Gramps drops into the chair next to me, clasping his hand over mine. “You were trying to cut around a defender. Your leg twisted the wrong way when he hit you and it snapped. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Nothing you did wrong,” Mason reiterates. “Nothing you could’ve done differently. Just an unlucky hit.”
An unlucky hit. My leg gives a painful throb, as if reminding me that’s why I’m here and not in Denver celebrating the team win.
I can’t believe we won the Super Bowl and I wasn’t there. Pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes, I try to stifle the tears that are threatening to spill over.
“Son, you’re lucky to be alive.” Gramps’s voice is watery. “Whatever happens, happens. But we’ll get through this together.”
I was at the top of my game. The star running back for the best team in the NFL. And with one hit, everything was taken away from me.
Without football, who the fuck am I?
ChapterOne
LOGAN - PRESENT DAY
“Three more reps.”
“Seriously?”
Sweat drips down my chest as I try to muster the energy for another three lunges.
“You can do it, Winchester.”
“I really hate you, Scott.”
Digging deep, I do the last three lunges required of me before collapsing into a heap on the padded floor mat.
“See? Not so bad,” Scott chides.
“Fuck you.”
I catch the water bottle thrown my way and take a hearty gulp.
“You’re doing great. Only a few more weeks and it’ll be like you’ve never been here.”
“Right.” I sit up, draping my arms over my legs. “If only that were the case.”
The entire reason I’ve spent the better part of a year here is because of my damned left leg. Permanent scar lines mar the skin there. It has a permanent tinge to it since my last surgery just over a year ago.
Longest twelve months of my life.
“Hey, you’ll be ready for that physical in no time.”
Scott has been one of the constants in my life during this time. With his bulky frame and tattooed body, he looks scarier than he is. He pushes everyone that comes into his rehab center the same. Without him, I don’t think I’d be looking to head back to Denver in a few weeks to try and rejoin my team.
“You really think so?” I pop to my feet with ease. Something I couldn’t do even a few months ago without my body protesting.
He claps me on the shoulder. “I wouldn’t lie. You’re looking good.”
“Fucking finally. I’m ready to be done with your ugly mug.”
“Aww. You really do love me, Logan.”
“Who’s saying they love you?” Scott’s partner, Heather, ambles over to us. She’s even scarier than Scott. With a septum piercing, one side of her head shaved, and a permanent scowl, she isn’t someone you want to mess with.
Except I know better.
