I run down the street, hating that I forgot my hat since I’m passing fans wearing my fucking jersey, so of course they recognize me.Some people try to stop me, but I shake my head or just plain ignore them.After today, I’ll be rumored to be an asshole for sure.
I have no choice but to stop at a traffic light for a crosswalk, and that’s when I see the moving truck that hit the passenger-side back door of a sedan.My stomach rolls over as I scan the area, searching for Hadley and coming up empty until I see her sitting on the edge of an ambulance just behind the moving truck.
I bolt, a car honks, and I press on the hood and jump back before almost getting run over.
“Hey, asshole, you almost ran over Easton Bailey,” a fan shouts from the sidewalk.
“Well, he shouldn’t walk into traffic,” the driver shouts back.
I weave between the cars trying to turn right and make it to the other side without getting run over.The airbag on the passenger side of the Uber car has gone off, and the side of the car is crushed in.
She better have been behind the driver.
I jog toward the ambulance and see the paramedic working on her hand.I break the distance and weave around the paramedic.
“East,” she says.“You have a game.”
The paramedic glances at me.“Easton Bailey?”
I ignore him and allow my eyes to scan over her body.“Where are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.I’m fine.”
But I need to see it for myself.
“It’s going to bruise, but she’ll be fine,” the paramedic says.
I place my hands on her face, turning her face side to side and examining her again.
“East.”She searches my face.
“Let the man make sure his woman is okay,” the paramedic says.
Finally someone who gets it.
I glance at his badge.“Bianco.I’ll have two tickets at will call for you.”
He laughs.“I’ve got two brothers, can we make it three?”I quirk an eyebrow, and he chuckles.“One of them is going to ask your wife for a statement in a second, and the other was the first to arrive at the scene.”
“The firefighter?”Hadley asks.
I narrow my eyes at her, and she laughs.
“Three brothers.Me, a firefighter, and a police officer.And we’re all very happily married with kids.”He winks at Hadley, and she laughs.“But I get it.If I saw a hot paramedic like me touching my wife, I’d be the same.”
“I’m not jealous.”Though my tone makes it sound as though maybe I am.
The paramedic packs up a few things.“Okay.”He walks away, giving us some privacy.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”I pull her into a hug, needing to feel her in my arms.“I saw the car and thought…and you were being so uninformative.”I draw back and glare at her.
She smiles.“Because I’m fine and you have to get to the stadium.”
“They can play without me.”My heart hasn’t stopped hammering since I saw that car.
“No, they can’t.Now go.”
She pushes at me, but I hug her again.Until a police officer comes over and asks for a statement.Lo and behold, the same name is on his nameplate as the paramedic, Bianco.
