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Leaning back, she turned the TV on and flipped to the racing channel. Keeping it on mute, she watched in silence. “Wrench said you race cars.”
Riley kept her attention on the screen as she nodded. Feeling like she was being stared at, she turned her head and looked at Preacher. “Wrench talks too much.”
Bones choked on his food at hearing Riley’s clipped tone with his brother. “For the most part, Wrench keeps his mouth shut.”
“Not from where I’m sitting,” Riley told Bones as she held Preacher’s stare. “Sugar, you won’t win a stare-down with me,” she told Preacher, who smiled at the statement and went back to eating. Before she could say anything else, Bones told them he had some errands to run and walked out the house laughing. “What an ass.”
“Yeah, he is,” Preacher mumbled.
Riley saw Bones had left his plate on the coffee table with half a sandwich on it. “Does your brother have cooties?”
“What?”
“Never mind.” Reaching over, she picked up the plate and ate the leftover sandwich. “Damn, I make a great sandwich.”
“I would agree with that.” Preacher picked at the crumbs on his plate.
“Would you like another?” Riley asked him.
Giving her a sheepish smile, he answered her honestly. “I’d love two more.”
“Two more?” She watched Preacher smile and decided she liked when he did. “I’ll make you two more if you don’t pick on me if I make myself another one.”
“Make yourself two. I like a woman who likes to eat.” Preacher laughed at the shocked look on her face in response to his comment. It was the truth. He loved a woman who enjoyed food. Watching as Riley took his plate and walked back to the kitchen, he reminded himself how much he liked a woman with hips.Damn, the girl has sway in her hips.
Preacher leaned forward, trying to grab the remote, and groaned. Riley rushed back to him and helped him ease back. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think about you having to reach so far for the damn remote.”
Lifting Preacher’s shirt, Riley wanted to look at the wound area. Preacher shoved the T-shirt down as she tried lifting it again. It was obvious to her he didn’t want her to look at his stomach. “Preacher, let me look at your stomach.”
“Why?”
“Because you still have stitches and I need to make sure you didn’t pull them.”
“I don’t want you to look at it.”
“Why not? I’m a medic, or I was.”
“I just don’t.”
Before she thought about her words, she spoke. “I’m not here on a date.” She saw the expression on his face and knew she’d hurt him. At least, she thought she had, until he tucked his emotions away behind a well-developed mask. She knew what that looked like because she wore one most days.
“I didn’t mean . . . damn it, I’m not good with people.” Huffing a breath, she placed a hand over one of Preacher’s. “Please let me check the stitches. It’s a surgery site that’ll one day be a scar. I have my fair share and will gladly show you if it’ll make you let me see.”
“Where are they?”
“Where’s what?”
“Where are your scars?”
She saw Preacher smile and shook her head. “Why do I think you’re a handful?”
It didn’t go unnoticed by Preacher that Riley avoided answering his question. He’d let it go for now, but they’d revisit the topic another time. “I’m two handfuls, sweetheart,” he said, giving her a wink.
“Oh, sugar, don’t tease me.” Riley burst into laughter, causing Preacher to laugh until he winced.
“Don’t make me laugh, it hurts.”
Getting her composure under control, she lifted his shirt and looked at the wound area. She didn’t like the look of the incision area around the stab wound, but the incision for the splenectomy looked decent. The two sites were so close, she wasn’t sure if the redness and bruising was coming from one or the other. “You have some bruising around the location of the stabbing, but I think that’s normal after what you’ve been through.”
