He wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there before he realized he wasn’t alone. Raina stood at the railing next to him, looking out to the distance. She wore a long tunic sweater and leggings, a little bump at her waist the only evidence of her pregnancy.
She’d lost her summer tan, so her skin was a very light brown and her long curly hair swirled around her face in the cold wind. He looked down at his own skin, which was also considerably lighter than it had been in the summer. Mara always joked that he’d sucked up all of their mother’s Columbian heritage in the womb since he tanned so well and she didn’t. At the thought of his sister, he glanced behind him at the house. He’d have to go back inside eventually. The thought of it, of all the pitying looks, was exhausting.
“I don’t mean to bother you,” Raina stated. She exhaled, her breath forming an icy cloud in front of her face. “We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”
He marveled, as he did every time he saw her, at not only how beautiful she was but also at how different she seemed from when he’d first met her. Gone were the designer clothes and the heavy makeup. She looked like a person now instead of a fashion icon. She looked real.
“You know, you and I have never actually been introduced.”
If she was perplexed by that sudden strange statement, she didn’t show it. She stuck out her arm and he saw she held his leather jacket. He accepted it gratefully and pulled it on. She still carried a long black cape that she now swung over her shoulders.
“No, I suppose we haven’t. But then again, we didn’t need to be. Some things don’t need to be stated to be understood. You’re one of my husband’s best friends. I don’t need an introduction to know you, Matt.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he just tucked his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry about—”
“Don’t apologize. You don’t have to apologize to me for anything.” Tears sprang to her eyes and she shook her head hard.
“Christ, I made you cry.”
“It’s not you. It’s these damn pregnancy hormones. I’m either starving, throwing up, or sniffling at some sappy commercial on TV.” She swiped her hand under her eye quickly, almost as if pissed off at the inconvenience.
“So, did you draw the short straw to see who’d come check on me?”
“Hell, no. Do I look like the intervention type?”
It was such a blunt, politically incorrect thing to say that it immediately made Matt feel better.
“But that is why you’re here, isn’t it? To tell me it’ll all be okay, so I should come back inside with everyone.”
She shook her head. “When I’m dealing with crap, I don’t want an audience. I brought your coat and car keys so you can get out of here. I understand not wanting company. Especially mine, since I’m hardly the warm and fuzzy type.”
He closed his eyes. “It’s not that I don’t want your company. I’m just dealing with some stuff.”
“Matt, you have no idea how much your friends admire you. How much they care about you and worry about you.” She looked back at the screen door. “None of us can even pretend to understand what you’re going through, but we just want to help. You picked me up when I was too sick to walk and got me to the hospital. I owe you for that. Mara told us about your shoulder. I’m sure carrying around pregnant women is not helpful when you’re dealing with an injury.”
“Raina, my shoulder was messed up before that happened. This is not your fault.”
She shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe it wouldn’t be this bad if you hadn’t had to do that. Either way, I want to do whatever I can to help you.”
A slow creep of guilt grabbed Matt by the throat. Raina had been dealing with some pretty serious health issues during her pregnancy. The last thing she needed was to feel stressed and guilty about his injury.
“Seriously, my shoulder isn’t that bad. It just needs physical therapy. Mara already got me an appointment with a new therapist who’s supposed to be really great,” he assured her.
His thoughts drifted to the suspicious expression in Penny’s eyes when he’d left the center Thursday. She wasn’t a typical bombshell by any means, but there was something about the way she looked when she got all worked up. She looked like she could take a bite out of him and for some reason, he wanted her to.
There was no denying he was attracted to her. Not that she’d done anything to encourage his attention. He almost laughed out loud. She definitely wasn’t trying to throw his libido into overdrive. The woman couldn’t have been any pricklier if she’d had a porcupine stuck on her head.
Matt would have his work cut out for him since he was pretty sure Penny wasn’t going to give him any slack. Any goodwill he might have had with her had been destroyed when he’d lost his temper. He was going to have to work twice as hard to get back in her good graces. He couldn’t have her mad at him. Penny represented everything he needed.
Everything he needed for his health, he amended. He couldn’t afford to think of his physical therapist with her severe demeanor and devil’s-playground body as anything other than the woman who could help him get back his life.
Raina brightened. “So you’re going back to physical therapy?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I’m going back next week. You don’t have to worry. I’ll be fine.”