Page 28 of One Kind Hand

Rolling her gray-blue eyes, she pulled up the left sleeve of her sweater to reveal one hell of a blue-purple-black bruise right at her elbow. “Happy now?”

“No. Not happy at all. That looks painful.” His fingers itched to touch her and bring some comfort, but that would probably only have the opposite effect. “Do you want some ice?”

“Already did that to relieve the swelling.” She pulled her sleeve down slowly, a slight wince gracing her lovely features. “Woke up with the bruising. It’ll fade though. No worries.”

“Probably not the worst injury you’ve ever had.”

“Because I’m a tomboy who’s had more scrapes and broken stuff than the average girl?” She nodded. “You’d be correct on that one.” Charlie pulled up her other sleeve to expose a patch of skin on the inside of her forearm that was slightly pinker than the rest of her flesh. “First time I used a welder while rebuilding an engine. Caution: Welders are hot. And burning flesh smells funny.”

Austin cringed then held up his right arm to reveal a zigzag scar on his triceps. “When you try to stop set lighting from falling on you and it impales your upper arm.”

“Ouch.” Charlie pointed down to her boots. “The last two toes on my right foot have been crushed twice under ATVs. But that’s what you get for ATVing without any shoes on. Twice.”

“And why would someone do that?”

She gave him a half shrug, a small smile turning up her lips. “On a dare.”

“Oh, dare injuries are always a blast.” He peeled the bottom of his T-shirt up enough to show her the jagged scar cutting a trail over his left ribcage. “In Wicked Arrow, my co-star dared me to do a little motorcycle trick. I did it, but the dismount got unexpectedly messy. Broken ribs, bits of asphalt embedded where they don’t belong.” He let his shirt fall back in place.

“Humans are dumb sometimes, aren’t they?”

“Yup.” He gestured to the table. “Hungry?”

Her gaze swept back to where he’d had his shirt up, but then she quickly focused on the food. “Starving.”

For more than breakfast?

“Great.” He swallowed around his dry throat and pulled out a chair for her. “See if that French toast meets your approval.” He took the seat across from her as she pulled the metal cover from her plate.

Her widening smile made him want to sit beside her instead of all the way on the other side of the table. “This looks perfect.” Her gaze flicked up to him. “I see you told them to hold the bananas.”

Berto jumped up to the seat beside her, his black nose sniffing a line along the table.

“I didn’t want you to break Berto’s heart by leaving.”

She glanced down at Berto as he eyed her plate. “I probably wouldn’t have been able to leave.” She scratched the dog’s pointy ears. “He’s just too adorable.”

“And he knows it.”

“Adorable dogs are a weakness of mine.” She picked up her fork and met his gaze again. “So are adorable men who feed me French toast without bananas.”

A bolt of . . . something zipped through Austin. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being called adorable, but he was sure he wanted to be a weakness of Charlie’s.

****

Adorable? Had she really called Austin Rayhill adorable? What the hell was wrong with her? It was totally true, but guys didn’t want to be adorable. Especially action-adventure actors who had made a career of doing dangerous things on screen.

But the fact was . . . Austin was adorable. Everything from seeing him answer the door with a Chihuahua cradled against his toned, T-shirt-clad chest to him being concerned over her bruised elbow to him making certain her French toast was to her liking all added up to him being adorable. No other word for it. And he was totally capable of rocking both adorable and sexy simultaneously.

She picked up her fork, intent on busying herself with eating the French toast. Hopefully stuffing her mouth with food would keep her from saying any more stupid stuff. She peeked at his plate which had a colorful omelet and four triangles of wheat toast on it.

“No bacon?” she asked as she cut into the French toast with her fork.

Austin reached over to another serving dish and removed the cover. The strong scent of bacon immediately hit Charlie’s nose. “I didn’t know if you liked bacon so I had them put it in a separate dish.” He met her gaze. “Again, trying to ensure you didn’t leave and break Berto’s heart.” He nudged a fork her way so she could grab some bacon.

“Right. So kind of you to look out for this little pup here.” She pointed to the bacon then Berto. “Am I allowed to really make his day?”

“Absolutely, but don’t be surprised when he thinks that means everything on your plate is his.”