Page 99 of Heal Me, Love Me

“Do you want me to crash?”

“Well, I’d prefer not to make a second trip to the hospital, so do whatever you need to do.”

After a couple more adjustments, he finally started the car.

As we pulled out of the parking garage, my phone vibrated in my pocket. It took some effort, but I finally wrestled it free. I had several notifications, the most recent from Derek, and more from the other guys at Titan, and Devon. The most were from Rowan. Knowing he deserved a call rather than a text update, I clicked his contact and then tapped the call icon.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you,” he answered immediately. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Keaton,” he sighed, sounding exasperated.

I tried to get comfortable in my seat. “Okay, I’m not fine, but I don’t know exactly what’s going on either.”

“What happened?” he asked.

“Enzo and I were wrestling, and I went in for a takedown but got caught in a bad position.”

“How?”

I let out a breath. “I got lazy and tried to brace myself with my arm, which fucked up my shoulder.”

“You know better than that.”

“Trust me, I’m aware,” I snapped back, though I knew I had no reason to lash out at him. “Sorry, I’m just frustrated.”

“I get it,” he replied. “Is it dislocated?”

“Partially. They called it a subluxation.” I adjusted again, trying to get comfortable.

“But they got it back in?”

“Yeah, then they did X-rays, put me in a stupid sling, and told me to follow up with orthopedics.”

“X-rays were okay?”

“Nothing’s broken.”

Rowan exhaled so hard I heard it through the phone. “That’s good.”

“Sure.”

“Itisgood.”

“Yeah.” I closed my eyes for a second. “I know it’s good.”

But the ER doctor hadn’t ruled out everything, which left me wondering how badly this would affect my career.

“How bad do they think it is?” he asked.

“They don’t know yet, and I won’t know until I see the orthopedic doctor.”

“When’s that?”

“No clue.” The answer irritated me all over again. I hated not knowing and hated waiting even more, especially when every decision came down to appointments, imaging, and other people telling me what my body was allowed to do. “You still at training?” I asked.

“No. Grant was walking me through sponsor stuff when Mason texted. Then I took off,” he explained.