The Wrong Path - By Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris Page 0,44

the bleachers, racing to the locker room as quickly as she could. She barged in without hesitation, four heads lifting simultaneously to stare at her.

“Annabelle,” Trevor greeted, standing from the bench in only his padding. “I’m okay. Sorry for scaring you.”

“What happened?” she asked, looking down at his carefully cradled arm.

“It’s probably just a sprain,” the man kneeling in front of Trevor said. He stood. “But it’s a pretty bad one. I think you’re out for the night. And you need to go to the hospital and get it looked at.” He patted Trevor on the shoulder. “You played a hell of a game, son.”

Trevor smiled at him. “Thank you.”

Annabelle sighed in relief, crossing to Trevor’s side to hug him. He held her lightly, giving her a quick squeeze before pulling away. “I’m going to head back out, okay?”

She hesitated, eyeing his wrist. “Yeah. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “I’ll see you after the game.”

She nodded, reluctantly leaving him in the locker room. She knew it was probably fine, but she wished Trevor would go to the doctor now and get his wrist looked at.

As she stepped outside of the locker room, she gasped, coming face-to-face with Will. “Will!” she exclaimed. “What are you…?” she trailed off, looking back over her shoulder at the locker room before looking up at the younger Scarlett brother in disbelief. Despite all their fighting, open hostility, and borderline hatred of one another, Will had still come to Trevor’s game. Will was still there to find out how his brother was.

She almost hugged him.

“How’s his arm?” Will asked.

She nodded reassuringly at him. “It’s okay. They think it’s just a really bad sprain. He still needs to go to the hospital and make sure, but they don’t think it’s broken.” She took a step toward him and squeezed his arm. “I’m glad you came.”

Will laughed softly, almost harshly. “I come to all of Trevor’s games.”

She gaped at him. “You do?” she asked, amazed. She had never figured Will for a football fan, and she didn’t think he would go that far to support his brother. And she had come to all of Trevor’s football games, and she had never seen Will at one before.

He pushed off of the wall, breaking her hold on his arm, and held up a video camera. “For my mom. She used to push herself to come to his games, and it’s cold outside and she shouldn’t be running around. So I record them for her so she’ll stay home without feeling like she missed out. And if I take this home without knowing how Trevor is…”

Annabelle felt appreciation and admiration surge up around her for Will as she finally understood. For him to come to an event he clearly loathed, just for his mother, was a sign of love beyond anything she had ever seen. “She’s lucky to have you as a son,” she told him softly.

His dark eyes fell to her, studying her. And then he smiled slightly. “Of course, one of the conditions of me doing this for her was that she would never tell Trevor. And now you know, so now you have to swear yourself to secrecy, too.”

Happiness bubbled up inside of her at the thought of Will trusting her with something only his mother knew. She deliberately placed a finger against her lips in mock-thoughtfulness. “On one condition,” she teased.

His eyes sparkled. “What’s that?” he asked.

“You have to show me where you’ve been filming all this time.” She gestured out at the football field. “I’ve been at every game, but I’m positive I’ve never seen you.”

He slowly let out a deep breath. “I dunno, Belle,” he began, in playful hesitation. “That’s a little private. I don’t know if I can trust you with that.”

She laughed and shoved him lightly. He laughed and jerked his head at her, indicating she should follow. She felt strangely thrilled to be at Will’s side as they walked back out to the field. At the bleachers he turned right instead of left to go into them and she hesitated, looking between Will and the stairs. And then she followed after him quickly, hurrying to close the few steps between them.

“Where are we going?” she asked, bewildered. They were standing behind the bleachers, the parking lot behind them.

“Up,” Will told her, smiling pleasantly.

Up? She followed his arm to his hand, which patted a heavy tree behind one of the bleachers. She gaped at the height in horror,