He didn’t understand her disbelief. “Does it not look good enough? Do you want something more? I could make you something else if this isn’t to your liking.”
She stared at him for a long moment, then glanced down. “No, it’s . . . it all looks delicious. I’m just not sure why you’d do this for me.”
“Well, it’s for me too.”
“Oh.” She kept her gaze down and he couldn’t work out why.
“But mostly it’s for you. Because you need to eat and I thought you might like some of this. I also thought a picnic might be fun. Even indoors. Was it not a good idea?”
She glanced up. “What? No, it’s a great idea. I just don’t think I can eat any of it.”
He studied the croissants with ham and cheese, the chocolate pastries, egg and bacon muffins as well as the glasses filled with granola and yogurt.
“I packed some fruit too.”
“No, it’s not that. Really, Zander. I can’t believe you put all this together.”
“I made it all from scratch.”
“You . . . you what? Seriously? Even the croissants and pastries?”
“Yes. When I lived with my uncle, I had to learn to cook. There wasn’t much else to do and I liked to eat. I still do.”
“That’s amazing. Maybe I could try a pastry.”
“You really should eat some protein, too. You’re pale and likely lacking in vitamins and nutrients since you haven’t been eating properly. You’re going to get ill if you don’t eat. This isn’t because you think you need to lose weight, is it? If anything, I think you could stand to gain a few pounds.”
She gaped at him. “Have you seen my curves?”
“Yes. I’m looking at them right now.” Heat filled his body as he took her in. She was simply gorgeous. “You are beautiful.”
“You . . . what . . . I . . . what?” She stumbled over her words, and he watched her in concern.
“Are you all right?”
“I just . . . you really think I’m beautiful?”
“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t.”
“Do you always say what you think?”
“No, of course not. That tends to annoy people. But what I do say, I usually mean. I don’t like to lie, even though I have learned it is necessary sometimes, especially while I am on a case or when a woman asks if her butt looks big in something. Took me a while to learn that rule.”
“Who taught you that?”
“A previous girlfriend. I learned that the answer is always no. Or, your butt could never look big in anything. That was a good answer.”
“How long were you with her?”
There was a strange note to her voice that he didn’t understand. Did she have a sore throat? He might need to get Doc here to check her over.
Doc was the only person he trusted to look after the health of his team or himself. Usually, Webb could handle most things, but he wasn’t a trained medical professional like Doc was.
Zander knew this for certain because he’d personally researched all of Doc’s qualifications.
“Close to a year. I met her when I found her next to my truck in the parking lot of a diner. Charlene had been traveling with her boyfriend when they had an argument. She wanted to get out of his car and walk. He got angry, pulled over and beat her. Then he took off and left her. She managed to walk to the diner parking lot, but couldn’t get any further without collapsing.”
She stared at him in shock. “That’s terrible.”