Going Under (Going Under 1)

“You can feel me?” I asked after I lifted it to my face and rubbed it along my cheek.

“I can. My whole arm burns like hell, but at least I can feel it,” he said, optimistically.

I squeezed it tightly. “And this?”

“Yes.”

I moved up his arm to his tattoo and slid my nails done his arm. “And that?”

“Yep.”

Relief flooded me and I leaned forward and placed my forehead against his. I closed my eyes and thanked God for allowing him to be okay.

“I was so scared,” I finally admitted.

He reached up and rested his hand on the back of my neck, holding me so I couldn’t pull away and said, “I know. I was, too. I thought my arm was paralyzed for sure.”

I kissed his mouth while tears rolled down my face. I had things I wanted to say, but couldn’t because I was so overcome with relief.

I heard someone clear their voice from the doorway and I turned around to see my father standing there bewildered. Shit.

“I was in between cases and heard you were down here with a friend, so I thought I would check in on you. Is everything alright?”

I wiped the tears from my face after I pulled my hand from Jessie’s.

“Dad, this is Jessie Boone. We go to school together. He took a hit on the field today and was unconscious for a while. When he came to, he couldn’t feel his arm, but the feeling is coming back now.”

He looked at me like he knew we were more than classmates. “Sounds like you got a stinger. It should be fine with no permanent damage if you’re already regaining feeling. If that’s what it turns out to be, then you’re very lucky and I know Coach Osborne will be relieved.”

“Yes, sir. I’m considering myself very lucky right now.”

My father’s eyes floated to Jessie’s tattoo peeking out from his hospital gown and I winced internally. This was not the way I would have wanted my dad to meet Jessie and I felt relief when I heard his pager alarm.

He looked down at it and said, “I’ve got a patient going on the table, so I need to run. It was nice to meet you, Jessie, and I’ll see you at home later, Claire.”

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Deveraux and thank you for checking in on me,” Jessie said.

When my dad was gone, I realized I had been holding my breath and I heard Jessie exhale deeply.

He looked at me and said, “Whoa, that was awkward, Princess. I’m not too good at doing the parent thing.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “That’s not how I would have planned that.”

He smiled and asked, “Does that mean you would want me to meet your parents?”

The thought of Jessie coming to my house to meet my family stirred butterflies in my stomach, both from nervousness and excitement.“Of course, I would want you to meet my parents if we started dating. Wouldn’t you want me to eventually meet yours if we became a couple?”

There it was again-that strange look on his face and he avoided answering my question by saying, “I suggest you begin to think about how you’re going to explain to your father about why you were making out with me.”

“I was not making out with you,” I argued.

“I bet it didn’t look that way to your father from where he stood,” he pointed out.

He was right. I had some explaining to do, but first I had to decide. Would I choose the safe and comfortable thing by staying with Forbes to keep from rocking the boat or choose Jessie with a potentially explosive outcome?

18 A Tangled Web

Jessie

Although the circumstances were only hypothetical, hearing Claire speak about us being a couple did strange things to my insides. I should have been thinking and plotting how to take Forbes down for what he did to me, but I forgot about vengeance when I looked at Claire because my feelings for her overruled my desire to hurt Forbes. I didn’t want her out of revenge against her boyfriend. I wanted her because I had fallen in love with her and now I had to figure out how to convince her she belonged with me instead of him.

I heard the sliding of the exam curtain and looked up to see the emergency room doctor entering my room. “Mister Boone, the nurses tell me that you have regained feeling in your arm. That’s great news and it reassures me that your injury is mostly likely what we refer to as a stinger. We see it fairly often in athletes.”

“What exactly is it that happens when you get a stinger?” I asked.

He demonstrated by moving his own head and neck as he explained, “It can happen one of two ways. Either your head and neck were forced against your shoulder and the nerves that lead from the spinal cord to that arm were compressed, or your head and neck were forced away from the shoulder and those nerves were stretched. Both are considered minor and I expect you to make a full recovery, but it could have been a devastating injury had it occurred to your left shoulder because of it’s previous extensive trauma.”

If I was going to be alright, I only had one question on my mind. “When can I get back on the field?”

He laughed at my eagerness. “You should probably take tomorrow off from practice, then you may resume playing on Wednesday. I want to observe you a couple of more hours and if everything still looks alright, then I think we can let you go home.”

“Thank you, doc.”

Before he left, he told me, “You’re welcome and I’m glad it didn’t turn out to be more serious. You’re a lucky young man.”

I was lucky, but if Forbes knew the damage he could cause to my other shoulder, I might not have been quite so lucky.

I knew it was coming, so I wasn’t surprised when she asked, “What kind of trauma have you had?”

Even if the doctor hadn’t mentioned my injury, I knew Claire would have seen the significant scarring when my jersey was cut off by the EMTs. I didn’t want her to know I had been shot or the circumstances leading up to it, so I lied, “I tore the rotator cuff in my left shoulder and I’ve had to have some extensive surgery to repair it. The guys don’t know and I want to keep it that way because as you heard, it could be used against me.”

“Trust me, I can keep a secret,” she promised and I took her at her word. “Was it painful?”

“Let’s just say that I don’t recommend it.”

She looked down at her watch and said, “If you’re getting released in a couple of hours, I think I should call Payton and see if she will drive my car here so I can take you home.”