Keaton was still hesitating. “I don’t want to take advantage ofyou, though.”
I laughed. “As if you could. Keaton, I wouldn’t have coped this week without you. I’m really glad you’re here.”
The words came out of my mouth before I had time to vet them. I felt my cheeks getting hot as soon as I heard what I had said. That sounded even needier than I had on the field. He probably thought I was pathetic. Or that I was coming on way too strong. He was going to back off and go have dinner with his friends and leave me.
“Oh,” Keaton said. A small pink blush came to his cheeks as well. He was… pleased? “Well, it’s nothing, really. You’re hurt. I wouldn’t have left you to cope on your own.”
“It’s not nothing,” I said. I wanted to make him blush more. I wanted to see that pleased little smile get wider. My own embarrassment be damned. “You’ve really helped me. More than most people would. And you’re still tutoring me too. I can’t think of anyone who would have looked after me as much as you have this week.”
It didn’t have the desired effect. The sides of Keaton’s mouth quirked down just a little.
“I’m sure you have someone else,” he said. “Like your family.”
I chuckled. “Well, my Mom doesn’t go to college with me,” I pointed out. At least he wasn’t acting like I was weird. Like I had gone too far.
I didn’t want him to leave. If he left me now, we’d miss out on another movie night. And I wanted to sit close to him and pretend for just a moment that we were…
What?
Something more than friends?
Was that what I wanted?
My phone buzzed in my hand. “There. Caleb’s bringing us two portions. It’s all good.”
Keaton grinned. “Okay. I guess I can’t argue. Do you have a movie in mind?”
I shrugged. “You choose. You have good taste in movies.”
He side-eyed me. “Even in romcoms?”
I laughed. “Okay, not in romcoms. But you have good taste in horror movies.”
“I’ll pick something, then,” Keaton said. He started browsing through things on his laptop, concentrating.
I shifted restlessly in the chair at the desk. I wanted to sit with him, but if I did it now, we’d be sitting like that when Caleb came in. He might make some kind of comment – or worse, some kind of assumption.
Then we might have to sit apart from each other to stop it from being awkward. And I didn’t want that.
“I’m going to pee,” I said, grabbing my crutches from the side of the desk and standing up. I winced as my foot touched the floor. The muscle was still extremely tender. Any kind of weight or pressure on it was almost unbearable.
“Have you taken your painkiller dose?” Keaton asked, his head snapping up. It was like he had a spider sense for my pain.
“No, I forgot,” I admitted. “I’ll take it now.”
I swiped a couple of pills out of the bottle on my nightstand and grabbed the water bottle I always had on standby, throwing them back. I swallowed and gave Keaton a grin and a thumbs up to show I’d done it. He was always on at me about taking my pills. Honestly, if he wasn’t, I would have forgotten to keep up with the schedule. Then I would have been wondering why I was in so much pain all the time.
“Alright,” I said. “That’ll tide me over. I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Hopefully, not before Caleb had dropped off our meals.
When I managed to hop back from the bathrooms on my crutches and pushed our dorm room door open, I was glad to see I had timed it exactly right. Two covered plates were sitting on the desk – along with two glasses.
Two red cups?
I tilted my head and looked at them, then at Keaton.
He sighed. “Apparently there’s a frat party that all of the team are going to today. Caleb didn’t want you to feel left out, so he brought us some drinks.”
