by Beth Ehemann
“Morning, Dr. J,” Viper exclaimed as we walked through the door.
Dr. Jennings looked up and squinted at us before pulling his glasses down from his head. “Good morning, Mr. Finkle.” He stood and crossed the room, offering Viper his hand.
Viper shook it and motioned toward me. “I think you’ve met Michelle before, right?”
I felt my face flush as I gave Dr. Jennings a tight smile. The last time I stood in this office, I was still Mike’s wife, and now being there as Viper’s girlfriend made me feel a little awkward.
“Yes, I have.” He smiled warmly and cupped my hand in both of his. “Nice to see you again, Michelle.” Dr. Jennings was a tall man with gray hair and years of wrinkles and laugh lines built into his face. His voice was low and comforting, his demeanor so gentle that he made my tension disappear instantly.
“Good to see you, too, Dr. Jennings.”
“So, what do you think, doc?” Viper asked as he leaned his crutches against the wall and took a few slow steps without them. “It doesn’t hurt too much and nothing is broken. So what . . . ice it today, maybe schedule some physical therapy for next week, and get on a plane tonight?”
Dr. Jennings let out a low laugh. “I know you’re anxious, Viper, but I’d like to actually see your knee before I clear you, okay? Onto the table, please.”
I sat down on a chair in the corner as Viper hopped up on the dark green leather-covered exam table. He shot me a quick wink before he lay down and lifted his legs up.
Dr. Jennings carefully removed Viper’s leg brace and started examining his knee while rapid-firing question after question at him. He stepped down the side of Viper’s leg a little bit, blocking me from seeing—or hearing—much else. As they exam went on, I chewed on my fingernails as my foot tapped nervously against the metal legs of the chair.
As quickly as we got there, we were right back out the door. Dr. Jennings wasted no time in sending Viper straight to the hospital for an MRI on his knee, just as we’d expected. Well, I’d expected.
In the car on the way over, I could feel how tense Viper was. Gone was the playful good mood he’d carried into the rink.
“Don’t worry too much, okay? Everything will be fine. Whatever happens, it’ll be fine.” I said, trying to peek at him and the road at the same time.
His elbow rested on the window and his hand was near his mouth, picking at his lip like a scared little kid.
“Did you hear me?” I asked when he said nothing.
“I heard you. You’re wrong, but I heard you.”
“Wrong about what?”
“Everything being fine. If my knee is fucked up, nothing will be fine.” His tone cut through me like a knife.
“Viper, don’t talk like that, okay? I know you were hoping Dr. Jennings was going to send you home with an ice pack and it would be fine, and maybe it still will be, but of course they are going to do an MRI to be safe. You knew this was probably going to happen last night. So let’s not freak out until there’s something to actually freak out about, okay?”
“Fine,” he agreed dryly, looking down at his lap at his MRI script for the tenth time.
“Good,” I said triumphantly, a little surprised that he’d agreed so fast. “Now hold my hand and take a deep breath. We’re almost there.”
Could the timing of all of this be any worse?
“Four hours!” I shouted angrily. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Viper! Shhh!” Michelle scolded, grabbing my arm gently as the technician’s eyes grew as big as the glasses on her face.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Finkle, but the results take a little while and then they need to be read,” she said with an attitude. “Dr. Jennings asked that we send him the images as soon as we have them. He said that he’d contact you.”
“I can’t believe this can’t be done sooner.” I shook my head incredulously, beyond pissed that I wasn’t getting answers. “This is seriously fucking ridiculous.”
The technician rolled her tongue between her top lip and her teeth. “Sir—”
Michelle raised her hand, stopping her. “Let me talk to him. I’ll handle this.” She turned back to me and placed both hands flat against my chest. “Hey, look at me.”
My eyes were fixated off to my right at a picture of a bunch of flowers on the wall, and it took all of my self-control not to rip that picture off the wall and throw it across the room.
