Page 65 of Broken Heart

Cooper and Wyatt made their way in our direction, the rest of the guys either heading toward the house or continuing to horse around on the field.

Once he was close enough, I noticed something wasn’t right about Cooper’s face. He looked just as happy as he’d been all morning, but he was now looking that way with blood running down the side of his face from a cut just above his eyebrow.

Immediately, I stood, and a few paces later, we were standing just a couple of feet apart. “What happened to you?”

“Oh, that. It’s nothing.”

“You’re bleeding,” I noted.

He lifted his hand up toward his face, displaying yet another problem.

I gasped. “Your arm has a cut, too.”

“Relax, sweetheart. I’ve experienced worse.”

Shaking my head, I insisted, “You can’t leave them like that. They could get infected.” Taking him by the opposite hand, I tugged on it. “Come on. We have to go get you patched up.”

“He’s a horrible patient, Skye,” Wyatt teased from where he was standing only a few feet away. “You might need to sedate him to get him to cooperate.”

My head snapped back in Cooper’s direction. He rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Wyatt.”

If I hadn’t been so concerned about the blood pouring down Cooper’s face and arm, I might have given myself more of an opportunity to soak up the way witnessing the banter between the siblings made me feel.

I gave Cooper’s hand another tug, and he finally became unstuck. We made our way into the house, where he directed us toward the bathroom. We stepped inside, not bothering to close the door fully behind us, and Cooper said, “There should be a first-aid kit either in the cabinet beneath the sink or in one of the drawers on the side of it.”

“I’ll look for that while you work on washing off your hands and arms.”

Cooper sent an amused look my way, his lips twitching.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’ve never seen you this bossy.”

“And I’ve never seen you with blood pouring down your face.”

He tipped his head to the side, his eyes roaming over my face in the sweetest way. “You’re worried about me.”

I snapped my mouth shut and chewed nervously on the inside of my cheek. Cooper continued to look at me expectantly, and I couldn’t handle the pressure. I turned my attention toward the sink and started pulling the drawers open in search of the first-aid kit. While I looked for it, Cooper moved around me and turned on the water, so he could clean his hands and arms.

I’d been in close proximity to Cooper before, but something about this felt different. I didn’t know if it was that he’d pointed out me being worried, the fact that he was wearing almost nothing and had sweat all over him, or if it was the thought of having a conversation with him later tonight when he took me home. It could have been a combination of all of that or something else altogether. But for a few brief moments, there was this unexplainable desire moving through me.

Fortunately, busying myself with the task of locating the first-aid kid and pulling out the supplies to take care of Cooper’s cuts helped to get my mind right.

He’d shut off the water and turned to face me, giving me the chance to assess his injuries. I grabbed a hunk of gauze, held it up to his eyebrow, and pressed lightly on it. “Do you want to hold this here, keeping pressure on it, while I take care of your arm first?”

Cooper lifted his hand up to his eyebrow and took the gauze from me. “You’re the boss.”

I curled my fingers around his opposite wrist and cocked a brow. “Are you sure you want to give me that title?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t really considered the possible outcome of doing so, but I’m confident I won’t be disappointed.”

I ignored the innuendo in his words and dabbed at the cut on his arm. It wasn’t as bad as it had seemed when we were outside, but it was still going to require the use of a bandage to staunch the blood from getting everywhere.

After applying some ointment, I affixed a bandage to his arm and declared, “Almost as good as new.”

Cooper laughed. “Thanks.”

I reached for the gauze he was still holding against the skin just above his eyebrow and lifted up on my toes to get a better look. “Can you crouch down a bit, so I can see just how bad this is?”