Page 21 of The Long Game

"I’m fine, I’m fine!" She tries to shoo Luca’s concerns. "How’s Tucker?" she asks him.

He doesn’t say anything. He just shakes his head.

Her eyes grip back onto me but I won’t meet them.

As soon as Luca and Brielle stop hovering and help her to stand, Lexi starts walking towards me as she scans my body. She looks almost horrified at whatever she sees.

I notice her knees are scraped up from her impact with the cement sidewalk. I can’t shake the feeling of guilt for that, even though I saved her from much worse. Protecting Lexi from harm is somehow so far ingrained in me that, somehow, I feel I should have been able to have prevented that, too.

Luca helps the paramedics as they lift me and set me on the gurney. Luca’s bigger than the two small paramedics and he knows a thing or two about lifting a 230 lb football player. He lifted my broken ass off the field all through our high school years playing together, more times than I can count.

He looks at me with a pained look. I just suffered an injury to my ankle and knee that could be career ending. He and I have both watched players not come back from similar injuries. Especially if it turns out to be worse than it looks.

I know pain. My chosen profession demands it. But this? It tops most injuries I’ve received on the field. The paramedics are checking me out after Luca helped them load me into the back ofthe ambulance. The softening of Lexi’s eyes towards me almost makes this worth it.

She takes a few more quick steps towards me and is about to say something, but Allie rushes in, half drunk and slurring her words.

She plants a wet kiss that would have been hot twenty minutes ago in the bar, but I could do without it now.

Lexi takes a step back. She is making assumptions about the legitimacy of Allie and I.

I’m torn; I want Lexi to run to me. Maybe I also want her to hurt her like she has hurt me. I let her think Allie is more than a bar hook-up only long enough for Lexi to turn and walk away, but not long enough to let Allie ride to the hospital with me. Hell no. That isn’t happening.

She’ll find another baller to end up with tonight, but it won’t be me. I wonder how many followers she thought she’d get from a post from inside an ambulance with Tucker Evans. I’m not in the mood to boost her social media presence.

As they lock the gurney in place, I notice something on Lexi’s left hand, wrapped around her thumb – my Super Bowl ring. She’s wearing it.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold on," I beg the first responders to stop but it’s too late, the doors are closing, and we are set in motion headed for the hospital.

I feel my pockets for my phone. It must have slipped out of my pocket when I slid over the top of the car.

Goddamn it!

Lexi had showed up to the bar dressed for sex and wearing my ring. She had come to celebrate my win and possibly to stand beside me when I won another Super Bowl. But now with this injury, I’m out of the game and my team will likely suffer. The idea that Lexi would want anything to do with me after seeingme warming up with a groupie…it confirms everything she thought about me.

My phone turns out not to be lost, but it was smashed in the collision with the car. Luca brings its sad remains to the hospital for me. I’ll have to wait to get out of the hospital to get a new one to contact Lexi.

She doesn’t come to see me in the hospital that night, either.

She sends flowers to the hotel I’m staying in after my emergency knee surgery. Luca finally delivers my favorite cookies, made by Lexi, with a short note.

Sorry I almost got you killed. Maybe you should stop trying to save my life. It’s bad for your health. Hope she’s taking good care of you.

P.S. She probably deserves this ring more than I do.

Wrapped in the note is the Super Bowl ring I put on her finger. She’s given it back. She’s done.

When I get a new phone a week later, I try to call and text. She doesn’t respond back to either.

I’ve lost it all.

Lexi

Lilly: How did it go? Are you Mrs. Evans yet?

Lexi: He’s with someone. I lost him. I can’t believe I thought he’d wait for me.

I feel the tears I had just stopped start rolling down my cheeks again.

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