16

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Chris blinked, his eyes coming into focus on Olivia. She was sitting across from him, her hair tied up in a high bun and her bangs looking flawlessly mussed. She looked gorgeous, as usual. Even the baggy beige cardigan she was wearing that looked like it belonged on a grandmother did nothing to diminish her looks.

Instead, she looked like she’d stepped out of a different decade, a time traveler from an age where women wore loafers and jeans were only worn by working men.

“Hm?”

Her lips curved up. “What’s got you so lost in thought?”

Oh, nothing, he thought. Only the fact that soon enough, you’re going to hate me and everyone else around you, and I have no idea how to stop you from getting hurt when Riley finally tells you the truth.

Chris cleared his throat. “Just running through plays for the game tomorrow.”

“I don’t know how you and Noah memorize them all,” she said with a shake of her head.

He shrugged. “Memorizing them isn’t the hard part. It’s making sure you can remember them when you’re on the field, and your mind is racing, and your adrenaline is pumping like crazy.”

“That sounds awful.”

“I’d imagine it’s similar to performing on stage,” he pointed out. “And you never seemed to have a problem with that.”

She put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands. “But I just had to learn the steps and repeat them over and over again until I could do it in my sleep. Your games are always different. You have to think on your feet.”

Chris leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “True, but we learn the different plays and repeat them in practice until we’ve nailed it, so it’s not so different.”

She nodded. “I guess, but I still think learning a dance routine is easier. I don’t like having to adjust or make snap decisions.”

“Do you miss it?” he asked, hoping he wasn’t putting his foot in it.

Olivia leaned back in her chair. She picked up her pen and fixed her gaze on it as she twisted it between her fingers. “I do—or I did—but probably not in the way I should have,” she finally admitted.

Chris frowned. “What do you mean?”

She let out a humored scoff. “Promise you won’t think I’m petty?”

His brows drew closer together. “What does pettiness have to do with it?”

“Everything,” she sighed. “I enjoyed dancing, and I liked competing, but honestly, I don’t miss those aspects as much as I thought I would.”

“What do you miss then?”

Olivia stopped twisting the pen and looked up to meet his gaze. Her pale blue eyes often looked icy and impenetrable, but they looked vulnerable then. “Honestly, for a while, I just missed being better than Riley at something,” she admitted before hiding her face beneath her hands.

Chris wanted to grin at the action but couldn’t because of what she’d said. It wasn’t a secret that Olivia had always felt second-best to Riley. It was common knowledge at this point. But the fact that she missed ballet less because she’d enjoyed it and more because it was a way for her to compete and win against her half-sister was a testament to how much her mom had screwed up.

Chris leaned across the table and gently tugged her hands away from her red-tinged face. He could have let go of her hands once her face had been revealed, but he didn’t. He linked their hands together instead. “Missed? As in past tense?”

She chewed on her bottom lip and nodded. “Now I just miss dancing. Not as much as I thought I would, but I miss being able to do jetés and pirouettes. I miss being fit, you know? Even if I start doing an easy barre class now that my leg is stronger, it won’t get me back to that level.”

“You miss being strong,” Chris said, getting the feeling that it had less to do with ballet and more to do with her body and what the accident had stolen from it.

Olivia’s eyes snapped up to his. “Yeah,” she murmured. “Being in that wheelchair, even if it wasn’t for long, made me realize I never want to take that for granted again.”

Chris swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’m sorry.”

She let out a small laugh. “What for?”

He squeezed her hands, her fingers feeling so delicate and small under his too-large hands. “For being such a dick to you after that night.”

Olivia’s eyes dropped again, and she tugged her hands away from his. “I don’t want your pity.”

“It’s not pity,” Chris argued. “It’s guilt.”

She shook her head and met his confused gaze with a pair of sad blue eyes. “I don’t want that either.”

“Why won’t you let me apologize?” he asked. It wasn’t the first time she’d refused to accept his apology for how he’d treated her, and he couldn’t understand why.

