Making the Play (23 page)

As soon as he reached the ground floor, Grant realized he'd left his phone charging on the nightstand. The clock over the concierge's desk reminded him that he only had twenty minutes to get across town for his physical. He didn't have time to wait for the elevator to head back to the room.

Damn it.

He was going to have to wait to call Bethany after his meeting. Grant prayed she was too busy with the kids at work today to even notice. “Excuse me, can you call a cab to pick me up?”

“Right away, Mr. McQuaid.”

“Thank you,” he muttered, heading out to the sidewalk in front of the hotel.

It wasn't unusual for ­people in Memphis to recognize him and, normally Grant was flattered, but today it was just a reminder of what was at stake with this doctor's appointment, as well as everything he was placing at risk if he didn't give it everything he had. Grant rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, unsure why he wasn't feeling more optimistic about today's outcome. He'd worked, sweated and literally bled for this moment for the last three months.

Maybe it was because, regardless of the outcome, he was going to lose something he loved.

 

Chapter Twenty-­Three

B
ETHANY WOKE S
LOWLY,
dragging herself from sleep, rubbing at her eyes. They felt heavy, gritty, and it took her a moment to remember why. Before her grief could take root too deeply, James appeared at her doorway, rubbing his eyes.

“Mom?” His voice was thick with sleep and still groggy.

Crap! It's Monday.

Bethany reached for her cell phone to see the battery dead after she'd dropped it on her bed, waiting for a text from Grant. She bolted down the stairs to look at the clock on the stove. Sure enough, the clock made it clear they were running late. Insanely late.

She ran back up the stairs and into James' room, pulling clothes from his drawer and shuffling him into the bathroom. Bethany washed his face quickly, tugging his t-­shirt over his head and signing to him to finish dressing because they were late. As he dressed, she grabbed his earpieces and slid the battery packs onto his arms. She hated having to rush him out of his world of silence but they weren't just a little late, they were an hour late.

“Baby, I'm going to have to make you peanut butter and you can eat it in the car, okay? We're really, really late.”

I don't want to go to school
, he signed.

“What's wrong? Is it your stomach?” Bethany automatically pressed the back of her fingers against his forehead, testing for a temperature.

James ducked his head. “No,” he mumbled. When he looked up, she could see the tears welling in his eyes.

“Oh, baby, come here.”

Bethany held out her arms and he threw himself into them. It didn't take much for her to know that this had far more to do with Grant's leaving than it did a virus. She held him as his tears slid over his cheeks, pooling on the shoulder of the t-­shirt she'd fallen asleep in. She leaned back to look him in the eye.

“What do you think about taking a mental health day today?” His forehead knitted as he frowned. “It's where you forget about all the things that are making you feel sick or sad, and you watch movies and eat ice cream all day,” she explained.

James gave her a single shoulder shrug. She'd hoped for a more enthusiastic reaction but it would have to do.

“Why don't you go take a bath and I'll bring in the bubbles after I call the school to let them know we aren't going to be there today, okay?”

His lower lip stuck out but he nodded.

It was a start and that was what they both needed. To simply keep putting one foot in front of the other until it became natural again, even if it meant moving forward without Grant.

“
G
RANT, HAVE A
seat.”

After all the testing they'd put him through, he should be glad they'd even allowed him time to shower afterward. Not that he'd had much of an opportunity to stop since he'd arrived almost five hours ago. Between the blood work and the fitness testing, this was the first time he wasn't being poked, prodded or attached to some kind of machine. Oddly enough, even with his lack of sleep, the realization that the time had come to finally get some answers had him wired and unable to sit still.

“You okay?”

“I'm good. I
feel
good.” Grant didn't want to sound overeager but he felt like he was in the best physical shape he'd been in for more than three years. “So what's the verdict?”

Dr. Grady glanced in the folder in front of him, flipping through a few pages before he folded his hands over it and sighed. “Grant, I know you feel like you could climb a mountain. In fact,
that
you could probably do. But I just don't feel that your body can take the strain of another season. You've had several concussions in the past year, too many. The brain can only take so many hits before it begins to show signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Even if you don't have signs of CTE now, who knows what will show up in the future? Not to mention that the C5 and C6 vertebrae are showing some deterioration of the disc. You probably remember that these are the two vertebrae we were most concerned with during your last injury.”

