Page 67 of More To Us

"You okay?" he asks, still holding onto me.

"Not completely." I smile to wipe that concerned look off his face. "I might need you to do what you did earlier when I almost ran into that squirrel."

He smiles and tugs me toward him and kisses me. "Let's get you some water and we'll continue this later."

"Sounds good."

We follow the trail back to the parking lot and when we get to his truck, he takes some water bottles from the cooler, then drops the tailgate on his truck and we sit there and rest for a moment.

"That was fun," I say, swigging my water.

"Yeah, it was." He holds my hand, resting it between us. "Except for you being in pain. You really scared me when you fell to the ground like that."

This is exactly why I don't want to tell him what really happened to me. He worries too much, and I know he'd treat me differently if he knew the truth. I don't want him acting like I'm not strong enough to do the things I want to do. Or worse, giving me that pity look that Amber always gives me.

I lean over and kiss him. "Stop worrying about me. I'm fine." I drink some more of my water.

"So where do you want to go for dinner? I'll take you home so you can clean up before we go."

"What if we just got some food and had a picnic? Would you be okay with that?"

He looks surprised. "If that's what you want to do, then yeah. That sounds awesome. There's this store not far from here that I used to go to all the time for lunch when I was working over in this part of town. It's a grocery store but it's got this big salad bar. It has more than just salads. You can get whatever you want."

"That works." I set my empty water bottle down. "I haven't been eating well this week, and as strange as it sounds, I'm kind of craving a pile of vegetables."

"It's not strange. I get the same way after eating like shit for a few days. My body craves the good stuff, like it knows it needs it. My brothers think I'm crazy, but whatever." He drinks his water.

"They're not into working out like you are?"

"They work out, but not like me. And they don't give a shit about their diets. Nash eats better than the other two but that's only because Callie cooks for him. She's a really good cook. She cooks all our Sunday dinners. By the way, do you want to come to a Wheeler Sunday dinner sometime? They're every other week and the whole family has to show up or we get yelled at by my dad."

"I don't know if I'm ready to meet your whole family. That's a lot of pressure."

"You got nothing to worry about. They're gonna love you. And I told you, my dad already likes you." He hops off the back of the truck and stands in front of me.

"You're just saying that to be nice."

"No. I mean it. He really does." He helps me down from the truck, then kisses me. "Let's get some dinner."

"Oh, um, I forgot to tell you. Amber's out with Matt tonight."

"Is that her boyfriend?"

"Yeah. So my apartment is empty if you want to go back there later." I smile. "Maybe watch some TV. Or do other things."

He grins. "I could skip the TV. Let's hurry up with dinner."

We get some food and take it to a park. Then we go back to his house so he can shower and change clothes. His dad isn't there, but I'm not going to risk having him catch Austin and me making out, so I remain in the living room and watch TV until he's ready to go. Then we drive over to my apartment.

I'm not sure what's going to happen tonight. I'm not ready to go all the way with him, but if I were ever going to do it this soon with a guy, it'd be Austin. I trust him and already consider him a friend. We have so much in common and I like him more each time I see him.

I don't know how this happened. I came to Chicago vowing to not have a boyfriend, and within a week, I have one. And the scary part is, he's someone I could see myself with in the future.

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