Chapter 7 #2
When my gaze connected with his, it took barely a second before he stopped leaning against the bar, saying, “Good to meet you all, but it’s time we get going back.” He reached out and shook the men’s hands, and I followed suit.
It didn’t take long before we could extract ourselves and make our way back to the house. Almost immediately, Sutton glanced at his phone as we entered. “Time for your meds.”
I didn’t hold back my smile when he headed to collect them.
It had been a long time since Sutton cared for me like this.
It was something he’d always done—this season not withstanding.
The man looked out for me, cared for me.
He was a natural caretaker, something I’d never challenged, just happily accepted, especially considering my own level of neediness.
I’d missed this, him, a lot. Heck, that didn’t come close to just how much I’d missed the man.
He returned with a bottle of water and the pain meds that’d target my headache and the pain in my chest from the seat belt, which I’d sort of ignored until yesterday since my attention was so focused on my head.
“You need me to break them in half for you?”
“Screw you, wiseass.” I grinned and accepted the drink and pills. After swallowing and washing them down with the cold water, I settled on the sofa. “Thanks.”
A chin lift was sent my way, and my stomach flipped over at such a normal, casual gesture.
That, as well as the warmth in his gaze, hadn’t been directed at me in such a long time.
I focused on him being here and just how long I could keep him.
The thought of us finally getting back to how we were was a huge driving factor.
“So another two weeks of hanging out, and then you can keep me company on the flight back. I like this plan.” Apparently, I’d decided this between… okay, just this second.
Sutton quirked a brow at me. “When did we decide that?”
“When you couldn’t bear to be apart from me any longer, so headed all this way to see me. I thought we’d make the most of my recovery in the quiet before we’re hit with the mayhem.”
“That’s totally the reason I jumped on a plane,” he deadpanned. “Nothing at all to do with Nate pleading with me to come. He must have heard what a pussy you are when you’re ill or have an injury.”
Lightness settled in my chest. “Uh-huh, keep telling yourself that.” This time I grinned. Fuck, I’d missed him, missed this. “Tomorrow I think we can make a break for it, go and explore. Visit that fishing spot, maybe cause a bit of chaos along the way. What do you think?”
He eyed me, a slight frown settling between his brows. That look I knew. He wasn’t convinced I would be okay exploring.
True, my head hurt something fierce—it felt like a jackhammer went off in intervals. But at least with the pain meds I was sleeping, and they mostly kept my pain away.
“If you can jump up and down ten times tomorrow, maybe exploring is an option. If not, sitting in a couple of camping chairs fishing is maybe more your speed.”
“The fuck!” Just the thought of that movement had my stomach clenching. “My version of mayhem doesn’t involve bouncing up and down.”
He quirked his brow. “So no kangaroo riding tomorrow?”
The pain meds had kicked in enough that I was finally able to roll my eyes at him. “Not tomorrow. And I know I can be a douche, but the thought of any sort of activity like that is enough to make me hurt.” Sutton was one of the few people I’d ever admit that to.
Concern etched his features, and a slight movement of his hand had me glancing down.
He fisted his hand and placed it on his knee.
Curiosity had me wondering exactly why that was.
Why had he held back, especially since in the pub he’d touched me so openly?
After a beat, my attention returned to his face.
His expression was weirdly neutral. I swallowed down my sigh, hating he still had moments of holding himself back.
“How about we do the fishing thing, then you can buy for lunch?” he suggested.
“I suppose I can do that. It’s not every day my BFF admits he can’t cope with not being on the same continent as me.” That earned me a twitch of his lips.
“The pining for you was too much.” His voice was impassive. “My life is finally complete now that we’re breathing the same air.”
At his words, a flash of memory… of feeling sparked inside me, reminding me of the time we had legit shared the same air when I’d launched myself at him and kissed the hell out of my friend.
Surprised by the spike in my pulse, I forced a laugh, knowing there was nothing natural or easygoing about the sound.
“You see, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I sassed, working on my tone, and totally ignored how my mind kept catching on the innuendo of my words.
“Fuck, I think these meds are screwing with me,” I said aloud, sure that was what was going on.