Grant knew what was coming. He'd known it before he'd flown to Memphis. He should have saved them all the time and just stayed home with Bethany, not put everyone through the torment. “So what are you saying, Doc?”

“In a nutshell, you're finished with football, Grant. It's time to retire and move on to the next chapter of your life.”

Grant's jaw jutted slightly as he tried not to clench it. The doctor tried to make the future sound great, and it might have worked if he had a next chapter to begin but, in reality, Grant had nothing to build a life on save a few side investments and an offer from a network.

You have Bethany. Go home.

The image of his beautiful Bethany filled his mind, his arms aching to hold her. But what good was he to her or James now? Unemployed and, other than the job in New York, unemployable unless he wanted to mentor rookies on his old team in hopes it might turn into a coaching job one day. He had his business degree but he'd never planned on doing anything with it because there had only been one profession on his mind, and now that was being stripped away from him. Bethany and James needed a man who could provide for them, a man who could take care of them, not a has-­been with nothing to offer. He didn't even have his own place to stay unless it was a canvas tent in the foothills.

Grant ran a hand through his hair. “So you won't clear me to play?”

He knew there was no real point in asking but the words slipped out anyway. He wasn't sure what else to say, which way to turn, as his world seemed to crash in on itself.

“As your doctor, I can't recommend that you play. I doubt the team doctors will see it any differently, but you're welcome to see them instead and try. But, Grant, as your friend, I'm telling you not to do this. You take many more hits like you did last season and I don't see those vertebrae holding up. It would only take getting hit once, or landing the wrong way, and you could be paralyzed. It's too risky.”

Grant rubbed his fingers and thumb over his chin. “Life is risky,” he pointed out. “The same thing could happen on a horse at my parents' ranch.”

“True, but how often have you fallen off a horse and taken a hard hit to the head the way you do in football, day in and day out? Is it something you do every single day?”

Grant knew there was no arguing, cajoling or begging that was going to change this situation. He'd suspected this was going to be the outcome but to hear the words finally spoken, to know with absolute certainty that his career was over when he still felt in his prime, was devastating.

“Grant, you've got a lot ahead of you.” Dr. Grady cocked his head to one side, as if trying to read Grant's expression. “This is a setback, but you are the most tenacious man I've ever met. Take some time and think about what you really want to do with the rest of your life. Then go do it.”

This coming from a man who didn't have the same statistics at his disposal that Grant did. He knew most retired football players ended up bankrupt, that most ended up with broken bodies and empty pocketbooks. For all the media hype about million-­dollar contracts, most players never saw the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, either because of injury, poor money management or corruption within the system. He'd taken a few steps to make sure that didn't happen to him but, unfortunately, those few investments weren't enough to create the future he wanted with Bethany and James now and he was at a loss as to which way to turn now.

B
ETHANY SLID H
ER
phone out of her desk drawer as Julie led twenty-­five Kindergarten students out to recess. It had been two days since she'd gotten the initial message from Grant telling her he'd call. Tapping the screen, she searched for a text message that she knew wasn't there. She checked her voice mail again, even though her phone didn't show any missed calls. He hadn't called, nor had he send a message by text, email or carrier pigeon.

Face it, Bethany, you've been blown off.

It was just as likely he was busy. She was trying to stay positive, to trust the man she had met here in Hidden Falls and ignore the speculations being thrown around in Memphis on television. But it wasn't easy when her father called demanding to know the latest information about Grant McQuaid's rumored retirement. It hadn't gone over well when she told him that she honestly had no idea about what he had planned, nor did it keep her father from asking if he needed to hunt the man down while he was in town. Obviously both of her parents could see the writing on the wall faster than she had—­if she didn't know about his retirement decision, she wasn't as close to Grant as she'd thought she was.

If he loved you, he'd have told you his plans, talked them over with you.

She scrolled through the text messages on her phone again.

“Nothing yet?”

