When she frowns, I resist smoothing my finger over her forehead. Her gaze goes to the brace on my leg. “What can I do for you?”
“So many options, sunshine.” I smirk at her blush, because I’ll get her to myself more now too. It may be the one bright spot to all this. “But first, let’s get out of here.”
Harper
Mom is still out on her date when Kenz drops us off. Nico worried about his mom wanting to check on him, so I offered my place. After all, my mom is out on her date.
Getting hurt is always a possibility in football. I’ve seen Luke hurt twice now. Only once from football though.
But after a game, they all have bruises the next day.
“How long do you have to use those?” I hold the door open as he walks into the kitchen on the crutches. I rush over to the panel to turn off the alarm.
“Hopefully less than a week.” Nico turns to look at me with a smug look. “I’m hoping to dance with you at Homecoming.”
Fuck. For a few minutes, I forgot about Homecoming and being on the court. Remembering how cocky Zach was and Nico hitting him in the knee to knock him down. Was this payback? How would that even work?
My brow furrows. Am I just looking for conspiracies everywhere now?
“What’s got you thinking so hard?” Nico asks.
“It’s stupid.” I shake my head. There’s a lot going on and my brain can’t keep up with all of it. This isn’t a Scooby-Doo mystery. “Just that you took out Zach’s knee after the assembly.”
“What? And Zach made the guy take me out?” Nico isn’t laughing at me.
I pause in front of the refrigerator and look over at him. “You think?”
Nico shrugs. “I don’t know what to think about the situation here. It’s been a mess since I stepped foot in this town.”
He gives me a knowing look, and I hold my breath for a second. This town has always been a mess.
“Was it better in New York?” I ask quietly as I turn back to the refrigerator and stare blindly at the contents. Does he regret coming here?
“Different, not better, sunshine.” He blows out a breath. “The guys. You. All of this is worth it to me.”
“If you want to talk weird. My mom is on a date with Mr. Wick.” I turn my head and wait for Nico’s eyes to meet mine.
He grins. “That’s pretty weird.”
I sigh and close the fridge. When he keeps walking to the couch, I hurry over to help him sit down. I take his crutches and duck under his arm to help ease him down.
“There are perks to being injured.” Nico kisses behind my ear and a little rush shoots through me.
I pull away a little flustered and turned on. I fan myself briefly as he settles back against the couch and lifts his braced leg onto it.
“What’s the likelihood of your mom watching the video feed?” Nico arches an eyebrow.
Heat rushes through me. I glance at the cameras and shrug. Grabbing a pillow, I wait for him to settle back on the arm of the couch before propping his knee with the pillow under it. Before he can make a grab for me, I hurry to the kitchen to get an ice pack.
I should get myself one while I’m at it. He’s hurt that should come before either of us do.
“You hungry?” I glance over the meager offerings in the freezer. Weekends are for restocking food.
“Starved.”
The hunger in his voice causes a shiver to race through me. When I bring waters and the ice pack over to the couch, he drags my hips down to sit on the edge in front of his stomach.
“I can order a pizza or something.” I set everything on the coffee table.
