Casey kept her balance with a hand on his shoulder and was relatively quiet, only asking “What are you doing?” five times. A record low. They both watched him work with skilled efficiency, his head bowed, intent on his task.
Long lashes rimmed his eyes and a faint scar ran through the hair along his left temple. It made her want to touch him, ease some old hurt she didn’t even know about.
“Okay, why don’t you take a few laps around the room. See how it feels.”
Casey walked around the table, increasing her speed with each step. Jake straightened and watched her progress with such care and concern it went straight to her heart.
Casey stopped in front of one of the biggest monitors displaying a split screen. On the left side, a 3-D image of a human climbed a wall like a video game. On the right, a series of numbers flashed on points of a graph every time he moved.
“Is that a robot?” Casey asked him.
“No. It’s a man.”
Casey looked to Jake like she might be four, but she wasn’t stupid.
“It’s a man out there,” Jake said, half laughing. He pointed in the general direction of the testing side. It was clear Casey still didn’t understand. Jake lowered himself into a nearby chair and rolled until he was beside her. He pointed to the screen. “See, that’s a computer image of a real—”
“No, I can’t see.”
Before Paige could move, her daughter helped herself to Jake’s lap for a better view. Jake glanced up at Paige, not like he minded, more like Casey was picking teams and he was shocked she’d picked him. Strange because he had a natural way with kids. Did he have some of his own?
“Right. So that’s a man named Mike, climbing the rock wall, and Mike has electrodes attached—”
“What are leg trolls?”
“They’re…” He thought a minute and Paige liked him even more for his effort.
“Electrodes are like special stickers on Mike’s prosthetic hands that send a message here to my computer. Green is good, everything’s working. Red means the hands aren’t doing what they’re supposed to.”
“So it tells you it didn’t work?”
“It tells me I need to work harder.”
“Oh.” Casey’s gaze tracked along the table, bouncing from one thing to the next. “Do you like gum?”
“Yes,” he answered, going with the whiplash change in topics.
“Do you like squirrels? I like how their tails twitch. Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Casey!” Paige’s cheeks heated, and she hated how much she wanted to know the answer. “I’m sorry, she’s inquisitive.”
“That means I ask a lot of questions, but that’s because I need to know stuff.” She slipped off his lap to go look at more stuff.
“That’s okay. It’s good to ask questions. And I don’t, by the way,” he said, turning his attention to her. He tilted his head and grinned playfully and all the air was sucked from the room. “Do you?”
“Have a girlfriend?” she teased. Jake smiled but it was obvious he was waiting on a real answer. “No. I don’t really date.” There was no really to it. She hadn’t been on a date since the night of Casey’s conception.
Jake leaned back against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest with a thoughtful look. “Why is that?”
“Time mostly. My plate is pretty full right now.”
And case in point, Casey called out, “Hey, Jake, want to see what I can do?” She didn’t wait for him to answer before showing him her best cartwheel, which wasn’t much, but pretty damn good for an almost five-year-old.
“Very cool.” He sounded sufficiently amazed to get two more and Casey radiated pride.
“I can do it better with one foot. Want to see that?”
Paige stepped forward before she ditched the prosthesis Jake had just spent his time adjusting. “Let’s leave it on for now.”
Jake straightened. “Is it still bothering you?”
“No.” Casey walked away to look at something else.
“She’s walking evenly,” he said to her, still keeping an eye on Casey.
“Yeah. It doesn’t seem to be bothering her at all now.”
“Looks like I have the magic touch.”
She bet he did have a magic touch. He came over to lean against the table next to her, close enough to get a faint whiff of aftershave.
“I can teach you how to make adjustments. Even if she’s not clearly communicating what feels right, there are certain things you can look for. I mean, I don’t mind doing it, but it might be helpful in case you need to match a different shoe. Of course I have no idea how many different kinds of shoes a five-year-old wears. Obviously, she’s not wearing stilettos, but—”