“Stop that,” he demanded. “You’re going to make it worse.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and made myself calm down. It took longer than necessary for me to get it together, but I managed. Eventually. Finally sobered up, I smiled at him, coughing with the laughter left over in me. “It really means the world to me that you got all riled up worrying over me. “ I couldn’t stop smiling.

And he noticed. “This isn’t meant to be funny. Why are you smiling?”

“Because.”

“What?”

I rolled my lips over my teeth and gave him an even look. “I watched this one game where your teammate, Keller, got tackled and had four of his vertebrae dislocated. The camera zoomed in on you, and you were retying your cleats or something. I don’t know why I just remembered that. Two of my favorite things about you were that you never gave a single shit what happened to anyone else on the field, and that you never missed games unless you couldn’t walk. It’s impressive, really. It makes me feel really special that you care about me.”

“I care about things,” he argued.

“Oh? Like what?”

“Winning.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “Okay.”

“My fish.”

His fish. Jesus Christ.

Kulti blinked slowly and didn’t say anything for a long time even as I made sure to keep watching him with an expectant look on his face. When he finally answered, it caught me off-guard.

“You.”

Me.

Wait. Me?

I’m pretty sure I was beaming down to my soul. The words just kind of came out of me, unrestrained and unblemished. “Your friendship means the world to me, too you know.”

He didn’t break eye contact as he reached back and grabbed the fruit arrangement, finally deciding to share. I took it from him and looked it over, taking a chocolate-covered strawberry off in the process of my inspection. “Did you get a discount on this?”

“No.” He paused. “Why?”

I slanted a look at him before taking a bite of the berry. “Half of the fruit is missing.”

He reached forward and took a grape that was being used as a flower-shaped pineapple’s stigma. “Nothing is missing. I ate it.”

This man. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep from laughing. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

An hour or so passed, and he still hadn’t left by the time the next nurse came in to check on me. “Ms. Casillas, how are you—“

The poor lady shut her mouth, her eyes widening at the sight of the German sitting in the chair with his feet right next to mine. Her swallow was visible as she darted her eyes back and forth between the two of us.

“Oh, ah, I had no idea you had a visitor.” She cleared her throat. “It is past visiting hours but,” she cleared her throat again, her cheeks turning bright red. “I can keep a secret as long as you’re quiet.” In her early thirties, she was young and pretty. Her eyes kept switching back to him, suddenly jumping in place a little.

She left a few minutes later after doing a quick check to make sure I wasn’t exhibiting any signs of imminent death. “If you’re planning on taking an extended nap while you’re here, that chair in the corner has a footrest that comes out and it reclines.“

I waited until we were alone before asking, “Are you planning on staying?”

His answer was to toe off his sneakers, revealing bright white socks. I guess I could take that as a good sign. “Have you heard anything from your agent?”

“Nothing new. Someone is supposed to be giving me a call next week from a team in Sweden that seems interested.” A flutter went through my belly. Sweden. I still hadn’t wrapped my head around it.