Baseball and Other Lessons (Devil's Ranch Book 2) (13 page)

“And before that?”

“A week or so.”

“You know I can’t clear you to play until your headaches have gone away.”

Matt rubbed a hand over his head. “But you and I both know I haven’t had any other concussion symptoms, and that a couple of headaches could be nothing more than just that—a couple of headaches.”

“Yes, but rules are rules. Besides, even though your head’s healing well, it’s not completely healed.”

“How long until you think it is completely healed?”

Dr. Cushon turned and looked at him rather than the stupid CT scan result. “It’s hard to say. Head injuries are tricky, Matt. I’ve seen people recover from trauma such as yours quite quickly, and I’ve seen others take years. It wasn’t just your skull that was affected, as you know, and while your skull is looking good, I’m not going to take chances with your brain.”

Matt gripped the edges of the exam table until his knuckles turned white and the tips of his fingers tingled. “Doc, I have to play ball again.”

The older man pulled out a chair and sat, an expression of patience mingled with pity etched across his grizzled face. “Matt, you’re thirty-five. Even though you’re in excellent physical condition, your body takes longer to heal as it ages. Plus, there’s the added complication of a brain injury thrown into the mix. You have to be realistic here and start thinking about your future beyond baseball, because you might not get to play again.”

He refused to accept that. “You don’t understand, though. We have a chance to go to the World Series and win this year. This is the best team I’ve ever been a member of, and I’m not going to let them down.”

There was more of that pity from Dr. Cushon. “Matt, I know you think you’re letting your team down, but you have to take care of yourself first. If you took another blow to the head right now, it could kill you. You’re lucky you’re not dead right now, or at the very least in a vegetative state. The fact that you left the hospital within a week and that a month and a half out you’re doing much better than anyone would have guessed is something you need to consider. You’ve basically been given a second chance at life.”

“So you’re saying there’s a chance?”

Dr. Cushon sighed. “I’m saying you need to seriously evaluate your priorities and think about what means more to you—playing baseball or being alive and sound of body and mind forty years down the road so you can be around to see your grandchildren.”

“Oh, for crying out loud! I’m not even married, and I sure don’t have any kids running around. Who’s talking about grandchildren?”

Dr. Cushon sent him a sharp look. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about, Matt. Priorities. I can’t clear you to play baseball right now. I might be able to in a few weeks or a few months, it could be a few years or it could be never. You need to consider all of the possibilities.”

Matt sighed. “How long do I need to go without headaches to meet concussion protocol?”

“At least a week. But concussion symptoms are only a small part of everything we have to consider in your situation.”

“I know, but it’s something I can at least focus on, a goal to work towards.”

“Matt, you can’t finesse your brain the way you can a breaking ball. These things are huge unknowns, and every person is different. Every brain is different. My advice would be to take it easy—nothing more than light workouts for at least another couple of weeks—and really sit down and think about your future after baseball. I would love to see you pitch again and win the World Series, but as your neurologist I have to warn you that the odds of that happening are slim to none right now.”

Matt closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, counting backwards from ten in an attempt to find some small amount of calm amidst the storm of emotions. “Fair enough.”

Dr. Cushon stood and slid the chair under a desk. “I’ll see you again in a week. In the meantime, if you have any questions or if anything comes up, you have my number.”

“Right. Thanks, doc,” Matt said as he shook the neurologist’s hand.

He slid off the exam table and followed the doctor to the checkout desk, where he scheduled his next appointment and ignored the flirtatious glances from the receptionist. Calmly, he exited the building and walked towards his JEEP, hit the unlock button on the key fob and climbed inside. He slid the key into the ignition, turned the engine over and closed his eyes against the blast of hot air followed by cold.

Then he hit the dashboard with his fist. “Godmotherfuckingdammit!”

#

“So how’s your summer been so far?”

Jenn scooped up queso with a chip and pondered how to answer Rene’s question. “Interesting, I guess.”

The other woman leaned forward, a dimple flashing in her cheek. “Really? Please say there’s been some good gossip. I desperately need some good gossip.”

“Hubby and kids driving you nuts?”

“God, yes! I mean, I love them, don’t get me wrong, but when I’m looking forward to the school year starting and spending time with other people’s kids more than I am spending time with my own kids, you know it’s been a rough summer.”

Jenn’s grin turned into a frown. “That doesn’t sound good. What’s been going on?”

Rene waved a hand through the air. “Nothing major, really. The boys are teething, Brad’s been traveling a lot for work and Mama still hasn’t forgiven me for marrying a gringo and has been passively aggressively bitching about it to my sisters.”

Rene had shocked her very traditional Mexican-immigrant Catholic mother two years prior when she’d not only gotten pregnant out of wedlock, but had married a blond-haired, blue-eyed white man rather than the black-haired, dark-eyed Mexican man Mama had chosen for her. Mama had come around slightly and at least showered her grandchildren with love and affection, but she would passively aggressively make Rene’s life a living hell at times by stirring up non-existent drama, seeing the boys but not acknowledging Brad, giving everyone but Brad gifts at Christmas, and even going so far as to not invite Rene’s husband to family events.

Rene had learned to live with it, but Jenn—very openly—thought that Rene needed to set her foot down and tell Mama that either she could accept Brad as her son-in-law, or she was no longer a part of the boys’ lives. Rene obviously hadn’t had the guts to draw that line in the sand, even though she’d thought about doing it for at least the past six months.

Jenn reiterated her thoughts on the situation. “Rene, you really need to tell your mom to either accept Brad or go jump off a cliff—figuratively speaking, of course. I mean, this is ridiculous.”

