RUNNING GAME (A SECOND CHANCE SPORTS ROMANCE) Read Online Free Page A

‘frankenstein leg’ and tried to move it.
    Nope. Nothing .
    No movement, but no pain either. The Vicodin were doing a good job of masking the pain, but I was ready to be done with them.
    I hated the way pain pills made me feel. Sleepy, groggy, my head all fogged up. That wasn’t my game. I preferred having laser-sharp focus. My life required clarity and for me to be as clear-headed as possible. Instead, I felt like a pile of fucking mashed potatoes or something. I could barely move the parts of me that still worked, let alone the pieces that were broken… I felt like my head weighed a ton and my limbs were limp and useless.
    I was laying here like a weak little kitten and I hated every fucking second of it.
    I wanted to smack that stupid texting kid upside his stupid fucking head for what he’d done to me. My left ACL was torn, my thigh was deeply bruised, and I had a groin sprain to go along with it. His car had hit me so hard I’d bounced a dozen feet away. The surgery had repaired my ACL by putting in pins and grafts but I still had a long road of physical therapy ahead of me if I was going to recover fully.
    And if I didn’t recover… I didn’t even want to think about that…
    I’d been in the hospital all weekend and today they were sending me home. Grady sat in the corner of my hospital room reading the newspaper and I was sitting up in bed scrolling through the dozens of well-wishing text messages I’d been sent from my friends and teammates over the weekend when my nurse walked in.
    Nurse Peggy was hot in that way that only nurses can be. They always look so healthy and clean, don’t they? I’d been flirting shamelessly with her all weekend - it was the only thing I could do to take my mind off my miserable situation. Luckily, she’d given as good as she’d received, and it felt like we were old friends by now. It was pretty clear on day one I wasn’t going to be fucking this one, but maybe that was for the best. I needed more friends and less ex lovers…
    “You ready to go home, Colorado?” she asked.
    “I thought you’d never ask, Peggy,” I replied, winking at her.
    “ Your home, cowboy. Not mine,” she said, shaking her head and laughing. “Not that I wouldn’t mind having a piece of you… If you’re not careful I’ll ask the doctor if he’s got any bits of that shattered knee still laying around the office.”
    “Oh, Peggy, you’re a twisted woman, aren’t you?”
    “The best kind of twisted,” she said, as she pressed a cold stethoscope to my chest.
    “Maybe you need a good man to straighten you out,” I said.
    “Talk about unicorns,” she replied wearily.
    “Touche!” I said, laughing.
    “This guy harassing you again, Peggy?” my coach, Will Fox asked as he walked in the door. He’d been checking in on me everyday since the accident and I was glad to see him.
    “Does he ever stop flirting?” she asked.
    “Nope,” he replied. “I’ve even seen him sweet-talking the football before he throws it.”
    “I’m not surprised,” she quipped. “Does it work?” she asked, turning back to me.
    “Better than it does with you!” I replied.
    We all laughed as Will sat in the chair next to my bed.
    “You ready to get out of here, Champ?” he asked.
    “God yes, I can’t wait to get home to my own bed!”
    “Not so fast, Romeo,” Peggy said. “Doc said you have to go straight to rehab.”
    “Today?”
    “Yes, today,” Will replied. “There’s no time to waste. You’ll be spending most of your days at rehab, you can go home at night, but you gotta get right back there every morning. You have about six months of healing to do in three months time.”
    “I was hoping for at least a day to rest,” I replied.
    “You just spent three days in the hospital on your ass,” Peggy said. “You slept the whole time.”
    “You’re not helping, darlin’,” I replied, wearily.
    “I’m not here to help you slack off. I’m here to kick your ass into