Page 35 of Pick Me This Time

“I’m driving,” I said immediately when I saw him reach for his pocket. Without even thinking about it, I stuck my hand in his pocket instead, my fingers rummaging around for the keys when I suddenly noticed I was basically fondling his thigh.

I stopped, my gaze flying up to his as we hobbled across the field. There was a slight smirk on his lips as he glanced at me. “Please, don’t stop on my account. In fact, take your time.”

I groaned. “You’ve got a filthy mind when its concussed.”

“Any inappropriate comments are from the brain damage,” he said and let me help him into Eric’s truck. “I cannot be held accountable.”

I walked around to climb in behind the wheel and got us moving. The clinic was attached to my dad’s dental office and it was right up the road from the school, so I got us there in no time, relieved to know everyone as we walked in.

Sterling sighed. “This really isn’t necessary. I was just kidding about the brain damage.”

“Yes, it is necessary,” I said firmly, holding his arm again just in case—and also just because I could. “You’re not going to make me force you, are you?”

“You kind of already are,” he said, his voice light and easy and the look on his face strangely pleasant and relaxed.

As much as I liked seeing his expression, I was pretty sure it meant there was something seriously wrong with him. Even though he’d relaxed a little and had laughed and smiled with me the last couple times I’d seen him, there was zero stress or hardness on his features now.

That couldn’t be right.

Marge, the head nurse, came out from around the counter as soon as she saw us. “What happened to this big fella?”

“Mr. Hot Shot here thought it was a good idea to take on the youngsters on the football field. He went down pretty hard, so I thought it was better to have the doc check him out.”

“Good call,” Marge said, sliding a penlight out of her pocket and quickly flashing it across his eyes. Her brow furrowed, but she nodded and rocked back on her heels. “Have a seat in the waiting room. The doctor will be right with you.”

“Thanks,” I said, guiding him to the hard plastic chairs and sitting down beside him. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” he repeated, but he still looked way too happy and calm as he stretched his long legs out ahead of him and leaned back in his seat. “How are you feeling?”

“You mean other than the fact that I thought you were dead when I ran out on the field? I’m peachy.”

I filled my lungs with air, needing a second to remind myself that he was okay. When I’d seen him lying there?

I swallowed hard. It had been awful.

Eric had seen my reaction, and while I’d ignored the way he was looking at me while we’d been on that field, I knew he was going to have questions. At first, he’d told me Sterling would shrug it off.

Eventually, he’d helped me move the team away, of course, but I’d seen that look in his eyes. From beginning to end, he’d thought I was overreacting and I was going to have to answer for it.

“I’m fine,” Sterling repeated, the side of his hand bumping into the side of my own on the armrest. When I glanced at him, he smiled. “Really, Daph. I’ve taken much harder hits than that. I just wasn’t expecting it this time. I underestimated those boys, is all. Remember when you told me not to worry so much after I almost broke your head?”

I nodded. His smile became softer and more genuine as his gaze held my own. “Well, this time, I’m telling you not to worry so much. Although I appreciate it.”

I dragged in a deep breath through my nostrils, nodding again while trying not to obsess about what it did to my insides when he smiled at me like that. Like I meant something to him. Like he was genuinely trying to reassure me that he was okay because he knew I cared.

Thankfully, Marge walked in then, smiling before waving her hand for him to follow. “You can come in with me now, Sterling. Doc is squeezing you in between patients.”

“Thanks,” he said, rising slowly to his feet before glancing at me. “Do you want to come with me? I know it’ll help if you hear someone other than me say that I’m okay.”

I knew I should turn down the offer. I wasn’t his wife, his girlfriend, or even his friend, but my throat was burning with worry and the image of him lying so still on that field kept skating across my mind. “Sure. I’ll come.”

Shooting to my feet, I followed after him, grinning nervously once Marge left us in the exam room alone to wait for the doctor. “This feels like we’re an old married couple right now, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t tempt me,” he said, sounding completely serious as he looked at me again.

My face turned red and my stomach did a little flip. “You shouldn’t make jokes about stuff like that with a straight face.”

“I wasn’t joking.”