“We’ve got time,” Christopher said, holding up a hand as I nearly fell off the bed, reaching for the boot I’d taken off before I climbed in. “Whoa,” he said, reaching out to grab my arm when my boot caught the edge of a pillow I must have kicked off the bed without realizing.
There was a beat when my gaze lifted to his and his held mine, where I was sure this was the end of the drought, that he was finally going to lean down and seal his lips to mine.
But he broke the eye contact, then the touch.
“I’ll go grab Tuna,” he said, turning and walking out of the room.
Alone, I exhaled hard and tried to convince my system to relax.
I needed to get a grip.
Clearly, he was still hung up on my relation to Brio and my age. Sure, being around him day and night was only making me like him more on a personal level, which, in turn, made me want him more on a physical level.
I just had to accept that the same wasn’t true for him.
“Need a lift?” Christopher asked when I finally made my way back to him.
“No, I can walk.”
It was looking like Salvatore was right. All the resting meant my ankle was already feeling better. If I kept it up, I could see myself out of the boot in another week; if I was careful, maybe only using it when I was going to be on my feet for long periods of time.
“You alright?” Christopher asked in the backseat of the cab on the way to my shop.
“Fine.”
“Never a less true word in the female language.” Getting no response from that, he tried again. “Do you want to stop off to get some pain meds?”
“It’s not hurting.” Okay, there was a bit of an ache, but I wasn’t about to complain because I didn’t want him to say we had to turn back and go home.
“Thought you’d be happy to be out of the house.”
“I am.”
“Right. Because you seem over the fucking moon,” he said, shooting me a smirk.
I ignored that and opened my door as soon as we pulled up out front of the shop.
“They played down how bad your face is,” Leo greeted me as soon as he saw me.
“Gee, thanks,” I said with a small laugh.
“When I find that fucker…”
“You’ll have to fight Brio to get to him.”
“Might not just be Brio,” Leo said, looking past me to where Christopher was approaching with Tuna.
“It’s not like that. Anyway, any luck yet?”
“Your store is an endless pit of places for something to hide.”
“And you are a bunch of men.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Ask any woman,” I said, patting him on the arm. “You guys can’t find the mayonnaise jar if it’s sitting behind the ketchup. I bet if you brought one of the wives in, she would have found it days ago.”
I moved into the store, finding Nero on his hands and knees—in his suit—looking under one of the display stands in the back.
