Page 57 of Hypnotized By Love

For as long as I lived, I was never crawling through that doggy door again. I wondered if my face was all red. I got to my feet. “That’s okay. I’m just going to climb my trellis.”

“Sinclair, don’t climb the trellis.”

I shrugged him off and headed over to it. Finding some footholds, I started climbing. “I used to have this fantasy that you would sneak into my bedroom at night and we’d make out.” I didn’t really have any experience beyond that, so I never mentally took it further, but it was something I’d fervently hoped might happen.

“You used to have a lot of fantasies about me.”

Now my face definitely felt hot, and I was glad I was facing the house and not him. I climbed up a bit farther. “There was this one time Kenny Hoffmeyer climbed into my bedroom and I screamed. He thought it was Sierra’s room, and she was waiting for him, and it was a whole thing. Very disappointing for everyone involved.”

Mason moved beneath me, over to the right.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I was standing there so I could catch you, but I’m moving over here now so that I can be a gentleman and not look up your skirt.”

I had forgotten about that. “It’s a dress,” I said. “And thank you.”

My foot slipped, and my adrenaline spiked as I lost my hold, going straight down to the ground and landing hard on my left foot.

He rushed over. “Are you okay?”

Pain radiated from my ankle, and I felt nausea at the back of my throat. “I think I broke my foot. Can you take me to the hospital?”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Let me get your parents,” he said.

“Nope.” If I didn’t want them to know that I had been drinking, I most definitely did not need them to know that I had been stuck in the doggy door and had fallen off the trellis. This was one of those things that I planned on taking to the grave. “Sierra’s working tonight at the ER. She can help.”

He tried to help me to stand, but as soon as I put pressure on my left foot, I yelped in pain.

Without hesitation, Mason swung me up into his arms and carried me across the backyard and back to my car like it was easy. Like I was weightless.

In between bursts of throbbing pain, I was super impressed.

And I liked how it felt to have him hold me in his arms. As if he could keep me safe.

This is where you belong.

And this time I didn’t tell my inner teenager to be quiet. Instead I let my head rest against his shoulder and felt the brush of his lips across the top of my scalp, making it tingle as he put me gently into the car.

The drive to the hospital seemed to take forever, and Mason had to carry me from the parking lot into the lobby of the ER. He set me down in a chair and went over to tell the registration nurse why we’d come in.

“We’re not too busy tonight. Let me grab a wheelchair, and she can come on back.”

I was actually disappointed that Mason wasn’t going to be able to carry me any longer. When the nurse came out, she stopped short and said, “Sierra?”

“I’m Savannah. Her identical twin.”

“Wow, do you two look the same! I’m Cynthia, by the way.”

I held back my retort that, yes, we looked the same because that was the literal definition ofidentical, but I stayed quiet. Since Cynthia might be the one responsible for giving me painkillers, I wasn’t going to be snarky.

The grin on Mason’s face told me he knew exactly what I’d been thinking.

Cynthia and Mason helped me into the wheelchair, and then she rolled me back into an examination room. They both had to help me get into the bed, and I tried to ignore how awkward I felt.

“Tell me what brings you in tonight,” Cynthia said.

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