Falling for My Friend's Brother

“Yay.” I smiled and groaned again, as the pain in my knee got worse and worse.

“What’s wrong?” Suddenly Aiden was in front of me, his face looking grim.

“I hurt my knee,” I said in a low voice. “And no need to be pissed, because we won.”

“I’m not pissed,” he said with a frown and kneeled down to the ground. “I’m going to pull your pants leg up so I can check your knee, okay?”

I nodded mutely and watched as he pulled the right leg of my exercise pants up. We both stared at my bloody knee, and I groaned.

“Oh my God, I’m injured.” I frowned and Aiden looked at me with a concerned face.

“Are you okay?”

“She’s fine,” Scott said and rolled his eyes. “Just scraped her knee.”

“Have some compassion, Scott!” Liv snapped and walked over to me. “You okay, Alice?”

“I’m fine. I guess I just need to clean it.”

“See, she’s fine.” Scott laughed and then looked at me. “I promise that our next rumble and tumble in the grass won’t leave you with any injuries.”

“There won’t be another rumble and tumble,” Aiden growled and put my arm around his shoulder. “Lean on me and I’m going to help you stand up.”

“Okay,” I said softly.

“I have a first-aid kit in my car, so I’ll clean it for you.”

“Okay. Thank you.” I smiled at him sweetly, and I could see Liv grinning. I looked towards Scott, and he winked at me and then wiggled his eyebrows towards Aiden. I realized then that Scott was no longer interested in me. Instead, he was helping to make Aiden jealous. I giggled to myself as I realized that he was just as bad as I was, but I knew he was doing it for me, so I couldn’t be mad at him.

“Are you okay, Alice?” Elizabeth walked up to us with a look of concern on her face.

“Yes, thanks.” I nodded, feeling a bit bad. I was stealing her man from right under her nose. Not that he was really her beau or anything.

“Good. Excellent touchdown, by the way. Best move of the day!” Elizabeth grinned at me. “You sure showed the guys what’s what.”

“I try.” I grinned back at her and for a second I felt guilty. Guilty that I was swooping Aiden out from under her when she really was a nice girl.

“Hey, hey, hey, what about my touchdown?” Scott looked at Elizabeth. “I think that my catch was pretty impressive.”

“Impressive to whom?” She laughed and shook her head.

“Everyone on the field.”

“Hmm, if you say so,” she said and flipped her hair. I stared at her face and I was pretty sure she was blushing. Curious, I looked at Scott a bit closer. His face was positively beaming as he stared at her.

“I do say so.” He moved closer to her. “Didn’t you see me?”

“I saw you, and I saw Alice too, and Alice definitely had the move of the day.”

“Hmmm.” Scott looked back at me. “Maybe I’ll concede this once.”

“Wow, how grand of you.” She laughed and patted the front of her T-shirt down. I was about to look away when I noticed something on her wrists. My eyes narrowed as I stared at the lines on her wrists.

“Are you ready, Alice?” Aiden’s voice was close to my ear and I nodded.

“Yes.” I glanced up at him, and he put his left arm around me and pulled me up easily. I loved the fact that he was acting as if I were some hundred-pound lightweight and not the considerable amount more that I really was.

“Can you walk or do you need me to carry you?” he asked me as I leaned into him. I looked at his face to see if he was teasing me, but he looked quite serious. For a split second, I wanted to tell him that I needed him to carry me. I wanted to start limping and moaning and making out like I was really hurt, but I didn’t. And not because I’m above faking an injury to get close to a guy, but because I knew it wouldn’t be believable. He’d seen my injury. I had scraped the skin off of my knee and it was bleeding. It wasn’t a serious injury. Yes, it stung a bit, and yes, I was feeling slightly woozy, but I wasn’t in need of him carrying me. At least, not because of the injury I’d sustained. If he were offering to carry me into his bedroom, I would have had a completely different answer.

“I’m fine. I don’t need you to carry me.”

“Pity,” he said softly and I looked over at him in surprise. His face still looked serious and I wondered if I had imagined him saying those words. We walked towards his car in companionable silence, and I enjoyed the feeling of his warm body next to me as he led me across the field. “I know I told you I wanted to talk to you, but you didn’t have to injure yourself to get my attention,” he said as we reached his car.

“I didn’t,” I said smugly. “I don’t need to injure myself to get attention.”

“True, you don’t.” He laughed.

“What’s so funny?” My eyes narrowed as I gazed at him laughing down at me.

“I was just thinking about all the other ways that you draw attention to yourself.”

“Oh?”

“Like saying you want to be a lingerie model at Victoria’s Secret.”

“I never said that!” I shook my head. “Henry said that.”

“But you sure seemed happy when he brought it up.”