“I think you’ve got someone in your corner for life when it comes to my dad,” I said softly. “And my family already loves you.”
She smiled against my chest.
“My head doesn’t hurt as bad,” she said. “Did they have to shave my hair?”
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to tell her. Especially seeing as how she’d cried about it when she found out that they might.
“Umm.” I paused. “Only a little bit. Right at the edge.”
I touched her head, right under where they’d done stitches, and she sighed.
“Shit,” she mumbled. “And you missed your first game.”
“I missed my first game.” I shrugged. “I don’t honestly care. We won, anyway, even without me. Luckily it was just a scrimmage. So no real problem with me not being there.”
She curled deeper into my arms. “Do you have to wake me up in thirty minutes still?”
The doctor had recommended waking her up every two to three hours. It’d been two since I’d last woken her. So no, I didn’t feel like I had to wake her up.
“I’ll wake you up when it’s time for me to get ready for breakfast,” I said.
“Why do you say that like I’m not going anywhere today?” she asked.
“Because you’re not?” I said.
“I am,” she countered. “Actually, I want to go to school. He’s not going to scare me into not going.”
I grinned at her. “Today is Saturday, babe. No school today.”
She deflated. “Oh.”
I curled my fingers around her neck and tilted her chin up to look at me.
Her eyes were deep and haunted, but they shone with a love that only ever showed when I was looking into her eyes.
“I know that you’re not defeated.” I pressed a kiss to her brow. “You can be a badass on Monday. We have today and tomorrow to chill out and do nothing. Hopefully get that head of yours feeling better.”
That, and my temper under control enough that I didn’t kill Vance the first time that I saw him.
“Did they say if I could play still?” she asked.
I shook my head, then leaned back until I was lying on the air mattress, her directly on my chest.
“No,” I said. “I didn’t even think to ask. But they did say they were going to call today and check on you when we left. Make sure you tell your dad to ask them that.” I paused. “I’m guessing that you probably can’t do anything strenuous until you get your stitches out, though.”
“Friday is the senior game,” she murmured. “I’m playing.”
My lips tipped up into a smile. “Are you not tired?”
She shook her head, and I looked over at her alarm clock that was on the edge of her bedside table.
It read four in the morning.
“Do you want to get up? Go watch some television?” I asked.
I was tired as hell, but I’d do whatever she wanted if she wasn’t tired.
Even get up and watch television when I wanted nothing more than to catch a few more hours of sleep.
Which, in the end, is exactly what I got.
I only woke up four hours later with Perry giggling at something her father was saying.
“…No, I don’t think so,” Perry said. “I was about to poke Banner awake and ask him if he’d get me donuts.”
I sat up, my head feeling like it was full of cotton.
When I blinked my eyes open, it was to find the room completely full.
Other than the sofa that I was laid out on, my parents were taking up the one diagonal to me. Perry was curled up in the small space that I didn’t take up on mine. My sister, brother and brother’s wife were also there.
Then there were Perry’s parents who were sitting on the ottoman that was across the room.
I blinked.
“When did everyone get here?” I grumbled, wiping my eyes with my fists.
“You weren’t answering your phone,” Ashe supplied helpfully, her hands resting on her big belly. “And we got curious.”
I shook my head as if it would help clear the cobwebs, then got up and left the room without another word.
My bladder was screaming.
Once I was done, I slipped some shoes on that happened to be up in Perry’s room.
“You’re leaving?” she asked.
“I heard that you wanted donuts,” I teased.
“And you think you’re going dressed like that?”
I blinked at Perry’s words.
“Um, what?” I asked in confusion.
She gestured to my pants and said, “You can’t wear those.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
She took a hold of my hand and led me to the mirror that was on the back of her bathroom door.
“That,” she said, as if her craziness was more than obvious. “That’s why.”
I shook my head. “Perry, I have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about.”
She poked my dick with one finger.
“That.” She poked it again. “That right there is what I’m talking about. You can’t wear this out in public. Where we’re headed is going to have a crap ton of girls—high school and college alike—there. You can’t be seen like this in public.”