Scott frowned and looked back and forth between them, as if trying as hard as she was to figure out what Chad was up to.
She locked gazes with Chad, staring into his coffee-colored eyes filled with equal parts lust and amusement, torn between wanting to kiss him for saving her from her bad date or poking his injured shoulder again and watching him writhe in pain for being such a jerk for joining them. And for being so damned arrogant. And charming, and . . . hot.
What’s wrong with me?
Scott stood and cleared his throat, breaking the spell that staring into Chad’s eyes had cast over her. “You two clearly have unfinished business you should take care of. It was nice to meet you all. Good night.” He turned and hurried toward the door.
“Way to ruin my date.” She wasn’t really mad at Chad, but she needed him to know he’d better never do that again.
Chad shook his head and finished the last of his dinner. “He wasn’t right for you anyway. Anyone could see that. Right, Ryan?”
“He was nice.” Ryan finished off his milkshake and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “He let me order normal food.”
“Yeah.” Jo nodded. “He was nice. And clean. I can’t say the same for you.”
Chad finished off his beer. “You said I needed to get here ASAP. I was just following orders.” He sent her a smart-assed salute that made her irritated with him all over again.
“Well, for the record, you need to ask me next time, if you need a sitter. Don’t just assume I’m free.” She poked Chad’s good shoulder again to drive her point home. “Now let’s go get your dislocated shoulder fixed. It must be killing you.”
“That’s two pokes tonight. Which makes me negative one in strikes. I’ll let the pokes go if you’ll fix my shoulder.”
“No. You should have a doctor check you out. And you can pay the dinner bill too, for running off my date.” She stood and slipped her coat on, and then helped Ryan into his.
Chad slowly stood, and then threw a stack of bills onto the table. His limp was as bad as she’d ever seen it as he walked beside her. “Did you hurt your knee too?”
“Yeah. I twisted it when I was trying to get out of the hoof’s way.”
“I need to take a look at that later.” She slipped her arm around his waist to help take some of the weight off. “You’re just making things worse by not using the cane in public.”
He slung his arm around her shoulder and leaned heavily on her. “I wasn’t planning to be in public,” he growled. “I was planning to go home and take a damned shower before I fell face-first into bed. Now I’m going to have to wait for hours in the ER for them to fix what you could in five minutes!”
She couldn’t blame him for snapping at her. Dislocated shoulders were incredibly painful. “I still think you should see a doctor. Hand over your keys, please. I’ll drive.”
When he slapped them into her outstretched palm, it confirmed he was in bad shape. He never used to let her drive. It went against his man code.
She beeped the locks, helped Ryan into the backseat of the truck first, and then she stepped aside to let Chad get in. If she offered to help him too, he’d surely bite her head off.
Chad gritted his teeth and slowly worked his way into the truck, finally landing with a groan in the front seat. She shut his door and then rounded to the driver’s side and got in. Chad’s head rested against the seat, and his eyes were closed. “I’d rather you just take care of this for me.”
“You could have broken something, Chad. I might make things worse by trying to fix it.”
With his eyes still closed, he quietly said, “It’s happened before during games. I’d know if something was broken. It really hurts, Jo. Please?”
His plea for help sent a dagger to her heart. “Fine. But only if you promise you’ll go to the doctor tomorrow and get it checked out properly.”
“I have an appointment Monday morning. I’ll have the doc look at it then. Deal?”
“We’ll see how you are in the morning.” She put the truck in gear and drove toward Chad’s condo. “And the score is still negative one. I don’t want to be accused of not playing fair again.”
“So I have two free strikes?” Chad rolled his head her direction. Even in pain, a slow, sexy smile lit his face. “I’ll have to use them wisely.”
The innuendo in his words made her belly tighten as memories of their last kiss filled her.
She really needed to find herself a man to put out the fire Chad kept at a low simmer inside her.