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Lucy squawked at Beth.

Beth glared at the hen. He half expected the woman to squawk back.

Eli glanced at Delaney over his shoulder. “I don’t think your plan is working. Would you mind tossing her back in the coop? Promise you can try again tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Beth cried. “I don’t think so.”

Delaney sighed. “She’s not usually like this, Bethy. I swear. Only when she…”

Eli’s shoulders tensed as Delaney trailed off.

“I mean, I’ll be right back,” she sputtered. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Beth rolled her eyes. “Where am I going?” she mumbled. “I’m just getting back on my feet in this stupid cast, and now there’s a chicken trying to hobble me for good.”

“Lucy’s harmless,” Eli told her as he pulled a chair from the table and sat down in front of her.

“Wait…” she started.

He glanced up at her.

“That was Lucy? You were comparing me to a violent chicken?” She raised her brows and set her jaw.

Eli bit back a smile. He noticed himself doing that a lot today, which oddly made the hair prickle on the back of his neck.

“Can you hand me that?” He nodded toward the first aid kit, and she gave it to him with her free hand. “And she’s not violent,” he continued as he opened the small box and retrieved an antiseptic wipe. “But some folks around here believe she’s psychic.”

Beth snorted, then covered her mouth with both hands, which was when Eli swooped in. He lowered her foot to his lap, and she hissed in a breath between clenched teeth as he cleaned the small wound.

“Sorry,” he told her. “But that’s the worst of it.” Then he blew softly on the affected area before covering it with a small bandage. “Good as new,” he added, then met her eyes as he closed up the kit and set it on the ground.

She was staring at him, mouth open, still like the air before a storm creeping in.

“Are you…breathing?” he asked.

She pressed a hand to her chest, and he watched the shallow rise and fall as she did, in fact, circulate air through her lungs.

She nodded.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked.

She shook her head. “But why did you… I mean, how did you know…”

“I’m baaack,” Delaney singsonged as she bounded through the door again. She shook out her floral sundress and pulled the elastic from her ponytail, refashioning her hair into a bun atop her head. “When is this heat supposed to let up? I moved to the north for snow.”

Eli laughed. “Northern California is hardly the north, but it’s more temperate than Vegas. That’s for sure. And you’ll get your snow. We always do. But spring is spring, and summer is summer, and you’ll have to find a way to survive both before we get our first frost.”

Even he could feel the room grow warmer every time Delaney opened and closed the front door. Or was it just that he wasn’t used to being this close to another human, to skin-on-skin contact even if it was only a matter of first aid.

Delaney turned to her sister. “I see Dr. Murphy made sure you weren’t mortally wounded.” She nodded toward the foot that still rested in Eli’s lap.

Beth jerked it away almost as fast as Eli tossed it toward the floor and sprang from the chair.

Delaney held up her hands. “Whoa. Not like I caught you two making out under the bleachers. The doctor’s allowed to take care of the patient.”

Eli cleared his throat and took the first aid kit with him back to the kitchen.

“Did you tell him to blow on it, Bethy, like Mom always did when you were little?”