Page 79 of The Surprise Play

She flinches away from me, darting a look over her shoulder before pulling out her chair and not taking a seat.

“Satch.” I place my finger under her chin, forcing her to look at me again.

When she’s standing beside me and I’m sitting like this, we’re basically eye level.

I study the blemish, anger rising through me like a firestorm. “Did that bitch come near you again? Did she do this to you?”

“No.” She eases away from me, unbuttoning her coat and shrugging it off her shoulders.

Her hands are shaking as she hangs it over the back of her chair, clearly avoiding eye contact.

I stare at the unblemished side of her face while she takes her sweet time getting organized.

“Satch,” I try again, my voice gruff and ragged.

“It’s nothing.” She bends down to focus on her bag. The zipper sounds loud in the quiet space between us, and I grit my jaw as she takes forever placing her laptop down along with paper and her pencil case.

Finally taking a seat, she glances at me and admits, “I tripped on my way here and whacked my face. It’s embarrassing, and I didn’t want to tell you.”

My insides settle, although I still hate the thought of her falling over and hurting herself.

“Are you okay?” My tone drops to a soft whisper, and I reach for her face again. “What happened?”

She doesn’t fight me so easily this time and lets me look. “I was running late, and I slipped and smacked my face on my doorframe.”

Brushing my thumb over the red mark, I can picture it all so clearly and hate that I wasn’t there to catch her. “Can I get you an ice pack or something?”

“No, it’s fine.” She brushes my hand away and givesme a tentative smile. “Really. I’m okay. I’m a bit of a klutz, so this isn’t new for me.” She lets out a self-deprecating laugh, but it’s too tight.

Is she too flustered for a simple whoopsie, or does it hurt more than she’s letting on?

What actually happened?

I don’t know what to believe, especially when her eyes dart back to the tabletop.

Shit. She’s probably embarrassed, and I’m making a big deal out of this. Forcing her to tell me was a dick move.

Annoyed at myself, I give her arm a light, playful tap. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We all fall on our asses at some point. And I embarrass myself on the regular.”

Her laughter is soft and breathy. “I highly doubt that.”

“Oh no, I definitely do.”

She glances up and I wink at her, hoping she’s starting to feel better.

I don’t know why I’m so compelled to see her smile turn genuine. Maybe it’s because she’s a good, kindhearted person, and I don’t like seeing her hurt.

“I’ve got a bunch of stories I could tell you.” I lean back in my seat, looking at the ceiling as I pick the most embarrassing one I can think of. “Like last summer, my sister, Blake, and I were playing hide-and-seek with our little cousins, and I had the best spot. It was under the decking of our beach house, and she had been searching for ages. I was crammed into that space quietly laughing because I could hear how annoyed she was getting, not being able to find me…” I tut and shake my head. “And then I had to go and stand on a fucking crab. The thing pinched my toe, and Ithought I was being eaten by The Meg. I freaked out and started screaming, running out from under the deck and completely beaning myself on the cross beam.”

“Oh no.” She gasps.

“I had a lump on my forehead the size of Everest, and Dad had to crawl under the deck to pull me out of there.” I give her a cringing smile. “Not my proudest moment. Blake’s never gonna let me forget it. And that little butt face made sure all my teammates knew about it as well. She sent pics to Zander and Grady and…” I shake my head.

“That’s awful.” Satch’s face is all sympathy, her eyebrows wrinkling.

“Yeah, if you saw the size of the crab I was freaking out about, you’d understand why everyone laughed themselves silly.” I wink and grin at her, stoked when her lips curve into a twitching smile.

I wait a beat and watch it slowly grow, her face flushing a pretty pink.