After I Dressed as a Man, He Mistook Me for His Rival Chapter 06

After I Dressed as a Man, He Mistook Me for His Rival Chapter 06

I forced my eyes open and looked at him.

The puddles reflected the yellow streetlights. Rain fell in fine, dense lines over Tavish’s brows and lashes.

He was still pinned beneath me, his uniform smeared with mud.

His eyes kept darting away, and even the tips of his ears had gone red.

“Uh… you have a fever,” he said. “You should probably get off me first.”

I snapped fully awake.

“No.”

“I’m not a girl.”

“You saw wrong.”

I scrambled up in a panic and wrapped my soaked jacket tighter around myself, trying to run while everything was still a mess.

A hand caught my wrist.

His palm was warm. His voice was lazy.

“Sutton, do I look stupid to you?”

No matter how hard I pulled, I couldn’t get free.

I felt helpless.

I stood there, helpless, with no idea how to explain any of it.

I hated what Mom had done to me.

But I still couldn’t bring myself to let someone else call her cruel.

When Tavish saw my eyes turn red, he panicked.

He let go like my skin had burned him.

“Don’t run. I’m not forcing you to explain.” His voice softened. “I’m saying you have a fever, and you need urgent care.”

Only then did I finally look up.

I asked, dazed, “Where is urgent care?”

He laughed a little, like my fevered confusion had caught him off guard.

Then he thought for a second and crouched down in front of me.

“Come on, Sutton. I’ll carry you.”

“I don’t need that.”

“I can walk.”

“Just lend me your umbrella. I’ll give it back tomorrow.”

Tavish looked at me quietly.

It felt like he could see straight through every lie I was using to hold myself together.

The more I talked, the smaller my voice became.

By the time I finally climbed onto his back, I still whispered, “I really do have strength.”

“I carried my sister before. I carried her down a mountain trail for miles…”

Tavish’s steps stopped.

He turned his head slightly, his voice calm when he cut me off.

“You don’t have to keep proving you can take it.”

“Sutton, you’re allowed to lean on someone.”

Maybe the rain was too heavy that night.

Maybe it got in my eyes.

Because all at once, my tears spilled over.