“No.” Her voice floats softly over my head. “We can’t.”
I still don’t move, for how long, I don’t know. Then I lift my head, straighten, and take her hands in mine. Her beautiful face is blurred from the wetness in my eyes. “I love you, Ayla.”
She holds my gaze. “I love you, too.”
I voice my biggest fear. “Is it enough?”
“I… I don’t know.” A smile touches her mouth. “But I think love is pretty powerful.”
I nod. “I think… I need to do some thinking.”
Her eyes shadow. “Okay.”
I squeeze her hands. “I want to make this work. I love you. We can’t have our old life back… but maybe we can have something different. Something better. I know I fucked up a lot. I just need time to process it all.”
“I understand. That’s probably a good idea for both of us. This was a lot.”
I search her face. “Do you want to make this work?”
She swallows and her bottom lip quivers. “I do.”
“Those are nice words.”
She gives me a shaky smile. “They are.”
* * *
“It’s a split tear of the ulnotriquetral ligament.”
“Say what?”
Trev grimaces. “A split tear of the ulnotriquetral ligament. It’s a ligament in the ulnar side of the wrist that connects your two forearm bones.”
I nod. “Okay. But the MRI was normal.”
“Yeah. The doctor said this condition is weird like that. The pain only happens with certain activities, and X-rays and MRIs can be normal. And usually, ligament injuries involve a rupture, but a UT split tear is different. The ligament is still attached to the bones on both ends, but is split open lengthwise.”
I wince. “So… surgery?”
“Yeah.” He sighs. “95 percent success rate.”
“Well, that sounds positive.”
Trev’s mouth tightens. “I won’t be able to play for months.”
“Shit.”
“I think I might wait.”
“Did you ask the doctor about that?”
“Yeah.” He drops his gaze.
“Is there risk of damaging it more?”
He doesn’t reply at first, then says, “He said it’s possible I could completely rupture the ligament.”
“Jesus.” I rub my jaw. “You can’t wait.”
