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“How does it feel?” I lifted Mason’s arm, trying for a third time to help him stretch his shoulder.
He, on the other hand, was doing his best to keep me from doing my job.
“Can you lift your arm please? I need to see how tight it is.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “My shoulder is good enough. You didn’t answer my question.”
“Because I’m trying to do my job.” I huffed. “Would you please cooperate?”
With his free hand, he grasped my waist, but I quickly stepped back and shot him a glare.
“I’m not trying to be an ass. I promise. I just miss you. I don’t care what we do. I’ll watch you read a book if that’s what you want.” He slumped and huffed out a defeated sigh. “But yeah. You can check my shoulder. Your job is the important thing here.” Finally, he held his arm straight out in front of him.
The look he gave me was one of earnest intent. He really did care about my job, and he was doing his best to comply. But it was clear in his every move and expression, even if he hadn’t told me repeatedly over the last two days, that he missed me.
And I missed him too. Just as much. I didn’t want to treat him like I did every other athlete I worked with, but I had to. “How about we make a deal? If you’re a good boy and let me finish checking out your shoulder without fighting or complaining, then I will.”
He tipped his chin up and met my gaze, his eyes sparkling with a hope that had been missing since that day in the training room when Cortney had almost caught us.
And I couldn’t fight my smile.
“Did you just tell him to be a good boy?”
My heart plummeted at the sound of Bosco’s voice.
Chest aching and dread threatening to overtake me, I spun and found him standing in the doorway, only then realizing that we’d had that entire conversation with the door wide open.
Shit. As much as I liked to joke around with Aurora, the last thing I wanted to do was get her in trouble. Yet here I was, messing with her within earshot of the guys.
“I’m just giving her a hard time.” I hopped off the table and turned toward Aurora but kept my distance. “You get everything Miller wanted you to look at?”
She nodded, her cheeks pink and her gaze averted. “Uh…did you need me to check your neck?” she asked Bosco.
“No, I grabbed a heat pack from Doc.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “I’ll do that after I shower.”
Perfect. I needed to do the same, so this would give me a good excuse to herd Bosco out of here. “I’m going that way too.” I headed for the door, but as I stepped into the hall, I spun back to Aurora. “How about I check in before the game tomorrow so you can look at the inflammation and tape my shoulder?”
She nodded awkwardly but didn’t speak, so I left it at that and hurried out of the room.
Bosco paused next to me. “Maybe I was wrong about her hating you, huh?”
I tamped down my frustration and gave him an easy shrug. My teammates would be cool about it if they knew. We’d all known about Chris and Avery long before Coach and management found out. But I didn’t have the same faith in the training staff or the coaches, and I’d be damned if I said anything that put Aurora’s job at risk.
“I probably need to stop giving her shit.”
Kyle scoffed. “That’ll be the day.”
With a long breath out, I forced the tension in my shoulders to ease. That was true. That’s who I was, and if I didn’t at least mess with her a bit, then it’d be obvious something was up.
I shot her a text so she’d have my room number, then I hopped in the shower. The short message didn’t warrant a response, but regardless, I was disappointed not to see one when I got out.
“Coming out to the bar?” Emerson asked as I pulled a Revs T-shirt over my head.
“Nah, my shoulder’s bothering me,” I said, rolling it out.
It wasn’t any worse than any injury in the past, but I was frustrated about the way Miller was giving Aurora a hard time about it. He worried about everything, and I wasn’t sure she realized that. Regardless of the severity, Miller would be all over her about my shoulder. That was a fact. The man couldn’t help but stress.
He was also observant as fuck. And since he already had us in his sights, we had to be extra careful around him. But until last year, he’d been my teammate, and he was the guy Dragon had gone to when he fell in love with Avery but had been told by her father that she was off-limits. And Miller had helped him out.
