Page 6 of Serenity & the Hermit
“My yoga studio. I’m supposed to open it tomorrow.” She pauses and looks at her arm. “But I don’t think that’s happening anymore.”
“You don’t seem upset.”
“Oh, that’s because I’m not. I’m devastated.”
I pull my head back because that’s not what I’m getting off her at all. In fact, she’s completely calm, despite that fact that I know her arm must be hurting like a bitch right now.
“Maybe I should take you to the doc? Get you checked out for shock or something.” I reach out and place a hand against her forehead. She seems a little warm.
“I don’t have time for doctors. What I need to do right now is figure out how I’m going to run my classes with my arm in a sling.” She moves to stand, but I reach out and stop her.
“You can’t teach yoga in your condition. It’ll take at least two weeks before you can do anything normal again, and even then you’ll have to be careful.”
She looks at me for a long moment. Then her eyes flood and her lip trembles. “But…” she whispers. “No.” She shakes her head and wipes at her eyes as she takes a deep breath. “No. I’ll find a way. My yoga is all about accessibility, anyway. So I’ll just figure out how to do it with one arm.”
“OK,” I say, seeing the stubborn flash in her eyes as she meets mine again, that moment of emotion seemingly long forgotten. “But at least let me take you to the doctor? Just so he can check you out and maybe give you some advice.”
“Fine,” she says with a sigh as I hold my hand out to her and help her up. She pauses for a moment and looks up at me. My heart hammers in my chest.How is she doing this to me?“You know something? You have incredible eyes.”
“Family trait,” I say, those very same eyes glancing at her plump lips and wishing they were between my teeth.
“Well, I like to consider myself a good judge of people by the look of their eyes.”
“And what do my eyes say?”
“That you have a good heart and I can trust you.”
I’m taken aback by that. “And do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
Letting out a slight grunt at the knowledge, I let go of her hand and step back. I don’t know how to feel about that when most people I come across go out of their way to run the other way. What does it mean when a woman says something like that after you not only growled at her during your first meeting, but pulled a gun on her during your second and caused her to hurt herself too? I’m hoping it means I found my soulwink…
SERENITY
My arm aches like crazy, and I have a feeling there won’t be any sleep in my future. Which I guess is a good thing since I have to figure out what yoga poses to do with only three limps. Not to mention, I’ll also have to work out how to strap my arm across my body so it doesn’t move. This is going to get very complicated.
“OK. We’re at the clinic,” Nelson says, pulling up outside the modern-looking building with neon signage saying, ‘Whisper Valley Health Center’ around a Red Cross, and above a ‘24hrs. 7 Days.’ Impressive for a small town.
“Do you think we’ll be here long?” I ask when he helps me out of his truck—my car being left up at his place since I couldn’t really traverse the mountain one handed in a sedan. To be honest, I barely made it up there in one piece with both hands on the wheel.
“Couldn’t say. Only one doctor on call this time of night. So, if there’s a backlog of patients, we could be here a while.”
I look down at his big hand wrapped around my arm, feeling a slight jolt in my chest and heat at the connection. For a grumpy hermit, this giant of a man certainly knows how to make a girl’s heart beat faster. And I don’t even think he’s trying.
“Maybe we should skip the doctor? I can come back tomorrow in between classes or something? Besides, you said yourself it was just a dislocation. So, it should be fixed, right?”
“I’m no doctor, Serenity.”
“Then what are you?”
“Impatient. Now, come on. We’re not leaving here until you’ve at least gotten an X-ray. And since I have the keysandthe truck, you’re kind of at my mercy.”
“Hmm. Bossy. I like it,” I say, giving him a smirk as I start walking toward the entrance, testing out an exaggerated sway of my hips since I know he’s probably watching. Although, I quit it when I trip up the first step, dying a little inside as I walk through the automatic doors and catch him hiding a chuckle behind a swipe of his hand.God I’m a loser.
I shuffle the rest of the way to the reception counter and mutter about needing to see a doctor.
“What’s that, honey?” the perky blonde asks before her eyes light up, and up andupwhen they clock the man I just walked in with. “Oh. Hey.” She touches a hand to her chest. “You’re one of those Valentine brothers, aren’t you?”
