Page 28 of Necessary Roughness

“Keep telling yourself that,” Harrison said.

Things improved when they got to the football field. Tanner settled himself on the bench. He’d discovered that the kids didn’t need a lot of direction from him, so he figured he could spend his time observing and talk about what he saw with Harrison later. Today, though, Kiernan needed some extra help. She ran over and plunked herself down beside him on the bench.

“What’s up?” he said. He glanced over to see tears running down her face. “What happened?”

“Jayson said that I can’t throw. He said I was ugly.” She rubbed her eyes.

He gave her a clumsy pat on the arm. “That wasn’t nice. It’s not true, either.”

“How do you know?”

“I have been sitting over here watching all of you. You throw just fine. He’s mad because he’s not playing quarterback.”

She brushed the tears off her face. “Do you think I’m ugly?”

He took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how to answer this one, but hopefully he’d say something that wouldn’t make things worse. “No. You are pretty, but I like you because you are kind to other people too.”

She rubbed her eyes again as he patted her on the back. She jumped up from the bench and ran back to the other kids. When practice was over, she hurried over, perched on the bench next to him, and threw her arms around his midsection. “I like you too,” she said.

His day hadn’t been so bad after all.

***

JORDAN WAS A bit surprised to see the little red-haired quarterback make her way over to the bench. She perched next to him and threw her arms around Tanner’s midsection. She gave him a quick squeeze.

Jordan watched as Tanner gave her another clumsy pat on the back. For a guy who had spent the past few weeks singeing everyone in his vicinity with sarcasm, the little girl seemed to enjoy his company. The quarterback’s dad shook Tanner’s hand as he left the practice field as well.

Jordan’s feelings about Tanner were changing by the hour. She was confused by her indecision. Just when she thought he could be a real jerk sometimes, he’d do something sweet like give a little girl a hug or whatever. Maybe she should spend less time looking for reasons to think he was a jerk and concentrate on the good things she’d noticed about him.

Maybe she had Stockholm syndrome or something.

She hurried down the steps to the front door and spun around in case Tanner needed some help getting into the house safely. Harrison was dropping him off at home before he went out on a date.

“Come on, old man,” Harrison said to Tanner as he got out of his car. “I’ve got plans.”

“You can leave. I’ll be fine,” Tanner snapped. He grabbed his crutches out of the backseat of Harrison’s car.

“Don’t wait up,” Harrison teased.

“The fuck I will,” Tanner said.

“What was that? I didn’t quite hear you.”

Tanner paused long enough to flip Harrison the bird as he approached the stone steps leading to his front door.

Jordan turned at the base of the stairs to watch as Tanner made his way down the steps. She glanced up from her musings on the mystery of Tanner’s recent behavior and had opened her mouth to speak just in time to see Tanner’s crutch miss the step below him. He tried to catch his balance but couldn’t do so. A few seconds later, he landed on top of her. The crutches went flying. She hit the tiles with an oof.

Tanner couldn’t seem to maneuver down the stairs safely, but his reflexes were still in perfect condition. He’d wrapped one arm around her before they’d both fallen onto the sun-warmed tiles. His other hand cradled the back of her head. If he hadn’t, she would have smacked her head on them.

“Are you okay?”

She couldn’t really form words at the moment. She was so shocked he’d landed on her she didn’t have a lot to say. He rolled off her as she tried to speak. Despite having a very large male lying on top of her, she seemed to be okay.

“Say something,” he said. “Do we need to call an aid car? Are you hurt?”

“Mph,” she said. She shook her head vigorously from side to side. No ambulance. If they’d just give her a second to gather her thoughts and breathe a little, she could tell them she was going to be fine.

“I’m fine,” Tanner snapped. “She needs help.” He held up his hand. Blood ran from his scraped knuckles. “I might need a Band-Aid,” he said.

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