Ice Cold Love

Part 19

Conner caught my eye as I was making my way out, and from the fierce glare he gave me, I could tell that he knew exactly what I had done. Unbothered, I shot him an equally intense look before shutting the office door. What was he going to do about it, anyway?

Mason and Ronan were seated in the hallway, and they shot to their feet when I walked out. "Did he accept it?" Mason asked straight away, not wasting a second. He looked tense, as did Ronan. When I nodded, both boys' shoulders sagged in relief. Ronan dragged a hand through his hair, and I caught the hint of a smile playing on his lips as his head dropped.

Mason let out a chuckle. "Damn Ronan, you are one lucky fucker." I couldn't hold back my laugh at his words. He had a point, what happened today was just pure luck. Well, what happened to Ronan wasn't exactly lucky, but at least he got out of it, right?

I caught sight of Ronan's hand as he dropped it from his head and frowned. "That's pretty nasty," I mumbled as I took moved towards him and took his hand in mine, hoping to get a better look. Looking at it properly only revealed that it was worse than I thought.

From the injuries I noticed Luca had when I tended to him, it only made sense why Ronan's hand looked like this. His knuckles were split, and two of his fingers appeared bruised and swollen. When my fingertips went over a bump near his thumb, I feared he had fractured it.

"We need to get this checked out, it might be broken. Can you try to move your thumb for me?" I waited for him to acknowledge my words and do what I asked as I continued my examination. When he didn't say or do anything, I took my attention away from his injured hand to look at him.

His eyes were already on me, and when I met his gaze, my breath caught in my throat. He looked at me with unwavering intensity, his grey eyes a storm I lost myself in. I hadn't realised how close I was, how close we were, and I felt my whole body heat up at the proximity.

I tore my eyes away from his when I felt a treacherous blush creep onto my cheeks, only to catch sight of Mason smirking at Ronan. Oh great, I thought, feeling my face heat up even more. "I-erm," I stuttered, "You should get this checked out. Maybe, maybe get an X-ray. There might be a fracture or dislocation, and you're going to need some stitching up." I hated how unnaturally high pitched my voice suddenly sounded. "And you should go soon, beca-because it could get infected, and that would just be terrible, you know? Infections are really painful and- Ow!"

Immediately, I jumped, clutching my foot in my hand. "Easy there," Mason said as he stuck out an arm for me to grab hold of. I did instantly, needing to balance myself while I held my throbbing foot in the air. Without a word, Ronan dropped to his knees before me.

I watched him in complete awe as he gently took my foot in his injured hand and used the other to brush a finger over my skin. I felt some of the painful pressure ease off the bottom of my foot, and Ronan leaned further down to pick something up off the floor. He held up a bullet pin, the tip coated in blood.

"And this, ladies and gentleman, is why you wear shoes," Mason mimicked a television host and shot me a shit-eating grin. "I know," I defended indignantly, "My flip flops tore on my way here, and they kept making me slip, so I threw them off."

"Well," Mason said, frowning at my foot. "We can't have you walking now, can we? I heard getting an infection is pretty terrible," he teased. I didn't hesitate in slapping his arm. "Ha, ha, hilarious. You should be a comedian," I drawled at him.

Mason threw his free hand over his chest and gasped. "You wound me Amelia. You know what? Just for that, I won't give you a piggy back ride," he claimed. When Mason stuck his tongue out at me, I almost burst out laughing.

Our banter was interrupted by Ronan, who had gotten up from the ground and now stood in front of me. He had his arms held out in front of him. "May I?" he asked quietly. I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what he was asking, before slowly nodding my head.

Never in a million years did I think Ronan Harding would scoop me up and carry me in his arms.

Dazed and shocked, my hands scrambled to hold onto something. I ended up clutching his shoulder, fisting his dry-fit shirt in my hands as I did. Ronan didn't look down at me, and I'm glad he didn't; my face was flushed red again.

"Ronan, you dumbass. You're supposed to give a warning before you pick someone up. You practically scared the shit out of her, stupid." The laugh I let out at Mason's words was as fake as a three dollar bill, but I needed to do something, anything, to stop myself from focusing on how close I was to Ronan.

"My car's parked by the swimming centre," I remembered as the three of us made our way out. "You can't carry me all the way there." Though I was speaking to Ronan, I didn't have it in me to look at him as I did.

"You can just-"

"We can drop you off at home and bring your car around later," Ronan cut me off, his voice filled with unchallenged authority. I could feel his eyes on me, questioning and intent, but I still chose not to meet them.

"You don't have to do that," I tried telling him, but he only shook his head.

"Yeah, Amelia," Mason said from ahead of us, "We'll take care of your car, don't worry about it."

I sighed. I had a feeling arguing with the two of them would be useless. "Thank you," I said quietly, suddenly finding my thighs very interesting. I didn't want them to help me, they shouldn't have to.

Silence hung in the air between us as we made our way out. Ronan stopped us by a black Mercedes, and I couldn't help admiring it. It was pretty damn nice.

"I'm driving!" Mason declared, and without waiting for a response, he jumped into the driver's seat. Thankfully, he was gracious enough to lean over and open the passenger door from the inside for us.

Ronan was gentle as he put me down in the passenger seat and I threw him my car keys before shutting the door. I let out a huge breath, relieved to finally have some distance between us. Being so close to Ronan was a lot.

"So," Mason said as he pulled out of the parking lot, "Ronan likes you."

I didn't miss a beat. With Mason, everything was easy. "So," I copied him, "You like Lily."

I enjoyed watching his jaw hang open as he spluttered, surprised. "I-Wha-No," he said weakly. Oh, he so liked her. His response only made me grin harder. "Mmhmm," I sassed.

When he let out a sigh, I knew I'd won. Amelia 1, Mason 0. "You better not tell her," he grumbled and a laugh bubbled out of me. He really really liked her. "You should tell her, you know. You guys would make a cute couple."

Lily would kill me if I breathed anything about her crush to Mason, but she didn't explicitly say anything about trying to play matchmaker. They would both thank me later.

Mason scratched the back of his neck, and I swear I could see a light shade of pink on his cheeks. "Yeah, the boys keep telling me the same, but I don't know."

I leaned back in my seat. "Well, when you do know, go for it," I advised. Mason smiled at my words then brought his hand up to hold out his pinkie finger. "Promise you won't tell her?" he asked, flicking his gaze to me for a second.

I hooked my pinkie with his instantly. "Pinkie promise." I swore, and I had every intention of keeping it. A devilish grin made its way onto his face.

"Buckle up Amelia, I hope you don't get car sick," he declared.

"Why?"

"Because Ronan never lets me drive his car, so it's only fair we get him a few tickets before we return this baby."

****

Mason got me home in record time. I pitied Ronan, Mason went God knows how much over the speed limit. He would be getting a lot more than just a ticket.

Mason helped me out the car and walked me to my apartment on the third floor. "I'll be fine from here," I assured him when I unlocked the front door. "Thanks Mason."

"It's not a problem," he replied with a kind smile. "And Amelia?" I stopped trying to hobble inside and turned to him, giving him my full attention. He looked quite serious, a stark contrast to the light mood we'd been in in the car.

"Thank you, for what you did to help Ronan today. He probably won't admit it, but you really saved his ass."

I smiled. 

"It's alright," I told him, because it was.