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WREN
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.The monitor attached to Tatum chirped away as it had for hours. Nurses had replaced his uniform with a gown before they moved him to a room. He’d been resting since I arrived at the hospital.
My knee throbbed after sitting for so long. I stood to stretch and peeled my eyes away from Tatum’s handsome face. For the first time, a smile tugged at my cheeks. How had I only just noticed his massive feet poking out from under the covers?
I draped my blanket over his legs and settled back into the bedside recliner. The stream of adrenaline fueling me finally weaned as the day caught up to me.
After Gideon pulled me onto the field and Tatum kissed me, the crowd erupted, and the show went on. I danced the rest of the game with my heart miles away in the ICU while Catherine Trumble glared at me from her post by the tunnel. Hauling me off the sidelines would’ve caused a scene and that wasn’t her style. But the look on her face told me I was in for it.
So, I bolted when the game clock hit zero.
I was still in my Reds uniform, pom-poms in my hand as I ran to the parking lot. I didn’t bother changing or packing my things in the locker room. I grabbed my keys, wallet and phone, breezed past an irate cluster of Ladies in Red staffers, and sprinted to the parking lot. Outside, Heidi flagged me down. She was waiting with my driver, Kaya, to go with me to the hospital.
Tatum stirred and startled me from my daydream. His eyes slowly surveyed the room. A frown twitched at the corners of his mouth. “Where am I?” he rasped.
“Hey,” I laid my hand on his. “You’re in the hospital. Do you remember coming here?”
Slowly, he nodded and surveyed the room. “How long have you been here?” Squinting, he took in the clusterfuck of an outfit that I was wearing: a Red Cocks sweatshirt Heidi had with her, green scrub pants provided by a friendly nurse, and my leather dancing boots. My big, blonde game-day curls had been tied back with a rubber band from the nursing station, and I had washed my makeup off with industrial hand soap and a paper towel.
“A few hours. Kaya drove Heidi and me here.” I sighed. “Which is probably good because I had no idea which hospital they brought you to. I wasn’t sure they’d even let me in. Kaya knows how to get her way. She’s scary when she wants to be.”
“How’d Seth do?” he asked. That was just like him—still caring about the annoying new kid, even when he had just watched his life flash before his eyes.
I smiled softly. “He did great. Got a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Pulled out the win for the team.”
“Baby, I’m sorry I—”
“Save it.” I pressed my finger to his lips. Instead of arguing with me, he kissed it. “I don’t care about the team. I don’t care about the consequences. Not anymore.” Even as the words came out, a pang resounded deep in my heart. I knew what I was giving up.
Tatum pursed his lips. He was sore, injured, and frustrated. “I can’t believe we kept us a secret this long, and I was the one to blow it. I shouldn’t have called you on the field like that.”
None of it mattered now.
“Have they told you anything?” he asked as I stroked the top of his hand. “The doctors, I mean.”
I nodded. “Concussion. They’re probably going to keep you overnight for observation. Out for at least a week. No field time, no workouts. Then it’ll be up to the team to decide when you go back.”
“If I go back by the end of the season,” he mumbled.
I squeezed his hand. “You’ll have the playoffs. Maybe the championship if the boys step up and get the team there.”
“What about you?”
I wrinkled my nose. “What about me?”
“The team. The rules. Your place on the squad…”
We both knew from the get-go what would happen if they discovered our relationship. The team would fine Tatum, but I would get kicked off the squad.
Nobody ever said life was fair.
I looked at my phone. “I got a call from the assistant director a little while ago. She told me to be at the facilities for a meeting tomorrow afternoon.”
“I’m going with you.” He was adamant. And when Tatum got something in his head, there was little I could do about it.
“You need to be at home, resting.”
He clenched his jaw. “I’m going with you. And if they don’t discharge me, I’ll leave AMA.”
