We were playing the Cocoa Beach Rockets on their home turf, so the stadium was rocking, but plenty of fans in the stands remembered both Brody and myself winning the national championship in the state, and there were cheers for us as well. Brody’s mom had made the trip to see us play, and we’d also flown out Troy, Amber, and Jimmy and put them in a suite. After the game we were all going to have dinner.
The Kings were comfortably ahead, 28-3 with a minute and a half left. We were on the Rockets’ forty-yard line and knew the offense was gunning for us. Bad blood simmered from an earlier call in the second quarter that the Rockets thought was in error. It resulted in the Kings scoring a touchdown, which led to some shit-talking and shoulder-knocking between our teams. The refs had needed to separate some of the players, but Coach Jackson had a warning for us: start a fight and end up on the bench.
“White 80, White 80, hut, hut.”
The play was the same as before. Hand off the ball to the running back and let the clock tick away. With the game out of reach, I wasn’t planning on the defense making a quarterback rush, so I stayed closer to the line of scrimmage than usual.
Big fucking mistake.
Three massive tackles came barreling through and hit me center mass. I ended up beneath close to seven hundred pounds of weight. Pain sliced through me, and I saw stars. Everything in front of my eyes went hazy, then dark. Whistles blew and screams echoed from the crowd. As I passed out from the pain, I muttered, “Fuck.”
**
My eyelids weighed a hundred pounds, so I gave up trying to open them. My ears worked and were the only part of my body that wasn’t hurting. I heard beeping and voices murmuring. Time to make a full-body assessment. My left arm moved, and I could make a fist, so that was good. My right arm? Stiff but I could lift it without pain. I wiggled my toes and bent my knees. Again, achy and sore. I could feel bandages wrapped around my knees, but they moved. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Devlin?”
I froze. It took a minute, but I forced my eyes open to the sight of my mother sitting, not quite at my bedside, but in a chair several feet away. She clutched the handbag in her lap. As always, she was dressed immaculately, her hair freshly done, makeup and nails perfect.
“M-mother?” My voice cracked, and I licked my lips. They were parched and dry to the tip of my tongue. “What’re you doing here?”
She blinked. “Do you know where you are?”
I tried to move my head to the side, and a bolt of white-hot pain seared through me. But from the medicinal smell and the machines and IVs, I had a good guess. “Not the Ritz, for sure. Did you redecorate my old room at home again?”
“Really, Devlin? You think this a joking matter?”
I wasn’t expecting the warm and fuzzies, but a simple smile and maybe a touch of her hand would’ve been nice. “No, Mother. I’m assuming I’m in the hospital. But I’ve been injured other times, and you haven’t come.”
She blinked. “You’ve been unconscious for a day.”
“Wh-what? It’s Monday?”
“Yes. Monday afternoon.” She checked her Cartier Panthère watch. “One twelve, to be exact.”
“Don’t you have class?”
She bowed her head for a moment. “I suppose I deserve that. We received a call from someone on your team that you’d been injured. You put me as your emergency contact.”
My lips twitched. “You sound surprised.” It had been when I first joined the Kings and filled out all the paperwork. I’d put my mother’s name as emergency contact, almost in defiance, and had never changed it, though I’d meant to.
Pink blossomed on her cheeks, but she ignored my response. “We decided since your father had a full day of lectures and I only had a class in the afternoon, I would travel here to speak to the doctor, assess your condition, and move you to New York.” Her icy gaze flicked around the room. “I’m sure the care you’ll receive at home will be miles ahead of what they can do for you here.”
Her obvious discomfort gave me a perverse sense of pleasure. “I don’t know, Mother. I hear they make a mean opossum stew here.”
Her eyes widened, and she grimaced until she realized I was teasing her. “I don’t understand your sense of humor, Devlin. This situation is not funny.”
I shifted in the bed, wincing as various aches and pains revealed themselves. “Ouch. What did happen, aside from me being squashed by three giants? It was like having three refrigerators fall on me.”
A furrow marred her smooth brow, but instead of answering me, she got to her feet. “I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake.” And left me wondering what the hell was going on.
A nurse appeared. “Mr. Summers, you’re awake. So glad to see you’re back with us.”
I smiled. “Thanks. And please call me Dev.”
She blushed. “Okay. How are you feeling? You gave everyone a huge scare. Lots of your team have been waitin’ all night.” She checked my chart, and my IV, and replaced the bag hanging from the pole.
My heart jumped, then sank. Fuck. Brody must be going insane. “Can someone go out and tell them I’m awake and okay?”
