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Chapter Forty-Two

THEODORE

A fter grabbing a bag of ice, I immediately come back to Aurora. I can see on her face how damn worried she is. She looks like she’s going to worry herself into a panic attack.

My Roo is an overthinker, especially when her career is involved. She’s so zoned in on wrestling that everything else fades to the side for her. Kneeling in front of her again, I place the bag of ice to her ankle. She doesn’t speak, teeth worrying her lip.

I want her bottom lip between my teeth, but given everything going on, that’s probably the most inappropriate things I could say. She doesn’t need to me to think with my dick right now. She needs to relax a little bit.

“You know,” I say, breaking her out of her own head and getting her attention. “You really gotta stop falling for me, baby doll. It’s becoming a bit of a problem.” My lips pull into a smirk.

Those green eyes land on me for a second, and she doesn’t react. A beat later, and laughter spills from her lips. That beautiful sounding laugh that makes my heart jump in my chest. “That was cheesy as fuck,” she finally says as she stops laughing .

Hey, I’ll be cheesy all damn night if it keeps her laughing. That laughter is the soundtrack of my life.

“Well, did it hurt?” I keep the ice pressed to her ankle. “When you fell from heaven, did it hurt?”

Her laughter continues. It’s like the pain isn’t there anymore. She’s too distracted by my cheesy jokes. “Cheddar!” she says through her laughs. “Pure fucking cheddar. Do you have anything that isn’t so cheesy?”

Tilting my head to the side, I think. Oh, she’s getting something that’s absolutely cheesy because I want to keep her laughing. “Knock knock.”

She blinks slowly. “Who’s there?”

“Lettuce.”

Aurora presses her lips together, face already scrunching up, prepared to laugh. It’s kind of adorable. She forces out, “Lettuce who?”

“Lettuce make out already.”

This time, when she throws her head back and laughs, I laugh too. She laughs until tears form in the corners of her eyes and she has to wipe them away. When her laughter subsides, her eyes look back down at me. “Theo?”

“Yeah, baby doll?”

“Do ya think I’m going to get in trouble?”

The joy is gone from her voice. She sounds scared, and my heart twists. Absolutely not, she’s not allowed to be scared. Not when I’m right here. Keeping her ankle supported on my thigh, I lean forward and cup her jaw gently.

“Absolutely not.” I can promise her that with absolute certainty. “Nathan’s not going to punish you for a freak accident, alright? Your feud with Jules will just be put off until your ankle is better.” Hopefully sooner rather than later.

She groans, her head falling back against the plush cushion of the couch. “Jules is going to kill me. ”

“That? Yeah. That’s probably likely.”

I swear, Juliette must have super hearing because it’s about that time when her knuckles wrap on my locker room door. Only once, before she pushes the door open and lets herself in. “Great, no dicks are out,” she says.

As fully expected at this point, Hext hovers behind her. Wordlessly looking on. I don’t know what’s going on there. I desperately want to because I’m a nosey bastard. No one’s going to tell me though. I can say that one thing’s for certain: Weston Hext is fucking whipped.

“Shocking, right?” I snark back.

Juliette disregards me, her gaze focusing on Aurora’s swollen ankle that’s propped on my knee. Clocking the ice and the swelling, she sighs. “Rory, you good? You head to medical yet?”

Aurora shakes her head. “Not yet. Theo’s icing it for me.” I shoot Juliette a shit-eating grin that makes her roll her eyes.

“What the fuck happened?” she asks. “How damn hard did you hit the ropes, Theodore?”

A heavy groan leaves me. How am I getting blamed for this?! I didn’t do anything. Before I can tell her that, Aurora comes to my defense. “It was a combination of the heels and me falling wrong. Theo didn’t do anything.”

My look turns smug.

“Falling is like half your job,” mutters Juliette. She comes over, kneeling by me and looking over Aurora’s ankle. “It doesn’t look too bad. Hex, what do you think?”

He runs a hand over his buzzed head. “I ain’t a damn doctor, Goblin. Probably a sprain. Should definitely get her to medical though.”

“Should we go get someone else to weigh in?” I snark. “Maybe Clara’s free. Think she knows anything about injuries?”

“You’re the dumbass who hasn’t taken her to medical yet,” she shoots back .

Sometimes, I think of Juliette as a sister. I like her better than the sisters that I have. She’d kill me if I said that she was softer than them, and maybe softer isn’t the right word, but she’s more…caring. Less obsessed with money and status, which considering who Juliette Stanton is comes off as the funniest shit.

Aurora looks over at Hext, who still stands in the doorway, guarding the group of us like a rottweiler. “Are they always like this?” she asks, gesturing between me and Juliette with her index finger.

“From what I’ve seen, they absolutely are.”

“Jules,” she says with a sigh. “I’m sorry. For getting hurt. I know we’ll probably have to put off our match for another PPV cycle.”

She shakes her head, standing up. Leaning down, she brushes her lips over the top of Aurora’s head. “No worries, Rory. Seriously. I’ll be fine. We’ll just figure out a way to build this up even better, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she agrees.

She smacks my shoulder before walking away. “Get her medical,” she orders. Pointing to Aurora she adds, “Text me what you find out. I want every damn detail from the doctor.”

After Aurora gives her a mock salute, she heads off. Hext trails after her. The rottweiler turning into a pathetic puppy.