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His eyebrows rose as he crouched next to her. Wow, he was even sexier close-up. “Who said you’re in the way?”
“So. Darn. Pretty.”
“Did you just call me pretty?”
Uh-oh. Damn you, mouth.
“Nope. I was talking to Chardonnay.”
Chardonnay started laughing. “Nice as that is to hear, I don’t think you were talking about me.”
Yeah. She really wasn’t.
“What do you need? Grady asked.
“I think I’m okay, other than my pride. And my butt. It’s okay, it can take it. It’s well-padded.”
He frowned. “Don’t speak about yourself like that. Are you sure you’re not in pain? What caused you to fall?”
“Uh, just slipped, I guess.” She decided to ignore his small scolding about how she’d talked about her bottom.
“Hmm.” He didn’t look convinced. Which didn’t make sense. “It looked like you were in pain before you slipped, Twinkletoes.”
Twinkletoes? That was cute. Even if wrong.
Focus, Effie.
Sometimes, it was hard to get her brain to think about one thing. Scatterbrained is what Nan used to call her.
“Ah, I’m fine.”
“Is that so?” he murmured. “Then can I ask why you haven’t moved?”
“Um, well . . . I . . .”
“Babe, just tell us what hurts,” Chardonnay told her. She didn’t sound impatient, just concerned.
“It’s my back. I’m so sorry. If you just give me a moment, it will stop spasming and I’ll be able to move.”
“Will I make it worse if I pick you up?” he asked.
“Ahh, no. But you don’t want to pick me up.”
“Have you got a flesh-eating disease that I might catch?”
“Oh no, I got that cured last week.”
His face softened. There wasn’t a lot soft about this man, so she took that as a win.
“So there’s no reason for me not to pick you up?”
“I know I’m holding everything up. And everyone is probably staring at me, wondering why I’m lying here like a beached whale, but really, a few minutes is all I need.”
She hoped.
Because the stab of pain that just went through her back told her that things were worse than she’d thought.
“Is she all right?” a fake-sweet voice asked.
