Page 33 of Ready to Score

Just as quickly as it came, the moment was gone, and Jade was left to park her ass in one of the uncomfortable waiting room chairs.

It was almost three hours before the doors opened and Lim walked back out to the waiting room. Jade stood up to go meet her halfway to the door.

“I figured you would have left by now,” Lim said. Her eyes were open and clear now, but Jade could already see the dark circles beginning to form under them.

“Well, I have your car,” she said. “Is it a concussion, then?”

“No, thank God. Just a migraine triggered by the hit.”

“They gave you a CT scan to be thorough, right?”

Lim rolled her eyes and started walking. “Yes, Mommy, I promise they took the little picture thingy of my brain.”

Jade coughed, suddenly a little warm despite the sterile coldness of the room they were in. “Come on, let’s get you home before you pass out.”

The heavy-duty ibuprofen they’d given her at the hospital mixed with the anti-nausea pills seemed to make Lim drowsy from the way she leaned her head against the window the entire drive. She didn’t fall asleep, but every time Jade took her eyes off the road to peek over and make sure she was all right, Lim was looking at her. It made Jade too nervous to acknowledge, so each time she cut her eyes back ahead as quickly as she could.

“Did you tell Landry to call my old team in Texas?” Lim asked quietly.

Jade choked. “Uh… What? Why?”

“I got a call from my old head coach asking me what I was getting into out here. He told me he’d gotten a call from Landry asking about me. I’m not trying to accuse you of anything. I just figure… that type of thing seems up your alley.”

“Up my alley?”

“Yeah.” Lim sighed and shifted in her seat so her back was pressed against the passenger-side door. “It’s definitely up your alley to try to catch me in a lie, just so you can get me tossed out on my ass.”

Jade’s hand tightened on the wheel. Her stomach flipped like shewas taking a long drop off a rickety roller coaster. “And maybe you’re paranoid.”

“Or maybe I’m right.”

They stopped at a red light, and Jade pressed her foot down firmly on the brakes and glanced over at Lim again. She didn’t look high, but she did look tired. Her eyes were heavy, drooping more and more every time she blinked. Jade took in Lim’s ruddy cheeks and her chapped lips and found herself struck by how lovely she looked even still. Those eyes were hard to look away from—they were hard to lie to.

“It’s just protocol, you know,” Jade said. “We need to make sure we’re doing reference checks on everyone. People lie, Lim. You know that.”

Lim blinked at her slowly once, then closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the glass. “Sure, Jade.”

When Jade put her foot on the gas to pull forward, the motion made her feel nauseous.

Lim lived in an older four-unit apartment building just around the corner from where Miri and her mother had lived for over twenty years. Whoever owned the building hadn’t made any updates, but it was clear that it had been kept up well. All cherrywood floors and the original black-and-white subway tile in the bathroom. Lim didn’t seem to have central heating or air, but there were two window units in the place, one in the living room and one in the bedroom. It was stuffy and hot when they walked in the front door, the living room still catching plenty of light from the dusky setting sun.

Immediately, Jade moved to crank both window units up high to get the air moving. Then she sat Lim down on the couch, helping her to get her shoes off.

“If you don’t have a concussion, maybe you should have a little nap.”

“Yeah, okay,” Lim said, nodding with a wince. “Thank you for doing all this, but you really can go now. I’ll be fine.”

Jade sighed, taking the blanket that rested on the back of the couch and throwing it over Lim so that it covered her entire body. “Is this a comfortable temperature?”

“I feel fine.”

Jade narrowed her eyes. “Do you?”

Lim looked at her, heavy eyes wide open for the first time in hours. But it was only for a split second before they were back to the soft, sleepy gaze. “Why do you always have to fight me, Jade?”

“I don’t.” She knew the words were a flat-out lie the second they left her mouth.

Lim giggled. “You’re literally doing it right now.”

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