Page 76 of Not Falling for the Forward
White hot all-encompassing pain radiates through my leg. I scream.
I hit the deck clutching my leg. Myleftleg.
I lie back and close my eyes, still cradling my injured leg.
My teeth clench so hard they must be cracking.
I must look like the classic soft football player that gets tapped, does a roll on the floor and starts crying in the hope to get the other team carded. But, right now, I don’t care about the other team. I care about my already weak leg. That has been booted. At full pelt by some tosser to try and get one up on me.
I am stretchered off. Much to my utter mortification. But I can’t weight bare through the pain.
My head immediately takes me to the worst-case scenario.
It’s broken again. It’s over. I’ll never play another game.
I don’t know how much time passes, all I can do is catastrophise in my head. I know I am checked over by the club medics and handed over to physio. I know that I am not put in the back of an ambulance and shipped off for x-rays and surgery.But what if itisbroken?
“He’s my fucking boyfriend. I just need to know if he’s okay!” The voice has me snapping out of my trance.
“Let her in,” I say to security at the door. Almost immediately, Emily flies through, almost knocking them over.
She stops short when she sees me. I have a towel slung over my bottom half, my shorts having been removed so I could be inspected properly. But it’s the bandage covering my thigh that makes her eyes widen. Her hand covers her mouth as she whispers, “Oh god, Jack.”
“I’m fine,” I say, opening my arms to her, hoping she will take my offer. She does. She throws herself at me, careful of my leg and I am clutched in the tightest embrace I have ever felt. I rest my head on top of Emily’s where she leans on my chest, and breathe her in.
It has been a week since I last saw her and it has been the worst week yet. Yes, we have had time apart before but nothing like this, without talking to her, without being able to text her all my random thoughts of the day or her sending me pictures of a random dog she has seen on the way to the gym. I have missed her, but until now, with her in myarms, I didn’t realise how much. I can physically feel my heart start to stitch itself back together.
Emily pulls back and her eyes scan up and down my body, assessing now, like she has been trained to do. “What happened? I had just come out to watch you guys after dealing with someone and I saw you hit the deck. God, Jack, where he had kicked you, I thought...” her words peter out as silver starts to line her eyes.
“Yeah, me too,” I say, dread filling me again. “The dick came at me studs first.”
Emily’s eyes crunch again, her anger back in full force. “That stupid fucking prick. How reckless. He could have done serious damage!”
“Emily Ryan, language!” I chastise, grinning at her outrage on my behalf.
The look she gives me would scare a lesser man to tears. “I don’t know what you’re grinning at, Jack Cartwright. I’m mad at you, too.”
“I know,” I say, still grinning.
“At least look bothered!” She flings her hands up in the air in frustration.
“Oh, I am bothered. Utterly terrified of your wrath,” I say as I grab her big bright yellow jacket and pull her back into me, my hands securing tightly around her hips.
“You could tell your face,” she grumbles, bopping me on the nose.
“Sorry,” I say, still unable to drop the smile.
“I mean it, I’m mad at you.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, for everything.” I lean up and capture her mouth in a quick kiss, her body physically relaxes against me.
“Seriously, we have things to discuss,” she mumbles around my mouth, not fully pulling away. I lift one hand to the back of her head and steady her. Her eyes are blazing, no longer in fury but the insatiable lust we feel for each other.
“You mean how you just screamed, in front of what I can only imagine was a large crowd, that I’m your boyfriend?” A smirk starts to form on her lips. “Does that mean you trust me now?” I lift a brow at her and she flinches slightly.
She releases a long sigh. “It means I am going to try. I’m sorry I doubted you. I have a lot of shit I need to work through, but if you’ll still have me. I’d like to work through it with you by my side.” She looks down and I lift her chin with my finger making her meet my eyes.
“I would love that.”
