“How are you doing?” I blurted out. A blush tinted my cheeks as his eyes bored into mine.
“I’m doing much better, thanks to you,” he said.
“Thanks to me? I didn’t do anything.”
“You did a great deal, Miss Jessica.”
“You can just call me Jessica. Or Jess. Some people call me… Jessie which I don’t particularly like, but it is what it is.”
His gaze was intense, and I found myself pleasantly uncomfortable underneath it. I didn’t even know ‘pleasantly uncomfortable’ was a thing until his eyes found mine.
“Jessica it is,” Lucas said.
“How did you get yourself so hurt?” I asked. “I was wor—”
I stopped myself before I gave too much of my idiotic thoughts away. I watched a grin crawl acro
ss his face and I smiled along with him. The atmosphere between us was tense, but he didn’t seem at all upset with the drink I had gotten on his jeans.
“I’m sorry about the stain,” I said.
“They’re just pants. They can be washed,” he said.
“How did you get hurt, Lucas?” My voice was a little breathier than I wanted it to be.
“I was working on a project and fell onto a window. A shard of glass pierced my abdomen.”
“Oh my gosh. Are you okay now?” I asked.
“I’m fine. Got the rest of the stitches removed yesterday and everything seems to be healing nicely.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“It is.”
“You said you were working on a project?”
“I was. My brothers and I restore old, dilapidated homes to their former glory,” he said.
“Places like this?” I asked.
“We’re in the process of restoring this one, actually. We start really ramping it up Monday morning.”
“Wow. That’s incredible. This entire place is incredible, honestly.”
“It’s one of my more favored properties we’ve taken on. My parents work in real estate, so some of our work comes from them. They commission our expertise to restore properties they either want to sell or have already sold.”
“That sounds amazing. And convenient. How many brothers do you have?” I asked.
“Four others. Five, counting the cousin we grew up with.”
“Wow. That must be nice.”
“Only child?”
“That’s me.”
“I sometimes wonder what it would’ve been like to be an only child. Or at least have a sister.”