Page 118 of Let You Love Me

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A little more than thirty minutes later, as promised, I walk into the ER only to find Teagan sitting in one of the waiting room chairs in the corner, his hand still wrapped in the same bandages he came in with.

My heart stalls at the sight of him, and I feel something shift inside my chest like tectonic plates.

He hurt himself, yet he came straight to me and Soph instead of taking care of himself first.

This knowledge sinks inside me as I start toward him, and the smile he offers lights me up from within. “I was hoping you’d be back there already,” I say with a grimace as I glance at the blood-stained gauze.

“If this waiting room is any indication,” Teagan says, nodding toward the people scattered about, “it’s going to be a while. It’s like a revolving door around here.”

“Halloween.” I groan. “People do careless things on holidays, get hurt, and wind up in the ER.”

“Apparently. If I thought I’d be fine at practice tomorrow I’d leave and worry about it later. As it is, though, the impact of catching the ball in my hands and lifting weights will most definitely reopen the wound, and the last thing I want is to bleed all over the place and give your dad one more reason to bench my ass.”

I frown, and I’m about to ask him again what happened when his stomach growls so loudly, the woman across from us stares.

“Hungry?” I laugh.

Teagan grunts. “Freaking starved. I haven’t had anything since the protein bar I downed before practice this afternoon.”

My eyes widen. “You didn’t grab something before you came trick or treating?”

He shakes his head. “I was already late. I didn’t want to be even later.”

“Teagan . . .” I admonish, though I can’t really blame him. He was probably worried I’d think he stood me up and he wouldn’t have been wrong. “Why don’t I go out and get you something?”

He shakes his head, quickly grasping my hand and holding me in place. “Don’t leave.”

“Fine.” I sigh. “But at least let me go see what I can find. There’s gotta be some kind of food around here.” I hate the thought of him being hungry when we could be here for hours yet.

Teagan hesitates only a fraction of a second before his stomach growls again, and he laughs. “Okay, go. If you don’t, we might get a noise complaint.”

I press my hand to the side of his face, cupping his jaw. I hate how I doubted him earlier today for even a moment when he’s been nothing short of amazing.

“I’ll be back in a flash,” I say, then ever so gently, I lean forward and press a kiss to his cheek.

With a sheepish grin, I stand and hurry from the room in search of food.

Ten minutes later, I’m cursing myself for crossing the line with Teagan.

Why did I kiss him on the cheek?

I just had to go there.

It was innocent, but still . . .

I return to the emergency waiting room with a questionable turkey sandwich, chips, a granola bar, and some chocolate.

“This is all they had,” I say with a grimace as I drop everything down on the small side table next to his chair. “The cafeteria was closed.”

Teagan lifts the sandwich up for inspection and arches a dubious brow at the grayish color of the turkey.

“I know.” I motion toward it. “Eat that one at your own risk.”

He laughs and goes for the granola bar. “This will do. Thanks.”

“Of course.”