A warm, calloused hand slips around mine just as the first tear trails down my temple. My heart—my stomach—everythinginside me flips when I see that it’s Ryder’s hand.
The panic I felt dissipates in the wake of a comforting warmth that floods my limbs despite the way my body jolts when the medics begin to push me toward the approaching ambulance.
“She’s gonna be okay,” Ryder says to the medics. It’s not a question. Not a guess. He says the words like he means them, like he’s just as sure they’re true as he is of the sun rising tomorrow morning and the morning after that.
The woman nods. “Yessir, she’ll be just fine. Ma’am, did you hear that? We’re going to do our best to make sure you’re comfortable, okay? The ambulance is here.”
“Okay.” Iamokay as long as Ryder keeps holding my hand. I look at him. “Please stay. Can he come with me in the ambulance?” I ask the medics.
“You should have family with you,” Colt says. How am I just realizing that he’s jogging beside us? “I’ll go?—”
“You need to stay with Dean,” I tell him. “Ryder is more charming, anyway. He’ll sweet-talk me into getting the best of the best, right?”
Ryder’s lips twitch. “Best of the best what? Hate to break it to you, my little hellion, but the ambulance isn’t exactly a Rolls-Royce.”
Did he just use an endearment that’s cute as fuck when referring to me?
Is he actually playing ball after years of ignoring my jokes, my jabs, my attempts to get a rise out of him?
“Ain’t that the truth,” Xander says with a scoff.
Part of me is hurt he hasn’t offered to come with me to the hospital. Xander and I may not be officially dating, but we have been hooking up for a while. I’d certainly offer to go with him if he were in my position.
Another part, though, is relieved. Ryder is proving to bemuchbetter company than Xander tonight.
More comforting. And yeah, better looking too.
“You should let your brother go with you, Billie.” Ryder arcs his thumb over the back of my hand. If I wasn’t laid up on a stretcher with a bum elbow, I’d be swooning right now.
Is this what it took to finally get my lifelong crush to notice me? Fall off my horse and break my arm in front of everyone I’ve ever known?
I bat my eyelashes. “Don’t make me beg.”
“You? Beg? I’d like to see the day.”
“I really am scared, Ryder.”
“Your mama is here, you know. She’s gonna be worried sick.”
“She and Dad will follow us to the hospital. And you know Mom can’t move that quick.”
Mom has a bit of a limp after getting a knee replacement six months ago. The woman hasn’t sat down in almost forty years, so it’s been an adjustment for us all.
“They’re gonna give you good drugs.”
“You’re the best drug there is. And I’m gonna need a lot of drugs if I have surgery.”
He searches my face, the corners of his eyes crinkling in the most adorable way imaginable as he shakes his head. “Your flirting ain’t gonna work on me. And no one said surgery, Billie.”
The female medic sucks a breath through her teeth. “From what I can tell, this is a bad break, y’all. I don’t want to scare you, but surgery could very well be on the table. We may have some broken ribs and a punctured lung too.”
My stomach dips. I squeeze Ryder’s hand. “Please.”
Ryder blinks, rolling his tongue along the inside of his cheek. Ilovethat he’s growing out his scruff. It looks almost copper in the lights of the arena.
“Why you gotta be so damn convincing?” His voice sounds different. Deeper. A little gravelly.
“Dad always said I could’ve been a lawyer if the accounting thing didn’t work out.”
