by Violet Paige
I gripped the sides.
The defender grinned, running back to the sidelines.
“Fucker,” I growled.
Dylan jogged over when he saw I didn’t hop up. “Man, you ok?”
I bore my eyes into his. “Medic,” I answered.
He nodded, motioning to the sideline. Within seconds the entire medical team surrounded me.
“I want to walk off this field.” I gritted my teeth.
The head team physician knelt beside me. “Isaac, let us get the cart. You need to have your leg secured. We don’t know how bad it is.”
“No,” I fired. “I’m walking, hobbling, whatever the hell I have to do. I’m not going to carried out of here. And if you try to fucking touch me, so help me…”
I had seen men who lost limbs find a way to drag their blooded bodies out of a firing zone. I’d seen them carry their best friends through ditches. I watched men bleed out in front of me in the desert after they’d been shot and walked five miles on their own two feet. It was a disgrace to my fallen comrades to be carried off this field. A playing field. A place where I lived a game. Not when they died for so much more.
I was going to walk on my leg even if it was shattered in a hundred pieces.
Doc backed away. “You heard the man. Let him walk off the field.” He looked at me. “But we are taking you straight to medical.”
I nodded. I knew my leg was destroyed. I didn’t need the tests to confirm it.
The entire stadium was hushed in an eerie silence. They were waiting to see what would happen. They were watching for the stretcher or the cart.
I raised my thumb in the air and the stands erupted. I couldn’t use my bad leg, but I balanced all my weight on my right and carefully rose to a standing position. I was glad my helmet was still on. They would have seen the tears seep from the corners of my eyes with every step I took.
Dylan was next to me. “Give me your arm or something. Don’t be a fucking idiot.”
“No,” I barked. “I’m walking to the locker room.”
“Then I’m walking with your stubborn ass.”
“Fine.” I pressed my lips together. He marched beside me, giving me distance as I shuffled off the field.
By the time I reached the locker room I was gripping the wall for support. The pain was searing through me. “Fuck,” I groaned.
Doc was right behind me. “Get him in the back of that ambulance immediately.” He pointed to his assistants. There were no cameras. No fans.
“I’ve gotta get back out there,” Dylan explained. “The injury time out won’t last forever.”
“Go,” I ordered. “Just win the damn game.”
He jogged back toward the tunnel.
I let them load me into the back of the van. They could have slowed down. My knee was already busted. Getting to the hospital wasn’t going to change that.
I stared at the ceiling as the ambulance whirled out from under the stadium.
34
Vanessa
“Where did they take him?” I was frantic, but I had to keep my composure in front of my grandparents’ friends who now filled the family box.
Steve had stopped by to see if I wanted to release a statement about Isaac before we had a hospital report.
“He’s going to the beset hospital in Austin,” he replied. “He’ll have the best treatment. You can count on that.”
“Text me the address.” I grabbed my bag. “I need to go.”
Grammy’s hand landed on my wrist. “Why would you do that?”
I looked at her. “I-I need to make sure one of our players is ok. He doesn’t have family here.” I would come up with twenty more excuses to get there if I had to.
She turned back to the game, talking to me over her shoulder. “We’re on the ten. Sit down, Vanessa. Someone else from the office can check on Price.”
I glared at the back of her head.
“He’s my player,” I retorted. “Steve, can you have a car take me?”
I was too rattled to drive. I had seen Isaac’s injury replayed on the jumbo-tron. I saw the pain he was in. I had to get there.
“Of course,” Steve responded. He retrieved his cell phone.
“Your fiancé is on the field,” Grammy quipped. “I’d think you’d want to watch him.” She motioned for me to lean down. I bent my ear toward her ear. “It won’t look favorable if you leave during this game. You can check on Isaac Price’s condition later. Steve will update you.”
I felt the walls of my chest tighten. My ribs were strangling my lungs.
In that moment, I felt as if I hated her. Hated what she had become. All the things she never did. Maybe all the things she did.
She was a poor substitute for a mother. I wanted to tear out of here and be next to Isaac. What if he needed me? What if he was out of it and someone needed to make a decision? What if he needed surgery?
Grammy couldn’t possibly relate to what I was going through. How my heart was thundering in my chest.
Her attention was back on the game. She leaned next to one of her friends to point to something on the field.
I bit my lip, biting back the tears of frustration. I knew she was right. I knew the optics were terrible. No owner would leave during a game-scoring play, especially not an owner engaged to the man who was about to score the touchdown.
The woman who had raised me, hadn’t prepared me to be an owner. Neither had my grandfather. They prepared me to be an owner’s princess. To be the wife of a great man. Someone who would need my support. Someone who needed me to sit quietly and smile sweetly, giving him all the support in the world. They raised me to be the kind of woman to look one way, while I felt completely different on the inside.
Because wasn’t that who she was? She had been walking around, holding bitterness and resentment for her husband’s lies, while basking in the attention of being a lonely widow. She basked in the sympathies. The flowers people sent. The endless lines of muffins and cakes she adored. To her, it meant she was still remembered. She was still important to Austin.
