“Nah. Doesn’t bother me.” Turning the shelf upright, he rose. “Where did you want this?”

I showed him. “So is the kitchen completely gutted?”

“Almost.” He carried the shelf to the wall across from the bed, then turned to the second one and began working at that one. “I’m going to try to rehab the cabinets, so they have to be taken down carefully.”

Surprise flickered through me as I watched him work to put the shelves in. This was something new about him.

“You don’t need to look that surprised.”

“Sorry.” I sat back down on the edge of the bed. “I just didn’t know you were into doing stuff like that.”

“There’s a lot I’m into that you don’t know about.”

There he went, saying something that so didn’t sound like a normal comment.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve used these hands for good.” He picked up the other packet of hardware and ripped the little bag open.

I flushed hotly.

“Get your mind out of the gutter.” He laughed. “I was thinking about the time I taught you how to pick a lock.”

Since he was focusing on the bookshelf, I grinned freely. “Yeah, you did do that. When I was twelve. A total useful skill for a child.”

He laughed. “You never know when you’d need that. Besides, putting these shelves together is the least I could do for you.”

Bending over, I picked up the board marked A. “How so?”

Brock was still for a moment and then he looked up at me from where he knelt on the floor. “After I was injured, I was a fucking—”

“Mess?” I supplied helpfully.

His grin was small as he nodded. “I thought my career had ended. My head was in a really bad place.”

It had been in a really bad, dark place.

“But you were there for me the whole time. When no one else could stand to be around me, you were there,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I lost count of how many times you showed up in the middle of the day or even at night and helped get me to bed when I was passed out on the floor. Cleaned up after me when I had too much to drink.” Disgust filled his voice. “Or when you’d bring me food and make sure I actually ate it. You stayed even when I was piss drunk and was getting on my own damn nerves. So, yeah, putting together some bookcases is the least I could do.”

I lowered my gaze as I sucked my lower lip between my teeth. Was that why he was here? Why he . . . he wanted me? To atone for the past? That seemed silly, though. “Brock . . .”