hell.”
She glares at me, and my smile nearly wipes off my face, but then her lips turn up at the corners. “You haven’t seen my scars. And you never will.” Her smile grows wider, but it’s forced now. On purpose. Like she’s mocking me. Or hiding some deep feelings underneath.
