Time for him to speak up I think.

RPOV

I woke up slowly on Saturday morning, a little fuzzy from the codeine, but not all that bad. I had expected to feel hung over, Steph had been right about that too. I would never have caved about the pain meds if she hadn't looked at me the way she did, those baby blues pleading with me. And then she had to go and throw in the clincher, saying that she would sleep better if I took it. She had gotten about 3 minutes of sleep the night before and was looking more tired than I'd ever seen her. If it meant that she'd get some sleep then I would take the stuff.

She really had no clue how much power she had over me. I was a junior in college when I signed with Kratos, they paired me with Stephanie and she just blew me away. No other woman had as much influence in my life as she did from that moment on, not even my mother. She has never given me bad advice, not once. Always steering me in the right direction as far as endorsements go, and she could negotiate a contract like you wouldn't believe.

And now here she was again, taking care of me when shit was looking pretty bleak.

I had passed out last night after she'd drugged me up. I didn't even know where Steph had ended up sleeping. My leg didn't feel all that bad right now, just a low level thrumming. The second I moved I knew that would change. But I'd been injured plenty of times before, I knew it would stop hurting, eventually. Sitting up, I found her. She was passed out face down on the couch just a few feet away. Her arms were flung out, the blanket she'd pulled over herself only covering part of one very long leg. Those damn shorts she had on had ridden up and the lower curve of her butt cheek was showing.

Damn.

It took some serious effort to get to the bathroom without making too much noise. She needed to rest and I needed to figure out how to get around without being impeded by the burning fucking fire that was happening just south of my knee. Honestly, without the distraction of the perfect ass she had inadvertently granted me, I don't know if I'd have made it there at all.

She found me in the kitchen 5 minutes later, cursing my leg, cast, and crutches.

"Does that make it feel better?" She laughed. Her voice was husky with sleep, her hair was a huge mess, her cheeks were pink and the seam from the edge of the couch was imprinted on her forehead. And, it was really freaking great to have her here looking all soft and warm first thing in the morning with me. Way back when I met her, I had pictured a scenario like this, but the night preceding was definitely not spent the way last night was.

"Yes," I felt a grudging smile break out. "It really does."

She shook her head. "What are you doing out here anyway. Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Coffee. I really needed some coffee." My cursing had started when I had let go of one crutch to grab some mugs and watched helplessly as the damn thing crashed to the ground.

She strode my way and picked it up. Pulling out a stool at the island, she gestured me to sit. "Just let me go to the bathroom and I'll take care of it."

"Steph..."

She cut my protest off. "Carlos, seriously, it's not a big deal. I just need to brush my teeth and pee and I'll be back. I'll even get you something to eat. You can have real food today." She disappeared before I could say anything else. I really appreciated her taking care of me like she was, but I didn't want her to feel like she had to wait on me.

I was still brooding when she came back a little more alert, with her hair pulled back and one of my sweatshirts in her hand. "Do you mind if I borrow this? I'm freezing."

"Take whatever you need, you're going to drown in it though." No joke, I was nearly a foot taller than she was and outweighed her by at least 130 pounds.

She shrugged and pulled it over her head. The effect wasn't what I thought it'd be. The hem of it hit a millimeter longer than those shorts she still had on, making it look like she was wearing only that hoodie.

Damn.

I could not take my eyes off her legs as she made coffee for us both. Even as she came back to the island with a spoon and yogurt for me, I had a hard time looking up.

"Eyes up here, buddy."

I just pointed to her legs. "I mean; do you really expect me to not look?" She'd done plenty of looking yesterday too.

She laughed. "Not after the stuff you were saying right before you fell asleep last night."

Shit.

She had always put out an I'm-unavailable vibe. In the beginning I would try and get her to respond to me, but she was so professional that I backed off and tried to respect that. I also felt like she looked at me as a little kid, not quite little brother, but too much younger than her at least. In the past, after a few drinks I'd let those inhibitions slip and come on to her. I had a blurry memory in the recovery room where I'm pretty sure I told her that I had always thought she was "fucking beautiful" as well. I rubbed my forehead, not sure I wanted to ask.

I asked anyway. "Um, what did I say?"

"You don't want to know." She turned to grab the coffee. "Don't worry, you were under the influence and I won't hold you to your word." She set my cup down by my elbow and I caught hold of the front of my hoodie, slipping my fingers in the center pocket so she couldn't escape.

"What did I say?" I asked again. She started to pull away, but I gave her the look that usually made her give in. When she sighed I knew I'd won.

"Ugh, fine, you said that you wanted me to…" she looked down at her feet and mumbled something.

Shit, Steph didn't embarrass easily. "What?"

She took a deep breath, but still wouldn't meet my eyes. "You said, that, uh, geez, you were just loopy okay?"

"Steph. Now I'm worried." Christ, did I say she was fired or some dumb shit like that?

"No! It was complimentary, sort of." She inhaled again and squared her shoulders, meeting my eyes again. "You said you wanted me to climb on your bed and let you fuck me like you wanted to when you were a kid."

Shit. No more pain meds for me.

