The Perfect Game(49)

“I know,” she responded proudly. Her tone changed as she asked, “How’s Dean? Is he going to be okay?”

“Apparently he’s going to be fine. He must have a pretty hard head,” I joked.

Melissa was quiet for a moment. “I’m just glad you’re both alright.”

Before I could respond, there was a knock on my door and it opened slowly. “Kitten, Dean’s here.”

“Hey, Melis, Dean just got here and I really wanna go see him. Can I call you later?”

“Yeah, you go. Tell the boys I said hi and I’m glad they’re staying with you.”

“I will. Love you.”

“Love you more,” she said before hanging up, and I tossed the device onto to my mattress.

I emerged from my bedroom and locked eyes with Dean as Jack stood beside him. My eyes instantly watered up at the sight of him. “Dean! Are you okay?” I said, my voice frantic. I ran to him, locking my arms around his back and squeezing.

“I’m fine. How are you? Are you okay?”

I nodded. “You have no idea how scary it was to see you hurt like that.” I tried to shake the images from my mind that I was certain were seared there forever.

“You have no idea how horrible it was to see some guy hitting you,” he replied, his voice rising in anger.

“Can we not talk about that right now?” Jack’s voice sounded angry and I was grateful for the subject change.

I let out a sigh. “I’m just happy you’re okay. Does your head hurt?”

“Like a bitch,” he muttered.

“Before I forget, Melis said you could stay in her room.”

“Yeah? Well I was going to stay in there even if she said I couldn’t,” he said with a laugh. “It’s okay if I take a shower, right?”

“Of course. There’s a shower in Meli’s room. She has extra towels under the sink.” As I spoke, Jack reached for my hand and pulled me toward the couch.

“We’ll be out here when you’re done,” Jack said, before sitting down and pulling me onto his lap. “I’m going crazy inside right now, Kitten. I feel like I’m losing my fucking goddamned mind. I’m not going to practice this weekend. I won’t leave you alone.” He leaned his head against my chest and I ran my fingers through his hair.

“Jack, I love that you care so much about what happened to me, but you can’t be by my side twenty-four hours a day. And you absolutely cannot skip practice this close to the draft. Are you out of your mind?”

He glanced up at me, the pain evident in his narrowed eyes. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you!”

“When you go to practice, Dean will stay here with me. I won’t be alone, okay?” I prayed my suggestion would ease his worry.

He let out a long, exasperated breath. “Okay. He’s the only one I trust anyway…” His voice trailed off. “We’ll take shifts.”

I rolled my eyes, but he didn’t notice. “You have to get past this, Jack. You can’t take it upon yourself to be my personal bodyguard.”

“Yes, I can.”

“You’ll drive me insane,” I snapped, my voice harsher than I intended. “And then I’ll break up with you.”

Jack’s head snapped around as he glared at me with shock and surprise. “What?”

“I don’t want a babysitter. I don’t want a bodyguard. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Jack, but I don’t want to feel like I’m in a fucking cage.”

He slid my body from his lap and turned to face me, his forehead creased. “Cass, just give me some time to deal with this, okay? It just happened and I feel like I’m losing my goddamn mind.” He cringed as he continued. “Do you know what it feels like to want to beat the shit out of four of your teammates? Four guys I’m supposed to respect and trust. Four guys I trusted completely before tonight.”

I watched as his face twisted with his pain, my heart aching. “I can’t tell you not to be mad at them, Jack. I don’t know why they ran and left me there. I’m sort of conflicted about all that. It did happen really fast, though, I can tell you that. It’s like one minute the guy was with me, then with Dean, then back at me.” I closed my eyes, my head shaking.

“That’s exactly it. You might be conflicted in regards to them, but I’m not.”

Dean walked into the room, a towel wrapped around his waist. “Remind me that it’s really going to fucking hurt next time I try to wash my hair.” He smirked. Dean’s ability to bounce back so quickly after what happened amazed me and gave me hope.