Releasing a heavy sigh, I leaned back against the mattress. “How bad is the press going to be?” I asked.
He shrugged. “They’ll be hounding you for the next couple of weeks, but after that it’ll die down. You and Reed will be fine.” He got up and shook Ryan’s hand. “Good game last weekend.”
“Thanks, man,” Ryan replied.
Jason then turned to me. “Talk to you soon. Reed knows my number.”
“Wait,” I called out. He glanced at me over his shoulder. “What happened to Corbin? Is he okay?”
He gave me a small smile. “He’ll be fine. The guy’s a survivor.”
I breathed a sigh of relief; I’d been worried about him.
Once Jason was gone, I was hoping Ryan would have calmed down, but the visit had only fueled him more. “I don’t like this, Bris. What if another one of Jax’s psycho one-night stands comes along and tries to hurt you?”
“They won’t,” I told him. “First off, he doesn’t have any more one-night stands because he’s with me. And second, I’ll just break their noses like I did Sadie’s. If I wasn’t tied to a chair, I would’ve taken her down. I’m not going to run, Ryan.”
“You should,” he retorted. The tears I’d been trying to hold back fell. Groaning, he leaned over and hugged me gently. “You should leave him, but I know he took a bullet for you. I just want you to be happy…and safe.”
I let him go and wiped my eyes. “I am. You have nothing to worry about.”
He snorted. “Yeah, right.”
Out of the corner of my eye, a figure appeared in the door. It was Jaxon, with a forlorn expression on his face. Judging by that look, I’d say he’d heard everything Ryan said. He was dressed in a pair of clean jeans and a T-shirt with his arm held in a sling. Sighing, Ryan kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you later, sis. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
He stood and walked over to Jaxon, his gaze hard as he stared at him. “Just because you took a bullet for her doesn’t mean you’re what she needs.” Jaxon lowered his head and waited for Ryan to storm out before approaching me.
“Hey,” I said, waving him over. “I’m surprised they let you out before me. I’m not the one who got shot.”
Shrugging, he walked over with a limp. “True, but I might’ve bribed the doctor with free football tickets.” I chuckled. “You took a hard blow to the head. They just want to monitor you. I know you’ll be fine. Although,” he said, “your brother might say you have brain damage now that you’re staying with me.”
I reached for his hand and brought it to my face. “Ryan just wants to protect me. He’ll learn to accept you one day.”
Jaxon sat down and sighed. “Doubt it. Maybe he’s right about you leaving me. What if someone else tries to hurt you?”
“Then we’ll deal with it,” I promised. “However, I don’t think anyone’s going to mess with us after what happened to Sadie.”
“They’ll get burned if they do,” he added. Then with a groan, he ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, that was a really bad pun. What’s bad is that I don’t feel any sorrow at all over her death. I’m glad she’s gone.”
I squeezed his hand. “So am I. Now she can’t hurt anyone ever again. What about your leg, though? You’re still limping.”
He waved me off. “Just a sprain. A few days on ice will cure it. I refuse to miss a game.”
Knowing him, he’d play with a broken foot. “I never got to say thank you. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be alive right now.”
He leaned over and kissed my lips. “I love you, Bristol. I’d step in front of a bullet any day for you. But if you feel like paying me back, I can think of several different ways.”
I smacked his good arm and giggled. “I’m sure you can.”
“And speaking of thank-yous, Corbin wanted me to give you a message. When I went to check on him, there was a woman in his room. He said you would know who she is and to tell you thank you for bringing her to him. If it weren’t for the tragedy, she wouldn’t have found him.” Brows lifted, he looked at me with curiosity. “Does that make any sense?”
It sucked that it took Corbin getting shot for his long lost love to find him, but it warmed my heart to know he was happy. “It does,” I said with a smile. “Maybe now he’ll make the right decision.”
“There’s another decision I need you to make.” He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair. “Now that my house is unlivable, I was wondering if…”
“If you could stay with me?” I finished.
With a sheepish grin, he shrugged. “Maybe. What do you think?”
“You didn’t even have to ask. We’ve basically been living together anyway.”
“True, but after everything that happened, I didn’t know if you still wanted to be with me.”
“I’m not going to let anyone scare me away,” I murmured.
He leaned forward and placed a hand on my cheek; his skin was warm and I breathed him in. “I love you, Bristol. As soon as everything is settled, I’m taking you on a vacation. How does a tropical island sound?”
“Like paradise.”
Chapter 31
Bristol
“Whose idea was it to have Christmas dinner here?” Jaxon asked. He turned his back on the ham and I stole a piece, trying my best not to laugh. We’d spent all morning cooking it and it tasted delicious. Instead of traveling to Texas to see my parents for Christmas, we flew them here to Charlotte, and the same went for Brent, Jaxon’s brother. We’d traveled so much for Jaxon’s games that I was ready for some time at home.
I wrapped my arms around his waist while he finished carving the meat. “Yours. Don’t worry—it’ll be fine. Your brother will get along perfectly with my parents. And Ryan’s been warned to be on his best behavior.”
“At least he doesn’t scowl at me anymore at practice. It’s a step in the right direction.”
“I guess.” I laughed. “I just wish he’d get over it and move on. We’ve gone almost a whole month without something bad happening.” Grabbing the plates, I set them out on the table.