“Oh, I know. It’s just that Caden and Logan love her, and I know she adores them.”

“But what good does that do as they get older and they realize their grandmother wants nothing to do with their father? That’s going to confuse them and send a pretty bad message.”

Rene nibbled on the corner of a tortilla chip. “Right. Brad and I actually got into a bit of an argument about it the other day, and I’m getting pretty fed up. Thus, the wanting school to start back now.”

Rene taught seventh grade math, which was partially how she and Jenn had become friends; the real bonding had come over their mutual love of regency romance novels.

“So what about you? Why’s your summer been ‘interesting’ so far?”

Jenn stuffed a queso-topped chip into her mouth and shrugged.

“Nope, you’re not getting out of sharing and giving me some small amount of joy.”

She swallowed. “Fine. Well, Jo’s back in town—her grandma had hip surgery about a month and a half ago, and Jo came back to help out over the summer.”

“Jo’s your best friend who lives in Austin, right?”

“Right. Well, ends up Jo being back in town has made things quite interesting.”

Rene leaned forward, her brown eyes shining with interest “Ooh. How so?”

“Have I ever told you about her and Chase back in the day?”

Rene shook her head.

“Well, long story short, the three of us were best friends since like Kindergarten. There was always a bit of a thing between Jo and Chase, something that was always a bit different than what was between Chase and me, especially once we hit our teens. It was pretty obvious they were totally into each other, but then one day Jo just stopped talking to Chase. She never explained why, and I learned after a while that asking her got me no answers, so I stopped. It ends up she’d stopped talking to him because she’d overheard her mom hitting on his dad one day, and Jo thought it was somehow her fault and that if she stopped talking to Chase her mom wouldn’t be tempted anymore.”

“That’s kind of dumb.”

“I agree, and so does Jo now. But at fourteen? We all do dumb stuff at fourteen, you know.”

“So true.”

“Exactly. Anyway, she came back to town and I may or may not have decided it would be a good idea to throw the two of them together and essentially force them to either continue ignoring each other or finally get around to talking it out. Ends up they’re now doing a lot more than talking it out.”

Rene gasped. “No! Chase and Jo are together now?”

“More or less. They’re certainly having lots of wild monkey sex from what I understand. Honestly, I’ve been scared to ask for details considering Chase is kind of like a brother to me.”

“I can see how that would be a bit weird.”

“Yeah. The only problem is that Jo has to go back to Austin in a few weeks for work since she’s a high school guidance counselor. I don’t know what they’re going to do then, and I haven’t wanted to ask for fear of popping their little happy bubble.”

That, and you’ve been a little preoccupied thinking about the other Roberts brother.

“Wow. That’s got to be tough. Does it seem serious or like they’re just getting teenage lust out of their systems?”

“Oh, it’s serious. They’ve been in love with each other since we were kids. I just hope they get stuff figured out, because I don’t want to see either of them get hurt again. It was hard enough to watch the first time around; I can’t imagine how difficult that would be now.”

Their waiter appeared and set their plates on the table and refilled their drinks before rushing off to the next table. Both teachers ate in silence for a moment before Rene said, “So I heard a rumor that Matt Roberts is in town.”

Jenn almost dropped her fork.

“And that the two of you may or may not have been doing some pretty close, pretty sexy dancing at April’s a few nights ago.”

Jenn’s appetite vanished. “I don’t know why you would have heard something like that.”

Rene pulled out her phone, tapped on the screen a few times and then turned it so Jenn could see. And there, in all her sweaty, tank top-wearing glory, she was, dancing with Matt to “Heartbeat Song.”

“Oh fuck me.”

“Well, it kind of looks like that might have gone on a little later.”

Jenn set her fork down and dropped her head into her hands. “Where did you get that?”

“Betsy and her boyfriend of the week were there that night. She took the video and sent it to me.”

Betsy was the middle school drama teacher, which was fitting considering how much drama the woman liked to stir up.

“Do you know if she sent it to anyone else?”

Rene shook her head. “It looked like it was just sent to me, but who knows with her? I just thought you should know about it, just in case you get some flack for it.”

Jenn shook her head. “I was just dancing with him. It’s not like we were having sex in public or something.”

“But you want to have sex in public with him,” Rene stated, pointing at Jenn with her fork.

“Absolutely not.”

“In private, then?” Rene’s voice was hopeful.

Jenn groaned. “There’s nothing going on between Matt and me. We’re just…acquaintances? Kind of friends? I really don’t know.”

“I didn’t even know you knew him. I mean, seriously, Jenn, why’d you hold out on me?”

“Rene, I’m best friends with his brother. Of course I know him.”

She absently waved her fork in the air. “Details, details. You’ve never once mentioned him, so I just assumed you didn’t really know him
despite
being best friends with his brother. So now I find out you do know
the
Matt Roberts, and I find that out by seeing a video of you grinding your ass against his crotch and yeah, I have some questions.”

She hadn’t been grinding her ass against his crotch, had she? She didn’t think so, but she had drank a lot of margaritas that night. “Let me see that video again.”

Rene handed her the phone and Jenn pulled up the video. Watched it. Again. And again. Her body and face grew warm and her stomach dipped. Crap. Her secret was out.

She wanted Matt Roberts, and the video evidence was probably already uploaded to YouTube.

Shit.

She sent the video to herself before handing the phone back to Rene, who was watching her with an expectant look on her face.

“So, friend of mine, want to tell me how your summer’s really going?”

Jenn motioned towards Rene’s phone. “I think that video pretty much sums it up.”