“Let’s get you to bed.”
I caught the strangled noise that attempted to break free from my throat. What the fuck was happening? “Yeah, that’s probably best.”
Sutton hovered over me like a clucking hen as I went to our room and lay down. He closed the blinds and placed my water bottle on the bedside table.
“Sleep, and I’ll check in on you in a couple of hours.” There was a softness in his voice that sent my heart hammering. Sutton was absolutely the more thoughtful out of the two of us, but just how attentive and gentle he was being made my head spin.
I latched onto that notion as he left me in the dark room. That’s all this was—me reaching for meaning when there was none there. That and being confused by Sutton in my space after so long without him being all in my business.
As for those memories, it was only natural they’d flicked through my mind. Our kiss had changed everything. So what if the more I thought about it, the more I wondered what it would be like to kiss Sutton for a second time?
Maybe even a third or fourth if it was as nice as my memory made it out to be.
With a sigh, I turned on my side and closed my eyes.
The following day the two of us headed out fishing. We left midmorning after I’d given some time for my pain meds to kick in, and probably far too late for the fish. That was a thing, right? Fish biting early in the day rather than later.
I had no idea, but I was bored after an hour of not catching anything, and thankfully, Sutton wasn’t feeling it either.
After packing everything up, we strolled down a small track alongside the creek, the gentle flow of the water calm and soothing. Admittedly, this was kinda nice, the two of us hanging out, actually relaxing together.
There were no awkward silences, no forced conversation.
Exactly the way it had always been between us.
It wasn’t a secret that he was the one I felt truly comfortable with.
The only person I could simply be myself with.
While we dug at and ribbed each other, every word always held affection, right alongside the certainty we trusted each other.
“Apparently crocs don’t travel this far south.”
Sutton offered a small “Huh,” which translated to he was paying attention.
I smiled. “Too cold for it or something, I think. Can you believe it’s winter?”
“It’s a little like California’s climate.” He glanced over. “Except for last night. Did you feel how cold it got?” I laughed at how bemused he seemed. “I thought Nate was screwing around when he told me about there being a log burner.”
“Right. Only for it to jump up forty degrees during the day. This place is weird.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his focus had moved to my hand with the bandaged finger, and I lifted it up for inspection. “You think Coach is going to freak out when he sees me?”
“Nah. He’ll already have been pouring over the X-rays, or at least the team’s doc will have.”
I nodded. “True. Everything looked good. Clean break. It should heal fine and in enough time for next season. Until then, I can train with my right.”
“When I learned you were injured, I was sure it was a crocodile or a snake or something that had finally got you.”
I snorted at his words. “You sound disappointed. We can go hunting for something wilder if you want, gain new experiences.”
“Let’s make that a hard pass. And I’m not disappointed. The news just took me by surprise.”
“And freaked you out.”
“And freaked me out,” he repeated.
My lips twitched. “And made you so worried you jumped on the first available flight to come and take care of me.” Sutton made it so easy to wind him up.
“Think of it more along the lines of making sure you were not dead and bitten by something venomous.”
“That right?”
“Yeah, and there wasn’t a commercial flight to get to LAX in time for the next trip out to Brisbane, so I had to charter one.”
I stopped short, my eyebrows shooting high. “No shit?”
“No shit.”
While words to keep up the banter were at the tip of my tongue, knowing he’d done that for me blew me away. I locked on to his deep brown eyes, my stomach doing a weird-ass flutter. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Holy shit, alert the press. Jayden Moore has been rendered speechless.” His tone was dry, humor flickering in the depth of his gaze.
Lightness settled in my chest, chasing away the flips in my gut that I was keen to ignore, that earlier reaction too confusing.
“And it’s passed.” I quirked my brow, and we continued strolling along the track, the warmth of the sun pressing against us.
“You know, while the circumstances I could do without, it makes a nice change doing nothing, being forced to relax.”
Sutton hummed at my side.
“I can’t remember the last time we did anything like this. Just chill.”
“We’ve never done anything like this,” he said. “Every off-season, if we’re not catching up with family, you’re dragging me to some dodgy-ass place, doing shit Coach would have palpitations about.”