He sat up on his elbows.“What?What do you see?”
She stood back and leveled him with a withering gaze.“I’m not talking about the ankle.I was referring to the fact that you asked me outatleastonce.Something you want to share about your … proclivities?”She held up her hand.“Never mind.That was unprofessional.Besides, I don’t want to know.”
She spun on her heel before he could muster a protest.When she returned moments later with the Game Ready machine, he still hadn’t come up with a clever jab.How come he could hurl perfect retorts without batting an eye when it came to his teammates, but with her, he sputtered?
After sliding on the sleeve, she fired up the machine.It inflated around his ankle and began circulating cold water.She fetched a pillow, and he obediently lifted his shoulders from the table so she could stuff it beneath his head.He lay there, hands folded over his belly, eyes staring up the acoustic-tile ceiling while he fumed.
As she turned away, he called to her.“What, no twenty questions today?”
Her voice was as cold as the sleeve surrounding his ankle.“Twenty-three.And like I said, I already know everything I need to know.This would be a good time to—”
“Grab my earbuds.Got it.”He extracted the tiny case from his pocket to show to her and promptly stuffed it back in.
“No photography lessons today?”
“Not in the mood,” he groused.
“It’s your party.”She turned, and her ponytail slashed across her shoulders.Before she could walk away, he caught her by the wrist.Without flinching, she looked down her nose at where his hand encircled her wrist.It was so slender she could have wriggled out of his grasp.Instead, she let it hang limply while she raised a haughty eyebrow.“Can I help you?”
“What’s up with my ankle?”He had to be breaking some kind of rule, but he didn’t release his hold on her.
“I’ll know more after our exercises today.”She slid her hand from his grasp and went to work on the keyboard at her standing station.
The woman was infuriating, so why was he even trying to engage?He’d blown Charlotte off without a second thought the other night, but something about Angie was like a festering thistle between his toes.Not that Charlotte and Angie were in the same category.Charlotte was a good time, if he wanted it, and Angie was a bad time he didn’t want any part of.
He eyed her.“Are we ever going to talk about the elephant in the room?”
Her eyes flicked to his.She reached behind her and swiped something from a basket sitting on her desk.She held it up.It was the stupid bright pink stress ball.“This elephant?Is that why you’re so grumpy today?”A mischievous smile played over her lips as she lobbed it at him.
He caught it and began to squeeze.“You’re full of laughs today.If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a sense of humor underneath that dipped-cone exterior or yours.”
“Dipped cone?”
“Yeah, you know, like those shells that get hard after they dip the cone?Like we used to get when we lived in Minny?I used to take you and Brianna to Dairy Queen, remember?She always got cherry, and you got chocolate.”
“I remember.You got the Oreo Blizzard.What’s your point?”
“Those shells are brittle, but they crack.That’s my point.”
A smile twitched her lips.“Are you saying I’m like the shell on one of those cones?”
“Exactly.”
Her mouth twisted side to side as if she were seriously contemplating his inane comparison.“Okay.Guess that also means I’m sweet.”
She began to move toward her keyboard again, but he stopped her when he held up the elephant.“I didn’t mean I wanted to talk about this squeeze toy.”He didn’t particularly want to talk abouther and himeither, but he also didn’t want to keep lugging this anchor around.
“Obviously, you’ve got something on your mind.Whatdoyou want to talk about?”
“Did you ever talk to Brianna after … that night?”
Fuck me.Why was he even going there?It was the wrong damn elephant, and honestly, as large beasts went, the subject of Brianna was a baby elephant.Maybe a peanut that baby elephant would scoop up in its trunk.
Her smile disappeared into a grim line.“I haven’t spoken to her since the night you two broke up, so no.”
“So Brianna doesn’t know …” He gestured between them.Yeah, he was a certifiable idiot.
“About you and me?Not unlessyoutold her.”
