“It’s not like you can do much.”
“And why is that?” I held up my injured hand and glared at him.
He grimaced, and his jaw tightened, then he looked away. With a quick motion, he peeled off his long-sleeve shirt as he strode to the supplies sitting on a table along the side wall. His biceps tested the fabric limits of the dark, Woodhaven High Hockey T-shirt he was wearing underneath. He shook out his dark curls, then grabbed a bucket that was sitting on the table.
Damn.I gulped. He looked good. Really good. As in, he should be going viral for the simple act of striping down to his T-shirt.
The muscles along his forearm rippled as he wrung out the cloth. I couldn’t help but admire the hard planes of the shoulders and back muscles flexing beneath the tight shirt.
“Maybe we can start out by washing down some of these desks up front here?”
This ought to be interesting with one hand, but what other choice did I have? I grabbed the cloth soaking in the soapy water and tried to squeeze it out.
“Here, take mine.” Preach handed me his rag, then snatched another one and plunged it into the soapy water.
“So…doctor appointment?” I said.
“Is there a question in there somewhere?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re a real jerk, you know that?”
“I guess there’s a first time for everything.” He gave me a wry grin.
“You know, I have every right to be pissed as hell at you.” I shook my head and started scrubbing the desk. “After all, you’re the one who hit me.”
He rolled his eyes. “Riiiight, and it had nothing to do with the fact that you were standing in the middle of the road?”
“Nice history rewrite there, Cher. I was standing by my car because I’d just rescued a dog from the middle of the road.” I pulled open the top drawer. A mouse leaped out, and I jumped back. “Shit!”
My heel caught the small desk next to this one, and I spun. Preach’s hands grabbed my shoulders, but momentum won out, and I fell right into him.
He managed to keep us both upright, though, so that was good. All I needed was another fall.
“Shit!” I spun out of his grip.
He laughed, then quickly wiped the smirk off his face.
“I don’t even want to know what we’re gonna find in some of these drawers.” I tossed the rag at him. “You’re on cleaning detail.”
“Oh, really? And what exactly are you going to do?” He let out a sarcastic chuckle. “Supervise? Oh, and you’re welcome. You would have been eating dust or mouse poop if it wasn’t for me.”
I huffed at him. So he caught me. So he demonstrated awesome coordination and strength. So his hands and body were warm.
I shook the thoughts from my head. “Let’s see how great you react when a mouse jumps out at you.”
He started wiping down the desk. I grabbed my AirPods, because evidently this was going to be a no-conversation work hour, and I should be okay with that, but…whatever.
“Second opinion,” Preach said out of nowhere.
I paused putting in my earbuds and chanced a look at him. His jaw was tight, and he was going to town on that desk, nearly scrubbing a hole through the top. “To see if you actually do have a brain?”
He grunted but kept his focus on his chore. “First doc said I’m done with hockey.”
Well, shit.“That’s one doc, though.”
He shrugged and didn’t say anything further.
Okay, then. AirPods it is.