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pain that walking was becoming more and more difficult with every step. In fact, I’d begun to have to kind of limp. Unbelievably, it hadn’t even been my left foot that had done the little stutter-step over the rock; it had been my right. All I could think of was that I must have kind of “crunched” my left ankle when it had taken all my weight when my right foot had started to go out from under me.
    There was no way in hell I was going to let Jim know that I’d hurt my ankle clumsily wiping out over a pebble. For one thing, I wasn’t typically clumsy, and I didn’t want him to think I was, and for another thing, I just didn’t want to be that woman, that damsel in distress. Having to be caught to avoid wiping out had embarrassed me, but the thought of having to continue on down the lane with a man I’d just met supporting me with an arm under my shoulders or something positively mortified me. As did the thought that Jim might think I’d only feigned tripping in order to feign ankle pain, just so that he’d have to “rescue” me.
    I didn’t care if I made it to my cabin with shards of bone sticking out from the side of my ankle, I wasn’t going to let on that I was in any kind of pain, or that I’d injured myself in any way during my little stumble. The only problem was that although I could still put weight on my ankle, it was near impossible to put my full weight on it. Even gritting my teeth, the pain was just pronounced enough that I couldn’t avoid a slight limp, try as I might to make this not be so.
    And after a short while, just as we approached the first of the cabins on either side of the lane, Jim glanced over at me. “Avery? Is your ankle all right?”
    “Yes. It’s completely fine.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, it looks like you’re limping a little.”
    Compelled to avoid his eyes, even in the dark, I just kept my gaze straight ahead. “Nope. Not limping at all. I’m actually... I’m actually walking just perfectly.”
    “Well, it really looks—”
    “This is exactly how I normally walk.”
    “With a clear limp? One that you didn’t have before you tripped?”
    Stifling a deep sigh of resignation, I didn’t answer right away. “It’s just a twinge. Honestly. I’ve had a sprained ankle before, and the pain was much, much worse than this. This is really just a twinge.”
    “Well, it looks like enough of one so that you can’t put full weight on your foot.”
    “Nope. I’m just trying to...”
    I didn’t finish the thought, not quite sure exactly what I was trying to do anymore.
    “Avery, please stop for a second.”
    Reluctantly, I did.
    After hiking up my rather large and heavily-packed duffel bag on his shoulder, Jim looked at me for a second before speaking. “The cabin that will be yours is near the end of the lane, so with fifty-something on each side, we have a good forty-something to go. You can’t make it that far limping on a tender ankle. You might further injure it.”
    I knew what was coming. He was going to offer to walk me to my cabin with an arm beneath my shoulders to give me support. And I didn’t want that. Not only because of the embarrassment factor, but because something deep within my brain was warning me that feeling one of Jim’s strong arms around me for an extended length of time, and possible catching whiffs of his heavenly scent for an extended length of time, were two things I should definitely avoid.
    So, desperate to avoid having him offer to support me with an arm beneath my shoulders, I quickly scrambled to think of some other way I could make it to my cabin. “Well, look. I have a wooden folding easel in my bag. It’s pretty tall when it’s set up. Maybe I can use it as some sort of a crutch or something.”
    Jim just looked at me for a long moment. And even in the pale moonlight, I could see his mouth twitching with amusement.
    “You want to use a folding easel as a crutch?”
    My face instantly flamed.
    “Well, it