I hadn’t seen it until now. She resented me. She was no longer the owner’s wife. She was no longer the queen of the Warriors kingdom. My ascension to the throne had kicked her off hers.
I took a step back. The nausea rolled through me. I clutched my stomach.
Steve looked worried.
“You ok, Vanessa?”
I nodded. “Just exhausted and worried. There are a lot of implications for Isaac’s injury,” I whispered to him as if I was taking him into my confidence. As if I was thinking about the team and not the man I loved. “Look, I can’t go before halftime. But can you get to the hospital now?” I asked. “Stay with Isaac. Tell him I sent you.” I eyed him. “And I’ll be there as soon as the game is over.”
It was going to be a torturous two hours, but I was going to have to wait.
Steve nodded. “I think we need to consider what our press statement is going to be before the postgame media event. Applewhite is going to be hounded.”
“Which is why it’s perfect if you go to the hospital. I want you to call me as soon as you find out anything about Isaac’s leg.”
“I’ll start on the draft when I get there. I’m sure the reporters will already be there.”
Damn it. I hadn’t thought about the reporters. Well, at least if I arrived after the game, it wouldn’t look nearly as odd.
This was all I could do for now.
I practically pushed Steve out of the box. “Go,” I urged. “Don’t forget, call me as soon as you see him.”
I turned around just in time to see Luke to throw the ball into Dylan’s hands. He took two leaps and landed in the end zone. Touchdown. I clapped my hands together.
My grandmother looked over her shoulder and smiled at me, like the cat who had snatched the goldfish from the bowl.
And I wondered if that’s who she had been all this time.
35
Vanessa
Hospitals
always made me uneasy. The last time I had been here was the night my grandfather died.
My stomach lurched with the overwhelming smell of disinfectant when I walked in.
A nurse grinned as he walked past me. Steve had given me Isaac’s room number.
I stopped outside the door, trying to calm my nausea. Isaac needed me to be strong. I had to help him through this.
I tapped on the door and slid it to the side.
“Hi.” I smiled.
Steve was sitting in the corner typing away on his laptop. He looked up. “Oh good, Vanessa. You can approve this statement for me.”
I had to shake the blur from my head. I wanted to rush to Isaac. Kiss him. Touch him. But none of that was possible with Steve in the room.
“Oh sure.” I walked to the corner and leaned to read through the statement he had prepared.
Isaac’s eyes were on me. His leg was elevated in the bed. He was wearing a cotton hospital gown.
I nodded. “I think it’s what we need to say tonight.”
Steve stood, collecting his things. “I’ll head back to the stadium. It’s going to be a zoo over there once the news breaks.”
I closed my eyes. I hadn’t actually faced what had happened.
“Thanks for your help. I’ll talk to you later tonight.”
Steve looked at Isaac. “Sorry about all this man. Get better.”
“Yeah.” Isaac muttered.
I waited for Steve to leave then closed the sliding door in place and pulled the privacy curtain so no one could see Isaac. We both needed some damn privacy.
I rushed to his side, desperate to kiss him. I ran my hands through his hair, taking his lips. Gliding my tongue over his. I mewed when he reached, forward taking my breast. I kissed his firm lips, wanting to take the pain away. Wanting to make the nightmare disappear.
I broke away, staring in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Isaac.”
He looked down at his leg. “How much do you know?”
I shrugged. “Probably all of it. I know they’re waiting to do surgery tomorrow so the swelling can go down.”
“You know what this means, don’t you?”
I nodded quietly. He would probably never play football again. He would lose his speed with this kind of injury.
“What can I do? How can I help? I can fly in specialists. I’ll fly to specialists? Just tell me. Tell me so you can play again. I’ll do anything for you. You know that, don’t you?”
He circled his hands around my waist. “Baby, I knew I wasn’t going to play forever. It’s ok. I’m ok.”
I felt the tears well in my eyes. How could he be so calm about this? He had been given a death sentence for his football career and he was taking it in stride. It didn’t make sense.
I looked at the tubes running into his arms.
“How much of these pain meds have you had?”
He smiled. “Enough I don’t feel anything in my leg.”
“We’re going to get you through this. I’m going to take care of your entire recovery. I promise.”
“Will you dress up in one of those nurse outfits?” He waggled his eyebrows. “You’d make the most beautiful dirty nurse.”
I slipped into the bed next to him. There wasn’t much room with his broad shoulders, but I found a place to curl up next to his good leg.
“If you want a dirty nurse outfit, then I’ll do that.”
He growled. “What about now?”
I laughed, sniffing back tears between giggles. “I don’t think your doctors would appreciate that.”
“Fuck the doctors. I need your kind of medicine. Make me feel better, baby. Make me forget this fucked up night.”
I propped up on my elbow, turning his face toward me. I loved the chiseled lines of his jaw. His rugged cheekbones. His gorgeous dark eyelashes.
I ran my finger over his lips. “I love you, Isaac Price. I’ll love you whole again. I swear.”
