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He barked a laugh. “You’re fun, Scar. I really like having you around.”

She flushed with pleasure. “Happy to be of service.”

“You know, when I woke up in that hospital, I didn’t know what they were going to tell me about my leg. I didn’t know the extent of the damage, or if I’d even have a leg. I admit I was feeling kind of lost when the doc told me it was going to take time and I’d be out of work for a while, but meeting you has been the highlight of the whole thing.”

The flush grew warmer. Scarlett balled up her fist and socked him playfully in the arm. “Don’t even try and make me cry. It won’t work.”

He tweaked her nose and she rocked back, surprised but also flustered by his touch.

“I’m not trying. I just want you to know that I like you. Being with you is easy, and I don’t say that to many people. No reply necessary, so don’t wrack your brain trying to think of an appropriate response.”

“Okay, I won’t. But thanks. I’m taking everything you said as a compliment, so don’t ruin it for me with a joke.”

His grin did things to her insides. “Not planning to.”

The woman returned from the back room, smiling stupidly at Mal. “If you go around to the loading dock, they’ll have the couch waiting for you. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Scarlett rolled her eyes. The other woman didn’t see because she was too busy smiling at Mal. He was smiling back, and Scarlett could see that the brain light had gone off in the woman’s head. She was operating on hormones and desire at this point.

“I’m going to grab a couple of other things. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said to Mal. “You can stay here if you want.”

“Nope,” he said. “Going with you.”

They walked away from the counter, and Scarlett threw him a side-eye. “You turn them stupid. It’s amazing.”

“What?”

“That girl. She could be a PhD in nuclear physics and you’d still knock every thought out of her head simply by looking at her.”

Mal laughed. “You’re giving me too much credit. I’d say you’re pretty damned smart, and I don’t turn you stupid, do I?”

“Not possible,” she sniffed. “I’m immune.”

“I’m wounded.”

“I know. It’s how we met.”

He laughed again. “Jesus, Scar. You’re so full of sass. Sometimes I think…”

“Think what?” she asked when he didn’t continue the thought.

“Nothing important. What else are you getting in this place?”

She put her hand on the round end table, thankful it was still there. It’d been marked down, too. Only twenty-five-dollars today. “This, and maybe a couple of pictures. I still want to know what you were thinking, though.”

He sighed as he hefted the table in one arm. It was light or she would have yelled at him for it. He didn’t need to overtax his leg. He’d only been home for a few days, and it was just a month out from his surgery. Plenty of healing left to do.

“No, you really don’t,” he said.

She faced him, stubbornly unwilling to continue. She shouldn’t care what he’d been thinking, but she did. She couldn’t help it. “Maybe I do. I get to be the judge of what I want to know and what I don’t.”

“Yeah, but once you know, you can’t un-know.”

“Mal.”

“All right, Scar. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He leaned toward her just enough that his voice was only for her. Her skin tingled at his proximity, her breath feeling heavier in her chest.

Then he said the words. “Sometimes I think I want to kiss you.”