by Beth Ehemann
Without turning around, he lifted one glove in the air. “I know you can’t tell, but I’m flipping you off in here.”
“That means you’re gonna think about it!” I shouted as he disappeared around the corner.
I spent the entire three hours of practice skating close to Brody every chance I got, calling out, “Sports bar,” until finally he stuck his stick out and tripped me, making me fall flat on my face.
“Thanks for tripping me with your stick, asshole. That was a little uncalled for,” I complained playfully as we walked back to the locker room.
“So was you annoying the shit out of me for three hours.”
“I wouldn’t call it annoying. I would call it being persuasive.”
He shot me a hard glare but said nothing.
“Did you think about it?”
“No, but if you’ll shut up for five minutes, I will.”
I grabbed my phone from my bag. “Deal.”
He grimaced as he took his skate off. “My knee is bothering me. I’m gonna go sit in the hot tub for a while. You stickin’ around?”
“Yeah, I probably—“ I looked down at my phone and froze at the series of texts from Michelle.
M: Are you on the ice?
M: Call me ASAP.
M: I’m meeting the ambulance at the hospital with Gam.
M: Viper, please call me NOW!
Fear shot through my body as every other noise drifted away. I hit the call button on my phone and started ripping my uniform off.
Michelle’s phone went straight to voicemail.
“Fuck!” I yelled out, silencing the whole locker room.
“What’s going on?” Brody asked.
I ignored him, my hands shaking as I tried to send Michelle a coherent text.
What’s going on? I’m leaving now. Call me.
“Yo! What is it?” Brody called out, panic lacing his tone.
“It’s Gam. I gotta go.” I finished taking my clothes off and tossed them into my bag, throwing my regular clothes on as fast as I could.
“What happened?”
I turned and jogged toward the door. “I have no idea. I’ll call you later.”
My hands wrapped around the steering wheel, squeezing it so tight I worried I was going to pull it right off. I didn’t have much family, and Gam was without a doubt the one I cared about most. The thought of something serious happening to her made my throat close up and my eyes sting.
Don’t cry.
My tires screeched against the blacktop as I pulled into the hospital parking lot. I yanked the wheel, turning into the first parking space I found, and broke into a full sprint for the main entrance. As I rushed through the automatic doors, I froze, frantically looking left to right as I tried to figure out where to go.
“May I help you?” A woman’s voice caught my attention. I turned to my right and saw her smiling at me from behind a desk.
“Yeah, I’m looking for the emergency room—I think,” I stuttered, realizing that I wasn’t even sure where Gam would be. “Well, maybe not. I’m trying to find my grandma. Gam—uh, Elizabeth—Finkle.”
“Just one second. Let me see what I can find out,” she said with an annoying grin as she typed into her computer. She squinted and leaned in closer to the screen. “Okay, here she is. Looks like she’s still in the ER. You’re going to head through those doors over there—“
“Viper!” I spun around as Michelle hurried toward me. “I called you back, but you didn’t answer. Follow me.”
I gave the woman at the desk a quick wave and caught up to Michelle. “What’s going on?”
Her tiny legs were moving so fast I practically had to jog to keep up with her. She let out a heavy sigh. “I got a call from Regina a little bit ago—”
“Regina?” I interrupted.
“Gam’s friend.”
“Oh, right.”
“Don’t yell. Promise?”
“What?”
“You have to promise not to yell.”
“Michelle, are you kidding me right now?”
“Fine.” With a heavy sigh she pushed another set of doors open and turned right, following the red arrow toward the emergency room. “Regina said they went out on the Segways after we left and there was an accident. Gam went over a curb that was too big and fell off.”
“Holy shit. Is she okay?”
Michelle shook her head slightly. “She’s not critical, but she’s not great. They’re doing X-rays right now. They think she might have broken her hip and possibly her femur. She’s in a lot of pain.”
We got to the crowded waiting room and walked to two open seats in the far corner. A couple of people stared at me, but I avoided eye contact with everyone except Michelle.
If anyone has the nerve to ask for an autograph right now, they’ll be needing a room of their own.
“Are you okay?” Michelle asked in a shaky voice as we sat down. She rested her hand on my knee and my heart rate instantly slowed a little.
“I don’t know what I am. I’m glad it wasn’t more serious, but a broken hip isn’t a small thing either. She’s going to need round-the-clock care and nurses and meds and I’m just at the beginning of a new season—”
“Hey,” she interrupted softly, giving me a tiny smile. “Calm down. Take a breath. I’m here. I can handle whatever you need me to handle, okay?”
I studied her thoughtful blue eyes. The same thoughtful eyes that had saved me so many times when it really should have been me saving her. “I don’t know what I would do without you, you know that?” I put my hand on top of hers and squeezed.
“I know exactly how you feel because I feel the same about you.” She closed her eyes and leaned into me, resting her forehead against my cheek.
I closed my eyes against her skin. “Where are the kids?”
“Taylor is with them. They’re fine.”
Before we could say anything else, a woman’s loud voice called out, “I need the family of Elizabeth Finkle!”
