Page 11 of Love, Untangled

She curled her fingers around the wound. “It’s okay.”

“Penelope—”

“Pen, please. No one calls me Penelope.”

He grunted. “I think it’s a pretty name. Suits you.”

Any other time, she’d preen from the compliment, especially because it came from her sexy neighbor, but her stomach hurt and she was lightheaded and her hand ached from the deep, thick splinter.

“My name’s Carlo, by the way. Carlo di Laurentiis.”

“I know,” Pen said, licking her lips. “I read your note. Thank you for the bread.”

“Have you tried it? Best one I’ve made yet.”

Pen shook her head. “I was too worried about Alpaca Man heading back this way to eat anything yet—”

“You need to take care of yourself,” Carlo said, clearly exasperated with her. “Let me see your hand.”

Reluctantly, she held it out. Carlo’s larger hand enveloped hers. The warmth there was much different from the painful heat where the wood gouged into her palm.

He clucked as he gently probed the area. “That’s gotta hurt.”

“It does. It’s deep.”

He glanced at her, then at Alpaca Man. “Come on, boy. We need to fix up your girl.” Carlo scooped Pen off the ground, rising to his feet with ease.

She slid tighter against his chest, cradled in his arms. “Put me down! You’ll hurt yourself!”

“Doubtful,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve carried people three times your weight on multiple occasions. Plus, you can’t be trusted to get over the fence by yourself. I’ll build a gate. That’ll make it easier for you to come through to collect your buddy. We both know he’s going to keep coming back.” Carlo lifted up onto his toes and placed his butt on the log. He slid over and landed lightly on the other side—his side of the fence.

Pen gritted her teeth as her hand jiggled. “I can get it out at home,” she said.

“You could, but I’m really good at first aid and want to help.”

“You don’t like us over here.”

“I never said that.”

“You implied it the other day—”

“Well, that was then, and now I know Alpaca Man won’t eat the apples from the tree. He’s actually doing me a favor. I’ll need to pay you for his services.”

“What? No. That’s not necessary.”

“But it is,” Carlo said, earnest. “I don’t have to rake up the fallen apples now. That’ll save me hours of manual labor, plus there won’t be apple seedlings sprouting out of place, needing to be dug up. And, according to Google, Alpaca poop is good for the soil. It’s really a total win for me as long as your boy there continues to only eat the fallen ones.”

Pen frowned, unsure how to react to this change in Carlo’s demeanor. She liked this side of him and being held against his muscular chest was nice. He felt strong, capable. So warm. But the pleasantness wouldn’t last. At least in Pen’s world, it never did, so she couldn’t quite relax, part of her waiting for Carlo to drop her.

The longer he held her, the more she accepted he did mean to carry her to his house. She closed her eyes and inhaled, enjoying the soft scent of outdoors. There was a fainter scent of apples and possibly grass. Pen wasn’t sure—she just knew he smelled good—really good. After another moment, she relaxed fully against him, enjoying the slight sway of their walk. Her cheek rested on his shoulder and he pulled her in even tighter.

This is what cherished feels like.

What? No. She couldn’t think of sentiments like that! Carlo didn’t even like her. Why would she be thinking about him cherishing her? She was sleep deprived and clearly out of her mind.

She bit her lip, trying to resurrect some of the walls she’d planned to keep between herself and Carlo. But she was exhausted. After working deep into the night and then dropping off Carlo’s gift, she’d driven to town and mailed off the coat, finally able to close out the Etsy order. Now that it was finished and on its way, Pen hadn’t felt bad about heading to the store to grab some essentials. It wasn’t until her return to her house that she realized Alpaca Man was missing. So as soon as she’d put away the refrigerated items, she’d dashed along the path.

Her body ached from exhaustion, and her eyes drifted closed as she snuggled a little closer. Carlo stiffened, but she was too sleepy to do more than make a faint groan in the back of her throat.

---