Taming Hollywood's Baddest Boy - Max Monroe Page 0,41
of one to ten, how painful was it to do that?”
“Do what?”
I sigh as my adrenaline takes a plunge. I am a pinball machine of fucking emotions. “Write your capital A.”
“Oh,” she says and shrugs. “Not too bad. A two or three, I guess?”
I prod around on her ankle some more, lightly feeling the bones for anything that appears out of place.
“I’m just going to rotate your ankle a little. Let me know if it gets too painful.”
With my right hand bracing her calf and heel, I use my left to move Billie’s ankle tenderly to the left and to the right.
“That okay?”
“It’s tolerable. Just feels sore.”
“Okay,” I say with a satisfied nod, pulling her sock back on for her. “I don’t think anything’s broken. Probably just have a pretty nasty sprain.”
I stand to my feet quickly, and when she stares up at me with those pretty green eyes of hers, I’m hit with a wave of light-headedness. I close my eyes against the feeling, convinced I must have gotten up too fast.
“Should I put my boot back on?” she asks obliviously. I open my eyes and look back down at her to shake my head.
“No, definitely don’t do that. Now that it’s off, we don’t want to force it back on until we get the swelling down. We need to find a way to ice it and let you relax for the rest of the day.”
“But I thought we didn’t have time to rest yet? You said we had to finish eleven miles today, and we’ve only gone, like, eight.”
My chest squeezes.
“You’re hurt, Billie. I might be a hard-ass sometimes, but I’m not a complete asshole.”
“A hard-ass sometimes?” she questions with a teasing grin, and I shrug.
“Fine. Most of the time.”
“Mmm-hmm,” she hums melodically.
In need of distraction and purpose, I slide my backpack to the front of my chest and stick her boot inside it.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting ready to get us up the rest of this hill so we can find a flat spot to camp for the night.”
“Get us up the rest of the hill?” she questions on a laugh. “You’re not carrying me up this mountain. There’s no way.”
“Billie, you can’t walk. And more than that, you shouldn’t be walking. I’m not going to drop you.”
“It’s not that,” she contests. “I just…between me and both hiking backpacks, that’s too much.”
“Relax,” I say, kneeling down in front of her, my back toward her. “Just hop on and let me worry about the rest.”
“Luca Weaver, you are not carrying me,” she denies obstinately.
I grit my teeth and turn back over my shoulder to look her in the eye. “Billie, for once in your life, stop being so fucking stubborn and just listen.”
“I’m not stubborn.”
I laugh. “Yeah, you are. I recognize it well because I am too.” She jerks her head back at my admission, and I shrug. “But right now, you’re also being a pain in the ass.”
She sighs.
“C’mon,” I coax. “The sooner we get going, the sooner we’ll be settled for the night so you can ice your ankle.”
She sighs again.
“Billie.”
“Ugh. Fine.”
She grips her hands around my shoulders and shimmies herself onto my back until her legs are wrapped around my waist.
And without any trouble, I stand to my feet. She doesn’t weigh that much more than Bailey, and I think he notices because he jumps and dances beside us, wondering why the hell he’s not the one getting the lift.
“Oh my gosh, this is crazy!”
“It’s just a piggyback ride, princess. Nothing to get all worked up about.”
With my right hand, I support her leg and make sure her injured ankle isn’t in an awkward position, and with my left, I keep ahold of her hiking backpack.
“Please don’t drop me,” she squeals as I move forward to resume our climb.
The vulnerability in her voice is apparently just enough to influence a promise I know I would never make otherwise. “If I drop you, I’ll read that screenplay of yours.”
“Oh,” she says and then switches gear. “You know what, feel free to drop me, then.”
I grin and shake my head. “Hold on tight, Billie. Fines are doubled if you bail on purpose.”
She laughs. “You know what, Luca Weaver?”
“What?”
“You’re not as big of an asshole as I originally thought.”
For the whole trip, I’ve been annoyed to be figuratively carrying the weight of her inexperience on my back. Now that she’s literally latched on to me like a spider monkey, I’m glad to have her there.