Page 21 of Reaching Little Robyn

Robyn pointed to a drawer beside a large white farmhouse sink. He wrapped the towel around the bag. About to put it in place, he changed his mind. She couldn’t possibly be comfortable sitting on the hard wood of the island. Not when there was a couch in the other room where he could sit with her.

“Wrap your arm around my neck,” he instructed.

“Why?”

“Because what sort of gentleman would I be if I made you hop on one foot all the way to the living room?”

“Not a very nice one?” she offered.

Her words were good to hear but it was the fact she lifted her arm to slide it around his neck that had him smiling at her. “Good girl.” He offered her the wrapped bag and then slid his arms under her knees and picked her up. Once in the living room, he didn’t even consider setting her down. Instead, he slowly dropped to the cushions, settling her on his lap and lifting her legs to rest on the cushions beside him. When she didn’t protest, he ran his hand down her foot to remove her second shoe and then carefully laid the wrapped bag of frozen berries against her right ankle.

“Oww!”

Winston lifted the bag. “Too cold?”

She paused as if needing to contemplate her answer. “A little, but I didn’t really think my ankle was hurting until you touched it.”

“I’ll be as gentle as I can. Trust me?”

“Yes.”

Forget his failure at charades. He’d gladly lose every game he ever played again if it meant she would keep answering with that one wonderful word.

“Can you hold this a second?” At her nod, he handed her the cloth-covered bag again and wrapped his hand gently around her slim ankle. “Can you move your toes?”

When she wiggled them, Winston chuckled and was disappointed when they instantly stilled.

“I’m not laughing at you, I’m thinking I sure wish you’d been on my team during charades last night. You would have known how to act out the clue that would have won us the game instead of failing miserably. Believe me, my teammates weren’t happy about losing out on free cookies the winners enjoyed.”

As he’d hoped, the words intrigued her enough that she didn’t object when he gently rotated her ankle, noting the wincing but glad to see that the twist didn’t seem to have been severe enough to break any bones. As much as he’d prefer holding her hand, he’d be content with simply holding her ankle but knew he needed to get to work in order to help stop the swelling. He held out his free hand. “Ice please, Nurse Robyn.”

She put the bag in his palm and tensed. “Picture something amusing,” he instructed, then waited until her lips turned up before pressing the bag to her skin. When she didn’t pull away or hiss, he considered the job well done.

“Good girl. Care to tell me what the picture was?”

She hesitated and instead of answering, asked a question of her own. “What was the clue? The one that lost the game?”

Grinning, Winston sat back, keeping one arm around her to assure she didn’t topple off his lap and the other pressing the bag on her ankle. “Are you familiar with theThis Little Piggynursery rhyme”

“Yes. Are you saying you’d never heard it before?”

“No, like at least a trillion other kids in the almost three centuries since it was written, I heard it growing up. I just never even considered removing my boots when that was the clue I had to act out.”

Robyn laughed. “No wonder you lost. You’ve got to expose your toes with that one.”

“Consider me schooled. Hayleigh said just about the same thing.”

“So what did you do instead?”

“First I tried to convey that I was enjoying a nice roasted-meat sandwich and when that didn’t work, I put my purse over my arm and went off to market.”

Robyn stared at him for a full three seconds before she burst out laughing, doubling in on herself in reaction to his story. It was the most amazing thing to watch. He’d thought her adorable before, but witnessing her entire body shaking in glee was magical. As he smiled, he thought about the word he’d heard upon entering the B&B only a few minutes ago after running into Hayleigh on the lawn.

Strutting.

That was exactly what Hayleigh had been doing when she’d walked away after the game last night. But by Robyn’s reaction, he would bet Hayleigh hadn’t shared the story, so why had Robyn chosen to use that word?

More importantly, why had he chosen to assume it was in reference to himself? Could it be she was acting out her own charade clue and trying to convey that, despite knowing of her friend’s reluctance to get to know him, Hayleigh was silently giving Rooster her approval to pursue Robyn?

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