Page 141 of Faking It With My Pucking Protector
The buzz of the arena, that roaring, pulsing energy…
It starts to feel like white noise.
I sit down slowly, trying to breathe.
I keep telling myself he’s fine.
But my stomach won’t stop twisting.
Chapter Forty-Two
JACKSON
The second the door closes behind me, I yank off my gloves and hurl them at the nearest wall.
The trainer’s already waiting. “Sit,” he says, calm but firm. “Let’s take a look.”
The sounds of the game still bleed in from the tunnel: skates carving ice, the piercing shriek of a whistle, a wave of crowd noise rising like a storm front.
I sit on the edge of the padded table, jersey unfastened, shoulder aching deep and hot. The head trainer steps in, crouching beside me as he rotates my arm. Every movement sends a pulse through my jaw. I grit my teeth and stay still.
It’s the left shoulder. Same one that’s been bugging me on and off since the last round. I’d been keeping it under control: ice, rest, not saying too much.
“Yeah,” he mutters. “You’re locked up pretty good. Same shoulder?”
I nod, jaw rigid. “Been bothering me for a few weeks. Mainly tightness, nothing like this.”
“Any shooting pain?”
“No.”
But now it’s a deep, unyielding ache, throbbing harder as the adrenaline wears off.
One of them lifts my arm just a little and I hiss through my teeth.
“Still think it’s mostly bruising,” the lead trainer mutters, fingers probing gently. “Maybe an aggravated rotator cuff. We’ll get a better picture in the morning.”
“MRI?” I ask, jaw still clenched.
“Yeah. You’re on the schedule first thing. Nothing feels dislocated, but I don’t like how locked up it is. You’re done for tonight, Hart.”
I close my eyes, drag in a breath. “Of course, I am.”
He doesn’t answer. Just secures a thick ice pack to my shoulder and wraps it firmly with elastic tape, strapping it down across my chest and upper arm.
“That should hold for now. Try not to move it more than you have to.”
I hate this.
Being pulled from the game. Watching from the tunnel. Knowing Ava’s up there somewhere in the crowd and saw the whole damn thing.
She’s going to worry.
I hope the boys didn’t see this.
I rub my hand down my face, the cold from the ice pack already leeching into my skin.
This was supposed to be our night.
