“But you said?—”
“She was working on some moves last night at the gym. After you went into the octagon with Chris and left me behind.”
“That was okay, right? You said you were?—”
“It was fine.” She waves me off, striding to the fireplace, spinning on her heels, then walking back the other way. “It was just me, Eliza, and Cliff, because Cliff is another poor bystander, and Eliza made him the dummy she got to hurt to teach me new things.” She nibbles on her pinky nail, chewing and frowning. “I don’t mind hanging out with them, and you were just across the room. I could see you the whole time anyway. But Eliza—” She stops and meets my eyes. “Does ElizalikeCliff? Like…” She makes a goofy expression. “Ya know what I mean?Likelike. Because she was getting super close to him, and he was trying real hard not to be so close.”
I thought I was gonna hear something fun about Rose. But nope. Here Iam, gnashing my teeth and wearing down the enamel on my molars instead. “My sister isfriendlywith a lot of people. She’s an outgoing person, and she likes testing boundaries. Mine. Cliff’s. Literally anyone with a pulse.” I push off the couch and round the coffee table, standing in her path in case she decides to start pacing again. “Is this whole story gonna be about my sister? Because I don’t like talking about the things she does with men. Gives me the ick.”
“Oh. Right!” She drops her hand and blushes. “That was a side quest. Eliza said that you like me.”
My heart stumbles, cartwheeling and spinning in my chest. “I’m sorry, what?”
“It all sounds so middle school, I know. But she said you like me,likelike me. But she said you’ll never, not in a million years, say so, because you were my doctor first, and because I’m staying here. She said you’d sooner chop your own hand off than make me feel uncomfortable, so even if we’re eating dinner and things feel nice, you won’t cross any lines, just in case I’m not feeling what you’re feeling.”
“Oh… cool.”I’m gonna kill my own fucking sister. “That was big of her to say. And now she’s gone and done what I said I wouldn’t; made you feel uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable.” She goes back to pacing, but in a smaller space than before. “I watched you fight Chris last night—which was oddly exciting, by the way—and then we came home, had dinner, and went to bed. You were still the same you, and you didn’t know what was happening in my head, so everything was the same as always. Nothing felt weird or uncomfortable.”
“Well…” Good fucking lord. Nerves spin and swirl in my belly, and the tips of my fingers… they tingle.Tingle!“Good to know my sister didn’t freak you out or anything. I’ll talk to her when I see her next and tell her that saying things like that is not okay.”
She spins at the front door, a full fifteen feet from where I stand, and plops her hands on her hips. “So youdon’tlike me?”
I swear, the fucking color drains straight out of my face. “What?”
“Was she lying?”
“Well, no?—”
“Or mistaken?”
“No, it’s not that?—”
“Because people who like people typically act on it.”
Fuck. Me.“Rose?—”
“But I’m forced to admit this is not a typical situation, and we already covered the bit about how you were my doctor and you won’t want to cross any lines.” She takes a single step forward, lacing her hands togetherin front of her hips. “You’re very careful, Ollie. You hold my hand and stroke my hair sometimes. You hug me when I need it, and God,” she groans, “you have this special ability to know exactly when I need those hugs. I’m aware I’m just a woman who possibly fell out of the sky and into your ER, and maybe some people would think that’s the perfect time to hit on a woman, but I feel like I’ve gotten to know you, and so I think you’re the opposite.”
“Uh…” I scratch the back of my neck. “The opposite of what?”
“Well, I think you would choosenotto hit on me, because you don’t want to take advantage of a woman when she’s vulnerable.”
“Which is a good thing… right? Only assholes and miscreants would thinkthisis a good time to ask you for something else.”
“Exactly!” She stalks forward and stops abruptly two feet away, filling my lungs with the rich scent of honey and lavender from her shampoo. “So I don’t know if I’ve always been a little slow picking up when a man likes me, or if this is a byproduct of a traumatic brain injury. Which, when I say it out loud like that, sounds utterly asinine. And then we add in that I have no freakin’ clue who I am or where I was before this month. But I felt you that first night at the gym, Ollie.”
My stomach drops out of my asshole. Swear to Christ, my palms sweat.
“I felt you,” she repeats. “When you were standing behind me and we were practicing those moves. And then Eliza said you liked me, but that you were fighting it, because you didn’t want to scare me. And then, when everything was still normal and exactly how it always is when we came home last night, I decided I would keep my mouth shut and not say anything either. Because I’m staying in your home and I absolutely don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”
My mouth is dry. My throat. My fucking soul. “Okay.”
“But then I had a dream about you last night.” She takes another step forward, tilting her head back to look into my eyes. “A good dream. The kind of dream a woman is known to experience when she spends time with a man she likes.”
“Uh…” Finally, my eyes spring wide with understanding, and damn me to hell, my cock thickens in my pants. “Oh!”
“Exactly. So if I were a man, and you were a woman, and I had a dirty dream about you that you absolutely didn’t initiate or encourage, and then Itold you about it, it would be inappropriate.”
