Something seemed to occur to him, because he examined me curiously before asking a question that had my stomach tightening. “Have you eaten today? Be honest.”
“I had a small smoothie and some dinner with my parents,” I whispered. He nodded, his concern apparent as he pulled me up against him. Despite how lethal he could be in the ring, the man had such a soft emotional spectrum. I absolutely loved it.
Although, that was literally the only part of him that was soft… the only part.
“Do you want to meet me back at the house? I’m going to order delivery. MeMaw will probably want something later—she sleeps a lot during the day lately.”
“Yeah.” I squeezed his hand as we began walking back towards the ring. I had so many questions, and I wanted to ask him about being in my room, but when he tugged my hood up and wrapped an arm around me, I decided they could wait. Voices rose around us, and people congratulated him as he grabbed his jacket and walked me towards the parking lot. I pointed out where I was parked and only tugged my hood back down when we were far enough away from everyone. My brows raised as we passed his bike, making me realize we had actually parked close to one another. I hadn’t even meant to do that.
I scowled as he put on his hoodie, but when he tucked the money in his wallet, I kept my gaze on his face, noticing that he looked more stressed than ever before. I wanted to fix that so bad. His hands came up as he gently held my face, his thumbs running over my cheeks, making me melt into him.
“Next time,” he spoke softly, “if you want to come to a match, we can try to figure something out. But not by yourself. You practically sent me into cardiac arrest seeing you jostled about in that damn crowd.”
See! That man was a total sweetheart.
“Deal,” I promised.
Grabbing the keys from my pocket, he unlocked the door and opened it, pressing a kiss to my lips before letting me get into the car. I buckled myself in as he watched me expectantly and closed the door, walking towards his motorcycle. I smiled slightly, noticing that his helmet was hanging from his handlebars. Thank the lord for that.
As I began to drive home, I realized my instincts had been right.
This had fixed and fundamentally changed something.