“Maybe I don’t deserve your apology,” she answered in a quiet voice that was suitable for the library but that Chris hated.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he pressed. “You tried to get the keys from him, right? You tried to stop him from driving?”

“Of course.”

“Then you do deserve my apology,” he told her. “Okay?”

She sent him a smile that cracked within a second. “Okay.”

“You’re not going to back out on our plans for Sunday, are you?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “What? No, of course not.”

The tightness that had been building in Chris’s chest eased. “Good.”

“You still haven’t told me what we’re doing.”

“That’s because it’s a surprise,” he informed her with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, but her cheeks had rounded with a genuine smile. “Fine.”

Still feeling guilty about the secrets he’d been keeping, Chris was about to ask her if she’d spoken to Riley yet, but he didn’t get the chance. He spotted Brady and Tyler over Olivia’s shoulder and decided to leave that conversation for Sunday.

“Brady and Tyler are here,” he said, his jealousy flaring when Olivia turned in her seat and got up to greet Brady with a hug.

“Hey, Livvy,” the giant of a man said, his arms wrapping too tightly around her. “How’s my favorite Warner?”

“Good,” she replied with a blinding grin after their too-long hug had ended. “How are you guys?”

“No complaints,” Brady said, reserving the seat next to hers by hanging the strap of his bag on the chair.

“Same here,” Tyler agreed, sitting next to Chris.

“Do you have time to grab a coffee now?” Brady asked Olivia, and Chris’s jaw clenched.

She pulled out her phone and frowned at the screen. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. Ella’s last class ended a few minutes ago, so I better get going.”

“Next time,” Brady said before pulling his chair out and taking a seat.

“Absolutely,” Olivia replied, grabbing her book bag. “Bye, guys.”

“Bye, Liv,” Chris said.

She looked at him, her cheeks turning rosy as their gazes met and held for a beat too long, and waved goodbye before striding toward the stairs. Chris may or may not have stared after her like the pathetic man he was until she was out of sight, and his teammates may or may not have noticed.

Brady narrowed his eyes at him. “What the fuck was that about?” Okay, so they’d definitely noticed.

“What was what about?” Chris asked.

His teammate scoffed. “We have eyes, you know. You were watching Olivia walk away like a love-sick puppy.”

Chris just rolled his eyes.

“Back me up, man,” Brady said to the man sitting across from him.

Tyler nodded in agreement. “It’s true, which makes no sense considering how much you hated her.”

“I di—”

A female scream cut through the rest of his words. There was a moment of stillness where everyone at their table and everyone else in the library froze in response to the sound, but then Chris was moving. He was out of his chair and running for the stairs before anyone else had reacted.

Chris saw her before he’d even placed his foot on the top step, and something in his chest shattered. He didn’t remember running down the flight of stairs. He didn’t remember how he got to her. It was all a blur.

The next thing he knew was he was kneeling next to Olivia and yelling at anyone who could hear him to call an ambulance. Chris’s hands were shaking as he pressed his fingers to her neck. At first, he couldn’t tell if the flutter he felt was her pulse or the trembling of his own fingers. When he’d calmed enough to make out that it was her heartbeat, he let out a choked breath.

“Shit, is she okay?”

“The ambulance is on its way.”

“What the hell happened?”

“Oh my god. Is she dead?”

“Is that blood?”

Chris ignored everyone who’d flooded to the scene, his focus not shifting from Olivia. “Liv?” he said. “Can you hear me?”

Her eyes stayed shut, but when Chris took off his hoodie and pressed the material against the gash in her temple, she groaned.

“Liv, it’s okay,” he said, even though everything felt far from okay. “You’re going to be fine.”

Her eyes fluttered open, but her gaze was unfocused. “Chris?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Her eyelids started lowering, but she fought against it. “What happened?” she asked, her words slurred.

Chris looked at where her blood was soaking into his hoodie and swallowed. “You must have fallen down the stairs and hit your head.”

Her hair had freed itself from the bun, and the strands of her hair on the right side of her head were colored red near the roots. He knew head wounds bled more than others, but it looked bad.

