“Right,” she grumbled. “Then you should probably stop being funny.”
“I was being funny?”
She shook her head, then winced again.
“Don’t shake your head either. You need to stop doing things that hurt you.”
“You’re right about that,” she muttered. “Including staying far away from men.”
He paused. That didn’t fit into his plans at all. “Why?”
“Um, because men hurt me?”
“Not all men.”
“No, just the ones that I seem to be attracted to.”
Was she not attracted to him? Had he misread things? He did that quite often, but he could have sworn she was interested in him.
This wasn’t ideal. Zander was used to women who were instantly attracted to him because of his looks. It was his personality that usually turned them off.
How did he figure out if she was interested in him? Did he just ask? And what if she said she wasn’t? What did he do then?
How did he make her attracted to him?
Perhaps he needed some sort of test. Or he could ask the internet. That could work.
Putting the thermometer to her ear, he frowned as he read what it said.
“A hundred and two point five. That’s not good, Little Thief.”
“I’m okay.”
“Stop lying to me,” he told her.
“You lie to me,” she huffed.
“I do not. When have I lied to you?” He was worried about her. She didn’t look well. She appeared even more pale than normal except for that red patch on her cheek. Her beautiful red hair looked dull and unhealthy and there were dark marks under her eyes.
“Fine, then you keep things from me.”
He guiltily thought about the fact that he hadn’t told her that Bartolli was dead.
Soon.
And there was still Kansas to protect her from.
Plus, she was terrible at taking care of herself.
Really, he had plenty of good reasons to keep her here.
Feeling better about his plan, he started laying out all the food for the picnic.
“Who made all this?”
“I did.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You? Really?”