We both stood quickly. “That’s us,” Michelle said, gripping my hand tightly.
“Come with me, please.” The nurse turned and pushed open a set of double doors, leading us down the hall.
As we followed her through the sterile-smelling halls of the hospital, she started quickly filling us in on Gam’s condition . . . but her words clogged my brain and my mind drifted. I found myself staring at her shoes. There was nothing special about the pink and black gym shoes, but I couldn’t look away.
“Viper!”
The sound of my name broke through my thoughts. Michelle was standing in the doorway of a hospital room, staring at me with her eyebrows pulled down low. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’m fine.”
She eyed me skeptically and waved for me to follow her.
The instant I stepped into the room, the familiar hum of machines made every muscle in my body tense up at the same time. I hadn’t been in a hospital room since I said good-bye to Mike, and hearing those same beeps, smelling those same smells, and seeing those same blue curtains made my stomach churn violently.
I stopped in the doorway and ran my hand through my hair, desperately trying to slow my breathing. “Uh . . .”
Michelle took a step closer to me, wrapping her arm around my waist. “What is going on?”
“Nothing,” I lied. “I’m fine.”
The sound of metal scraping on metal filled the room as the nurse pulled the curtain back. Gam was lying in the hospital bed, half sitting up, half lying down. When she saw us, her face lit up in a big, goofy grin.
She pointed at us. “Hey! I know them!”
The nurse shot Michelle and me a look. “The pain that comes with a broken hip is excruciating, so your grandmother will be on heavy pain meds until surgery—”
“That’s my cute grandson,” Gam cut her off. “His name is Lawrence, but that name is pretty stupid, so his friends call him Viper, which is even stupider because he’s no
t a snake. I’m gonna call him Bob instead.”
The nurse looked from Gam to me and rolled her eyes. “Really heavy pain meds. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She stepped past us, out into the hallway, and disappeared.
“Come here, Bobby!” Gam raised her arms and tried to sit up.
“No, no. Don’t move. We don’t want to make anything worse, okay?” I said sternly as I walked over and gave her a hug.
“I don’t think it can get any worse,” she said, shaking her head. “I just hope the horse is okay.”
Michelle narrowed her eyes. “What horse?”
“The one I was riding!”
“Gam, you weren’t riding a horse,” I answered with a laugh.
“Oh yes I was,” Gam insisted. “A big brown one named Cinnamon. We were galloping through the neighborhood, looking for Phil, and she got spooked by a little bastard squirrel and bucked me right off. And now here I am. Ta-da!”
I gaped at her in amazement before looking at Michelle, who was having trouble keeping a straight face at that point.
“You were on a Segway, not a horse,” I corrected her.
“No, it was a horse,” she said adamantly.
“I promise it wasn’t.”
Her eyes grew wide as they darted around the room. “Well then who the hell was I feeding carrots to?”
Once Gam was done with stories of imaginary horses and instigating squirrels, she passed out until it was time for surgery. Thankfully her surgery went great and she came out on the other side with four shiny new screws in her hip. Her surgeon, Dr. Chams, met with Viper and me in the waiting room and said that if Gam’s health hadn’t been as great as it was, that fall could have easily had a very different outcome . . . a grim one. When he said that, I could practically feel all of the air leave Viper’s lungs.
We were able to see her for a few minutes after surgery but she was pretty out of it, so Dr. Chams suggested we go home and get a good night’s sleep. We were both so exhausted that it didn’t take much persuading.
We walked through the door and dragged ourselves up the stairs, straight to my bedroom. When Regina called me earlier that day, Taylor, Mike’s youngest sister happened to be over playing with Matthew and Maura. She wasted no time offering to sit with the kids while I rushed to the hospital. Then when we found out that Gam was going to need surgery, and since we were most likely going to be home late, she packed up bags for them and took them to her house for a sleepover. While I wasn’t used to being away from my babies and missed them terribly, the thought of having several hours of uninterrupted sleep, snuggled up next to Viper, made me giddy.
He collapsed on top of the covers and let out a heavy sigh.
“You okay?” I asked, immediately regretting my question. “Of course you’re not. That was stupid. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Without saying anything, he waved me over.
I set my purse down and lay next to him on the bed, curling up in the nook of his arm.
“That’s perfect,” he said.
I rolled onto my side and rested my hand on his chest. “What are you gonna do about tomorrow?”
“I already left a message for Coach Collins to call me. He’s gonna be pissed that I’m missing practice, but I think he’ll understand. I’ll be at the game on Tuesday. I just need to make sure she’s okay tomorrow.”
I nodded. “She was pretty funny today, with the horse thing.”
“She was,” he agreed, “but she scared the hell out of me, Michelle. I don’t ever want her riding that thing again.”
“I know—”
“No. I’m serious,” he cut me off. “She’s the only real family I have, and I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to her.”
Ouch. That stung.
“I get it,” I responded softly, trying hard to ignore the lump that had formed in my throat. “Let’s go to bed so we can head to the hospital early, okay?”
A minute went by and he didn’t respond.
