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“Is it that obvious?”
“Yes. And I think you’d be amazing at it. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you instinctively help your neighbors. You see things. You pay attention to what people need, and you care.”
“I think you’re a little biased.”
“I’m not.” She frowned at me, daring me to disagree again.
“Dean’s offered to take me on as a partner, but I can’t do that to Grace.”
“Maybe you should let her decide that.”
“It won’t be much of a decision once she knows I’m working for her for free. Of course she’d tell me to go do something else.”
“And that guilt leads you to stay. And hide the truth.”
“Yeah.” I’d justified it by not out-and-out lying to Grace about it. I didn’t hide the bookkeeping. Grace just hadn’t noticed that particular detail. Which was probably worse. She’d be mad at me, but she’d be furious with herself.
Carmen’s hands went back to my bicep, smoothing out the lines of my long sleeve tee before her hands settled. “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t stir up anything that wasn’t meant to be stirred.”
“You didn’t. That definitely needed to be stirred. Although now I feel like I might hurl.”
“Me too.”
“In that case, give me back my blanket.”
Carmen gathered the blanket up around her with a death grip on it. “Not a chance.”
When she was convinced I wasn’t actually going to steal the blanket from her, she spread it back over the two of us, but we were both quiet, lost in thought. Gloomy, if I was being honest. It never felt good to realize what a screw-up you were.
“We should do something,” Carmen whispered.
“Like what?”
She leaned forward and glanced down at my floors, pursing her lips. “I’ll be right back. Hold on.”
She got up and walked through the entryway and around the corner to my kitchen, and I assumed she was giving herself a tour, maybe checking out my snacks, Winnie-style. But when I didn’t hear the fridge or cupboards open, I got up to follow, just in time to hear the quick padding of feet before Carmen was coming at me full speed, thanks to the slide of her socks on my smooth hardwood floors.
“Zac, move!” Her arms wind-milled out in a futile attempt to slow down.
All I had time to do was catch her before we both slid straight into the wall and fell to the floor with a resounding thump.
“Ow.”
Chapter 25 - Carmen
This was it. I’d crushed Isaac to death under my richly-blessed body. I went to slide off, and his hands tightened on my hips. Okay, maybe not dead, then.
“You were doing a Tom Cruise slide, I take it?” he croaked.
“Yes. But with pants on.”
“That’s a bummer.” He cracked one eye open, then two, and smiled at me. “When you said we should do something, I had no idea this was what you had in mind.”
“You’ve never slid across your floor in your socks? I do it at my place all the time.”
“I believe that.” He reached up and carefully tucked a wayward strand of my hair back into place, one finger lingering to trace a path through my hair and down, trailing fire across my neck, his eyes never leaving mine.
And just like that, I felt less worried about his impending death, and a lot more worried about what else was impending. I shouldn’t have been touching him earlier. It was like kindergarten all over again.Hands to yourself, Carmen!
