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Did he know he was absolutely beautiful? He had to.
His right shoulder slumped a bit more than the left, and Gerty’s eyes tracked the lines along the front of it. She swallowed and didn’t dare look him in the face. After quickly closing the distance between them, she practically stood toe-to-toe with him and reached up to touch his shoulder.
She hesitated and asked, “Can I?”
“It won’t hurt,” he said gruffly.
“What happened?” she asked. “I mean, I know what happened. What’s wrong with your shoulder?”
“I lost half of my rotator cuff in the accident,” he said. “What’s left isn’t great, and I’m here to meet with a shoulder specialist to consider a complete shoulder replacement.”
Gerty did switch her eyes from the pink, puckered scar to his gorgeous, dark eyes then. She had no idea what to say, because he held her captive with something as simple as his gaze. She couldn’t say she was sorry, because that was so trite. She couldn’t act like she knew he’d be okay if he got the shoulder replacement, because she knew from personal experience that surgeries didn’t fix everything.
Fire blazed in his eyes, and she could suddenly see the alpha Marine officer flying helicopters inside this man in front of her. “I can’t lift my arm,” he said, the words hard in his mouth. “If you can thread my hand and arm through the sleeve of the shirt, I can then pull it on.”
Gerty’s mouth felt like she’d eaten the paper bag for breakfast. No amount of saliva would moisten it, and she looked down at the shirt in her hands as if she didn’t know what it was. She backed up one step and put her hand against Mike’s chest, right where his heart beat.
He pulled in a breath, reaching with his good hand to cover hers.
She had no idea what she was doing, only that she wanted to touch him there. The heat from his skin seared hers, and she once again looked up at him. He stood a good six inches taller than her, but she could tip up and he could lean down.
Gerty did just that, but Mike’s grip on her fingers increased. “No,” he ground out from somewhere in the back of his throat.
The word slapped Gerty back to solid ground, and she tried to pull her hand away. He wouldn’t let her go, and her own fire got ignited. “Mike—”
“I want to kiss you,” he said next, silencing her. “But I’m not going to do it when I’m so broken—or when you are.”
She’d normally lift her chin to challenge such a statement like that, but with Mike, she dropped it instead. The fight left her body, and his grip on her fingers relaxed. He’d known she wasn’t whole, and she hadn’t even told him anything.
“When I kiss you again, I’m going to be able to lift both of my hands to your face,” he whispered now, actually stepping closer to her until their hands barely fit between them. “And hold you right where I want you.”
Gerty’s nerves buzzed with want, with energy, and she could scarcely believe she was eventhinkingabout kissing him.
She’d been engaged only thirty-four days ago. Engaged to another man. She wasn’t sure how to simply turn off the love she’d developed for James, and she knew she had nothing to give Mike.
Yet.
She pulled her hand back again, and he let her go this time. Keeping her head down, she bunched up his shirt so that she could thread his non-moving hand and arm through it properly. With it almost up to his armpit, he reached up and took the bunched hem, ducked his head through the hole, and then maneuvered his good arm through the other sleeve.
“Thank you.” He still spoke as if he had a handful of rocks in his mouth, and he turned away from her before she could see his expression. Even when he was in pain and embarrassed, he was polite.
“Of course.” Her voice sounded too high, and she took a deep breath in the hopes of calming it. “I brought sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches.” She practically lunged for the paper bag. “On biscuits, not muffins. They might not be hot anymore, because I had to drive here from my parents’, but I figured you’d probably ate worse in the military.”
“I’m sure they’re fine.” Mike sounded more normal now, and he pulled open his fridge, then promptly shut it again. “I don’t have anything to drink here.”
“There’s water in the faucet,” she said easily. She produced two sandwiches for him and smiled, thankful when he met her eyes.
“Mike, listen.” She took a big breath and pushed it out with a rush of words. “We shouldn’t be embarrassed with each other, okay? So you have a hurt shoulder. So what? It’s me. We’ve been friends for practically my whole life, and I wouldn’t care if you could never use your shoulder again.”
She swallowed, her eyes feeling so, so round. He stared at her, neither one of them looking away. “I’d help you put your shirt on every day, and I wouldn’t even think twice about it.” Her face heated now, and she was sure she looked one step away from a boiled lobster. Thankfully, the filtering part of her brain kicked in and told her,do not say another word.
Mike ducked his head as he picked up a sandwich. “Thank you, Gerty. I know I have a lot of people who care about me and are willing to help me.” He looked straight at her again. “That doesn’t mean I don’t feel weak. I do, and I hate it.”
She wanted to tell him he wasn’t weak, but he wouldn’t appreciate it. “I don’t see how you can possibly be weak,” she said nonchalantly, cocking her head to the side. “Have youseenthe muscles in your chest?” She shook her head and whistled appreciatively. “Because, wow.” She picked up a sandwich and wished it was big enough to hide behind. “Definitely not weak.” Then she took the biggest bite of her life and prayed that the Lord would help her censor herself better moving forward.
Mike blinked at her and then burst out laughing. They both knew his “weakness” came in a different form than muscles, but Gerty sure was glad to hear that laugh again.
She grinned and grinned, which made chewing her monster-sized bite hard. As he sobered, Gerty swallowed. A drink would be great, but she didn’t say that. She said, “Promise me we can just be ourselves this summer. I really need it.”
