But Frost’s voice broke through the cacophony of her own mind. “Wait.”
Hel paused, unsure if she heard him correctly.
“Hel, wait. Come back.” This was followed by a clatter.
This time, she knew she had heard him. Turning slowly, she let her gaze lock with his. He was hanging onto the doorframe, his crutch having fallen to the floor.
“Hi.” She stood there staring dumbly at him.
“Hi,” he replied and then winced.
Hel dashed forward and back up the steps. “Are you okay?”
She snatched the crutch up off the floor and handed it back to him. When her hand brushed his, a tingle rushed up her arm, so she quickly tucked it into her armpit to stop herself from getting any dumb ideas, like trying to touch him.
“Yeah. I dropped my crutch, and my stupid leg is sore.” He braced onto his single crutch and hopped back over to the sofa.
While his back was to her, Hel let her eyes rove over him. Watching the tensing and relaxing of his muscles in his short-sleeved t-shirt as he hobbled along and admiring the solid physique that told her he was a professional athlete.
When he got back to the sofa, he flopped onto it with a grunt. “I would offer you a drink. But this chair is the end of the road for me. If you want something, feel free to go and help yourself.”
“I’m good, thanks,” Hel reassured him and sat down in the seat opposite.
Even though the sofa was massive, easily big enough for two people to stretch out fully on, she didn’t think she should sit close to him.
“What are you doing here?” Frost asked gruffly.
Hel managed to control her wince. Ouch, he definitely didn’t want her there.
“Coach Morgan asked me to check in on you while the team was away.”
“Oh.” His voice was flat.
Hel glanced around the room. Well, this was going just swimmingly. Whatever spark she felt on their previous meeting was clearly a figment of her imagination and his drugged state.
“Yeah. So, is there anything you need?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head.
Hel looked down at her hands and began picking at her nails. She had to ask him. She needed to find out how much he remembered from that night.
“About the other night—“ She started, but Frost broke in.
“I need to apologise,” he blurted.
“You don’t need to apologise. It was my fault as well.” Finally, she managed to look up and meet his eyes, and he looked—well, he looked totally bewildered.
“How was it your fault?”
“If I hadn’t… If I didn’t.” She waved her hand vaguely in the air, not wanting to finish any of those sentences. In the end, she took the easy way out. “What exactly do you remember?” Hel was pretty sure they were having slightly different conversations to each other.
“I was absolutely off my face on those drugs, and I have vague memories of you telling me I’d had enough of the green whistle and then me acting like a small child with candy and refusing to give it back.”
“Yes,” she said slowly and waited for him to continue talking, keeping her fingers crossed that he didn’t recall anything else that happened.
“I think I threw it on the floor to stop you from getting it.”
“You did,” she confirmed. Not mentioning that it had dropped out of his hand because they were staring into each other’s eyes.
