Page 28 of Last Night Was Fun

“What are you doing?!” she yelped in surprise.

“Saving our asses. Hold on.”

He began to jog to keep up with the others. He held her against his chest tightly enough that the bouncing was minimal, but each time she bobbed against him, it stirred something deep in her belly. With her arm still looped over his shoulders, she could feel the contours beneath his shirt pressing into her side. Just as she’d always imagined, his chest and abdomen were firm as a slab of rock. Without her permission, her eyes traced the line of his jaw. The way it smoothly connected to his throat inches from her face. The way she imagined it would smell if she touched her nose to it. Oranges, leather, spice. She clung to him tighter, suddenly needing to ease the involuntary burn radiating in her own chest, and she swore she could feel his heart beating against her.

“If you ever tell anyone about this, I will murder you,” she threatened, horrified by all of it.

“Don’t worry. As long as you don’t tell anyone I beaned you with a baseball, I won’t tell anyone you needed me to carry you off the field.”

She scoffed. “I don’tneedyou to do this. You picked me up before I could stop you.”

“Kinda looked like you needed me,” he said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes in annoyance, knowing he was one hundredpercent right and secretly enjoying it.

They made it into the dugout where he carefully carried her down the stairs. He didn’t set her on her feet until they were deep into the hidden hall they’d snuck in through. The others had disbanded to take cover elsewhere.

“Can you walk on it?” Gabe asked, only slightly out of breath from carrying her through their escape.

Emmy chanced putting weight on her leg and immediately winced. “Not really.”

“We should get you some ice.”

“We should get out of here. I don’t think getting caught trespassing will bode well for anyone to get promoted.”

“True. Want to split a ride home?”

She arched a brow at him from where she’d taken to leaning against the cool concrete wall. He was chewing on his lip and still looking worried. A slow smile spread over her face. “You feel guilty, don’t you? That’s why you’re being so nice to me.”

He combed a hand through his hair that had lost some of its hold and huffed. “Of course I feel guilty, Emmy. I could have seriously hurt you. Thank god it was your leg and not your head.”

The thought hadn’t occurred to her until that moment.Yikes.She could have been unconscious in an ambulance rather than goading him over his guilt trip in an underground hallway.

“Well, it wasn’t my head. It was my thigh. And if you were going to whack me with a ball anywhere, we can be thankful it was someplace that could take the hit. The only better option would have been my butt.”

His lips twitched at the corners. A flush pinked his cheeks like he was suddenly thinking about her butt. “Are you still drunk?”

“I certainly think so. Otherwise, I would not be handling this situation very well. I might have hit you with the bat.”

He quietly laughed and swiped his hair again. “You know, your hit was really impressive.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why do I feel like you are actually complimenting yourself right now?”

He laughed again, and Emmy found herself enjoying the sound and concluded she had to be really,reallydrunk to be getting along with Gabe Olson.

A door clanged shut somewhere in the distance, and they both jumped.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here,” Gabe said.

They hobbled their way out of the ballpark and found a rideshare. Gabe made sure Emmy got to her building’s door safely, and once she assured him she could handle the elevatorandshe owned a bag of frozen peas to use on her leg, he let her go.

It wasn’t until Emmy had made a snack, drunk a gallon of water, and collapsed on her couch with said frozen peas on her leg that she managed to look at her phone. She had an unread message from Axe Murderer from a few hours before. Given the night’s events, she couldn’t even remember where their conversation had left off. Basedon his message, she quickly recalled she’d told him his most recent bird-band puns weren’t up to snuff.

Hootie and the Bluefinch, Doja Catbird, Cawmilla Cabello.

Emmy instantly smiled and laughed.

Much improved.