“Terrible.”
“Me, too,” he said with a wry smile.“Not quite dead, but almost.”
“I’m glad.”
“Glad I’m terrible?”
“Glad you’re not dead.”
His gaze wandered over her again.“You look better than ever.”
She could have said the same of him, but she wasn’t ready to dole out compliments.“How’s your shoulder?”
“It’s fine.”He rotated his left arm to demonstrate.“No permanent damage.”
“You didn’t need surgery?”
“No.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to explain his disappearance.Instead, he just stared at her, as if he expected her to speak first.
“Is there anything I should know?”he asked.
“What do you mean?”
He gestured toward her midsection.
“Oh,” she said.“No worries there.It was the wrong time of month, like I said.”
Paul didn’t appear relieved by the news.
“Is that all you came for?”
“No.I came for you.”
Vanessa looked away, rubbing her sweaty palms on her shorts.She tried not to be dazzled by his tall, well-built form.She’d forgotten how good-looking he was.It was an assault to the senses, devastatingly unfair.She gestured toward the kitchen.“I was going to get a drink.Do you want one?”
“Sure.”
She had bottled water in her fridge, so she offered him one and grabbed another for herself.They sat down at her kitchen table.It was a secondhand, country-style piece.Nothing fancy or expensive.
She cut to the chase.“Where have you been?”
“I was in Katy, near my parents’ old ranch.”
“You didn’t call.”
“I couldn’t call.I didn’t have a cell phone.”
“Jackson told me Mendez got arrested.”
“Yes.”
“Are you safe now?”
He paused before answering.“I’m safer than I was.”
Her heart plummeted.Maybe he wasn’t planning to come back to her.He was just visiting to toy with her emotions and send her into a lonely spiral.He’d taken pains with his appearance to add insult to injury.
