Already, I’m texting Charlie, telling him to book me the next flight out and fuck the expense. Any flight. Now.

“Mannus,” Calhoun snaps. “You listening?”

I meet his gaze head on. “Yes, Coach. Meetings. I’ll attend every single one of them. As soon as I get back from New York.”

He stares at me, his mouth open.

I should feel bad. Worry, maybe. I don’t. I was the number one draft pick of my year. And for the first time, I’m playing that card. “My girl is in the hospital. She is my family. And I’m going to be with her.”

It’s as if Coach is moving in slow motion but he finally nods. “Give Ms. Copper my best.”

I don’t answer; I’m already running down the hall, my whole fucking life waiting for me in New York.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chess

 

* * *

 

Hospitals are horrible. I woke up on one. I threw up and they scanned my brain for internal swelling or bleeding. That scared the shit out of me. Apparently, I have a concussion. Which means I spent the night being checked on in intervals that felt too short and were really annoying since it meant I couldn’t sleep. I really wanted to sleep.

It’s morning now. My head weighs a metric ton and dully throbs. But the nausea is gone, and I’m no longer dizzy. I’ve been allowed to shower and put on my street clothes. Yeah, a hospital shower with antiseptic smelling shampoo that turns hair into straw.

Lying on the bed to wait for James, I’ve been drifting on and off, sheer exhausting pulling at my lids. They’re releasing me with instructions that James watch me.

The hollow feeling in my chest grows. I don’t want James.

The door opens, another nurse coming to poke at me. But it isn’t a nurse. Emotion punches through me, a fist to my aching chest, a sharp squeeze of my tender heart. Finn is here.

He looks about as good as I feel, eyes blood-shot, the skin bruised beneath them, his hair matted on one side and sticking up on the other. I soak in the sight of him like water on parched earth.

His blue gaze darts over me as if he doesn’t know what to focus on first, that he can’t yet take in the whole of me. Tension rides his body, making it visibly tremble. And then his eyes meet mine. He looks haunted, ripped apart.

I swallow with difficulty. “Hey.”

When he speaks, his voice is a ghost of its former self. “Hey.” He take a step into the room and closes the door behind him. “I got here as soon as I could. Flights were scarce.”

He’s here, that’s all that matters to me. I should sit up, make myself appear strong and capable and all that. But, unless someone comes to wheel my ass out of here, I’m not moving until I have to.

“I think I was hit by a guy on a bike.” Everything’s kind of hazy but I remember two wheels and a handlebar.

The grooves around his mouth deepen. “You were.”

He moves like an old man, making his way to my side. I watch him come, little tremors quaking in my belly. I want to hug him so badly my arms twitch. He sits in the chair by my bedside, his body too big for its stingy frame. Up close, he looks worse, careworn and exhausted. I empathize.

“Is the guy okay?” My memory is fairly shitty right now. Apparently, concussions can do that to a person.

“Couple of scrapes. Broken wrist.” Finn’s expression is blank, barely a flicker of movement. He glances down at my hand resting on the bed.

“How ironic. Mine just healed.”

The corners of his mouth pinch. “Love that you can joke. Two times, I’ve had to hear you were in the hospital.” Blue eyes pin me to the stop. “That’s two times too many.”

“It’s not like I planned this.”

He grunts.

“I’m not even a clumsy person. Both times they ran into me.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of looking both ways, Chester?” He actually glares.

“It was a one way street. Who thinks to look for rando bikers going the wrong way?”

“You do. From now on. Jesus.” He wipes a hand over his mouth. “My heart can’t take another call like that, okay?”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” I am. Not for getting hit, but for putting that look of abject fear in his eyes.

Finn scowls. “Don’t be sorry. How do you feel?”

Whatever they gave me, makes my body sluggish in the best of ways.

“Fuzzy.” I blink down at my body. The inside of my elbow has a bandaid on it from where they put an IV in earlier. A saline drip that had provided cool relief and, later, some very exceptional painkillers. One thing to love about a hospital, I guess. “I can’t remember what I look like. Give me a damage report.”

His throat works on a swallow. “A few scrapes and bruises on your right temple and cheek.”

“That’s not so bad.”

“Debatable.”

This is not the reunion I’d planned. Finn is here, and clearly worried about me, but he’s distant and fairly humming with some emotion I can’t figure out. My memory clears a little more and a bolt of horror runs through me. “Oh, shit.”

Instantly, Finn jolts as if pinched. “What? Are you hurting? Talk to me.”

“Jake. How is he?”

Finn settles down with a scowl then rubs a hand over his face. “He sprained his neck. And, like you, has a concussion. He’s out for the season but, all in all, he got lucky.”

“I saw it happen. I was so scared.”

His skin pales, and his lashes lower. “Me too.”

“I know. I should have been there.”

Finn glares down at his fists.

I want to touch him, stroke away the stiffness along his neck and shoulders. But he looks as if one touch will shatter him, and I don’t know what to say to bridge the gap between us. “Did you win?”

The muscle on his jaw bunches. “Yes. We weren’t going down without a fight.”

But there’s no emotion in his words. He keeps glaring at his fists as if he’s thinking of punching something. I don’t know what to do.

“You were magnificent,” I tell him with a soft voice.

He grunts.

“Are you mad at me?”

“Yes.”

It lashes like a whip.

I bite my lower lip, look away, blinking hard.