I lifted my head to look at him just as a single tear fell from the corner of his eye and dripped down toward his temple. Scurrying to sit up, I held my arms out. “Hey, come here.”
“No. I’m fine,” he said gruffly, pushing my arms away as he stood. “I’m gonna take a quick shower. Go ahead to sleep, I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Viper, wait—” I called after him.
“Just stop!” he snapped angrily without turning around.
My heart sank as he walked to the bathroom and slammed the door. The day must have been horrible for him, and I knew that, but I wished more than anything he would let me in. Even just a little.
But . . . I wasn’t surprised.
That was Viper.
He was really good at expressing his feelings when they were good, but when they were bad . . . not so much. He was a runner. An ostrich. He buried his head in the sand and pretended the bad things weren’t happening until they eventually just went away. I’d seen it more than once over the last year, but I kept hoping that if I stayed by his side and never wavered, it would get better.
The shower turned on as I walked over to the closet and changed into pajamas. Without saying any more to him, I quickly brushed my teeth and hopped into bed, fighting back my own tears. Just as I started to drift to sleep, I felt the mattress dip. He scooted right up behind me and wrapped his big arm around my waist, pulling me tight against him.
His chest rose and fell with a deep, troubled breath. “I’m sorry about before,” he said against the back of my neck, sending shivers down my whole body.
“It’s okay,” I lied. It wasn’t okay—not even a little okay—but I just wanted him to be normal again. “I’m kinda used to it at this point,” I added, sounding snottier than I’d meant to.
He loosened his grip on me and lifted his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked defensively.
“Nothing.” I grabbed his hand and pulled his arm back down around me. “I don’t want to fight tonight, okay? It’s been a long day for me, too. Let’s just go to sleep and talk more in the morning.”
He didn’t argue back, but he didn’t hug me the same way either. I instantly regretted opening my mouth. It was the wrong time. I knew it was the wrong time, but I did it anyway.
I took a deep breath and laced my fingers with his, thankful that he didn’t pull his hand back.
The next morning, I woke up with the night before not far from my mind. Viper, on the other hand, didn’t remember anything.
“Morning, sexy,” he said cheerfully, slapping my butt as he passed me at the bathroom sink. “I didn’t even hear you get out of bed.”
I shrugged. “You looked comfy so I snuck out and hopped in the shower early.”
“Should’ve woke me. I would have joined you.”
I raised an eyebrow at him in the mirror.
“Ya know, to conserve water. Gotta save the planet and shit.”
Pinching my lips together, I tried to stifle a laugh.
“So what’s the plan for today? Hospital, kids, dinner, then sex?”
As annoyed as he made me at times, I couldn’t stay that way for very long . . . especially when he gave me his signature shit-eating grin. I smiled back at him and rolled my eyes. “Sounds like a plan.”
Gam was awake by the time we got to the hospital, and the scowl on her face showed us exactly how she was feeling.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as we were barely through the door.
She slid her eyes over to us but didn’t change her expression. “I want to go home,” she complained.
“Gam, you just had major surgery last night. It’s going to be a couple days,” Viper said as he walked around the other side of her bed.
“Then I’m going to starve to death. These people don’t know how to cook.” She waved toward her breakfast tray that was sitting off to the side. “Runny eggs and rubber bacon. Mmmm, delicious.” The tone of her voice was dunked in sarcasm and covered in scorn.
Viper
let out a chuckle as he bent down and set a soft kiss on her forehead. “Good to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor though, huh?”
“Are you in any pain?” I asked as I walked over and wrapped my arms around her shoulder.
“No.” She shook her head. “I can’t really feel anything at all . . . except my stomach growling.”
I sat down on the bed next to her and held her hand. “Want me to get you something?”
“Yeah—out of here,” she barked back.
Viper stood and walked around the bed, brushing past me. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where’s he going?” Gam asked.
I followed him to the door, then shrugged and looked back at her. “No idea. Okay, all joking aside. How do you feel?”
“Like shit.” She sighed. “I hate this. I like to do things by myself and not depend on other people. This isn’t gonna work for me.”
“I know,” I said quietly, trying to calm her irritation. “This is definitely going to be a change for a while, but you’re strong and you’ll battle back. I know you will. And I’ll be there to help you every step of the way.”
She tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips. “You have those two sweet kids to take care of and a household to run. The last thing you need to be worrying about is taking care of your boyfriend’s grumpy old grandma.”
I squeezed her hand again. “I happen to love my boyfriend’s grumpy old grandma. And it would be my pleasure to help you out.”
“We’ll see about that,” she answered, her red-rimmed eyes dropping to her lap. In that moment, I wasn’t sure if she was upset about her situation, or if she was sentimental because of what I’d said and just avoiding her feelings like her grandson.
I stretched my neck to sneak a peek at the paper on her tray. “What’s this?” I asked, picking it up.
“Ugh,” she groaned, waving her hand dismissively. “That’s the menu they gave me.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at her. “Oooh, really? It looks good!”
“That’s the key word. It looks great, but it tastes more like they have Tweedledee and Tweedledum cooking the food down there.”