Bethany nearly dropped the phone when she saw Steven standing in the doorway. She slid her cell back into her desk and rose, smoothing her maxi skirt over her thighs. “Sorry, I should have gone out there with you guys and not stuck you with all the kids.”

Steven raised a hand. “It's fine, Bethany. I'm not completely heartless. I could see you were upset when you got here this morning. It didn't take a brain surgeon to put that together with the fact that neither you nor James was here yesterday, the same day that McQuaid left town. Are you okay?”

Bethany took a deep breath, willing the lump in her throat to go away as she bit the corner of her lower lip to make it happen. “Yeah.”

A one-­word answer was the best she could manage.

He sat on the corner of the kids' table in front of her desk. She followed suit and leaned back against the edge of her desk with her hands behind her, needing something solid to cling to right now since everything else in her life seemed to have been turned on its head. She wasn't sure Steven was the best person to confide in right now, especially considering she'd turned down a second date with him to be with Grant, but she really needed a friend right now.

“You don't sound sure. What about James?”

“We'll both be fine. I mean, it's stupid really.” She let go of the table and crossed her arms over her chest. “It's not like we were dating for months, right?”

Steven shrugged slightly. “Rejection always stings a little.”

Guilt circled her, the way a storm comes in, rolling in waves. “Steven, I never meant to—­”

“Bethany, don't. It's okay. That's not what I meant. This isn't about us—­this is about you and James.” He stood up and reached for her arm. “I just want you to know that if you need a friend, or if James wants a guy to hang out with, I'm happy to be there for both of you.” His lips quirked to one side. “I mean, I'm no Grant McQuaid, but I might be able to teach James a few things besides football. I do play a pretty mean guitar.”

Steven really was a kind man and he adored his students, treating them with a patient but firm hand. And the kids loved him for it. That and the comedic voices he was prone to ad lib for them. They might not have had the explosive attraction she felt with Grant, but Steven was here and Grant appeared to have forgotten her and James, walking away for something better.

Just like Matthew.

She forced her lips to smile, reminding herself that it wouldn't hurt to have a few friends she could count on, ­people who wouldn't leave.

“I'm sure he'd love that.”

He let his hand slide down to meet hers and squeezed slightly when Bethany heard a knock at her open classroom door. She looked up to see Maddie and her heart tripped.

“We'll talk later,” Steven murmured before turning to head out. “Hey, Maddie. How are you?”

“Good, you?” She smiled at him, but Bethany noticed it didn't quite reach her eyes and she wondered at the tension between them. Maddie walked up to Bethany and arched a brow as Steven headed out the door. “So the wolves are already circling, huh?”

“What?”

“Steven heard that Grant was gone and decided to see if he could move in.” She jerked her chin back toward the door. “It was the same thing he did with me when I broke up with my ex. Steven's a nice guy, but he needs to stop trying to pick up the pieces for women unless he's satisfied with being the rebound guy.”

“I don't think that's what he was trying to do.” Bethany didn't mean for it to come out sounding bitchy, but Steven had called when he promised, unlike Maddie's brother. She moved around to the other side of her desk. “Is everything okay with James?”

Maddie nodded. “And I think we both know James isn't the reason I came.” She crossed her arms over her chest, giving Bethany a pointed look.

Bethany sighed. “I'm not sure I can help you with anything else, Maddie. I don't
know
anything.”

Maddie shook her head. “I'm coming by to help
you
, not the other way around. I wanted to let you know that we haven't heard from Grant either, Bethany. That means he's busy. Too busy to call.”

Bethany frowned, clenching her teeth together so tightly she thought her jaw might break. Looking down, she saw she'd fisted her hands in her skirt and opened her fingers, releasing the tortured garment.

“What makes you think he hasn't called, or that I care?”

Maddie tipped her chin down and gave Bethany a dubious grin. “Because I saw the two of you together. The lovesick glances between the two of you were pretty hard to miss.” Maddie stood up as the bell rang, signaling the end of recess. “Look, if it was me and the guy I was in love with was gone, I'd be worried. But I know my brother and he has a reason for not calling.” Bethany opened her mouth to respond but Maddie held up a hand. “I don't know what his reason is but I know it's got to be good. He'll call as soon as he can. Just trust me. Please?”