He closed his eyes as my hand coasted under the sheet, massaging the planes of his chest.
“I love you too. Maybe that’s why I don’t give a shit about my leg right now.”
Sometimes it felt as if Isaac’s kisses could burn me alive. I moaned as his lips grew hungrier for me.
“Lock the door,” he whispered.
I kissed him again, lingering in the fire we built together.
“Holy fuck.”
I heard her voice before I could scramble into a decent position. My hand was on Isaac’s stomach and his mouth was on mine.
I closed my eyes, grimacing.
Charlie Maine stood in the door, mad as a hornet and cussing like one had just stung her.
“What the fuck is going on here?” She slammed the door behind her.
36
Vanessa
I slowly pushed myself off Isaac, careful not to jostle him in the bed. He couldn’t feel his leg, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t hurt him.
“Well?” Charlie’s hands were on her hips.
“I can explain,” I started.
She shook her head. “I really didn’t think you had it in you. You’re cheating on Dylan? This is unbelievable.”
“No. No.” I shook my head.
“She’s not. We’re not…” Isaac’s words were starting to slur. I realized the pain meds must be kicking in. I looked at him. He was fighting to keep his eyes open.
“You think since it’s not a real engagement that you can sneak around with his best friend? That’s not how publicity relationships work.” Her hands moved from her hips to a folded position.
“No. I know.” I ran my hands through my hair. Isaac was practically snoring. “We’re not cheating. Dylan knows.”
“Doesn’t make it any better.”
I exhaled. I was tired of the secrets. Tired of the lies. The laws that kept me from letting my heart live the way it wanted to. I’d been pushed and managed. Everyone told me what to do. Even tonight, when Isaac needed me, I had to sit back at the stadium because of our image. It was bullshit. I was tired of it. I wanted to start living the truth.
“Charlie, you might not want to hear the truth.”
“Yeah, actually I do. It’s the one thing I do want. It’s the only way I can my job for you.”
“I am with Isaac.”
She shook her head.
“And Dylan,” I added.
“Excuse me?” Her mouth opened in a perfect O.
Isaac’s snores started to fill the room. “I’m with both of them. I’m in love with Isaac and Dylan. And they know. And we’re all good with it. That’s the truth.”
She staggered to the chair, taking the seat Steve had occupied.
“Wait? What? Are they? Are they together too? How in the hell?”
I shook my head. “Oh no. No. No. I mean they’re friends, but not like that. I love Isaac, he loves me. I love Dylan, he loves me. It’s simple from our point of view.”
“You have a fucking open relationship with your two wide receivers?”
I exhaled. There was a small rolling stool near Isaac’s bed. I perched on top. “It’s not open. I’m exclusively with them. They are exclusively with me.”
Her eyes grew even wider. “This is unbelievable. You can’t be fucking serious, Vanessa.”
I nodded. “I am. I’m dead serious. And I need you to figure out a way that I can have both of them. That’s your job now.”
I crossed my arms, realizing suddenly just how valuable Charlie Maine was to me.
37
Vanessa
I gave Charlie until the end of the week to figure out how to make my dream a reality. That’s when Isaac would be released from the hospital. He would leave having a total of three surgeries. And there was no way in hell, I was sending him home to hobble around on his own.
I had purchased the skimpiest nurse outfit I could find and intended to wear it for him every day if that’s what he wanted. I wasn’t going back on the promise I made the night he was hurt.
I didn’t have to say anyth
ing. There was never a discussion—Dylan just moved his things to my house the night of the game. He was waiting for me when I got home from the hospital with two suitcases and a backpack. It was as if Isaac’s injury brought us closer. He made sure I wasn’t alone. He stepped up, taking on the role of two men.
Most people wouldn’t have believed me if I told them what Dylan had taken on. But how could I? That would expose us. Expose Isaac.
I loved how in late fall Texas nights were still warm.
The pool water felt like a bath enveloping my skin. I floated on my back in the salt water, staring at the brightest stars I’d seen. It was one of the best parts of living outside of the city. The sky was lit up like it had been invaded by diamonds.
Dylan swam beside me, resting his chiseled arms on the stonework of the pool. He sipped a cold beer. I had learned to stock them. I had every flavor and brand he and Isaac liked.
“Damn, I love Texas,” he mused holding the bottle in his hands.
“Have you ever lived anywhere else?” I swam to his side, letting my legs kick behind me. They scissored slowly as I held onto the ledge.
I watched his throat move as he swallowed. He was so gorgeous. I inhaled.
“Nah. Only Texas. I’m a College Station boy.”
I smiled. “I can see that about you.”
“How so?”
“You have that cowboy swagger,” I teased.
“Oh really?” He put his beer down, wrestling me in front of him. The water splashed as I pretended to swim away. “You like cowboys?”
I chewed on my lip, looking at the stars. “Oh, I think I like artists, musicians, you know poets…”
Dylan tugged the strings on my bikini, as he pulled me closer. I laughed and squirmed in his arms. My top and bottoms floated away as he pivoted me to straddle him.
“You want to say that again?” he dared.
