Jett quickly pops his skis off, picks them up and hands them off to his coach. As soon as his hands are free, he scoops me up, wrapping his arms around my waist. He goes to lift me off the ground, but he buckles underneath me. I place my hands on either side of his face, his hair wet with sweat and sticking to his skin.
“Are you okay?”
“Now that I’m with you, yes.” His lips slide into his cocky smirk before he places them on my mouth and captures me in a kiss.
Although I’m seeing stars again, my world spinning and stalling at the feeling of his lips, I can’t get my mind to stop fixating on making sure he isn’t hurt.
He pulls back from me, and I look into his deep brown eyes. Something in them seems almost pained, like he’s holding it all in, putting on his famous unbothered, confident mask.
“You’re hurt,” I whisper betweenus.
He nods slightly, imperceptible to everyone but me.
“Let’s get you out of here.” I wave to Dan to come over.
He realizes what’s going on when he gets close, pulling Jett’s arm up and over his shoulders so he can help him off to the side. Mark is already there, waiting for him to assess the damage. He bends down and lifts Jett’s ski pants, though there’s no sign of an injury—yet.
“Call for the car,” he instructs Brooke, already punching something into her phone.
Murmurs ripple through the crowd wondering what’s going on.
The announcer speculates over the speaker whether this will knock Jett out of the running, and if not, if he’ll even be able to perform at the next cup stop. Brooke, Mark, and I push through the crowd until we get to the parking lot and find the car waiting for us. Dan puts Jett inside, and then I climb in behind him.
“Make sure he ices it tonight,” Mark tells me. “I’ll come and see him tomorrow.”
The car door shuts and pulls away, stopping and starting through the parking lot as we wait for people to cross, making their way to the event. Tonight was supposed to be our first after party appearance as a couple, for Jett to show that he’s cleaned himself up.
“My driver can take you back to Heartwood once he drops me off,” Jett says, breaking the silence between us. I turn and look at him, head tilted in question.
“Now why would I want to do that?” I ask.
Jett looks out the window, avoiding eye contact with me.
“It’s not whether you want to or not, Poppy. It’s what’sbest right now.” His tone gives him away, and when the end of his sentence cracks a little, so does my heart.
This is hard on him, letting people see him in a vulnerable state. Letting his guard down enough to let someone else care about him.
“I’m your wife. So, I’m going to look after you. Just like you did for me the other night,” I say plainly.
Jett turns and looks at me now, a crease forming between his brows.
“That’s what married couples do, Jett. So, deal with it.”
Something crosses his expression that I can’t quite place. What looks like a flash of fear in his eyes quickly changes to acceptance, maybe even relief. The corner of his mouth lifts up at that, and something behind my sternum ignites.
“You’re cute when you’re bossy.”
CHAPTER 29
JETT
I thankmy driver as he helps me to the front door, but I have no idea what to do once I get inside. Poppy is nearly half my size, so she’s no use to help support my weight to get me over to the couch.
She takes my keys out of the side pocket of my snow pants like I tell her to and opens the door. My driver gets me seated on the bench just inside in the entry way, but that’s where he leaves me.
“There’s an old pair of crutches in the garage,” I tell her, glad that I decided to keep them around after I tore my ACL, in case anything ever happened again.
I got pretty agile on them having to use them for so long after surgery. Even though I kept them, I’d hoped I’d never have to use them again.
