Page 58 of Pressure Point

“Know what would make me happier?” he asked, his gaze not faltering one bit. “If you told me what your go-to comfort movie is, so we can watch it.”

“I’m fine, really,” she lied. “We can watch whatever.”

“Except you’re not,” he countered. “You’re worried. I can see it in your eyes.”

She sighed just before nodding, giving in to the truth. She was concerned.

Tiago might have insisted he was fine and that he could play, but she knew better. It was why she had channeled her inner mama bear on the pitch. Just the feel of his knee and the way it moved told her there was something wrong. Getting him into the locker room and up on the exam table had only confirmed her initial reaction. She knew ACL tears. And right about now, she would have bet her entire salary that was what Tiago was looking at. Not that she was going to admit that out loud.

Just thinking about Tiago facing that injury was enough to make her want to cry. It was not an easy road for anyone to deal with the surgery and recovery that came with an ACL tear, but for a professional athlete, it was often the beginning of the end. Knee surgeries were tricky—they just were. One never knew how it would take, and even the best of athletes sometimes never returned to their previous performance level. Avery didn’t want that for Tiago. She didn’t want that for any of her guys. It was her job to keep these guys healthy, and she took that job seriously. As silly as it might seem to some, she felt personally responsible for each and every one of them.

Liam had known exactly what she needed though. His insistence on grabbing comfort food and then watching a movie had been too good to pass up. It was what she’d been thinking about for most of the afternoon and evening, and here he was offering it to her on a silver platter. She would have to be an idiot to turn it down.

Although his insistence on letting her choose the movie did seem a tad over the top.

“When I was under concussion protocol, you sat with me and watched one of my favorites. Let me return the favor.”

“My feeling sorry for myself because another one of my players got hurt isn’t quite the same thing as you needing medical treatment,” she pointed out. “And I was just as upset that night about you as I am now about Tiago. I was just better at hiding it because I didn’t want you to know.”

“Both equate to a bad day at the office,” he said with a sly grin. “I chose that night, you choose now. Fair’s fair.”

Avery sighed. The guy had a point. Even with the win, it had been a bad day at the office.

“Harry Potter,” she told him. “All of them. But especially the first one. Watching Harry go from this strange kid who doesn’t fit in to the cool kid everyone wants to hang out with…well, that was always a dream of mine. It didn’t come true for me, but it was fun to watch it come true for him.”

“You’re not as awkward as you think you are.”

“Oh, but I am,” she defended, right as her stomach let out a grumble. “I’m also maybe a little hungry.”

Liam laughed, placing another kiss on her nose. His lips tickled her skin, and she scrunched her nose, trying to hold back her own giggle. The move only made Liam laugh more, as he slid her back onto the couch. Grabbing the plates off the top of the pizza box, he quickly served them both a slice and then settled back into the cushions. The smell of the garlic took over all her senses as Avery took a large bite of her slice. She couldn’t help but let out a small moan as the familiar flavor burst in her mouth, just as she had on their first movie night together.

“I love when you do that,” Liam said. “It’s weird, but adorable.”

The melting feeling that she’d felt a moment ago returned, this time kicking up the intensity a notch. For all her talk about wanting to be sexy, hearing Liam call her adorable just did something to her. She’d never liked being called that. It was what you said about a litter of kittens. But when Liam said it? It lit a fire in her she didn’t even know where to begin to fight. She wanted to tell herself that it was the Irish accent that changed it somehow. But the longer she thought about it, the more she realized that the accent had nothing to do with it. It was one hundred percent about the person who was saying it.

“Would you mind if we called my brothers, and you can tell them that? It drives them insane!”

“Isn’t that a little sister’s job?”

“I guess,” she shrugged, taking another bite of pizza, letting silence fall around them.

Something lurched inside her—a need to say something, to fill the silence. But then it vanished. There was nothing painful about this silence. In fact, if anything, it was comfortable. Like she was free to be herself. She let out a long, contented sigh, allowing herself to stare at the beautiful Viking on the other end of the couch.

Had he always been this sexy?

It was a question she’d been asking herself a lot recently, wondering if she’d somehow missed it when they first met. Or was this just one of those things where a person became more attractive after you’d gotten to know them, since you were no longer relying just on the physical. Although, Avery couldn’t lie, Liam as a physical specimen was damn fine. But as a person, as a friend…well, that just made him damn near perfect.

“Is the pizza working?” Liam asked after they both finished their second piece.

“Pizza will always make me happy,” she answered, trying to avoid the question she knew he was really asking. He gave her a knowing look, the corner of his mouth turned down slightly, as if he were waiting for her to come clean. “I’m fine, really.”

“You know it’s okay to not be okay, right? This is me you’re talking to. And I saw your face when you were examining him on the field. You can tell me if you’re upset, or scared, or whatever.”

Avery started to object but couldn’t. She had been scared, and now, more than anything, she was still filled with worry.

“I was scared at first. Seeing one of you guys down on the ground and not popping right back up…it knocked the wind out me. Then my training kicked in, and I was on autopilot, but there was just this sense of unease. And then it hits all over again as I’m wondering if any of the rest of you were hurt.”

“You heard Gunnar; you did a great job. We are lucky to have someone who cares about us as much as you do.”