Page 34 of Fall Hard

I turned around and followed after Bryn, walking a little faster than before to catch up with her until I was breathless by the time I reached her side. She glanced at me as she walked on, her body tense and her jaw tight.

“Don’t fucking defend her, Liv. She deserved that and you know it.”

“Are you okay?”

Her mouth was pressed into a flat line and I could see the anger starting to fade, fear replacing it as she walked faster. “I can’t believe that happened.”

“Me either.”

“You could have been hurt.”

I blinked, surprised that was her first thought, and then froze when she stopped in her tracks and roughly pulled me to her. Her body was trembling, and I held her back just as tightly as she gripped me. “You could have been hurt.”

“I’m alright,” I murmured into her hair. “You’re okay, we’re okay.”

Bryn pulled back, breathing out shakily as she continued walking. “I shouldn’t have yelled at her.”

“You were scared and emotions were running high. She won’t blame you.”

We slowed our pace to let Jamie and Kat catch up to us and for a second the tension was unbearable until Bryn sighed. “I’m sorry. You did a dumb thing, but that guy was the asshole. Not you.”

“No.” Jamie shook her head. “I’m sorry. To all of you. I wasn’t thinking, I just reacted and I put you all at risk.”

“Let’s just get home—in one piece,” I added as I looked between the two of them. It was not going to be pretty when we told the guys what had happened.

I wrinkled my nose. Maybe I’d leave that to Jamie.

CHAPTERNINE

“I cannot believethat Bryn yelled at Jamie,” Xander said wonderingly as he bounced the ball between his hands expertly. I stood in front of him, shuffling awkwardly from side to side as I attempted to block him from getting past me. Xander stepped and bounced, the ball flying between his outstretched leg as he darted past me and leapt for the hoop. “To be honest, I can’t imagineanyonehaving balls big enough to shout at Jamie.”

I met his jump, my long arms brushing the bottom of the ball but ultimately missing as it sank in and I cursed. The boys had been less than amused with our story of what had happened after the mall, but things between Bryn and Jamie had been fine if a little overly-nice at home.

“You’re doing good,” Ryan reassured me as he wiped the sweat off his face, “plus you’re tall which is always a bonus in these kinds of ball games.”

“I’m not surprised,” Kit said with a grin as he glanced at Xander. “Bryn’s not one to hold back.”

I shrugged. “Honestly Kat was the one that shocked me the most.”

Xander caught the ball on its descent and tucked it under an arm as he swigged some water from his bottle and I moved to the side of the outdoor court to do the same. It was ungodly hot out for eleven in the morning and I found myself grateful that we hadn’t waited until the afternoon to play, because I might have passed out from heat exhaustion.

“Did Kat really tackle him?”

I jumped, not having heard Leo approach. He somehow looked cool, only a slight tinge of pink in his cheeks as he stretched out his lean muscles and I wondered if maybe I’d been wrong before—maybe he was interested in Kat.

“It was a bit more graceful than a tackle, it was like she triggered a pressure point or something.”

Xander whistled and I couldn’t help but agree. I never would have thought that Kat was capable of such fierceness, not that she wasn’t a badass in her own right but Jamie shone so strongly in that regard it was hard to see anybody else. If anything, Jamie had been… reckless. I wasn’t mad at her, but it did worry me how little regard she held for her own safety. If I responded like that to every guy who hollered at me, I would probably have been beat up a million times over, or worse.

I pulled Kit to one side before he could rejoin the guys starting to resume playing again on the course. “I was wondering if you could help me with something?”

He paused, waiting for me to say more and I held back a smile. He was taking the whole overprotective brother thing to a whole new level with me and Bryn.

“Bryn and I went to check out her place yesterday before the mall and it was a mess, there wasn’t much we could do. But there was this photo—”

“I know the one,” he said, eyes following Leo as he dove for the ball in Xander’s grip. “She mentioned it to me yesterday on the phone.”

“Right,” I said, clearing my throat. “Well, I took it.”

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