Page 39 of Fragile hearts

“He hurt you,” he states.

“I’m fine.”

He raises his eyebrow, gently cradling my injured arm. “You call this fine? You have goddamn fingerprints on you!”

“It’s not like this is the first time,” I mutter under my breath.

Fuck.

Wrong thing to say. He could kill someone with the look he has in his eyes. I don’t ever want to be on the other side of his wrath. “Names,” he demands. I smooth my hands over his shoulders in a comforting manner.

“Calm down, big guy.”

“Calm down? You just told me someone put their hands on you and you want me to calm down!”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Well, that’s even worse!

I point to the scar on my throat. “People have done a lot worse than that, remember?”

“Yes, and when I catch him I’ll kill him too.”

Jesus, he’s on a murder spree today.

“Look…I appreciate that you’re standing up for me, but no one is committing murder today.” I wait until he meets my eyes. “You’re being a really good neighbor right now—”

He cuts me off. “You are more than my neighbor, Alexis, but even if you weren’t, no one touches a woman. No one.”

“You’re perfect, you know that?”

“For what? Defending women? That’s the bare minimum. But apparently a fuckload of men don’t know what that is. It’s either that or they were born fucked up.”

I’m pretty sure I’m having heart palpitations right now. “How are you single?” I ask.

He chuckles, lifting his shoulders, not giving a full answer. The anger in his body has faded. His hands are relaxed. The fury in his eyes is still there, but he’s nowhere near as angry as he was minutes ago.

I step away from him, my hands leaving his shoulder. I don’t miss the way his eyebrows clench when I stop touching him. I grab him by the arm. “Come on, Superman, let’s go inside. I’m pretty sure my dinner is burned.”

Carson

“Do you know what I just realized?” Alexis asks, taking a bite of the pizza we had ordered after we found her dinner was indeed burned.

“What?”

“I don’t know your last name.”

“I didn’t tell you?”

She shakes her head. “No, I would remember.”

“Cooper,” I reply quickly. She hums to herself, murmuring my last name under her breath.

“What else do you want to know?”

She smirks, splaying her hands on her wide knees, sitting upright.

“You’re letting me ask you questions about yourself?”