Chapter 72: Untitled Chapter

Bash started to answer, but Roberto ignored him. He crossed the room in three strides and took her wrist carefully, too carefully, like he was scared he would hurt her more.

“Kendrix.”

She blinked. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” His eyes stayed on her hand, the red skin, the water running over it, the way she kept trying to pull it back like it didn’t matter. His jaw tightened. “When did this happen?”

“About thirty seconds ago.”

Roberto looked genuinely irritated by that. “Then why are you standing here arguing with me?”

Kendrix stared at him. “Because you’re acting like I lost a limb.”

“You burned yourself.”

“It’s a tiny burn.”

He looked at her then, really looked, the kind of look that said he didn’t believe a word she said. Then he turned.

“Skyler, where’s the first aid kit?”

Bash and Skyler exchanged a glance that said way too much.

Skyler pointed at a cabinet. “Second shelf.”

Roberto grabbed it himself. That was when Bash finally hit his limit.“Roberto.”

No response.

“Roberto.”

Still nothing. The man was busy opening antiseptic cream like it was life or death.

Bash folded his arms. “It’s a small burn.”

“I know.”

“You’d think she got shot.”

Roberto looked up once. Just once. The expression on his face made Bash immediately decide to stop talking.

“Do you want my help?” Bash asked.

“No.”

Bash raised his hands in retreat. “Okay.”

Kendrix bit back a smile. Roberto noticed.

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“That.”

She smiled wider. His expression got even more frustrated. Then he carefully applied the cream and wrapped a neat bandage around her hand like he had performed surgery. When he finished, he stepped back and examined it.

“There.”

Kendrix looked at the bandage, then at him. “Thank you.”

Something softened in his face for half a second, but he saw it before it was gone.

“Be more careful,” he said.

It should have sounded like a reprimand. It sounded worried instead.

Bash saw it too. So did Skyler. The silence lasted three seconds. Then Bash turned to Skyler.

“Did you see that?”

“Yes.”

“I feel like I saw that.”

“You did.”

Roberto closed the first aid kit harder than he needed to. “Not another word.”

Bash immediately grinned. “Oh, this is getting interesting.”

Kendrix laughed. Roberto looked at her automatically the second he heard it.

Bash pointed. “There. That. You did it again.”

Roberto pinched the bridge of his nose.

Kendrix completely forgot about the burn. What stayed with her was the look on Roberto’s face when he first walked in and saw her hurt. Like she had actually scared him. And somehow that hit her harder than the pain.

. .

The burn should have been the end of it. At least for Bash. It wasn’t.

He lasted exactly ten minutes after Roberto left the kitchen, then leaned back in his chair and pointed at Kendrix like he had been holding it in since birth.

“No.”

Kendrix didn’t look up from her cup. “No, what?”

“No to all of that.”

Skyler didn’t even ask. He already looked tired of whatever was about to happen.

Kendrix finally glanced at Bash. “Be specific.”

Bash leaned forward. “You burned your hand.”

“Yes.”

“And Roberto reacted like you’d been stabbed.”

Kendrix shrugged. “He was just being dramatic.”

“That wasn't a drama.”

Skyler muttered without looking up. “That was instinct.”

Bash snapped his fingers. “That. That’s the word.”

Kendrix frowned. “It was just a burn.”

Bash stared at her like she was refusing to see something obvious. “No,” he said slowly. “It was you.”

That made the room quiet. Kendrix stopped moving. Skyler finally looked up.

Bash didn’t stop. “I’ve known Roberto for a long time. He doesn’t do reactions. He does calculations.” He pointed toward the kitchen. “What I saw wasn’t a calculation.”

Kendrix’s voice came out flatter than she intended. “It was a first aid kit.”

Bash shook his head. “No. It was a panic pretending to be a first aid kit.”

Skyler exhaled through his nose. “That’s annoyingly accurate.”

Kendrix felt something tighten in her stomach. “That’s ridiculous.”

Bash leaned back. “Is it?”

She didn’t answer right away because the memory was still there. Roberto’s hand on her wrist, his voice sharper than necessary, the way he didn’t let go until he was sure she was okay. Kendrix pushed it away.

“You’re overthinking it.”

Bash laughed once. “Me? You’re the one he checked before the burn even cooled.”

Silence settled.

Skyler added quietly, “He looked at you first.”

Kendrix shot him a look. “So?”

“So,” Skyler said, finally sitting back, “that’s not normal.”

Bash nodded. “It’s not even slightly normal.”

Kendrix folded her arms. “You’re both being dramatic.”

Bash leaned forward again, voice lower now. “No. We’re being observant.”

That word landed differently and Kendrix didn’t like it. She stood up too quickly. “I’m not doing this.”

Bash tilted his head. “Doing what?”

“This,” she said, gesturing vaguely between all of them. “Whatever you think you’re seeing.”

Skyler watched her carefully. “You don’t disagree with what we saw.”

That made her pause.

Bash noticed immediately. His grin came back, smaller this time. “Oh. You saw it too.”

Kendrix opened her mouth and closed it again because she had seen it.

Later that evening, she tried to ignore it. She really did. But ignoring things in Roberto’s house was starting to feel impossible.

Because every time she passed him, he looked at her. Not quickly. Not casually. Like it mattered. Like checking had become automatic. And worse, he didn’t seem to notice he was doing it.

She caught him once in the hallway. He stepped aside before she reached him, not because she asked, but because he was already moving.

Kendrix stopped. Roberto paused too, a second too long.

“What?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

But neither of them moved right after that. They just stood there in the hallway, too close for strangers, too quiet for anything else.

Then Roberto finally said, “Are you still in pain?”

Kendrix blinked. “From a paper cut-level burn?”

His gaze didn’t shift. “I still want to know.”

That should have been normal. It wasn’t, because it didn’t sound like a concern anymore. It sounded like something that stayed.

Kendrix swallowed. “I’m fine.”

Roberto nodded once. “Good.”

He walked past her after that, but his hand brushed her wrist as he did. Was it barely, or accidental? She didn't know which.

Kendrix stood there longer than she meant to. Because Bash was right. Skyler too was right. Roberto still didn’t seem to know it yet, and she was starting to feel something as well.