“Is now.”
Elias and Sterling started arguing over the game they’d watched earlier that afternoon, and Brick leaned in to speak quietly to Juliet as she moved her food around on her plate rather than eat it.
“How’s your foot?”
She gave him a thumbs-up. She hadn’t been limping on it earlier, so he guessed it was all right.
“I want to check it after dinner.”
She gave him an exasperated look, but he ignored her.
“And your hand.”
A long sigh came from her this time. His lips twitched, and he had to avert his face so she didn’t see. Wouldn’t be a good idea to let the brat know she amused him.
After dinner, Elias and Sterling insisted on cleaning up. He turned his chair.
“Foot.”
She glared at him.
“Please,” he managed to get out.
She picked up the whiteboard. That wasn’t so hard, was it?
Actually, he thought he might have pulled something. But then she raised her foot so he could look at it. He sucked in a breath as he realized she was walking around on bare feet. How had he missed that?
Because you were too worried she was about to bolt.
“Where are your shoes?” he snapped.
She tried to draw her foot back but he held onto her ankle. “Could have gotten infected.”
But the bandage looked like it had been recently changed and when he drew it off, her foot was looking good.
“Looks fine. Hand.” He held out his hand for hers.
She wasn’t wearing a bandage, but the burn on her hand looked much better. She made a funny sound and he suddenly realized that he was stroking her hand with his thumb.
Holy. Fuck.
Abruptly, he let her go and then stood. His chair went crashing back.
“Everything okay?” Elias asked, rushing out.
Brick strode towards the door to the pool house, needing to get away from her.
“Yeah. Fine. Everything’s fine. I’ve just got some paperwork to do. Good night.”
Like a coward, he fled.