Page 35 of Fall Hard

“What? Why?” He was looking at me like I was crazy and I squeezed my hands together tightly.

“I wanted to see if I could restore it for her somehow, to say thanks for everything she’s helping me with,” I said hastily, not liking the way his eyes were narrowing. I knew what it sounded like and didn’t even want to address it. If I ignored the implications, then they wouldn’t exist, right? “But I did some research and I don’t think it’s going to be possible because of the damage. So then I thought, what if I could recreate it?”

Interest flared across Kit’s face and I relaxed. He was intrigued, so he would help me, plus it would make Bryn happy. “You want to paint it?”

“Whatever you recommend—I’ve not done any artwork for a long time but I used to be okay at it.”

Kit nodded thoughtfully as he half-watched the game. “If it were me, I would sketch it first and then paint it—watercolors.”

“Amazing,” I breathed. “Thanks, Kit. Would you, um, want to help?”

He looked at me long and hard before nodding slowly. “Sure, but make sure she understands what this is,” he warned as he backed away from me to join in the game. “Or rather, what it’s not,” he said pointedly and I nodded even as I thought he was being ridiculous. This wasn’t a romantic gesture, it was just one friend doing something nice for another friend.

A loud shout had me looking up quickly and I shrieked as I caught the basketball as it hit my face, my head snapping back from the force of the throw.

“Oh shit! Liv! I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

I dropped the ball and Leo rushed over to me, I was pretty sure it was the most emotion I’d ever seen from him.

“Xander tackled me and I accidentally threw it. I didn’t mean to hit you.”

I swallowed past the slight ringing in my ears and tried to smile. “S’alright.”

“You’re slurring,” Ryan pointed out and I squinted at him.

“You might have a concussion,” Leo muttered before wrapping one arm around my shoulders and the other around my legs as he hoisted me up and into his arms.

The ground rolled and I closed my eyes. “What are you doing?” I tried to ask, but it came out more likewhaterndoonand several faces pressed into the space around mine as they peered at me worriedly.

“I think there’s a clinic on campus,” one of the voices said and I decided to just sit back and let them decide what should be done while I relaxed in Leo’s arms.

My head was throbbing as we started to move and I couldn’t help but find it funny that it was Leo carrying me, of all people. He was nice enough but seemed kind of quiet whenever we got together in a big group—in fact, today had been the most relaxed I’d ever seen him. Until he’d hit me in the face with a basketball.

The nurse clinician gasped when we walked in and I knew I should probably be concerned that I couldn’t remember the walk from the courts to campus, but I was only capable of giggling as I imagined the picture we must have made as the whole group of guys crowded into the room.

The nurse looked me over and decided I had whiplash and possibly a light concussion, but that I was okay to go home and take it easy so long as I got medical attention if I felt worse.

Jamie and Bryn were home by the time I got back and they gaped as Ryan carried me through the door to deposit me on the sofa. I wasn’t exactly heavy, and the walk from campus to the apartment was probably just over twenty minutes, but the guys had traded off as they walked me back, each taking a turn to carry me. Thankfully, I didn’t puke on anyone, so the concussion couldn’t have been that bad.

“What did you do to her?” Jamie demanded and Leo sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Um, the basketball hit her in the face.” Both girls seemed to stiffen in anger until Leo widened his eyes. “By accident! It was an accident.”

“Accident,” I confirmed with only a little difficulty pronouncing all the letters in the right place.

Bryn bit her lip and looked at me until we both burst out laughing at the same time. I waved her off after a couple of seconds, my head pounding, and Leo continued as Jamie stared at us, baffled.

“So, yeah. She has whiplash. And a concussion,” Leo said with a grimace.

“I feel like only you could go out to play basketball and somehow get whiplash and concussed,” Bryn said as she rolled her eyes. “I shouldn’t laugh, but your luck is just so ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous,” I repeated with a nod that made me wince as it jarred my head.

“I mean, aconcussion,” Bryn repeated, bemused.

“Light,” I corrected, dragging the word out before smiling. “I think basketball’s not really for me, Bryn.”

“I’ll let you off,” she murmured as she moved my legs to sit down on the sofa, dropping them back down into her lap. “I’m guessing that means no yoga tomorrow as well?”

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