“Not since breakfast.” She hadn’t really had much of an appetite since he’d left her and in the last month had eaten only to fuel her body. And that only when she remembered to do so.
His eyes sparked with disapproval as he raked a critical gaze over her.
“You can’t afford to skip meals, Kenna, you’ve lost too much weight.” His eyes had snagged on her bare thighs and he folded his arms over his chest. “What the fuck are you wearing, by the way? You’re just a couple of thigh holsters away from looking like bargain basement Lara Croft.”
Well…fair.
Kenny chose to find the insight funny rather than be offended.
“Lara Croft wouldn’t have broken her toe by kicking a tire while wearing flip-flops,” she pointed out. “In fact, she probably wouldn’t be caught dead wearing flip-flops.”
He looked a little shaken and reluctantly amused by her self-effacing comment, but quickly covered it up with a scowl.
“You know it’s unsafe to drive in flip-flops, right?”
She hadn’t known that.
“Is it?”
“Jesus wept,” he mumbled from behind the hand he’d used to cover his face. It was a phrase he’d picked up from Kenny and her brothers and it always entertained her to hear him say it.
“You think you can manage a shower on your own?” he asked, lowering his hand again.
“Would you join me if I can’t?” Even Kenny was stunned by the highly inappropriate and wholly out-of-character question. It bordered on flirtatious.
He did a fairly decent impression of a goldfish as he stared at her in openmouthed disbelief.
Not flattering at all.
“Not at all, you can have a basin and a wash cloth and wipe yourself down in the bedroom if you don’t think you can manage the shower.”
Wow. Again…so unflattering.
“I’m sure I’ll manage fine,” she said, her tone more subdued.
“There may be a plastic chair you can use for support, if you need it.”
“Yes, please.”
“Or the tub?” Why was he still on about this? She’d said she could manage.
“I think the tub would be worse.” She’d need his help getting into and out of the tub.
While she was naked.
And his appalled reaction to her dumb flirty comment earlier made it more than apparent he was not interested in seeing her naked ever again.
He understood at once and his cheeks went dull red, noticeable even with the slight tan he’d acquired since she’d seen him last. He was one of those blond men who, while prone to freckling a little, browned instead of reddened in the sun.
Smith was just blessed in every way. Beautiful skin, fantastic hair that was the perfect combination of dark blond and red, ice-green eyes that were particularly striking against the light gold of his tanned skin. And, of course, there was that body. Tall, lithe, beautifully proportioned. He was the finest specimen of man she’d ever seen.
She’d never understood his interest in her. He laughed easily, was friendly, approachable, and everybody liked him.
And Kenny just…wasn’t any of those things.
She was quiet, reserved, didn’t interact well with others. She’d once heard herself described by one of her student doctors as “an ice-cold rigid bitch”. While the opinion of a student doctor mattered little to her, she knew that her peers perceived her the same way.
When Smith had compared her to a Barbie without anything of substance on the inside, it had wounded her deeply because it so closely echoed what she knew others thought of her.
