Page 91 of When to Call a Blitz

“Do I need to call the girls?”

I smile but shake my head. “No, not at all. I’m going to go clean up and go to bed though, alright?”

She nods, a knowing smirk blooming across her face.

I grab a towel from the pile of clean laundry stacked on top of the chair in the corner of my room, heading to the bathroom where I strip down, studying myself in the mirror.

I look the same, and yet I feel like at a molecular level, I’m different. Like Emmett has changed me fundamentally. Like the second there was that silent agreement between us, my whole life changed.

And maybe it has.

I hope it has.

The Cobras are away on Sunday, and they lose, which means that Emmett needs me at the house on Monday so that he can go in and get his ass chewed out by his coach.

My alarm doesn’t go off when it’s supposed to, so I get to his house a little late. He’s just leaving for the training facility, and he stops on his way out, looking around the room to make sure Juniper doesn’t see him, and kisses me on the lips.

When he leaves, Juniper’s finally ready for school, and she jumps right in the car.

I drop her off, heading back to his place to hang out for a little bit. Emmett shouldn’t be at work for too long, and I think it’s important for us to talk a little about what we’re expecting out of, well, all of this.

I make my rounds around the house, checking up on Theodor, curled up in his little house, before setting some scrapsout for the racoons behind the garage. The babies are growing so fast, but they’re still there.

I check the time when I’m done, deciding that I’d like to get a run in before Emmett gets home. Heading into the garage to grab a water bottle from the outside fridge, I blush at the sight of his car before my eyes settle on the present on top of his workbench.

I forgot about it last night, and although I don’tneedpresents from him, part of me is really curious about what it is.

Shaking off the curiosity, I head back out and change into my running clothes before heading outside, taking off down the road.

I’m about two miles out when it happens.

I’m adjusting my hair when I step a little too close to a pothole, my ankle immediately twisting.

I go down like a sack of rocks.

The pain throbs through my body, and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying hard not to think about it. Maybe if I don’t acknowledge that it happened, it’ll go away, right?

Wrong.

Instead, it gets worse.

The only thing I can do is call Emmett.

There’s no one around. I had gotten far enough that I was out of the neighborhood and a little down the road. And sure, could wave down a stranger, but that could also get me kidnapped, and that would be, well, not exactly what anyone needs at the moment.

He answers on the second ring.

“You okay?” he asks, and can tell he’s anxious.

“Uh, actually no. I think I twisted my ankle. It’s not broken,” I pause, “I don’t think anyway. Are you almost out of work? Can you come get me?”

I hear the sound of cars driving by from the background, and I silently thank the universe that he’s somehow already on the road.

“I actually left a couple of minutes ago. Can you send me your location and I’ll come pick you up?” Although he sounds a little bit better, I can tell that he’s stressed and worried about me.

“Yeah, I’ll send it right now.”

We hang up and I send my location to him, and about ten minutes later he pulls up, hopping out of his large pickup truck and rounding the front. “Are you okay?” he asks, bending down in front of me. He grabs my leg, looking it over. There’s nothing to see with my socks and shoes on.

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