Page 17 of Crossing the Line

But I knew that it would be different now. Just looking at her made my body react, my senses overwhelmed with everything that was Kelsie.

It was Ryan’s turn to serve next, and he sent the ball over the net. Kelsie dove for it with her arms stretched out to bump it into the air while Jake moved at the same time. I saw it happen in slow motion. His foot landed wrong in the shifting sand, and he started to fall forward. Surprise and something like panic flickered across his face, and he tried to stop his fall, his arms pinwheeling in front of him, but it was too late. And Kelsie was right there.

His elbow collided with her head, and she let out a muffled cry of pain as she landed face first on the ground.

“Kelsie,” I shouted, kicking up sand behind me as I ran to her. She turned over onto her back by the time I got to her, shoving Jake out of my way as I came down on my knees beside her body. She had a hand pressed to the side of her head where Jake had hit her. “Shit, Kels. Are you okay?”

The world around us faded into the background as I hyper focused on her. She was grimacing in pain, and I could already see a bruise forming at her temple. A cold wave of dread rushed through my veins. This was a head injury. It could be serious.

Without a second thought, I scooped her up into my arms, drawing a surprised yelp from her lips. She tensed, but I tightened my hold on her.

“I didn’t mean to-” Jake started, but the words died in his throat as I shot him a glare.

A part of me knew I was being unreasonable, that it was just an accident, but the fear and anger roaring in my mind drowned that truth out, leaving behind the urge to place blame somewhere. So, I let myself be mad at Jake as I marched past, leaving him and the others behind while I took Kelsie back to the resort.

“Damien, what are you doing?” she asked, squirming in my arms.

“Stop,” I said, my hands curling around her ribs and thigh as I kept her against me. Her skin was slightly overheated from being out in the sun and there was sand all over her.

I never wanted to put her down.

“I can walk,” she said, stubborn as ever.

“But you’re not going to. You were hit in the head, Kels. What if you get dizzy and fall?”

She looked at me like I was crazy. “I didn’t have an anvil dropped my head. I’ll be fine.”

“You don’t know that. We’re going to have a doctor look at you.”

“Ford?”

I shook my head. I had no idea where he and Zoey had run off to, and I wasn’t going to waste time trying to track him down. “There’s a med room at the resort.”

“Just put me down, and I’ll walk there.”

I hated that she was so desperate to get out of my arms. I carried her like this once before, about a year ago when she sprained her ankle on a hike. She didn’t object then.

How could I get us back to that?

“No,” I said, my voice coming out gruffer than I intended as something that felt a lot like regret burned in my chest.

Kelsie stopped squirming and arguing, but I did hear her mutter something under her breath and sounded a lot like, “Bossy jackass.”

I chose to ignore it.

I had to stop at the front desk to ask where the med room was, but we got lucky when we arrived and there were no other patients there. The doctor was a short woman with dark skin and wildly curly hair, and she took my concerns seriously, even as Kelsie tried to tell her that she felt fine.

She shined a light in Kelsie’s eyes and had her walk in a straight line to check her balance. Then, she asked a bunch of questions, first about how Kelsie was feeling and then about her life—to check her memory.

Everything appeared to be fine, except for the headache that Kelsie mentioned as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Isn’t that a symptom of a concussion?” I asked the doctor, worried.

“Or stress. Or dehydration. Or a perfectly normal reaction to a collision with Jake’s elbow,” Kelsie said, but even the small, exasperated smile on her face didn’t make me feel better.

She could find my concern ridiculous all she wanted, but she didn’t go to medical school. She couldn’t be certain that there was nothing wrong.

“Should we take her to a hospital?” I asked.