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He grunted. “Well, for the short three months I was there, it was great.”
“Three months?”
“We were doing a practice, I lunged for the ball, and landed wrong on my foot and ruptured my Achilles and somehow managed to throw a little permanent nerve damage in there. Ended my career before it really even started.”
She’d had no idea he’d been injured. When she saw him at her grandma’s house, she’d just assumed he hadn’t made it, not that the career was snatched from him.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
Jack shrugged. “Eh, it is what it is. I… I love my life. I mean, I was angry at first. Disappointed. Rehab was a bear. I’d banked on football and never thought I’d be facing a life without it.”
She couldn’t begin to imagine the grief. “That must have been so hard.”
“At first, it was. I went from having my life mapped out to wondering what to do with myself.”
“Looks like you’ve done okay.”
“I have. It started with carving wood, making tables and desks, and moved to contracting and renovations.”
She looked at him. “Carving wood?” She had to admit she was a little more than shocked.
Nodding, he replied, “Yeah, I couldn’t do much as far as getting around, but my dad had this rolling stool in his shop. I started teaching myself to have something to do.”
“That’s awesome. Maybe you can show me sometime.”
“Maybe.” Something in his voice made her glance at him. A wrinkle between his eyes and the downturn of his lips gave her the feeling that he’d shown someone, and it hadn’t gone well. It was sad, especially knowing how his football career ended.
“I promise if you show me, I’ll be gentle.”
That elicited a soft laugh. “Still going with maybe for now.”
She smiled. “Okay.” She shrugged. “I felt the same way when I first started taking pictures. I wanted to be a better photographer, but sometimes people were heavy-handed with their criticism. It made it hard to keep pursuing it sometimes.”
He looked at her, and his mouth dropped open. “Now I remember you. You took a bunch of the yearbook photos.”
“Yeah, that was me.”
“You did a good job.”
She gave him a side-eye. “As if you remember that.”
He palmed the spot over his heart. “I… Okay, fine, I don’t remember.”
Bumping him with her shoulder, he stumbled and quickly righted himself.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I was a bit of a wallflower. I took the photos as quickly as I could and jetted.”
“I was probably goofing off with my friends and wasn’t paying attention.”
They reached her front porch, and she turned to face him. “I think we were all like that in our own way. We were kids. Caught up in our own problems. Self-centered and stupid.”
He snorted. “You got the stupid part right.”
They laughed together, and it slowly died to an almost awkward silence. “Well, I guess I better get inside,” Jo said.
His gaze held hers as he shot her a half smile, and her stomach dipped and dived. That was one fantastic smile. “Yeah, I probably need to get back too. I guess… I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah, see you around.” Jo turned and tried not to run up the steps. When she got to the front door, she opened the screen door and paused. “Thanks again for walking me home.”
