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Nick rolled his eyes

‘I don’t believe this! A woman takes a couple of isolated incidents, puts her own spin on them and wham, she co on that old house—’

‘The Shelby place’

‘Yes And I h my hand’

‘Because you were careless’

‘Because I had the damned flu, and a fever’

‘All the reasons you should have been ho around on a construction site’

‘Oof’

‘Does that hurt?’

‘Of course it hurts,’ Nick growled ‘And I wasn’t “parading around”, da because we needed the money’

‘You orking because you were too damned stubborn to let me work’Holly stepped back ‘You’ll live Your Everest-sized buer than a petit pois’

‘A what?’

‘A tiny pea And the point of ot to the eave you that shot’

‘I passed out because of the shock And the fever The doctor said so And because when you caency room you looked as if—’

‘As if what?’

As if you couldn’t bear it, if so happened to me As if you really did love me as much as I loved you…

‘As if you were afraid you’d barf at the sight of blood,’ he said briskly, ‘and who could blaht I’ll be fine’

‘You know, maybe you should put some ice on—’

‘I will I’ll follow your advice’ Nick forced a set outside’

‘Oh’ Holly nodded She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips ‘Well, then…’

‘Yeah’ Nick cleared his throat ‘Well…’ Merry Christ people said, this time of year But he hadn’t said those words in six years, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to say them now ‘Take care of yourself, Holly’

‘You, too’

They stood in the darkened kitchen, looking at each other, and then Nick cleared his throat again

‘It was good seeing you’

Holly nodded That was all she see, not when her throat suddenly felt tight