His lips twitched again. And it was absolutely devastating this close. “A first aid kit.”
That made more sense. “I’m sure I’m fine. I’ll just, er, walk it off.” I tried to take a step and wobbled. “Owie,” I whimpered like a total weenie.
“How about you let me help you. It’s what I’m good at.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and took my arm in his other hand, helping me hobble across the parking lot toward his storefront.
“You’re good at helping people?” I asked, letting the sarcasm and disbelief seep into my tone. I wasn’t trying to torture him, but to be honest, I was so far out of my comfort zone, that I didn’t know how to talk to him without being defensively sarcastic. I just needed for this embarrassing moment to end.
This was by far the worst he’d seen me to date.
“Helping you specifically,” he clarified. “It’s becoming my super power.”
I shot him a side look. “Is that so?”
“You should start hiring me to spot you from now on. I’ll just follow you around all day, waiting for you to get yourself into trouble.”
I nearly choked on my spit, totally embarrassed all over again. “What would that solve?”
“Then I’d already be there, and you wouldn’t have to call me.”
He held open the door to his store and I limped inside, the air conditioning instantly cooling my skin and forcing goosebumps to appear. “But why can’t you save me before I get into trouble? That seems like something I would actually pay for.”
“Good point,” he laughed. “I’ll spot you and save you before you need saving. I’m going to be really busy.”
He walked me through the open space of his store, dodging expensive bike displays and power bar stands and a circular rack of spandex. I tried to memorize every detail. He’d managed this cool vibe that I didn’t expect in a sports equipment store. But somehow it was all raw and urban while also smart and intuitive. Vann’s shop was completely badass. It immediately made me want to take home a bike for myself.
Which was totally insane because I could barely manage spin class.
Clearly, he knew what he was doing in the store.
“You know, I managed just fine before you came along. Somehow I lasted all twenty-seven years of my life without needing someone to save me.” Okay, that wasn’t entirely true, but I’d survived, hadn’t I?
He shot me a look, but it was ruined by his wide smile. “It’s no fun to save yourself though. It honestly sounds exhausting.”
He was joking. But he was right.
It was exhausting to save myself. And worse when I failed. There were a lot of moments in my past that I didn’t regret. They weren’t the brightest spots in my journey, but they had helped shape me into the person I was today.
But the big thing. The one that made all other moments small in comparison, was crippling in heaviness. It wore me down to my bones. It pushed me into bed and made me want to stay there forever. And then it followed me in my dreams and woke me up at the earliest promise of daylight.
My hands shook and my knees knocked whenever I thought about it and all I wanted to do was pull into myself and forget that it happened. Forget that I had needed someone to save me that night and had no one. Forget that this was the person I was now, distrusting, scared, vulnerable.
There was the Dillon before the event.
And there was the Dillon after.
What I hated most, was that the people I knew preferred the Dillon after. She was more responsible. She kept a steady job. She had goals and aspirations and the beginning stages of a marketing plan.
They didn’t know how much I’d given up to be this person. They didn’t know the price I paid to realize the need for a new Dillon.
Vann noticed the shift in my mood. His eyebrows drew down in concern. “Hey, where did you go?”
I closed my eyes at the sensation of his fingers brushing hair back from my cheek and tucking it behind my ear. “I was thinking.”
“About what?”
I opened my eyes and held his gaze. “Thank you for saving me today,” I whispered to him. “Thank you for all the times you’ve saved me. You’re right. It’s exhausting when I try to do it on my own.”
Instead of saying something cocky, like I expected, he smiled gently and leaned in close. “Always, Dillon. I’ll always save you.”
