The Reality of Everything - Rebecca Yarros Page 0,6

off, but she sighed and dropped the pretense along with her shoulders.

“Five? A little scraped, I think, but mostly just mortified. I’m sure I can pop right out of this—” She tried to push up on her forearms, and I cringed. “Or not.”

“Careful, you skinned your ribs.”

“Feels like it. Most of the pain is there, in my hips…and my dignity. But I can’t quite get a full breath.”

“You are wedged pretty tight there, Kitty.” The nickname slipped off my tongue before I could stop it.

She groaned, dropping her chin to her chest, and even the tips of her ears blushed pink. “Of all the things to be wearing. This is right up there with that one time my cheerleading skirt got tucked into my spankies,” she mumbled.

“Spank…what?” I laugh-whispered to keep Finley from hearing.

Her head popped up, and she rolled her eyes. “Spankies. They’re…you know—bloomers. They go under cheerleading skirts. I really wish I was wearing them right now, as a matter of fact.”

And now that I had that image in my head…

“Well, let’s get you out of this mess.” I scanned the landing, studying the other boards that looked ready to give way if I put any weight on them. “I don’t have the right angle to pull you out from here, and if we break any of those boards, we chance hurting you more. We’re going to have to lift you out. You good with that?”

She pressed her full lips together in a tight line and nodded.

“Let’s do it.” I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile, then walked down the steps and under the landing, doing my best to ignore her mostly naked lower half hanging in my face. Chances were she was involved with whomever drove that lifted F250 parked by the old boathouse. It practically screamed alpha male from the size of the tires to the light rack. Takes one to know one.

Not that it mattered. Anyone who lived next door or knew Finley was off the one-night-stand table, which was all I was capable of.

Fin tripped over my feet, and I caught her by the waist before she smacked her head on the support pillar.

“Fin, honey. Why don’t you give me some space, here? I don’t want to squash your toes.”

Fin nodded, then scurried out from under my feet and retreated to the patio chairs that lined our section of the fence, eager to watch the show.

I assessed the fingers-width of space I had between her ribs and the surrounding wood, and mentally cursed. She was a curved peg in a square hole.

“Okay, you must have fallen at an angle. We’re going to have to maneuver you a little to get you through. Otherwise, you’ll get hung up on your…” ass, I mentally finished. Not that it wasn’t spectacular, but in this situation, it was definitely not helping her out.

“Bottom?” she suggested.

“Exactly.”

“I might need you to give it a little push…there. I don’t have any leverage up here.”

Can I borrow a cup of sugar?

Do you have any extra plywood to board the windows?

We’re headed out of town for the weekend, could you water the plants?

In the nearly five years I’d owned my home, those were the kinds of things the Hatchers had asked. There had never once been a “could you push my ass at the right angle so I can get out of the hardwood landing I’m stuck in” discussion. Ever.

Looked like I was about to cross every neighborly boundary in the first five minutes of knowing this woman.

I stepped out from under the landing and met her gaze. “Hey,” I repeated my earlier line.

“Hey,” she echoed, but with a ghost of a smile.

“I’m Jackson Montgomery. I figured I should probably introduce myself first.” Not that I ever introduced myself to any of the people I saved. I wasn’t the people person. That was Garrett’s job. “Friends call me Jax.”

“Morgan Bartley. Pleasure to meet you.”

Morgan. Perfect. Like my favorite rum, which had a lot in common with the color of her eyes. Eyes you’re not getting involved with, remember?

“Excellent. Now I don’t have to keep calling you Kitty.”

“It’s kind of growing on me, embracing the situation and all.” She laughed lightly. “Lots of worse things I could have been wearing, that’s for sure.”

Crap. Not only was she gorgeous, but I liked her, too. Not many people I knew could keep their sense of humor in this kind of situation.

“Okay, then, Kitty, here we go.” I headed back under the landing. Shit,