Page 12 of If All Else Sails
How little attention was I paying that I didn’t hear him crutching his way over to give this to me?
“Thanks,” I mumble, taking the water.
Don’t be too thankful, I remind myself.It’s honestly theleasthe can do.
Wyatt only nods, then hauls himself back across the room, leaning the crutches against the wall again. The tense look on his face is even tenser. His cheeks are flushed. Embarrassment or...
Pain, I realize. And I should have recognized the signs earlier.
But I was a little preoccupied—what with the whole police situation.
“What’s wrong with you, by the way?” I ask, unable to stop myself. “You broke your foot?”
Wyatt’s grimace of pain deepens into a frown. “It’s not broken,” he mutters. “I’m fine.”
“He’s not fine,” Jacob says, as clear as if he were in the room. “He has an injury—ironically from playing disc golf, not from hockey—”
“That’s not irony,” Wyatt says.
What I really want to know is, how does one get injured playingdisc golf? So many questions.
Jacob snorts.
“It’s a little ironic,” I say, earning me a dark look from Wyatt. “Getting injured in a noncontact, non-sport when you play hockey with body checking and fistfights and blades strapped to your feet.”
“Disc golf is a sport,” Wyatt says.
“It’s the equivalent of, like, cornhole. Or pickleball.”
“Both of which are also sports.”
“Just because something has a ball—”
“Or a bean bag,” Wyatt interrupts.
I roll my eyes. “—does not make it a sport.”
“ESPN televises pickleball tournaments and cornhole. There are professionals who play in the ACL—the American Cornhole League.”
“Next you’re going to tell me there’s a professional league for disc golf,” I say with a laugh.
“The PDGA,” Wyatt says with a smug little smile.
“Anyway,” Jacob says, raising his voice, reminding us that he is still on the phone. “If you’re all done with this delightful little argument, that’s why you’re there, Josie.”
“To help Wyatt understand what is and is not an actual sport?”
“No.” Jacob sounds exasperated, which makes me happier than it probably should. “Wyatt’s not taking care of himself,” he continues. “Blowing off doctor’s follow-up visits and not going to his PT appointments.”
Okay. Well, none of those behaviors sounds good. Especially for a pro athlete. But I’m not sure what they have to do withme.
Unless...he’s not planning to go back?
Surely adisc golf injurywouldn’t kill his hockey career. I can’t see a professional athlete ever living that down.
Wyatt’s cheeks are still red, and he’s slumped a little more against the wall now. He looks worse than a few minutes ago.
Which is saying something. The man normally looks like someone waved a magic wand and made a model step right out of aMen’s Fitnessad selling underwear or abs or smoldering gazes. As much as I dislike the man, I can’t deny his pure physical appeal.
