“I’m not wearing anything underneath,” he said. “So... no.”
“Oh.” She flushed. “Well, how about some ice for your lip?”
“I don’t need any.”
“It looks painful.”
“I’ve had worse.” He sucked away the blood and braved her gaze again. “This’ll heal. Even if your friend with the stupid namecanthrow a punch. And take one, surprisingly. Most people can’t.”
Aubrey didn’t protest the subject change. At least Nick was talking, which was more than she’d gotten in the car. “Gallant’s not my friend.”
His look turned speculative. “You really don’t like him?”
“No. I mean, I don’tdislikehim, he’s just not a person I think about. There’s nothing to discover about him, you know? Nothing to unravel.”
Those dark eyes sharpened, less opaque by the moment, and she forced herself to withstand the assessment. Nick looked like he was trying to tally her up in his head, the same way she was doing with him.
“Is that a hobby of yours?” he said. “Unraveling people?”
She lingered over the potential double meaning. “Sometimes.”
“What if they don’t want to come unraveled?”
Oh, yes. He’d definitely sharpened the words on both sides on purpose. “I still try. It’s always worth going after what you want.”
His head tilted. “Is that really what you think?”
“Is that not whatyouthink?”
“I think that’s something only someone who already has everything would believe.”
She hesitated, trying to tease out whether he’d insulted her, but there was no bite to the comment. Just a skeptical sort of consideration, like he couldn’t decide whether he respected her philosophy or expected her to fall flat on her face because of it.
Maybe both.
“It’s how my dad raised me,” she said carefully. “He has these sayings he’s drilled into my head since I was little.If life puts something in your way, go around it. If life knocks you down, get back up. If life sticks you between a rock and a hard place, split the difference and aim straight down the middle.I used to think they were so cheesy, but the thing is, they work.”
He absorbed that. “So... you’re someone who doesn’t take no for an answer?”
“Not when there’s something I want.”
“Which is how you got me into your car.”
“See?” She risked a smile. “Maybe there’s something to it.”
Nick seemed to weigh her, turning his mental tape measure this way and that. “Explain something to me.” He expelled the statement all in one breath, as if he’d tried to hold it back and failed. “About you.”
Aubrey’s chest fluttered. “Sure.”
“What you said earlier, about seeing holiness in math... what’d you mean by that?”
Warmth bloomed inside her. This, at least, she could talk about for hours, assuming he had any desire to listen. “Are you sure you want to know? It’ll make me sound like such a dork.”
“Areyou a dork?”
“Oh, yeah.” She grinned. “Definitely.”
He grinned back, then abruptly snuffed it out, as if the smile had been drawn from him against his will. “Then go for it.”
