“Uh… sure.”
“Water, tea, lemonade?”
“Lemonade sounds good.”
Bridget couldn’t tear her gaze away. Jerica sat kitty-corner from Bridget, putting her purse over the back of the chair and smiling.
Eli came over, set the drinks in front of them, and eyed them both. “When you two finally stop eyeing each other like candy, just to let you know, Jerica, this is a B&B, so I have guests here. They’ll be in and out but shouldn’t bother you too much.”
“Thanks.” Jerica flicked her gaze to Eli, then focused back on Bridget.
Eli made herself scarce, though Bridget knew she’d be around to check on dinner. “We thought we’d eat on the deck to avoid the crowds.”
“We?”
Bridget balked. Wiping her sweaty palms on her pants, she tried to backtrack, but couldn’t find a way. “Eli and I.”
“So she helped plan this?”
“I’m not super useful right now.” Bridget raised her broken arm. “So I needed her help, yeah. And it’s her house, so I didn’t want to do anything without her permission.”
Jerica nodded. “I get it. How are you doing, though? It’s been a few weeks.”
“Moving better.” Bridget clenched her jaw. She didn’t want to go down that road. She was so tired of talking about how she was doing, how she was healing, if she was still in pain. Jerica might be a nurse, but she really didn’t want to talk about that.
“That’s good. So, since you planned this whole thing, what are we doing?”
“Uh…” Bridget glanced around for Eli, wishing she was there as a buffer and to help explain what all was planned because Bridget had forgotten it as soon as Jerica walked in. Her heart raced, and she fiddled with the edge of her shirt. “Dinner.”
Jerica chuckled lightly. “I assumed that, but anything else?”
“Cards?”
Jerica eyed her suspiciously. “What kind of cards? I have to tell you, I’m undefeated atGo Fish.”
Bridget laughed. “No, something else.”
“All right, your loss.” Jerica reached over and touched Bridget’s upper arm where the cast wasn’t covering her skin. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah.” Bridget breathed heavily. “I’m fine. We uh…we can go into the den if you want. I think the cards are in there.”
“Sure. This house is gorgeous.”
“It is.” Bridget maneuvered herself so she could stand up, grabbing her knee scooter so she could take it most of the way. Jerica followed her. “I spent a lot of nights here when we were growing up. We always preferred to be here than at my house.”
“I can imagine why,” Jerica murmured.
“Right.” Embarrassment flashed through Bridget’s chest, rising to a flush in her cheeks. She always seemed to forget that Jerica had met her parents. She forgot most people outside of town had met them—or rather, she chose to ignore that fact.
They got to the den, and Bridget stopped short. She’d forgotten about the stairs. Two fucking stairs down into the den, and she could then get to the couch and sit down, where she was far less likely to fall on her face. Pressing her lips together hard, Bridget moved off the knee scooter and dropped it down the stairs. She would not sit down and scoot. That was her one requirement. She had to not embarrass herself completely.
Before Jerica could say anything, she leaned forward with her good hand on the scooter to hold herself up and kind of halfway jumped down the two steps on her one good leg. Except the wheels to the scooter flew from where she’d put them, forcing Bridget’s upper body to slide with it. She knew she was going down, and there was no way to stop it. No railing to grab onto, nothing to do with her one good arm as she clung onto the handle of the scooter, but it moved so far away from her.
Bridget was falling hard. She knew it, she knew Jerica knew it, and she was going to be beyond embarrassed. Turning to her good side, she tucked her arm against her chest and hit the wood floor, with her shoulder taking the brunt of the hit. Grunting and groaning, she clenched her eyes tight as Jerica swooped in, squatting next to her.
“Don’t move. Give it a second.”
Breathing through the pain and shock, Bridget closed her eyes as she heard Eli’s thumping footsteps on the stairs from the basement.Fuck, this is so embarrassing.“I’m fine.”