Page 9 of Love in Fine Print
The man gasped in horror as he pointed down at the ground. “And your Manolos.”
Both the blonde and I looked down, and I saw that her high heel was broken.
“Oh shit. I’m so sorry.” I took one step, but the man inserted himself between me and the angel.
“Did you do this?” His tone was calm, but his stare was deadly.
I wasn’t intimidated easily, and I wouldn’t say that I was now. But the look on this man’s face told me he wasn’t fucking around. If I was the party responsible for hurting the woman, he would have no problem making sure I paid for my crimes.
“No!” The blonde grabbed his arm. “It was an accident.”
“Good, because I would have hated to have to mess up a face that pretty.” I was secure enough in my masculinity to admit that I didn’t doubt for a second that he might have been able to do just that.
“Dolly gets excited. We’re working on it,” I explained.
“Hello, Dolly.” The man looked down at my side, and when he did, his face lit up. “Oh, you are gorgeous.”
He bent over to pet Dolly, and when he did, the blonde looked up at me, and our eyes met again. This time was no less potent than the first. If anything, it was even more so. All of theair left my lungs. I’d had the wind knocked out of me more times than I could count. In my line of work, it was a regular day at the office.
But it had never happened without any contact. I didn’t even think that was possible.
After giving Dolly some love, the man stood. “And you are?
“Ben,” I said, and placed my hand in his.
As we shook hands, his face morphed into a very odd expression.
“Ben?” His eyes looked me up and down and then he turned back to the angel. “So, his name is not arm por?—”
“Trevor!” The woman’s tone reminded me of the one I used when I was trying to train Dolly.
“I’m sorry about your hands and your shoe and clothes. If you send me the bill, I’ll take care of everything.” I started to pull out my card. I wasn’t even sure if people still handed out cards, but Gran had ordered them for me when she put me in her will as the owner of Ever After.
As soon as I held it out, Trevor grabbed the card from my hand.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. It was nice to meet you, Dolly.” The blonde scratched Dolly behind the ear before dropping a single kiss on the top of her head.
The blonde took one step, and her ankle bent, and her leg crumbled.
Trevor’s arm circled around her waist, and even though I sensed that I was more his type than she was, I still felt a twinge of jealousy that it wasn’t my body she was leaning on.
Where the hell had that come from? I thought to myself as Trevor announced, “We’re going to the emergency room.”
“I’mnotgoing to the hospital,” she stated firmly with a death stare that I was sure had shriveled lesser men’s balls.
Trevor appeared immune. He stared back at her, clearly holding his own. I could see that there was a silent battle going on between the two of them. It was clear to me that a lot was being communicated, although I had no clue what any of it was.
Trevor was the first to break the silence. “I’m sorry, but you are.”
“No. I’m not,” she stated firmly. “I’m fine.”
“You need to go get that looked at,” he argued back.
“I’mnotgoing to the hospital.” She metaphorically and literally dug her heels in—well the one heel that wasn’t broken. When Trevor tried to keep the pair moving, she stopped up short.
I glanced down at her ankle and saw that it was already swelling. She was able to put some weight on it, but not a lot. I’d had and seen enough injuries that I was 99.99999% sure that it was just a bad sprain. Still, I’d feel a hell of a lot better if she got it looked at, considering I wasn’t actually a doctor. And since she seemed to have an issue with a hospital, I figured I’d offer another solution.
“I have a guy who can look at that.” It was a woman actually, but Charli had always been one of the guys. She was also one of my closest friends. “And you don’t have to go to the hospital.”
