“Your eyes are very pretty.”
“Huh?”
His eyes locked with her, holding her spellbound as the doctor placed a knee brace on her leg.
“How did you keep from screaming? When Max knocked my shoulder out of its socket, I screamed and cried like a baby.”
“You didn’t cry.” She didn’t believe that lie for a second.
Laughter crinkled the corners of his eyes. “I did. Ice offered to go to the store to get me a pacifier.”
“You can let go of my hands now.” Zoey’s gaze shied away from his when Stump freed her.
She only half-listened to the doctor’s instructions for her release. She just wanted him to leave so she could cry in privacy.
“We’ll get another X-ray and confirm that everything looks good. If it is, the nurse will bring you crutches and the discharge papers, and then we can get you on your way.”
When she didn’t have any questions, the doctor left, leaving her and Stump alone in the curtained-off room.
“Can I have my phone? I have clients that I need to contact.”
Surprisingly, he gave her the phone without asking any more questions and then stepped aside when the X-ray technicians came to take her away. She thought he would be gone when she came back. However, he was still there. Her shoulders slumped.
“What do I have to do to get rid of you?”
“Answer my questions.”
“There isn’t anything else to say. Someone left me flowers when the firefighters opened my office. It’s not a big deal.”
At his silence, Zoey unconsciously rubbed her abdomen at the burning sensation she hadn’t felt in years.
Sighing, she gave in. “What are you so determined to find out?” Once he left, she wouldn’t have to see the unmovable man again.
She lived in Queen City for the last seven years and had no contact with him until she found his dog. If Hannibal hadn’t run away a second time, she wouldn’t have had to see him again, other than when he came to Penni’s office.
“Do you know who sent the note and flowers?”
“No.”
“How did you fall down?”
Zoey lowered her lashes, shielding her eyes. “I tripped on the steps.”
“I found your phone on the top of the landing, not the bottom.”
“It must have slipped out of my pocket when I was between floors.”
“Was the emergency door locked or unlocked?”
The rapidly paced questions had her carefully gauging her answers.
“It was locked.”
“So, you went out the side door to the lobby?”
“No, I went back up to the second floor and went down that way.”
“Why didn’t you go through the lobby door?”
“I don’t know. I just assumed it was locked, too.” She couldn’t explain to herself why she hadn’t tried the door. “I wasn’t thinking clearly with the fire alarm going off.”
“You don’t strike me as a woman who would panic.”
Her eyes flew up at the skepticism she’d heard. Then she started to nervously rub her abdomen harder at the way he was staring at her. She stopped moving when he noticed.
Laughing huskily, she tried to make light of the terror she had felt in the stairway. “I know, you’d think as a life coach I’d make better decisions. I’ll have to work on it.”
His eyes darted back to her hand. “Is something wrong with your stomach? Did you hit it when you fell?”
“No, I’m just a little queasy after having my knee popped back in. Do you mind? I’d really like to be left alone.”
“One more question and I will. Did the person who sent you the flowers try to make contact with you outside the office building?”
“No.” Technically, the parking garage was separate from her office, so she didn’t feel guilty about giving that lie.
“A deal is a deal. I’ll leave, but just so you know, Penni and Grace will be coming to check how you’re doing.”
“That’s fine.”
“As long as I don’t come back?”
The obnoxious man she dealt with previously had relaxed into one she couldn’t understand how to deal with. His shift from being one of the biggest jerks she had ever met to a guy who wanted her to share his warped sense of humor with her left her in the dark as to how to talk with him. She seriously wondered if Stump was bipolar.
“You can stop pretending to be nice. It doesn’t suit you.”
“I’m a nice guy once you get to know me.”
Stump was a man she had no intention of getting to know. The burning in her stomach was giving a warning that a closer acquaintance with him would derail the health she had achieved by carefully choosing those she allowed in her life.
“Like when you’re not on your bike?”
“I didn’t mean to drench you. I never saw you that day.”
“You saw me this morning when your bike was loud enough to wake everyone in my neighborhood,” she reminded him.
“I was in a bad mood. I was worried Hannibal would get hit by a car before I could find him.”