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“Yeah.” I wish I could leave it at that, but that won’t do. “I went to San Antonio.”
She laces her hands together. “Really?”
“When I got there, it looked like he’d been in a fight. He had a big gash across his forehead and bandages over his hands.”
Sophie gasps and covers her mouth. Remembering his swollen face, my stomach turns.
“He’d had an accident. And it happened about a week after he’d torn up his leg.” I pause. “Did you know that his injury is called the unhappy triad? It’s the worst knee injury to get—two ligaments and a meniscus are torn.”
Sophie cringes. “Poor Alec. That’s a fun fact I’ll have to remember, the unhappy triad.” Sophie gives a half-smile. “Not that it’s ‘fun,’ of course.” She’s a trivia geek. She likes sharing strange but true tidbits with the kids who come into the library.
“And this accident was in addition to that?” she asks.
I nod. “Gabriel went out there to be with him after the knee injury, but when he had to go back home to Denver, Alec decided to try to drive.”
“What made him think he could do that?” Sophie stares at me. She’s intrigued. She’s never been one to back down from finding answers about things. It’s part of what makes her such a good librarian. Her mind is insatiable—when one question gets answered, three more crop up.
“He…wasn’t in his right frame of mind.” My voice betrays my apprehension in sharing more. “He wasn’t supposed to mix his pain medication with anything stronger than an energy drink. But he did—” I cut myself off. I don’t want to betray Alec’s trust, but this is Sophie and I need her to understand why I had to go.
She nods, knowing what I’m getting at.
“Thankfully, the accident wasn’t too bad. No one else was hurt. But he was scraped up, and his knee had been bumped, which set his recovery back.”
“That’s good it wasn’t worse,” she says. I can see the anguish in her eyes, and I know she cares.
“I was just about to fly into Denver from some scouting in New York when I got his call. He sounded miserable, and asked me not to tell anyone. I changed my flight to San Antonio.”
I grip the oars again and row. “It was humiliating for him. Demoralizing. Here, he’d just been injured in a pre-season game, of all things. It was looking like it would possibly end his career because of its severity and because surgery didn’t go like they’d hoped. And then Gabriel left, and Alec got to thinking about Callie.”
Sophie swallowed hard. “The college girlfriend who died.”
I could only nod. After a minute of tortured thought, I spoke again. “He was depressed and out of it and wanted to take a drive to her gravesite…in Austin.”
Her brows go up. “Austin’s like, a couple of hours away from San Antonio, right?”
“Yeah. He only got a few miles into the trip before he swerved and hit a chain link fence. Thankfully not much damage to property since he was going slow. But…he was embarrassed. He ended up losing his license for a year.”
“Sounds like you were exactly where you needed to be, Oliver.” She gives a soft laugh and the sound of it carries over the swish of water.
I know she’s right, but that doesn’t mean I handled everything in the right way.
“I’m glad I went to help him. But Sophie, it was inconsiderate to not contact you sooner. And to not follow up was just—"
She’s fidgeting with her hair clip now. The way she looks in that dress—it’s the perfect amount of a little too tight—combined with her long curls is messing with my mind.
I suddenly forget all the reasons why I’m not supposed to fall for her.
“Oliver, it really helps to know why. It’s okay.”
We grow quiet, and I’m exhausted. The waves are in our favor now, and we’ve almost reached the other side. It’s the uninhabited side. Owned by the government. It’s quiet here and wild. Still untamed. Yeah, the sand’s not great. It’s got weeds and bugs. But I want to get there and sit on the beach, however rocky, with Sophie.
Sophie speaks up again. “It did bother me. And I thought, let’s just play it cool. He’s probably outgrown our little rendezvous.”
“Outgrown? I’ll never outgrow closing night.” I rest the oars on my lap and reach over and touch her knee. Her dress just barely covers it, but a pang hits me. I wish I could trace her kneecap with my finger—her warm, bare skin beckons to me.
A thousand bad words form in my mind because I’m pining after Sophie Lawson’s…kneecap?
She stares down at my hand. “Except you will outgrow it, because we can’t keep doing this forever.”