“I said look at me,” Michelle said as she took a hold of my chin and lowered my face to hers. “Calm down. It’s four hours, not four years. Let’s grab the kids, go have some lunch with Gam, and then when we hear from Dr. Jennings, we’ll come back. Okay?”
I wiggled my twitching fingers, desperately trying to keep a lid on my temper before I punched a hole in the wall of the radiology waiting room.
“Viper, please. You’re scaring me.” Michelle blinked up at me, her eyes darting back and forth between mine.
Staring into her eyes brought me out of my rage as I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Sorry,” I grumbled quietly, feeling guilty that I’d scared her. I gripped the sides of her face with my hands and pulled her close, kissing her forehead. “Let’s get outta here.”
We walked to the car in silence, and then drove to Kacie’s in silence. She ran in to grab the kids while I waited in the car, going over every possible outcome in my head for the hundredth time. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I fished it out. I had a bunch of texts from Brody that I hadn’t opened yet, and a new one from Andy, my agent.
Andy: Finkle. What’s going on? I saw the game last night and talked to Brody today, but he said he hasn’t heard from you. Are you okay? What did the doctors say? Answer me now so I can brag to Brody that you answered me before him.
I was lucky to have Andy as an agent. He wasn’t stuffy and obnoxious like ninety-nine percent of sports agents out there. He was your best friend all the time and your pitbull agent when he needed to be.
Hey, buddy. Sorry. Long night and an even longer day. I have no idea what the hell is going on. X-rays on my knee were negative, waiting on MRI results now. Apparently that takes all fucking day. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something.
Andy: Jesus. Hope it all turns out to be nothing. Yes, please keep me posted. And for the love of God, text Brody. He sounds like a depressed eight-year-old whose best friend can’t come out and play.
Thanks. I hope it’s nothing, too. Stay tuned. And I’ll text the Drama Queen, I mean Brody, right now.
I scrolled down my phone to Brody’s texts.
Brody: Hey. Call me.
Brody: Yo! Where are you? What happened? Call me.
Brody: Coach Collins told us that the X-rays were negative. That’s a good sign. I can’t believe they still sent you home. Is it that bad? Call me, asshole.
Brody: Okay now you’re pissing me off. They better have been wrong about your knee and it’s really your hand that was hurt because if you’re being a dick and just not answering me, I’m going to hunt you down, make sure you’re okay, and kick the shit out of you.
Brody: Dude.
I rolled my eyes so hard I was surprised they didn’t get caught in the back of my head as I hit the reply button.
Calm your little pink panties, Murphy. I’ve been kinda busy. Yes, X-rays were fine but no results on the MRI yet. Those are coming later today and hopefully, if all goes well, my ass will be on a plane tonight and back into your arms by morning, pumpkin. I’ll let you know what happens.
As I shoved my phone back in my pocket, the back door swung open.
“Viper!” Matthew called out as he climbed into the seat behind me. He wrapped his short arms around me and the headrest, locking his hand underneath my chin and cutting off my air supply. He was so excited to see me that I didn’t even care.
I reached up and squeezed his hands with mine.
“What’s up, buddy?” I said when he finally let go and I could talk again.
He peeked around the seat and scanned my b
ody from head to toe, pausing at my knee. “Mom said you got hurt. Is that where you got hurt?”
“Yep.” I nodded, following his gaze to my leg. “I hurt my knee, but the doctors are checking me out and I’ll be better fast.”
“I have an owie on my knee, too, remember?” He lifted his leg up and pulled his shorts back, revealing a huge bandage. “That was from when I fell off my bike. They used glue. Maybe they can use glue on your knee, too?”
“That would be awesome, bud, but there’s not really anything to glue on my knee. My owie is on the inside.”
“Ooooh,” he said as he nodded slowly.
“Matthew, hop up and buckle, please.” Michelle said as she set Maura in her car seat. Maura craned her neck to the side to try and see me around Michelle’s arm. “Hi! Hi! Hi!” she called out over and over.
“Hey, baby girl!” I reached my hand back and she wrapped her wet little fingers around it.
