Page 59 of Single Teddy
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Mm-hmm,” he nodded, but he didn’t look okay.
Without thinking, I opened my door and his and helped him out of the car, recognizing the cold feet all too well.
“You know you don’t have to do this, right?” I held his hand a little too tight and felt the goosebumps multiply across my skin, the rush of them making it hard to breathe.
“O-of course I do. The boys need me to,” he said with a shaky voice, and I couldn’t stand it any longer.
I enveloped him in my arms and held him there for a few moments. They felt like the sweetest moments of my life.
“Just remember, we’ll be here to intervene if anything goes wrong. Just shout help, and we’ll barge in,” I said.
I somehow managed to let him go, and he looked all flushed and discombobulated, but so damn adorable.
Truth was, I didn’t want to let him go. I didn’t want to send him to the mouth of the beast, but I knew nothing I did would convince him not to do this, and that was why I admired him. One of the many reasons. He might be scared, but he was willing to put everything on the line for his students.
“Th-thank you,” he muttered, but he still didn’t move.
I took a deep breath, held both his hands in mine, and looked him in the eyes.
“You know that anger about the situation? That frustration with Wyatt, with me, with all of us?”
“I was never mad at you—” he said.
“Use it. Use it to fire you up. Think who you’re doing this for. Niko and Valentin need you now more than ever.”
“You’re right,” he replied and gave me a single determined nod before pressing his lips together.
“Go on. Fight for them,” I said and let go of his hands so I could grab his head and plant a kiss on his forehead.
It happened as if…as if on instinct, and I had no power to stop it until it was too late. The touch alone sent shivers down my spine and awakened something…primal in me. Something I wanted more of but couldn’t quite explain, but when I pulled away and met his gaze, I wished for the earth to open and swallow me whole.
His eyes were wide in shock, his lips parted in confusion, but before I could apologize or excuse my behavior, he pulled back and crossed the street.
“Fuck,” I whispered when he was far enough away. I got back in the car.
Ash looked at me with raised eyebrows and a smirk.
“What?” I asked him.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I shrugged.
“Didn’t look like nothing. It looked like something.”
“Well, then…you need to get your eyes checked,” I told him and leaned into the glove box to take out the Tupperware with Teddy’s last slice of pie in it.
“Oh, my eyes are working perfectly, dude. And I can see things crystal clear,” he said, but I ignored him.
Instead, I took a bite of pie and looked out at Wesley, who had stopped in front of the Barnes’s house. He looked left and right, as if trying to gather courage, and then stepped up on the porch.
But Ash was still staring at me.
“Focus and turn that thing on,” I told him without looking away from Wesley, and Ash turned the radio sitting atop my dashboard on.
Something told me Ash wasn’t going to forget this, and the truth was, neither would I.
