Page 46 of Scoring Grey

I quirk a brow.

“You told me you threatened her. Do you think she believed your threats were empty, or did someone on that plane help her, someone from your team? I don’t think she’d be so foolish as to cross you and release that statement to the press unless she didn’t; someone else did. Or she’s a pawn who’s not worried about the repercussions because someone else is footing the bill.”

Damn. I hate that she’s right. I’m not sure I believe my father has anything to do with this, but Blair didn’t take that photo, and neither did her camera guy. There’s a Converse sneaker in the aisle to my left in the bottom corner of the shot that I know belongs to him, which means he wasn’t in front of me. He was beside me. I squeeze the back of my neck, thinking about yesterday’s game and my entire season, for that matter. I’ve been taking the losses hard because I’m the captain, but like the coach said, even when I’m not playing to my full potential, I’m better than most. With Eloise in town, my focus has been on her. My mental shields are down, making me an easy target. I’m being set up.

“Fine. I agree to let this play out.” She smiles like she’s won and I say, “For now, I can’t make promises. If this doesn’t blow over the way you think it will with me being tied to her”—I shake my head—“I won’t do it. There’s a reason I’m never photographed with women.”

“And why’s that?”

“They’re not you.”

She tries to stifle her smile, but the fact that I’ve made her smile all day after everything lights me up inside. A restrained smile is still a smile in my book, and that’s a win.

“Can I have the heating pad now?”

“Sure, but I want to see your back first.”

“That means I have to move,” she groans.

“Come on, I’ll help you.” I kneel beside her and place my hands underneath her back and legs.

“I can do it,” she says as she rolls over. “I just don’t want to.”

“Well, I want to ensure I’m treating you properly, which means examining the injury.” I’m careful with my next words, knowing she may not accept them. “I need to pull your shorts down, blondie.”

“Nice try, Cal. You don’t need to pull down my shorts to examine my back.”

I’d smack her ass for that sass were it not actually sore. “I won’t pull them down all the way, just enough to see the top of your tailbone. I want to check for bruising.”

“Fine,” she reluctantly agrees and turns her head slightly, “but only the top part.”

“It’s not like it’s anything I haven’t seen before,” I flippantly add, reaching for her silk shorts.

“That’s not the point.”

“Then explain it to me, Eloise, because I don’t understand. Last night, we shared something, and you know, as much as I do, that it changed things. You can’t sit here and tell me you don’t want me in this bed with you, that I’m not the last person you want to see before you fall asleep and the first thing you want to see when you wake up. So what is it?” I say, unable to keep my tone unbothered.

“I’m not ready to fall for you again.”

Her words sting, and as much as I don’t like them. I understand them. “I’m not asking you to fall. I’m asking you to jump. I want you to dive in head-first with me. Jumping means trusting your heart when your mind is scared. Falling is easy, jumping is harder.”

“Maybe I don’t know when to jump.”

“When you’re scared, that’s when you jump. Do what scares you and excites you all at once. We can’t just hope for our happy ending. We have to believe in it, and that means trusting what’s ahead of us is a risk worth taking.”

She doesn’t say anything, and I know it’s because she wants it to. We’ve always wanted the same things, but getting on the same page has been a different fucking story. I let my words simmer and slowly roll the band of her shorts over, and when I do, I see tiny white marks on her hips that claw at my heart. Fuck. Those weren’t there the last time I had this view, and I know they’re only there now because this body carried my son. A mix of fury and love swirls inside my chest. I hate that I didn’t get to be by her side while she carried him, that I didn’t even know he was mine until he was almost two months old. I push down the hurt and roll her shorts once more. This time, I see the top of her perfectly round ass, and I bite my lip hard.

“No panties.”

“I’m in my pajamas, Cal,” she says exasperatedly.

I pull air through my nose to calm my piqued libido and remind myself I’m not here to be checking her out. I’m here to make her feel better. “You don’t have any bruising yet, which doesn’t mean it won’t come, but considering how hard Dash said you fell, I’m a little surprised I don’t see any reddening. Are you sure you fell on your tailbone?”

“I can’t be sure. I’ve never fallen like that in my life. I probably looked like a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. I had no time to correct or catch myself. One second, I was standing, and the next, I was on my back.”

“You didn’t hit your head, did you? If there’s a chance you have a concussion, I can’t let you fall asleep.”

“My head doesn’t hurt at all. The fall knocked the air from my lungs, and that, coupled with the pain in my thigh, is what made me pass out.”

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