Page 180 of Saving the Halfback

“Mmm… Hook and ladder,” Bailey mumbled. I stepped up to the truck and listened as she gave a lazy description of the football play, but instead of saying the positions, she usedour names. “Ethan…calls the ball… Nolan…receives. Lach takes forward…pass.” Her body relaxed, her face falling slack. “So sleepy,” she mumbled.

“Babe, open your eyes,” Lachlan begged, falling forward where he was in the truck next to Nolan.

Ethan was holding the cloth to her face, his face tight, his eyes guarded. Nolan ran his thumb back and forth on her cheek, his expression at a complete loss.

No.

Bailey didn’t get to do this. She didn’t get to come back into our lives, risk all she had, save us, and then ditch out. She gave me so much, and I refused to live a day without her.

I stepped up, taking her hand in mine and giving a squeeze. “Open your eyes, shorty,” I told her, using the same gentle voice I used to calm her when we waited in the tunnel to be called for our game. Her breathing sped up, but that was the only indication I had that she heard me. “The game isn’t over yet. I didn’t take you for a quitter. I didn’t think the great Bailey McCormick would give in so easily.”

Her eyes fluttered, and those sweet ambers looked up at me. She was exhausted, but she was here. I smiled.

I glanced up at Nolan. “Make the call.”

Nolan nodded. “Double right, two hundred black, cheetah.” Her eyes fluttered up to Nolan. “Hutt.”

In the distance, I could hear the sirens of the ambulance. Bailey said nothing, her stare glazing over.

“I snap the ball and snap up, moving the line to the right to create a gap,” Ethan said. Bailey’s eyes fell to him, their gazes locking.

“I move out and across, faking the pass play,” Lachlan breathed more than said. Bailey’s eyes landed on him, and the man whimpered, bringing her hand to his lips. “You’re up, baby.”

“I—” Her lids closed briefly, and I squeezed her hand. She opened them again, and her gaze came to me. The fire within visible, dim but visible. “I run,” she finally said, tears falling from her eyes. “I run through the gap.” Her chin shook. “It hurts, so much.”

“I’m here, Bailey. I’m there. I’m running with you all the way. I’m protecting you, stopping anyone in our way. And when I take down the last defender, when I know you’re all clear, you keep running. You push your legs harder. You have to make that last run on your own.”

“I do?” Her cry was soft.

“Yes. But it won’t hurt. You will be free. We set the ball up for you, we carried you as far as you needed, now it’s your turn to take it all the way.” I softly pressed my forehead to hers. “And when you’ve made it, we will come running to the end zone. We will always be there with you.”

The ambulance pulled in, and Ethan ran to flag them over to us.

“Pinky promise?” Bailey asked.

I hooked my little finger with the one she held out. “Pinky promise.”

67

Bailey

Friday

The roar of the crowd would have brought me to my feet, if only I didn’t have four jackets covering me, holding me in my seat. “Okay, I said it was cold sitting and watching, not that I needed a blanket of leather and sweaty man smell.” I may have been complaining, but the smell of them on their jackets was the best part. I breathed it in deep as I settled into my little cocoon.

I’d woken up in the hospital with the worst splitting headache of my life. It was nothing compared to the bruised shoulder bone, my poor purple-and-black face, and the long, jagged cut down the side of my face that was now stitched up. The doctor warned me a scar would likely remain, but he was confident it wouldn’t be too noticeable.

When Gracie walked into that hospital room, crying, saying how sorry she was, that it was her fault because Ed lured her away with the promise of going to the farm to hang out with me and her brother, I cut her off right there. I told her what I should’ve been telling myself all along. She didn’t know. This was a scenario that she couldn’t have imagined, because she had never been put in a position where she couldn’t trust a man. I was only glad I got to her in time before he’d really harmed her.

He didn’t do anything to her. He talked to her about making us his wives, but he didn’t get a chance to do anything else.

I sighed, snuggling into my letterman jacket blanket, and took another deep breath of the four men that had saved me more times than I could count.

Nolan chuckled and shook his head at me. “I could fake muscle pain again and sit with you.”

“You better not!” I growled. “We have to win this game. If we win, we still have a chance to go to the playoffs.” He laughed but bent down and kissed my forehead, careful not to press too hard. Nolan was always so gentle.

“I’ll score for you, babe,” Lachlan said. I could tell he longed to lean in and kiss me, but we were keeping up the pretense that I was only dating Nolan. He brushed his fingertips over the back of my hand, the touch conveying more than enough.

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