“Lockhart! Catch!”
A black duffel came flying from the front. Joshua caught it and frowned, looking up for the first time in a while.
“Put that up, important emergency kit!”
Joshua grunted in response, looking around at the pile of bags beside both of us for space, but everywhere around us was already full.
He sighed, glancing around. “There’s no—”
Before he could finish, I stood up, holding onto the back of the seat in front of us to steady myself. I gestured quickly, pointing at the space beside him. He got it immediately.
“Yeah, okay.”
He placed the emergency kit exactly where I had been sitting. Great.
Now where was I supposed to go?
The bus bounced again, everyone shifting, laughing, yelling, knees bumping into aisles. And suddenly, the boys around us noticed the problem.
“Hey, Campbell, right here!” one of them grinned, patting his thigh.
“C’mon, we don’t bite!” another said, earning a few laughs from the others.
I froze, blinking, heat rising in my cheeks. I opened my mouth, ready to say something, maybe shake my head, but Joshua moved first.
“Move your damn hand,” he muttered at one of them, and before I could even register what was happening, he reached out, grabbed my wrist gently, and tugged me back.
Right onto his lap.
The breath punched out of me. My knees bumped the seat in front, his arm automatically looping around my waist to steady me as the bus hit another turn.
“There,” he said lowly, voice rough, right by my ear. “Problem solved.”
My heart nearly exploded.
I stayed frozen, staring straight ahead while the guys in the next row made way too many noises, whistles, laughs, teasing remarks that made me want to disappear into thin air. Joshua ignored them completely, his gaze fixed on the window, jaw tight, arm still firm around me to keep me from falling again.
Before my mind could finish thinking about how safe I felt on his lap, the coach started catching all the players’ attention.
All heads snapped to him, and the volume toned down. He stood at the front of the bus, going on about drills or strategy or something, voice echoing above the hum of the road. The bus had finally evened out, no more sharp turns, just a steady hum beneath us.
Joshua shifted beneath me. I could feel it, every tense muscle, every breath. He kept glancing toward the front like he was trying to see past me, but my hair kept getting in the way.
He sighed, low and rough. “Lean back.”
My eyes widened.
He tilted his head, voice quieter this time. “I can’t see anything. Lean back a bit.”
Oh.
Right. Of course.Because I was blocking his view.
I hesitated—only for a second—before slowly leaning back against him. My spine met the hard plane of his chest. Warmth radiated through the thin fabric of his shirt, steady and solid, his breath grazing the back of my neck when he exhaled.
He cleared his throat. “Not that far.”
I froze, cheeks burning, and adjusted just enough that my shoulders brushed his chest lightly, barely touching. But barely was still too much.
