ground. A soft, rubbery ground. “Fuucckkkk!” I scream, tumbling down in the water with pain shooting from my foot up my leg. It feels like I just stepped on a knife. Pure adrenaline pushes me through the shallow water, afraid a shark bit me. And might not be done snacking.
Aspen rushes to me. “Ryker, what happened?” She helps me stand and I wobble on one leg. “Something bit me.”
“Can you walk?”
I put my foot down and wait for the stabbing pain, but it doesn’t get worse. I nod, hobbling to shore with her under my arm, helping. Once on dry land, I sit down and she inspects my foot.
“It looks like a stingray got you.”
“Should you pee on it, or something?”
She freezes while cramming our towels into her bag and stares at me, both brows raised. “Ryker, it’s not a snake bite.”
“Well, how the hell do I know?” I chuckle through the throbbing, although it’s not unbearable. Dislocating my shoulder during a game hurt worse than this. She rushes to grab everything and then runs to the shoreline to retrieve my ball.
“That was an impressive throw.” She beams as she stuffs it in my bag. That was nothing. If she only knew.
“That was a more impressive catch.” I’m certain had this stingray not tried to kill me, I would have kissed her.
Kissing is not shagging.
Within minutes she has me on the boat and headed back to the hotel. Oh, shit. “Whiskey, where do you plan on taking me?” I can’t have this incident reported. I throw my head against the seat, thinking. Coach will flip his fucking lid if he finds out.
She glances over from behind the steering wheel. “I was taking you to the hotel doctor. Thankfully, the barb isn’t lodged in your foot.”
“Do you think he can look at it in my room?”
“Why must everything be a secret, Ryker?” She pins her inquisitive stare on me. “Are you hiding out here?”
Yes.
I nod and her body stiffens. “But not like you’re thinking.”
“What am I thinking?”
I hold my hands up. “I’m not hiding from the law or anything like that. I’m just…” I pause. Having someone look at me as a person rather than a money sign or ulterior motive has been refreshing. But if I have any chance of her keeping this secret, I need to say something. “… I’m supposed to stay out of the press. I’m supposed to be lying low.”
Her gaze jumps to my foot. I’m moving it back and forth as the pain intensifies, creeping up my leg.
“Is it getting worse?”
“No,” I lie. Her lips purse and she shakes her head. “Listen, I’ve been hurt so many times, this is nothing.”
“Fine. I’ll drop you off at your place and bring the doctor to you.”
I wince, grinding my teeth. It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt. “Thank you.”
She lets me deal with my injury in silence the rest of the way. As soon as she pulls up to my hut, I hobble over and up to the platform to a chair. I never thought five stairs would be the death of me. I watch as she runs and fills a trashcan with water. She’s not very careful as water sloshes out from the sides.
“Put your foot in it.”
I do what I’m told, slipping my foot in but only make it to my big toe. “Oh shit! That’s scorching hot! Are you trying to burn me too?” I pull my whole leg out of the bucket.
She dips her finger in, swirling it in a circle and glances up at me with an incredulous expression. “Really?”
With my damaged ego, I grudgingly sink my foot in the hot water. “The pain made it hotter.”
“The hot water will help it. Keep it soaked until I come back with the doctor.” She rests her palm on my knee and flashes a sweet smile.
“You got it, nurse.” I’m not ashamed to milk my injury if she stays.
I watch her hop down into the boat and speed off. It’s a good thing she brought an actual boat today instead of her canoe. The pain intensifies with her not here to take my mind off it. I lean back on the cushioned chair and rest my eyes. Aspen catching my ball flashes behind my eyelids. I can’t help but smile. She doesn’t hesitate or flinch. She plants her feet and never takes her eyes off the ball. Fuck, she’s perfect.
And she caught the damn ball.
“It looks like you’ll live,” she says, sitting in the other