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“Sorry I threatened to stab you,” I said.
He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.”
I went to the end of the couch Ford was holding, drawn closer to him even though I was sweaty and exhausted. I’d seen the delivery assemble the legs on the couch when I’d first bought it, so I tried to turn one, but it didn’t budge. I tried to move it in the other direction. Nothing. Then I tried another leg and got the same result.
“I know they come off,” I said, frustrated.
“Grab my end and I’ll see if I can get them,” Ford said.
“There’s a euphemism in there somewhere,” Dom said with a grin.
Ford and I ignored him as I moved to stand next to him, my shoulder brushing against his upper arm. I was pretty tall for a woman at five foot eight, but he had at least six inches on me.
“You good?” he asked me as I slid my hands beneath the couch.
Assuming he was asking me if I could handle holding on to it, I said, “Yeah.”
He let go and the couch immediately dropped, one of the legs landing on my big toe. Pain shot through my foot and I yelped, tears springing to my eyes.
“Shit!” Ford grabbed the couch and got it off my foot, then scooped me into his arms and carried me to a chair in the living room.
I was too lightheaded to even enjoy being in his arms. My toe was on fire. I wiped the corners of my eyes as Ford looked up at me, kneeling at my feet.
“I’m so sorry, Elle. I thought you had it.”
“No, I thought…” I fought tears. “I thought you were asking if I could hold it up.”
“Let me take a look.” He unlaced my running shoe, pulling the strings as loose as he could get them before gingerly removing it.
“What happened?” Sam asked, looking alarmed.
“Ford dropped a couch on her foot,” Dom said.
Ford glared at him. “I didn’t drop it on her foot. It was a misunderstanding.”
He gently pulled off my ankle sock and I cried out from the pain, covering my eyes with my hand to hide my tears. I’d never experienced pain like this.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “We need to get you to a doctor.”
“Yikes,” Sam said, cringing as she looked at my foot.
I took a deep breath and glanced at it. My toe was still intact, but the nail was split down the middle, blood running between my toes and down the side of my foot. It was ugly, but I was relieved to see that my toe wasn’t completely smashed.
“Do you have any gauze?” I asked Ford, not in the mood to dig through my bathroom boxes and find my own.
He frowned. “I have a first aid kit, but I really think you need to get this looked at.”
“I will, but not right now. I just want to clean it up and bandage it and finish moving the boxes in.”
We were so close that I could see the ring of gray surrounding his sky-blue eyes. His gaze was intent on me, and my heart pounded. It didn’t matter that I was sweaty and bleeding; I still wanted him closer.
“I’ll clean this up for you. Then Dom and I will carry everything else in.”
“You don’t have to clean my mangled toe. I’ll take care it.”
He cringed. “I’m really sorry.”
I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it; it’ll grow back.”
