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Her dark eyes flashed to him. “Why are you here? Why did you turn up out of the blue today?”
“To apologise for yesterday. I was being a first class…”
“Prick,” she finished.
He burst out laughing. “You got that right.”
Kristy gave him a half-smile before she pulled out some cotton wool and dunked it into the bowl of water.
She stepped closer to him and her amused gaze drifted over him. “It’s only water, so it shouldn’t sting.”
He watched as her well-manicured fingers reached out and pulled aside his shirt exposing the bloodied wound. Her eyes regarded him as she gently brushed his skin before she dabbed him with the wet cotton balls.
“I’m sorry this happened to you, Josh,” she said softly.
“It’s nothing serious. Things happen,” he responded. His gaze slid to her hand which shook slightly as she swabbed his cut.
“You will tell me if it hurts, won’t you?”
Josh leaned in so close to Kristy, he could see the tiny flecks in her irises. He didn’t know this softer, sweet side of her existed. Why would he? He’d avoided her for years.
He wondered how much she’d tell him about her business and was sorely tempted to ask her about it. Given their history, or lack of, she didn’t know him well enough trust him. Pity. Instead, he changed tack. “Did I interrupt a girls night in?”
She nodded, her tousled hair falling to her cheeks.
“That’s the polocrosse team you saw the other day. We’re graded as medium players and I’m now team captain and I’d like us to win some matches and move up the ranks.”
“Is everyone on deck with that?”
She shifted footing, as if to avoid the question. “Not quite. That’s what tonight was about. I wanted to see if I could get more on board and if so, whether we could do something more than practise drills.”
She stepped over to her desk and rummaged through her first-aid kit, her skin-tight jeans fitted over her derrière and her long shapely legs, which were partially hidden by a pair of black knee-high boots.
Kristy swung back to him, band-aid in hand. A tiny gold chain hung around her neck and a wistful expression swept across her face. All his senses picked up on it.
“Kristy, they have to believe first, it’s not enough to want it.”
“I know” she whispered. “That’s whynobodygets me.”
“Nobody?”
She pursed her lips. “I was a strapper and trainer at a few local properties and when I said I was going out on my own, it didn’t go down well. Everybody had an opinion about it.”
His heart sank. Apart from the bank manager in town or the local solicitor, who would there be in town to mentor her? That one phrase summed up her business needs and he got it. His mind kept circling back to her business.
She plastered the band-aid over his wound. “There, all done. How does it feel?” she asked.
He quickly reached out and took her hand in his, half expecting her to pull away. She didn’t, so he ran his thumb across her soft fingers.
“Kristy, is the tree business working for you?”
Her head shot up and he could see her façade slowly slip away. His gut churned.
“It was a gamble, but it looks like it might,” she said.
The music from outside drifted in. He knew once they left this room the chance of them having a serious discussion tonight were zilch.
He tightened his hold on her fingers, surprised at how small they were. “You have this one window, a month, to make some good money, right?”
