Page 34 of Jump on Three
“I’m certain, Ivan. And anyway, what could you do if I was?”
“Take you to a doctor. Find you medicine, a heating pad, I don’t know. Something to make it better.”
“Why?” she asked softly, without guile, as if she had no idea why I would possibly be concerned about her—why I would care.
“We’re teammates. Friends.”
She hmphed. “You’re Delilah’s friend.”
This. My friendship with Delilah was a stone wall between us, which she refused to peer around. She was missing the reality of the situation.
“Delilah and I hardly hang out anymore now that she’s with Rhys.”
Her brows pinched in the middle. “So, you’ve moved on to me now that my sister is unavailable?”
“No, Evelyn. I’ve been around the whole time; you just haven’t noticed.”
While I liked Evelyn’s dreamy eyes, there were many times I wanted to ask her to focus them on me.
“Well…” Her fingers drummed on her leg, and she worried her bottom lip with her teeth.
That was her tell, the tapping. It meant she was nervous or uncomfortable. Maybe other things, but that was what I’d deciphered.
It bothered me she was doing it now, with me, because of me.
“To be honest, seeing you fall yesterday freaked me out, so I am checking on you as much for your sake as mine.”
“Oh.” A long breath flowed out of her. “It seemed like it should have scared me too, but it didn’t. I think it was because I already knew what would happen, so I just…let it.”
“Evelyn.” My hold on her tightened enough for her to stop walking and face me. “Don’t say that. Do not tell me you just let yourself drown because you expected it. Please, never do that again.”
Her lashes fluttered, and her eyes swept to the side. “I won’t be on that platform again, so you don’t have to be concerned, Ivan. I won’t need you to rescue me anymore.”
“Evelyn.” This time, her name came out as less of a plea and more of a sigh. “You are so small yet contain an immense capacity to drive me crazy.”
She tipped her head to the side. “That should be a bad thing, but you’re smiling a little. Besides, I’m not that small.”
“You are to me.”
“Because you’re a giant.”
I chuckled, my heart still sputtering. “Can I walk you to the dining hall?”
“Are you going there too?”
“I am.”
“Then yes.” She shoved her textbook into my chest. “Since I’m so small, according to you, you can carry this for me.”
I took the heavy book. “I will be happy to carry it in my giant hands.”
Her nose crinkled. “You joke, but you are inordinately tall, you know.”
Amusement had me rocking on my heels. “I’m sorry.”
The wrinkles on the bridge of her nose deepened. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing. Anyway, you can’t help your gigantism, so don’t apologize.”
Goddamn, this girl kept putting me on my back foot, and I couldn’t seem to stop coming back for more.