“Okay,” Michelle sighed as she clicked the last buckle on Maura’s car seat. “Everyone’s buckled . . . we have all our stuff . . . I think we’re ready to go.”
She plopped down into the driver’s seat and sat for a minute, rubbing her neck with her hand and moving her head in big circles. I’d been so focused on my knee that I didn’t think for a second how exhausted she must have been, too.
“Sore?” I finally spoke for the first time since we left the hospital.
“Kinda. Everything’s just tense.” She pulled her shoulders back and lowered her chin to her chest, trying to stretch out her achy muscles. I lifted my left arm and put it behind her.
As I rubbed slow circles into her neck with my fingertips, she froze and let out a soft moan that lingered for several seconds.
“You like that?”
“Mmhmm,” she answered without moving. “It feels really, really good.”
I licked my lips and stared at her. She was beautiful all the time, but she was most gorgeous when she wasn’t trying to be. Listening to the little groans and noises she was making as I rubbed her neck was torture . . . pure torture. They sounded a lot like the noises she made when I was moving in and out of her and suddenly, I wanted nothing more than that.
“Mooooooom, can we go now?” Matthew complained from the backseat.
Michelle’s head snapped up and she turned toward me, her eyes traveling all over my face before connecting back with mine. No words came out of her mouth, but they didn’t have to. I felt it. I felt her. I felt that moment.
She blinked a couple of times and sniffed, turning back to the steering wheel and pulling her seatbelt across her chest.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing.” She shook her head quickly. “Nothing at all. That was just . . . nice.”
“It was more than nice.”
Glancing at me out of the corner of her eye, she gave me a tiny smile. “It was.”
“I’d like to do more of that later. A lot more.” I stretched my hand across the center console and rested it on her thigh as she started the car. She didn’t say any more, but she didn’t need to. The last couple of weeks had been stressful for both of us, but we were in a good place. We were just fine.
We pulled up in front of Gam’s house and parked in the street as usual. There was a car in the driveway that I didn’t recognize, but Michelle had mentioned that lots of people were stopping by to visit Gam so I thought nothing of it.
Matthew hopped out of the car and was halfway across the yard before I even had my seatbelt off. Michelle shook her head and laughed. “You don’t think he likes Gam or anything, do you?”
“Not at all,” I joked.
As I climbed slowly out of the car, I noticed Gam was sitting on her porch, and Matthew was already sitting next to her on the wicker couch. Michelle set Maura down on the grass and she ran toward Gam’s house as fast as her chubby little legs would take her.
“Go ahead.” I motioned toward the stairs for Michelle. “You go first. It’s gonna take me a few minutes.”
Between the stupid brace I had to wear to keep me from bending my leg and the fucking crutches that had become my new best friend, everything took me longer. Especially stairs.
Michelle skipped up the stairs quickly and went right over to Gam, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. Gam leaned in and squeezed her right back.
“Sorry I didn’t get up to give proper hugs,” Gam said. “I’m moving a little slow these days.”
“Yeah, you and me both,” I added as I finally got the top of the wooden steps.
She looked over at me and tilted her head to the side, shaking it slightly. “And my grandson. What in the world am I going to do with you?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Take me out back and shoot me?”
“No!” Matthew cried, jumping up from the couch with wide eyes.
“I was just kidding, buddy. Sorry. Bad joke.” I ruffled his blond hair as I stepped past him and leaned down to kiss the top of Gam’s head.
“Look at us”—she waved her arm back and forth between the two of us—“you with your crutches and me with my walker. We’re a mess. A hot mess.”
I rested my armpits on the top of the crutches and arched an eyebrow at her. “Did you just say hot mess?”
“I did.” She nodded proudly as Michelle giggled next to her. “I’m learning all sorts of new things from my nurse.” She narrowed her eyes and glared at me. “You shouldn’t have done that. I don’t need help.”
I looked over at her walker and back at her. “Oh, right. You’re completely self-sufficient.”
“Don’t be a smartass,” she snapped.
