Here & Now by Melyssa Winchester, Joey Winchester Read Free Book Online Page B

my eyes playing tricks on me, it looks like he’s putting a lot more pressure on his left leg than his right, which means he hurt it.
    The idea of Dillon being hurt twists me up inside. After last year with all of the fighting and him somehow managing to make it out of a lot of them with barely a scratch, the last thing he needs is to relive it out here on the field.
    I just don’t know how to tell him that without upsetting him. He’s made it clear how important I am to him, but there’s only one thing that might mean just as much. Football is Dillon’s escape. It’s the one thing he prides himself at being good at. Bringing up my fears, worries I have seeing him walk the way he is now, it’s only going to upset him and that’s the last thing I want after the amount of time we’ve spent apart.
    “Didn’t anyone tell you? Cheerleader tryouts were last week. You missed the cutoff.”
    Smacking him lightly on the chest before allowing him to scoop me up into his arms and swing me around, I do something I haven’t been able to do all day. Laugh.
    “Do that again.” He signs the minute my feet are back on the ground and our eyes are once again locked on each other.
    Do what again?
    “Laugh.”
    “I can’t laugh on demand.”
    Sliding his hands down my body, he runs one down until he’s sliding his hand up underneath and if I didn’t already know what he was going for, the way his hand feels brushing against my skin might create a whole different reaction in me based on the way it feels.
    His fingers brush lightly across my stomach and just like he was going for, I laugh again, only this time the look in his eyes tells me it’s different somehow. I don’t need to be able to hear myself when I’m with Dillon. His facial expressions, the way his eyes change at any given moment tells me everything I need to know.
    I’m reacting to him the way he wants, but also in the way I want with the heat building from his hands being on any part of me. A reaction I’ve had more than once in our time together and judging by the smirk on his face, one he enjoys a whole lot.
    “It’s music, Caddy. You’re music.”
    “Then how about we get out of here and we turn the solo act into a duet?”
    His eyes widen, the smile still in place and his eyes back away from mine, looking toward the building and back again.
    “If I agree, will you tell me why you’re here?”
    I nod and he looks again toward the locker room before coming back and meeting my gaze.
    “Five minutes. I’m gonna put my shit together and I’m coming right back out. Meet me at the car?”
    Again I answer with a nod and he smiles before leaning his head into mine and kissing me softly. As he pulls away and turns, I notice again that he’s favoring his right leg, putting all of his weight down onto his left and I reach out and stop him. There’s no way I can let him walk away right now without knowing how bad this is.
    “Did you hurt your leg?”
    “I just fell wrong. It’s nothing.”
    “Are you sure?”
    I trust Dillon, but I also know what guys are like. Whenever my dad would hurt himself working around the house when I was a kid, he used to blow it off whenever my mom asked about it. He would tell her it was nothing and that as soon as he was rested it would all clear up. I get the feeling that right now, Dillon and I are a lot like them.
    “Yeah. It happens a lot, but usually I don’t have a gorgeous girl waiting on the sidelines that catches it. I swear, when I get off my feet later and rest, it’ll clear up.”
    Pressing his lips to mine again quickly, he turns and watching him walk away, the knot in the pit of my stomach tightens. He might believe that it’s nothing, and I might even want to buy into it too, but something tells me that there’s more going on here.
    Watching him jog away, disappearing into a door that most likely will take him to his stuff, the five minute countdown clock ticking away in my head, I really hope the knot in