My gaze caught on the little plastic pharmacy bag dangling from his fingers, spurring me to action. “You haven’t had your pain pills yet. Let me get you a glass of water.”
“June—”
I rushed past him to the kitchen. This had been remodeled, too, with gleaming white cabinets and a sleek faux-marble countertop. I ran my hand over the island’s butcher block top. This whole house seemed designed to make my interior decorator’s heart happy. Surely, this was too modern to have been his grandmother’s taste, but I wasn’t entirely convinced it matched Ty’s, either. It sure suited me, though.
Remembering my errand, I found a glass, filled it with water, and brought it out to him.
“June.” He gazed down at me, his eyes gone steely. “What are you doing?”
I held the glass in front of him until he took it, then swiped his pharmacy bag and read the instructions on the pill bottle. Percocet wasn’t exactly a heavy hitter, but it should ease his pain. I shook out two capsules and handed them over. He popped them into his mouth and swallowed them down in one swift gulp, his eyes never leaving mine.
“When was the house updated?” I asked.
“Recently.”
“Who did you bring in to do it? Madison’s?” Kurt Madison was the best small contractor in Magnolia Ridge, or so I’d heard. I kept up on local businesses in my field, even if I never had call to use them in Austin.
“I did the work.”
“You?” I glanced around, taking in everything from the smooth floors to the perfectly mitered corners on the Craftsman trim. Homeowner-completed renovations usually gave themselves away with sloppy seams and spotty finish. This work reflected an eye for detail I would have expected from a pro. “But it’s so good.”
One eyebrow ticked up. “Kick me when I’m down, why don’t you.”
I cringed over my backhanded praise. “I’m impressed, is what I mean. Most people think they have a good eye for stuff like this, but you actually do.”
He winced as if my revised compliment had the opposite effect. “I had some help.”
“Really? Magnolia Ridge doesn’t have many interior designers. Who did you hire?”
He set his jaw, his mouth tensed into a straight line. “We’re getting a little off track. You were going to tell me what you’re doing out here.”
“I told you, I wanted to make sure you’re doing all the Best Man stuff.”
“And I told you I am. What about the other thing?” He shifted his feet, crossing his arms over his chest again, squeezing himself in a one-person hug. “Why would it be awkward between us?”
“Right. That.” I shoved away my questions about Ty’s perfect-looking house and our hometown’s small selection of professionals in my industry. Time to get this over with. “Eden’s not just family, she’s my best friend, and it’s important to me that her wedding is perfect. I want everything to go smoothly.”
“Okay.”
From the unchanged expression on Ty’s face, that explanation hadn’t illuminated anything.
“Don’t you want to sit down?”
Maybe it would be easier to talk to him if I didn’t have to crane my neck to stare up at him. How could a man with a crushed ribcage leave me so twitchy with nerves?
“I’m fine.”
Like hell he was. His casual words rang completely at odds with the tension in his voice and the lines in his face. He needed to be sitting down at a minimum—preferably in the damn hospital—not standing here in his living room arguing with me about how fine he was.
I blew out a sharp exhale. “Look, I don’t want there to be any tension between us during the wedding, that’s all.”
One of his eyebrows twitched. “Why would there be tension between us?”
I made a sound of disgust. He wanted me to spell it out? Fine.
“Because of everything that happened between Bret and me, obviously. I’m not thrilled to see him again, but I’m not going to wreck the wedding over it, either. I’m past all that. I won’t have a problem with him. I want to make sure you and I won’t have a problem, either.”
His mouth pulled at the edges, but resulted in a grimace, not a smile. “I don’t have a problem with you, June.”
