There’s more than enough to share.”
He shook his head. “Not a chance. I’m marking it Rafe’s Recovery Food.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I can make more, you know.” He picked up her hand. “Can you? You’d do that for me?”
“Sure. As long as you don’t milk this injury for weeks. I do have a full-time job, a grandfather to take care of, grocery shopping and housecleaning, bills to pay. You know, an actual life.”
He let her hand drop. “Okay, now I feel guilty.”
She laid her hand on his arm. “Not my intention. I was joking with you. We all have things to do.”
“Not me. Not for the next five days, anyway. I’m not allowed to do a thing. I can’t go to the gym, I can’t swim laps, I can’t go to work. I can’t do anything . . . strenuous.”
She made a sad face. “Aww, you poor baby. Relaxation must be killing you.”
“You have no idea.”
She slid off the barstool. “Come on.”
“Where?”
“For a walk. You can’t do anything strenuous, but you can go for a walk. With me.”
“I thought you were busy.”
“Not too busy to take a walk with you.”
He wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to spend some time with Carmen. And getting out of this house sounded like the best idea ever. “Sure. Let me grab my shoes.”
He went upstairs, put on his sneakers and started back down, pausing to gape at the glorious sight of Carmen leaning over. She was holding on to the barstool and bending from the waist, no doubt stretching her hamstrings.
Damn, she had a very fine ass and some spectacular thighs. She wasn’t overly thin, which suited him just fine, because he liked a woman who looked like she had some flesh on her. But every part of her looked firm. Of course she was on her feet at work all the time, so she got plenty of exercise.
He made his way downstairs. “Ready.”
She straightened and smiled at him. “Me, too. You should stretch.”
“I’m not running. I’ll stretch as I walk.”
She shrugged and said, “You know best.”
He liked that she didn’t lecture him. He’d dated plenty of women who thought they knew best and didn’t hesitate to nag him about what he should and shouldn’t do. Those women didn’t last long in his orbit. He already had a mother. He didn’t want to date one.
The humidity blasted him full in the face as they stepped outside. “You sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“Do what?”
“Walk. Outside. In July.”
She laughed. “It’s fine. I’ve lived here my entire life. I’m used to this heat.”
Another bonus point. She didn’t complain. He’d once tried to get a woman he’d met at the gym to run a 5K with him. It was even during the winter, but she complained about how messed up her hair would get in the humidity.
Sometimes finding a woman who was down with his interests was as impossible as trying to win a game of Alien: Isolation on his Xbox.
“How did last night go?” Carmen asked.
“Miserable.”
She looked concerned. “Really? Any vomiting?”
“Nah. I was tired. I wanted to sleep. My asshole brothers woke me constantly.”
She slanted a smile at him. “I’m sure that was very annoying. But necessary.”
“Yeah, I know. At least I’ll sleep good tonight.”
“Yes, that’s the payoff.”
They turned right at the end of the road. They lived in an established neighborhood, all the homes having been built in the late seventies, which meant a lot of mature trees on both sides of the road. School hadn’t started back yet, so kids played in the yards and rode their bikes up and down the street. Rafe often thought about what it might have been like to grow up in an environment like this, with great parents and friends who lived next door.
But that hadn’t been the hand he’d been dealt.
“You’re quiet,” Carmen said. “Are you all right?”
He turned his head to look at her. “Yeah. Whenever I walk the neighborhood, I always think about what it might have been like to grow up here. You know, to be born into something like this. Good parents. Friends. Riding my bike up and down the street without a care in the world. Never being hungry or thinking about where my next meal would come from.”
Carmen reached out and laid her hand on his upper arm. “You ended up with great parents, Rafe, growing up with amazing brothers.”
“Yeah, I got lucky with Jackson and Kal and our parents. I just didn’t start out there.”
“I don’t know