Page 12 of Healing Hearts
“I gotta head out in a minute, but I just wanted to make sure everything’s good at your place? There’s a storm coming.”
Her two-story house is one of the older ones in town and prone to all sorts of finicky issues that crop up out of nowhere.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she says, glancing behind her.
Then I hear the incessant beep.
“Em,” I say, stepping around her into the house. “It’ll take me two seconds to change those batteries.”
“Oh, you don’t need to,” she says, rushing to the kitchen table in the middle of the room and gathering some papers. “I was just in the zone, and I was ignoring it. But I can get to it.”
I toe out of my boots and go to where I stashed batteries last time I was here and one of her smoke detectors started acting up. “Just because Amir isn’t here doesn’t mean you can neglect your own safety.”
“It just started, I swear.”
“Uh huh,” I say, and I go to the closet to get out the little step stool. “You working on a real estate deal?” I ask, nodding at the spreadsheets and checklists she’s got beside her computer. She has a knack for becoming laser focused and ignoring everything else around her. I can be the same way when I’m troubleshooting a car, so I’m not one to give her shit for it.
Her chest flushes, and the color rises into her cheeks. I cock my head, curious.
“Please tell me you’re not making spreadsheets and checklists about one of those app dates you went on.”
I grab the screwdriver I leave handy in the same closet and climb the small ladder to unscrew the smoke detector while I wait for her to answer. When she doesn’t, I glance at her over my shoulder. “What are you up to, Em?”
“It’s private,” she says, tugging down her sweater and hiding her hands in the sleeves.
“O-kay,” I say, drawing out the word. I can count on one finger—this one—the number of times Em has outright refused to tell me something.
“It’s just…” She shakes her head and avoids my gaze. “Private.”
“That’s fine,” I say, removing the old batteries and slotting in new ones. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I’m not prying.” I screw everything back together and step down off the ladder.
As I’m putting everything away, I try to keep my curiosity in check, but I’m wracking my brain trying to come up with something that’d be private but would obviously require the research of spreadsheets and checklists.
Oh shit. I hope she didn’t get bad news about Amir. Maybe shedidget him tested.
“Is everything…” I run my hand over the top of my head and scan her for signs of trouble. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she says. “Yeah. Totally fine. I promise.”
“As fine as that smoke detector was?”
“The smoke detector actually was fine,” she says with a hint of a smile, “just complaining a lot. But I’m good at tuning that out.”
“Apparently,” I say.
“I would have dealt with it eventually,” she says.
“Now you don’t have to. Your handyman came to the rescue just in time.”
“I was definitely in mortal danger.”
“Imminent mortal danger,” I agree, and we’re now standing close enough that I could reach out and tuck one of the tendrils of her hair behind her ear. She looks cute when she’s out of sorts, but it’s definitely unusual.
“My hero,” she whispers, looking up at me.
“You got a reward for me?”
“Is that why heroes do heroic things? For the reward?”
