“I have a question.”
Turning to the empty plate on the counter, she began to fill it with the remaining food the boys had left. “Let’s hear it.”
“What are you still doing here?”
“Eating breakfast, numbnuts. It’s the crack of dawn.”
“No, not here in the kitchen. Why didn’t Jenner take you out to brown bear country this morning?”
Resisting the urge to cast a look over her shoulder at the picture window where she would see Jenner eating his breakfast, she muttered, “Because of your no-period rule.”
“What’s that?”
Dumping syrup on her waffle, she answered without thinking. “The one where you won’t take a woman out who’s on her period, so I don’t draw the bears in.”
Chance gulped a bite and frowned down at his waffle, covered in bright red strawberry preserves. “Shit woman, seriously?”
Dalton sniffed the air near her, nostrils flaring. He nodded thoughtfully with his lips all pursed. “Huh. Makes sense.”
“Okay, why do I get the feeling that is just something Jenner made up to stall now? And stop sniffing me.” Lena sidled away from Dalton and made her way around the island to a pan of scrambled eggs.
“Would you like a heating pad?” Dalton asked innocently.
“Stop it.”
“Or perhaps some ice cream and chick flicks?”
Chance had given up on his red waffles, but he was snickering now as Lennard gave them both an exhausted look. “Boys, this isn’t appropriate talk with one of our clients. I apologize for their asshattery, Lena. You have my permission to slap them if they get too cheeky.”
“Oh, I don’t slap, Lennard,” she said through a grin. “I’m more of a punch and stab kinda gal.” She poured herself a mug of coffee and made her way to the door. “Chance, you enjoy those waffles now.”
The man groaned, Lennard laughed, and right before she walked out the front door, Lena looked behind her to see Dalton shove a spoonful of strawberries in his cousin’s face.
She held in her laugh until the door was firmly closed behind her so they wouldn’t hear. Those men did not need any encouragement from her.
At the top of the porch stairs, Lena hesitated. Jenner seemed to want to be alone, but she felt weird eating breakfast on the porch, basically staring at him as he ate near the river. His sexy, wide-as-a-canyon shoulders would be blocking half the danged scenery from here.
His back went tense long before she reached him, as if he heard her coming all the way from the house, which was impossible, of course.
She cleared her throat as she stood next to a lounge chair and asked, “Is anyone sitting here?”
He cast her a wary glance, then took a long pull of his coffee and returned his attention to the gentle rapids in front of them.
“That was a joke,” she muttered, sitting down beside him. She ate in silence for a while before she said, “I forgot to ask how your side is doing this morning. Do you want me to re-do the bandages later?”
“Woman, let me be. It’s not a good idea for you to be touching me anymore.”
“Why not?” she asked as anger snapped through her. “Am I disgusting? Does my touch make your skin crawl? I was trying to help, you megadick. Not traumatize you.” She clutched her plate to her middle and went to stand, but Jenner’s hand was suddenly on her wrist. She hadn’t even seen him move from his relaxed position on the chair, but instantly, he was pulling her back down. She gasped as her backside hit the cushion. Jenner Silver was as fast as a snake strike.
“You are the opposite of disgusting, and I’m not trying to piss you off, but we aren’t friends, Lena. I’m your guide. Nothing more, and last night was too…”
“Intimate?”
“Yeah, okay? It was too fucking intimate. I’m a professional. This is where I work and where I live, and you came in here and…”
She was arching her eyebrows so high, her forehead wrinkles hurt. “And what?”
He relaxed back onto his chair and gritted his teeth so hard the muscles in his jaw clenched. Jenner sighed. “It’s just best if we keep our distance, all right? You doing shit like dressing my injuries complicates feelings.”
Lena gasped, then pursed her lips to hide a smile that was trying to take over her face. Feelings? Now she knew she wasn’t the only one who felt the flaming hot sparks between them.
She kept her eyes directed carefully at the river, but in her peripheral vision, Jenner was staring at her. “What?” he asked.
“What what?”
“What are you smiling about?”
She arched her gaze to him. “Complicates my feelings or your feelings?”
His eyes narrowed to suspicious little slits. “Does it matter?”
To avoid the obvious answer that was bouncing around in her giddy mind right now, she shoveled a huge bite of waffle into her mouth hole and grinned as she chewed.
“You eat like an anaconda,” he muttered.