“Cate, what’s the matter?”
I pushed my face against his shirt and shook my head.
“What happened?”
“I thought we were going to crash,” I choaked. “The plane kept shaking and it was awful.”
“Oh, no.” He had wanted me to pet his hair like a dog, and now he was repaying me for that. It did feel very soothing, and so did his other arm holding me close to his body. “It was that scary?”
I nodded.
“Wilds, is this your girl?” a voice asked.
Ronan didn’t bother to correct him. “Hey, Xavier, this is Cate. She had a tough flight out here.”
“Oh, man, I fucking hate planes. They’re just water bottles in the sky,” the guy said, and then his voice and the others faded into the distance. Ronan was probably supposed to go somewhere too, and I understood that. His team was more important than me sniffling on his chest.
“I couldn’t cry in front of Mr. Gowan and his friends,” I tried to explain as I pulled away. “I was trying to be a duck.”
“What duck?” He lifted the hem of his shirt to pat my face. “Was it that bad?”
I nodded again. “I can’t go back that way.” The thought of it had been making me feel sick. “I’m going to have to drive to Michigan after your game.”
“Don’t worry about that yet. Did you check in?”
I had made myself a reservation at this hotel because the Woodsmen would be here, even though it cost more money for one night than I’d spent for a month at some of the places I’d stayed with my dad. Ronan came with me as I got my key andthen he carried my bag and walked me to my room. He walked in, too, and checked around. Maybe it wasn’t worth so much money, but it was very nice.
“I have to go,” he said, and he looked worried.
I was already aware that I had no claim on his time. When I’d decided that I would try to come to this game, I had let him know that I didn’t even expect to see him, except when he was on the field. “Yes, go,” I urged.
“What are you going to do now?”
“I might sightsee. There’s a lot to do here and it’s a beautiful day.”
“That’s bullshit,” he answered. “You still look like you’re going to faint.”
“It was just hard to hold it in for so long,” I said. “When I saw you, I knew that I was really ok and I let everything slip. I can get it back together now.”
He didn’t seem convinced and he held up his phone. “I’ll be watching where you are,” he said, because he could see my location like I could see his. “Don’t do anything weird and make me run all over the city. I saw a movie like that, where this babysitter was chasing kids and I’m nowhere as patient as that girl.”
“I won’t make you chase me,” I said. “I’m going to sightsee, have dinner, and go to bed.”
“I’ll try to stop by later.”
“No, you don’t have to—” His phone rang. “Don’t get in trouble!” I said quickly. “Go.”
I could tell that he didn’t want to do that so I helpfully pushed him toward the door and he let me move him along. “Bolt this,” he called from outside, and I did. Then I went to the bathroom and saw that I looked worse than the scary cat I’d been dreaming about, but before I did anything to fix the situation, I went and lay down.
The rest of the afternoon was fine, after I forced myself to relax and my fingers uncurled from the fists I’d made. There was a great natural history museum and lots of other things to do, but I found that the three-plus hours of unrelenting stress had made me tired. After I looked around and grabbed dinner, I went back to the hotel and although it was a little early, I got ready for bed. It had been pretty comfortable when I’d collapsed onto it before.
I didn’t expect to see Ronan again so I approached the door warily when someone knocked a little later. But all I saw through the peephole was the Woodsmen logo on a T-shirt, so I opened it right up.
“Good, I heard you unlock the bolt,” he said as he walked in.
“I know how to deal with motel doors. I mean, hotel. I grew up with them,” I reminded him.
Because I’d gotten the cheapest room possible, there was space around the bed for a desk with a small chair, but that was it. He carefully sat and I returned to lying down.
