Page 28 of Don't Brake My Heart
‘Just…’ Morgan’s hesitation spoke volumes, ‘Leesa, I’m the last person to give you a lecture about this.’
Morgan was marrying Maria from Legal in a few weeks, so I guessed what was coming.
‘I realise that your… rapport with Colin is the reason this content is so engaging, but this is your first assignment. Don’t get so caught up in the story you lose your own priorities.’
‘I know him from before,’ I admitted. ‘Maybe I should have said something, but…’ I hadn’t realised we’d have so much ‘rapport’, since our previous acquaintance had mainly consisted of teasing and one disastrous proposition in the hospital.
‘I can see how well you know him,’ Morgan said with a dry smile. ‘But under no circumstances canyoubecome the narrative. You’ve got your own bright future ahead of you.’
Morgan was right. This wasn’t about me, even if Colin wanted to make it so. My future was not on a bike; that had to be my past.
After ending the call, I sat back in my chair, my thoughts buzzing with the many things that could go wrong. Getting personal with Colin was not a good idea, especially when I was a quitter and he had to be a winner but, as I tapped my nails nervously on the desk, I had to admit that part of me wanted answers.
I just didn’t know what I would do if it turned out he wasn’t the complete jerk I’d always assumed him to be.
A knock at the door forced me to shake myself out of it. Expecting Wil – or maybe Tony – I pulled it open with a smile that immediately died when I caught sight of the figure on the threshold. His hair was still dripping from a shower, he had the beginnings of sunburn and he looked ready to collapse.
‘Are you okay?’
He just gave me a tired shrug and shoved my tablet into my hands. He paused, his gaze fixed on the device held between us, and then his thumb brushed mine, the lightest whisper of a touch, but unmistakably intentional.
I only wished I knew what his intentions were with me, this enigmatic star who sometimes seemed to be showing me cracks. In that moment, he reminded me of the skinny 19-year-old with a questionable vocabulary who’d put googly eyes on my croissant on the third day of his first training camp.
He let go of the tablet all of a sudden, making me fumble for it, and he used my distraction to slip past me into the room without being invited. He threw himself onto my bed and lay still for a moment, staring at the wooden slats in the ceiling, one hand resting on his chest and his T-shirt riding up a few inches I should not have taken any notice of.
Unsure what else to do, I closed the door to my room and dropped into the chair by the desk, letting my itchy hands hang between my thighs instead of patting him on the knee or running my fingers through his hair.
‘I’m not sure you should be here,’ I began, when he remained silent.
‘I definitely shouldn’t.’
Then he rolled over and went to sleep.
Colin
Rosemary. That was the herb. Who would have known that the combination of berries and rosemary could be so intoxicating? I was breathing it in from her pillow – finally. Maybe I could just sleep here for the rest of training camp.
‘You smell so much better than Nellie,’ I mumbled, coming awake a little more and appreciating the stupidity of what I’d just said. Lifting my head, I unstuck my eyes and squinted around the room, hoping I might be lucky and she wasn’t there.
But I found her at the desk, working on her laptop.
‘Good evening, Sleeping Beauty. Welcome back to the land of the living.’
She was peeved. I suppose she had a right.
Snuggling back down into the pillow, I let my arm hang over the side of the bed as I rummaged for the dregs of consciousness. ‘What time is it?’
‘You could have set an alarm.’
‘If that’s the worst you can do, I mustn’t be in too much trouble.’
‘It’s not getting in trouble with me that you have to worry about. What if someone had come looking for you?’ she continued.
‘They wouldn’t look for me here.’
‘Well, what if someone had come looking forme? I can’t exactly hide a whole doofus in this tiny room.’
I didn’t mind her calling me a doofus, as long as I washerdoofus.
