by Kathryn Shay
“Yeah,” Pete replied. “But I have faith in The Jag.”
On pitch three, The Jag swung hard. Evvie predicted a strike, but he got some wood and the ball soared up high and deep behind him. Calmly, Evvie watched the sphere arc then begin its downward trajectory. She prayed a fan would catch it so no one in the stands would be hurt. Heck, the ball seemed to be coming at her, but she didn’t believe she’d get hit. Nothing bad ever happened to Evangelina Gentileschi.
As the ball neared the crowd, a man two rows down leapt up, knocked it off course. It landed on Evvie’s ankle with lightning force.
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” she cried out and tried to grasp her foot.
“Holy cow! Somebody got hurt!” She heard the announcer through the pain, but his voice was somewhat muffled.
“Hey, she’s hit,” a spectator yelled.
“You okay, ma’am?” the boy next to her asked.
Evvie doubled over and couldn’t catch her breath. Blinding agony radiated from her foot and shot to every nerve ending.
Another person called out, “The medics are coming.”
Head down, she tried to take in air. She was a nurse and knew how to calm herself but...
“Oh, my God.” Suddenly something blocked the sun and she felt a body lean over her. “Oh, my God, are you all right?”
Finally, she could talk. “I...I...”
A hand on her back. Rubbing in circles. That calmed her some.
“I’m so sorry. Where did you get hit?”
She pointed to her foot. “Hurts.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated.
Someone appeared on the other side of her. “I’m Joe, a paramedic. Where are you hurt?”
“M-my ankle.” The pain hadn’t abated, and she felt her eyes sting.
Crouched down, the paramedic asked, “Can you get your foot up to the top of the seat in front of you?”
Evvie said, “I don’t know.”
“I’ll help.” The man in the sun’s way again. “Can you sit back so I can pick up your leg?”
When she eased away, he placed his hands under her knee, drew it up, then straightened her leg over the seat, her foot resting on his thigh, which was when she realized he was in the row below her. Gently, he untied her sneaker and removed her little sock. The medic handed him an ice pack. A tear fell as the man wrapped her ankle. When he looked up, he said, “Damn.”
The paramedic leaned in close, too. “You’ll need to come to the medical tent.”
She could speak now. “Okay.” She tried to stand, but she fell to her seat.
Grasping her arms, the guy steadied her and she managed to brace her weight on her other foot and draw herself up. She wobbled and then—what, oh wow, he bent over and scooped her up into his arms.
Her stomach started to roil at the motion so she cuddled into his chest. He was sweaty and damp, with felt letters on his...uniform, it had to be. Slowly, they took the steps downward.
Loud clapping. Then she heard the announcer say, “There you have it, folks. If Mike Jagielski hasn’t won your affection before, this cinches it.”
“Yeah, but Pete, he left the game.”
“The ref called a time out.”
“Huh. Anything for The Jag.”
About the Author
A NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling author, Kathryn Shay has been a lifelong writer and teacher. She has written dozens of self-published original romance titles, print books with the Berkley Publishing Group and Harlequin Enterprises and mainstream women’s fiction with Bold Strokes Books. She has won many awards for her work: five RT Book Reviews awards, the Bookseller’s Best Award, Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year and several “Starred Reviews.” One of her firefighter books hit #20 on the NEW YORK TIMES list. Her novels have been serialized in COSMOPOLITAN magazine and featured in USA TODAY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and PEOPLE magazine. There are over ten million copies of her books in print and downloaded online. Reviewers have called her work “emotional and heart-wrenching.”
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