AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I didn’t think—I only needed to get to her.
Eva and the two male cheerleaders were a tangle of limbs. Juliet had already backed away holding her nose. I heaved the spotter up and got my first good look at Eva. She was curledin a ball, half on top of Leon, eyes clenched shut, holding her shoulder.
I crouched next to her. “Eva?”
She cracked one eye open and sent me a pained smile. “Just a second. Knocked the wind out of me.”
Leon apologized over and over until she smacked his thigh. “Stop. It’s not your fault I fell. You kept me from hitting the ground. Mostly.” He apologized one more time, despite her warning.
Eva shook her head and rolled to a sitting position. “Go get Coach Kat, will you?” He nodded and took off toward the group of football players.
The tightness in my chest eased as she made a joke with the other cheerleaders who’d stayed to help, albeit with a shadow of pain in her eyes. The sight of her falling would haunt me, and I was holding myself back by a thread from simply carting her out of there. I knew what it was like to take a hit. She’d be sore at the very least.
I caught her chin, checking her pupils, but not finding anything out of the ordinary. “Did you hit your head?”
“Not really. My shoulder took the brunt of it.”
Whistles blew, and the football teams slowly started leaving the field for halftime, but a man I recognized sprinted toward us from the TU bench. He’d left his helmet behind, and his eyes were locked onto Eva.
“Girl, you okay?” He sounded as panicked as I probably had, and several other players along with her coach followed him at a slower pace.
She gently pulled away from my hand to face him. “I’m fine. Hazards of the sport.”
He knelt next to her, his dark eyes flicking over me before searching her for injuries. “Don’t lie to me. Leon ran over there and said he dropped you.”
“And he caught me. I’m fine.”
“I’m not leaving until Kat looks you over.”
“Mac,” she ground out. “Get your ass to the locker room.”
The argument died when her coach finally reached us and crouched down next to Eva. “How bad?”
Eva glared at Mac while she answered. “Minor. I landed on my shoulder, and my head bumped the ground.”
She tsked. “Dizziness? Nausea?”
“No and no.”
Coach Kat nodded. “You’re done for today. Do you think you need to go to the hospital?”
Eva straightened her shoulders then winced. “No. I can take care of it at home.”
“Like hell you will,” Mac shouted.
Coach Kat chuckled and patted his back. “She’s had much worse, Mac. She knows her own body. If she was hurt, she’d tell us.”
Mac shrugged her off. “I’ll go with you to the hospital.”
“No. You’re going to go join the rest of your team in the locker room, finish your game, and I’ll text you an update after you guys have won.”
His face closed down. “No chance. I’m taking you to the hospital, Wildcat. Shaw has RJ for the second half, he doesn’t need me too.”
Eva sighed and met my eyes. “Can you help me up?”
I knew what she wanted from me. Mac wouldn’t back down if he thought she was on her own, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave her side any time soon. Instead of helping her stand, I scooped her into my arms.
I met Mac’s worried eyes. “I’ve got her.”