"Steph… I'm…"

"No, Carlos, it's okayyou don't need to explain. Really. It's okay." She'd gone quiet

And of course, this is when the doorbell rings right? There were only two possibilities as to who was behind the front door at this time of the morning. Both were welcome 99% of the time, this was that 1% when they weren't.

"I'll get it," she said quietly.

She already had the door open before I made it out of the kitchen.

"Stephanie!" That was Bobby Ayers, teammate, good friend, and neighbor.

"Hey, beautiful!" And Lester Santos, another teammate, neighbor and as it turns out a distant cousin four times removed, or something like that.

We all stood for a second, Steph in my sweatshirt, me in just pajama pants and crutches, and my two gossipiest buddies, whose eyes were ping-ponging between the two of us.

"Well," she said after the awkward moment seemed like it wouldn't abate. "I'm going to go and get dressed."

She bustled past me and grabbed her things out of the dryer, "Go sit, I'll be right back."

I nodded them into the kitchen when she closed the bathroom door behind her.

Lester spoke first, "Duuuuuuuuuuude, wait till Tia finds out!" My mother might've had a thing about me and Stephanie one day becoming a couple.

"You sly fucker, you always said nothing was going on between you." Bobby chimed in.

"Nothing happened," I told them.

They both looked at me skeptically.

"Really," I insisted. "You do see this, right?" I pointed to my leg.

"Yeah, shit they gave you a cast too?" Lester said, shifting gears. "Did they say how long you'd be out?"

"No clue yet. I'll know more in a couple of weeks when they take out the stitches. Scott said it was bad."

"Damn, that sucks." Bobby cut in. "I'm going to hate winning this game without you."

"You better win it," I told them. "I got hurt on that sweep that McAdoo wants to run during the game. I want that shit to be smooth as silk and be the damn game winner."

I still hadn't fully wrapped my head around the fact that I'd be missing the super-bowl next week. I'd be on the sidelines, but it's just not the same thing.

Steph reappeared in the kitchen doorway, bundled up in her clothes from the other day and her heavy coat. "Hey guys, I'm going to go get some bagels and juice for everybody. You'll keep an eye on Carlos?"

"Yes Ma'am." Bobby snapped a little salute, she rolled her eyes and handed me my phone.

"I charged this last night. You have a few phone calls you might want to return. I'm taking your keys so I can get back in. I'll be back in a bit."

And then she was gone.

They both opened their mouths to start in again, but I cut them off. "Go sit in the living room." I stood slowly, shoving the phone in my pocket. "I'll be there in a minute."

I gimped down the hallway and managed to throw on a shirt without falling over and contemplated the wisdom of sending an apology text to her.

I eventually sent her I'm sorry. I didn't want to add to that because I didn't want to lie to her. I had wanted her to do that when I was a kid and at other times as well. But given her reaction, she still wasn't interested and I had upset her. For that, I was sorry.

Her only response was stop, it's okay.

We were on the couch watching game film when she got back. She had a huge paper bag in each hand and went straight into the kitchen. I hobbled my way in there. She was unpacking bagels and packages of toppings. "Here, I'll get that." She just shot me a look that made me back off a bit.

She held out her hand to stay me and asked, "Do you have a big plate to put these on?"

"Yeah, it's over there in that cabinet, top shelf." I indicated which one, but move to get it. The thing about being my height is you tend to put stuff where you can reach it. Even for her it would be out of reach. But she got there first. When she realized that I was there too, she whirled around to stop me. What happened next was one of the most satisfying accidents of my life. I stepped in closer to get the plate she needed and let go of one crutch. When I reached up, I tipped forward on my left leg. My forward momentum continuing until she was pressed back against the counter, facing me. Her hands automatically landing on my hips.

"Oof, Carlos! Are you okay?" Hell yes I was okay. The whole front of her was tight to the front of me.

What broken leg?

I looked down at her and nodded. She didn't seem to be all that big of a hurry to move either and the longer we stood there staring at each other, the darker her eyes got.

Hmmmmm.

"You guys!" Lester yelled from the living room. "Are you bringing that food in here or what?"

I backed away still locking eyes with her. "Get in here lazyass." I yelled back, "this isn't a restaurant." She smiled then and looked down, breaking the connection.

"There were some reporters loitering outside." She told me, grabbing up the bagels. "My office and the team released a statement saying that you were out indefinitely, but that your surgery was successful. I don't know what they're hanging around for."

"Okay, thanks."

"Of course. I thought you should know in case you want to go out with your parents later." She turned and almost ran into Lester in the doorway.

"Here," he said grabbing the food. "I'm here to do the grunt-work for Limpy the Lame Tight End." He flashed her a cheesy grin, flexed a bicep and led the way to the living room.

I was left behind, a little stunned at how she could be so business-like after she was so… what? Receptive? I don't know if that's the right word, but something just happened in here.

Getting warmer now. We have a few issues to work through with these two, but I think they'll get there.

Let me know what you thought. I really love to hear from everyone!

Thanks for reading,

Love,

EA xoxox