Page 56 of Pressure Point

And Liam was waving her out to them.

Without thinking, Avery took off, her medical bag banging against her hip as she ran. “Where are you—” she heard Gunnar start to ask, his voice fading the farther she got onto the pitch. Her mind was running wild with possibilities, knowing that in a game like this it could be anything from the player just trying to catch his breath to something requiring a stretcher. If Liam was waving her onto the field though, it was serious. He wouldn’t have called her out if this was just them trying to buy time.

Thank God it’s not Liam…

Avery slid to a stop, right in between Liam and Michaels, a gasp escaping as she looked down to find Tiago writhing in pain. Twisting around, she waved at the rest of the medical staff, who were waiting at the sideline for her call.

“Stupid question, but where does it hurt?” she asked, kneeling down next to him.

Tiago grunted, his heavy breathing the only thing she could really hear. She nodded, knowing full well that he wasn’t going to want to talk right now. She pushed his shorts up his thigh, giving her access to the muscles to watch them as she tried to manipulate his leg. She was in full-on physical therapist mode, but she could still feel Liam’s eyes on her, making her warm and fuzzy inside. She’d always taken pride in her work, but somehow in this moment, there was an added layer of wanting to be the best. She wanted not only to show off her skills to Liam, for lack of a better word, but also show him that she valued his teammates as much as she knew he did.

Sliding her hands down his thigh and over his knee, she depressed her finger slightly on different pressure points along the way, trying to gauge where the pain was coming from. Just as she pressed his kneecap, Tiago let out another loud grunt.

“I take it that didn’t feel so great,” she said.

“Not at all,” he replied through gritted teeth.

“Can you walk?”

He nodded, determination in his eye. “I’m fine. I can play.”

“No, you can’t,” she told him, her voice firm. “I won’t allow it. This needs proper looking at. Let me rephrase my question. Can you walk off the field, or do I need to call for the stretcher?”

Avery had no idea where the authoritative tone that was coming out of her mouth had come from, but she liked it. She’d worked with athletes for years and knew how stubborn they could be, often leaving her wishing she was just as stubborn in return. But somehow, she’d found her ability deep inside her to push back and make sure he knew that she wasn’t messing around. She couldn’t let him hurt himself worse, no matter what he wanted.

“I will not leave here on a stretcher,” Tiago muttered.

“Okay then.”

Avery nodded at two of the other training staff members who had knelt down next to them. The two young men worked on getting Tiago to his feet and slowly walked him off the pitch. Avery went to follow them, but stopped herself, turning back around to face the Rising players who had been standing there with their injured teammate.

“Boys, please be careful. I can’t deal with more than one of y’all breaking at a time.”

They gave her a little laugh before breaking apart and heading to their positions. Avery watched as Liam trotted back to the goal, her heart squeezing again, thankful it wasn’t him who was hurt. Not that she wanted Tiago or any of them to be, but she wasn’t sure she would have been able to keep it together if it had been Liam. She’d grown a lot fonder of him over these last few weeks than she had realized, and still didn’t quite know what to do with her feelings.

Or her actions.

Like how it was Liam that she was gazing at as they played, not Dash. There was a part of her that still wanted Dash—and wanted him to want her. But the more time she spent with Liam, the more she wondered what it was she really wanted. She needed to figure it out. She just didn’t know how.

* * *

“How is he?” Gunnar asked, storming into the medical room. Avery looked up at the clock, realizing the game must have ended for the coach to be in here.

“Just about to get him out of here and over to Emory for an MRI,” she informed him. “Our guess, based on where he says he’s feeling the pain, is that it’s his ACL, but there is no way to tell without a scan.”

“I’m fine,” Tiago called from his wheelchair, being pushed toward the back entrance of the locker room to be loaded into an ambulance.

“If the training staff says you need an MRI, you’re getting an MRI,” Gunnar shot back. “I trust Avery’s opinions on the state of your ligaments a lot more than I do yours.”

Pride rose within Avery. She liked knowing that Gunnar trusted her opinions.

Turning, she watched as they wheeled Tiago out the back door, saying a silent prayer that she was wrong. Right about now she’d give almost anything for it to just be some strained ligaments, rather than the dreaded ACL.

“Good work today. You were on that faster than I was. I was so focused on the handball argument I didn’t even notice I had a guy down. Thank you for watching them so closely.”

I was watching Liam that closely. If he hadn’t run over to them…

“Just doing my job,” she replied.