Watermelon Wishes

Chapter 8

Evey's face felt as if it were on fire, she was so furious. Before she hung up with Angela, she had asked her if she had time to see her now. Evey explained that what she had needed to do earlier had just gotten cancelled.

She threw her phone in her bag and slung it over her body. Good thing it was a cross body style bag or it would have flown off of her the way she wobbled on the crutches. She got up and started hobbling out of the narrow area. As she rounded a corner, her uncoordinated pace coupled with her anger, caused her to careen off her path and slam into the wall, sending one of the very large crutches flying down the hall and crashing into a vending machine with a loud bang.

Super, thought Evey with a sigh. She took a moment to focus and leaned the remaining crutch against the wall, limping over to retrieve the wayward mate.

Even though she hadn't known Brady long, she felt a thick layer of betrayal cross her heart because she thought they had made a pact last night. She had thought that her pouring her heart had meant something, that listening as he spilled his heart out had meant something, too. I thought, I thought, I thought, she told herself miserably. Stupid me. She would have to remember to think less and act more when it came to Brady Casteel.

She leaned down to pick up the crutch. When she was halfway down with her bad ankle extended behind her for balance, she became startling aware of a tall dark presence blocking the light in the hallway.

"What are you doing here?"

The voice that now haunted her dreams thundered from the hall.

Super duper, she thought, looking up to see Brady with a professional headset around his neck, a stone-colored shirt that brought out the cool calm beauty of his eyes that were watching her, she noted miserably, as she toppled right over onto the linoleum floor of the lobby. Sprawled on the floor, she somehow had managed to keep her swollen ankle up.

Like yesterday, he was beside her in an instant.

"Careful," he said, helping her up.

"Thanks for the advice," she said with a scowl.

"Are you okay?" he said, giving her a skeptical look that might imply that he wondered if she were okay mentally as well as physically.

"Yes, of course, everything's fine," she said, straightening and gathering her bearings on the tall crutches that were fit more for someone of Brady's size rather than her 5'5 frame. She backed up as well as she could, getting ready to leave.

"You don't look fine," he said.

She spun around to face him and awkwardly stumbled but caught herself just as he was reaching his hands out to steady her.

"Well, I am," she said, pulling away.

"Why are you here?" he asked, his voice soft.

"Lost," she said, her chin out, wobbling her way away from him.

"What were you looking for?" he called out to her.

Yesterday, she wanted to say. You and the way you were yesterday before I found out that you hired a professional to make sure that I don't get the farmhouse that you know means a lot to me but I know it means a lot to you and... She rubbed her head, realizing that it suddenly throbbed worse than her ankle.

"Did you hit your head when you fell?" he asked walking around her to hold open the door.

Damn him and his manners, she thought.

"No, I didn't hit my head," she said with a haughty tone. "Thank you," she said as she staggered out of the open door.

"Where are you off to?" he said looking at her with almost a wince of pain, likely at her coordination which resembled that of a newborn deer.