“Okay, Matthew and Maura, let’s run inside and see if Gam has some apple juice in her fridge, okay?” Michelle said in an overly chirpy tone, clearly trying to distract the kids from the brawl that was about to go down between me and Gam, and our accompanying metal apparatuses.
“Do you have any cookies?” Matthew asked Gam.
“Do I have any cookies? Does a zebra have stripes? You bet your little rear end I have cookies. All kinds of cookies. Help yourself.” She pulled him in for a quick hug before he stood up. “And Matthew,” she lowered her voice to a loud whisper, “if your mom says you can only have two, tell her I said you can have three. Because . . .”
“Gam’s in charge!” Matthew cheered as he jumped up and down, pumping his arms in the air.
Michelle rolled her eyes playfully and turned Matthew by the shoulders, leading him into the house with Maura following right along behind.
“Oh, Michelle!” Gam called out.
Michelle took a step back and peeked her head out the door.
“The nurse is in there. Introduce yourself. She’s actually really great.”
“Okay, I will.” She smiled then disappeared.
“She’s great, huh? Does that mean you’re not going to kick my ass?” I said sarcastically as I sat on the chair next to her. Leaving my leg outstretched in front of me, I relaxed back into the chair and folded my hands on my stomach.
“Oh no.” She raised her eyebrows. “I’m still going to kick your ass, but it’s going to take me a few weeks to do it. This hip thing really slowed me down.”
“Meh.” I waved her off. “You’re old as dirt, but you’re also tough as hell. You’ll be back to normal before you know it. Seriously though . . . you like the nurse? I’m really glad.”
“I do. She’s kinda sassy, and I love that.”
“I was nervous because I had Ellie handle everything. I was going to take a look at the list she narrowed it down to, then this happened,” I said, glancing down at my knee. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to Ellie about it at all, so I’m glad she chose a good one.”
“Ellie did a great job. I mean, she’s only been here a couple days but I can tell we’re gonna get a long.”
The screen door creaked as it swung open, and we both turned.
“Oh, perfect timing. Here she is,” Gam said with a big smile. “Kat, come over here. I want you to
meet my grandson, Viper.”
Kat froze in the doorway, our eyes locked on each other. There was no introduction necessary. Kat and I already knew each other.
We knew each other really, really well.
“Uh, nice to meet you, Viper.” Kat smiled awkwardly as she walked across the porch and offered me her hand.
I tried to keep my shock to a minimum as I shook her hand. “Hi” is all that came out of my mouth.
“Have a seat.” Gam patted the couch next to her.
Kat’s dark red lips spread into a tight smile. “I really shouldn’t. I just came out here to see if you needed anything.”
“Oh, hush. Sit down. You work too damn hard.” Gam grabbed Kat’s hand and pulled her down next to her. She squeezed her shoulder and looked over at me with a big smile. “Isn’t she the best?”
I nodded at Gam, trying not to make any more eye contact with Kat.
“You two actually have a lot in common. You’d never know she’s covered in tattoos under this shirt.” Gam laughed, tugging on her sleeve.
Except I did know she was covered in tattoos. I’d seen tattoos on Kat that Gam, and ninety-nine percent of the population, would never see. I’d been with Kat when she got some of her tattoos.
“That’s awesome.” I nodded, trying to figure out how the hell to get Kat out of Gam’s house.
Fucking knee!
If this had never happened, I would have been able to go over Ellie’s selections and Kat would have been a big, fat no. When the hell did she even become a nurse? Last time I saw her she’d been a fucking bartender.
My irritation was growing bigger by the second. I just wanted to throw Michelle and the kids and Gam in the car and drive away long enough for Kat to leave and never come back.
Michelle knew about my past. I’m sure Mike had told her about my antics when we were friends, but I also never kept secrets. I was an open book. If she asked a question, I gave her an answer. An honest answer that she sometimes wasn’t expecting and didn’t want to hear. So she stopped asking questions. She loves me for me and doesn’t hold my past against me, but she doesn’t like to think about it either. And here was a glaring part of my past, sitting on my grandmother’s porch, holding her hand.