“I don’t…” She groaned again. “It was—”

Olivia couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, and when they closed, Chris searched the crowd until he found Brady and Tyler standing behind him.

“Call Noah and Riley,” he said before returning his gaze to Olivia.

Aside from the wound on the side of her head, he couldn’t see any other injuries. But that didn’t mean there weren’t any. He had no idea how many stairs she’d fallen down. He could only hope that it hadn’t been many and that the worst-case scenario was a concussion and maybe one or two stitches.

Chris didn’t think the universe could be so cruel as for her to have just healed from the accident, only for her to break an arm or break her leg again.

“What the fuck happened?” Tyler asked, moving forward while Brady made the calls.

Chris lifted Olivia’s head as carefully as he could, creating a cushion with his hand. “I don’t know,” he replied.

Olivia opened her eyes again, her gaze unfocused.

“It’s okay,” Chris told her, keeping the pressure on her temple and not breaking his gaze from her confused blue eyes. “You’re okay.”

◆◆◆

“I’m so embarrassed,” Olivia said with a grimace. “How many people saw?”

Chris shook his head. “Nobody saw you actually fall, and only a handful ran down when they heard you scream. But you have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

He’d gone with her in the ambulance and had waited with her until a nurse had taken her for a CT scan. Her family had arrived while they’d been doing the tests, and they, along with Chris, now stood around her curtained-off hospital bed.

“He’s right,” Riley agreed. “Falling down the stairs isn’t exactly a shame-worthy offense.” She scratched the back of her neck for the third or fourth time since she’d arrived, reacting to what was likely more than one ghost in the building.

“What happened, sweetheart?” Olivia’s dad asked.

Olivia’s forehead creased as she frowned. “I-I don’t know. I think my leg must have spasmed or something, and I just fell.”

Her mom stepped forward and stroked her hair from her face. “I’m just thankful you’re alright.” She turned her head to look at Chris. “Thank you for helping her. I’m glad there was someone with her afterward.”

Chris nodded. Olivia had a concussion and would have to stay for observation overnight, but other than that and a few bruises, she was going to be alright. By some miracle, she hadn’t even needed stitches.

“Yeah, thanks, man,” Noah agreed, slapping Chris’s back. “I owe you one.”

“No need to thank me,” he replied.

“Don’t get all humble on us now,” Olivia teased him, her smile lighting up her pale face.

He rolled his eyes with a grin. “I’m always humble.”

She chuckled at that. “Sure. That’s the exact word that springs to mind when I think of you.”

Chris would have definitely asked her how often she did that if her parents and brother hadn’t been in the room. Instead, he nodded. “Glad we’re in agreement.”

Noah’s phone beeped with a message, and he pulled it out of his back pocket. “It’s Brady. He said he told Coach what happened and why we’re not there.”

“Great.”

Noah typed a response and then looked up at Chris. “You can still catch the last half of practice if you leave now.”

“Oh.” Chris darted his gaze to Olivia. He wanted to say he’d rather stay, but how was he meant to explain that?

In all of their eyes, he wasn’t Olivia’s friend or even someone she wanted there. He was just Noah’s friend and the guy who’d given Olivia shit after the accident. He was nobody to her.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll go then,” he forced himself to say before letting his eyes settle on Olivia. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

She smiled at him. “Thanks for everything, Chris.”

“No need for thanks,” he repeated.

“Bye,” she said.

“Bye, Liv.”

Chris sent a wave to everyone else before reluctantly leaving. He wished he could have stayed. He wished he hadn’t had to stand far from the bed, too far away to take Olivia’s hand in his own.

He’d been the one to suggest it, but he wasn’t sure anymore about keeping whatever was between them a secret. It didn’t feel right. It certainly didn’t feel good.

After seeing Olivia crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, he couldn’t help but feel that there were more important things than protecting his parents’ and Paige’s feelings.

There were certainly more important things than football practice, but there he was, on his way to run around on a field instead of standing at Olivia’s side. And Chris fucking hated it.