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Warer envelope as she heard the door downstairs open Unable to resist, she pulled out the book to see which one it was: Endless She smiled It was one she hadn’t read yet She flipped it open to get a sneak peek of the inscription and was startled by how fast Brandon hadherself, she slowed down after instinctively shoving the book back in the envelope in reaction She could’ve kicked herself for being so stupidly obvious about it

"Is it a secret?" Brandon asked, peering at the envelope as he walked toward the bed

He placed the box with the chair on the end of her bed, but his eyes were still on the envelope

"No," she said, clearing her throat a little "It’s just a book--a romance novel by one of ned by the author and sent it to ly comfortable as it was to talk to Brandon, this was not a topic she was ready to talk about Telling hi she hadn’t even decided if he needed to know at all She pulled her legs off the side of the bed and pointed at the box he was noorking on getting open "That’s a good size I didn’t know they made them that small"

Brandon eyes went from her to the envelope then back to her She knew heabout it still She’d already bypassed his question earlier about not being curious about the package Then she’d obviously waited for hiasp when he’d walked back in the room so quickly

To her surprise, he didn’t press further But the raised eyebrow remained up even as he spoke of the chair "I noticed your shower is on the sot the smallest one they had"

He pulled the chair out, made some adjustments, and then walked over to the bathroom "Yep," he said "Perfect fit" She smiled as he walked out "Did you want to take a shower now or later?"

"Now is good"

He walked over and helped her up She was getting better about walking on just one crutch Her ankle was still very sore, but at least, the throbbing had subsided, so she didn’t need such a big dose of her painkillers They ish, and today she hadn’t even taken the Brandon around or if her ankle was healing a lot faster than she was expecting But if the pain didn’t get any worse than it was now, she probably wouldn’t be taking any more meds from here on

Brandon helped her all the way into the bathrooot the rest fro to love seeing his playful side The fact that not too long ago she’d actually wondered if he ever srin on his face now feel like thatin and kissing hiht his hand around her waist and kissed her a little deeper before pulling his face away "I’onna be okay on your own?"

"Absolutely," she assured him "But I’ll probably be in here a while, so if you have anywhere else you need to be or any errands to run, by all ain rejected his help, he exhaled "I have a few phone calls I need toI needed to do at the base but was going to wait until Monday Maybe I can knock it out today You sure you’re gonna be a while and you don’t need me here?"

"Positive, and even after I’m done, I’m sure I’ll find a way to keep et back in tiht"

"Oh, I’ll be back way before that"

After a fewif maybe she should’ve taken hione

Just as she anticipated, the shower took forever Moving around with that daht on her ankle slowed everything down She had plenty of ti between her and Brandon

The untiun to est a relationship? Or was it his way of trying to warn her he didn’t do them and this weekend was just an exception? On the other hand, he’d been pretty aggressive about getting down to the business of whether or not she was single

Was she ready to move on as Dr Devereux had insisted she needed to? As e before settling dohich had given her the opportunity to deal with a lot of different personalities--she’d never met someone quite like Brandon He’d proven he could be such a sweetheart already, but there was soo hard in an instant She’d seen it happen several ti to make attachments and that he had no family, nor did he mention any friends or acquaintances That was a little alarood idea to finally start to move on with someone like Brandon, so intense and atypical, which most likely translated to difficult?

Sure he’d been easy enough to get along with now that he’d finally come around He’d been wonderful actually, and while he had his intense moments, he could be so down to earth Even their kisses felt like sootten into any heavy subjects yet Everything so far had been light and fluffy There was no hiding the fact that they were both ski each other to do so Avoiding the tougher subjects was not the smartest way to start a relationship, but she’d tread cautiously for now