PAIN ROLLED THROUGH MY head in waves. It felt like I was underwater. Sounds were muffled, and everything was dark.
Did I go drinking last night after we’d won the game? If so, this was the worst hangover ever.
An incessant beeping became clear; each shrill beep felt like an ice pick stabbing my brain. Thinking it was my alarm, I reached out to shut it off with my eyes still closed. After the grind of last night, I deserved to sleep in. It was probably Hannah’s going off. She’d be right to work securing our hotels for the Conference Finals.
Groaning in frustration when I couldn’t reach her alarm, I tried to open my eyes. Pain sliced through my skull when a bright light shined in them, and I squeezed them shut again in response.
“Fuck,” I muttered, throwing a hand to the side of my head. “Cal?” a male voice asked softly.
Jesus, had Hannah gotten me drunk enough to have a threesome last night with another man? Guess it was a good thing I couldn’t remember what happened.
“Get the fuck out before I kick your ass,” I grumbled. “Cal, can you open your eyes?” the voice asked again.
“Look, you had your fun. Now, get out of my house!” I raised my voice and instantly regretted it, wincing with my eyes still squeezed tightly shut.
“Cal, you’re in the hospital. I need you to open your eyes so I can examine you.”
“The hospital?” I asked, confused.
“Yes, you took a nasty hit and sustained significant head trauma. It could have been a lot worse—you’re lucky to only have a concussion.”
What I could remember of last night flooded back to me. The hit from behind after scoring the game-winner.
Being unable to stop myself as I was launched head-first into the boards. Shit. Hannah. She needed to know I was all right.
“How long have I been out?” I needed answers before I would cooperate.
Sighing, the man who I assumed was a doctor, answered, “About three hours.”
Fuck.
“Can you call my girl? Let her know I’m awake?”
“I don’t need to. She’s been here waiting for news of your condition. Now, if you’ll let me examine you, I might be able to break the rules and let her in to see you.”
The tension left my body, knowing Hannah was nearby. I couldn’t begin to imagine how difficult the past few hours had been for her.
I longed for the comfort of her touch. Whatever strings needed to be pulled to gain her access to spend the night, I would pull them. I knew a hospital bed was small, but I would hold her close all night. I didn’t care about being uncomfortable.
Taking a deep breath, I gritted my teeth and forced my eyes open slowly. The room was darkened, but I saw the source of bright light off to the side. The doctor held a small flashlight in his hand.
This wasn’t the first head injury I’d sustained during my career, but the first that had knocked me out cold. I knew the drill, but that knowledge didn’t help it hurt any less.
Bringing the light up to one eye and then the next, I grimaced against the pain. Clicking it off, seemingly satisfied, the doctor asked, “Can you tell me your full name?”
The sooner I got through his list of questions assessing my memory function, the sooner I could see Hannah.
Sighing, I replied, “My name is Callum Patrick Berg. I was born on March 24th, and I am thirty-five years old. If it’s past midnight, today is
May 11th, and we just played the Indy Speed, winning 3-2 on an overtime goal scored by yours truly. Can you go get my girl now?”
Chuckling at the way I answered all the standard questions before he could ask them, he nodded. “I’ll have someone bring her down in a little bit.”
Relaxing as the doctor left me in peace, I closed my eyes. Hannah had to be so scared. I needed her to know I was okay.
“Cal.” The voice that spoke next wasn’t Hannah’s, but after the hit to the head, it took me a moment longer than it typically would have to place it.
“Coach?” Opening my eyes, I found him sitting in a chair I hadn’t noticed, squinting to see him in the darkness. The double vision after having my bell rung didn’t help either.
“It’s good to see you awake. Your teammates were worried about you.” There was an edge to his voice, a barely concealed rage. There was no doubt in my mind that he knew about me and Hannah.
“I’ll be right as rain soon enough. We have a trophy to win.”
“That’s not why I’m here tonight.” We both knew it was highly irregular for the head coach to sit by a player’s bedside in the middle of the night, regardless of the injury.
It was time to take accountability for my actions. “I take full responsibility for what’s going on between me and Hannah. Hiding our relationship was wrong. But what I feel for your daughter is real.”
Standing, Coach moved to my bedside, his eyes cold and calculating. “Of that, I have no doubt. I witnessed firsthand tonight the depths of my daughter’s feelings for you. ”
Hannah was over-the-top on her best day. I could only imagine how crazed she got when I’d gone down.
Swallowing against the anguish of knowing I caused her even an ounce of pain, I whispered, “I love her, sir.”
The great Ace Moreau, whom I’d idolized my entire life, let out a heavy sigh. “Hannah is my baby girl. She always will be, no matter how old she is. It’s my job as her father to protect her. Seeing her hysterical tonight ripped the heart right out of my chest.” He paused, appearing pained by the memory. “The only reason her meltdown isn’t airing on every media outlet in existence is because I had the foresight to lock them out of the tunnels when you were injured. Listen to my words carefully, Cal. I never want to
see my daughter in a state of distress like that ever again. Do I make myself clear?”
I knew Coach would be upset when he found out about us, but I never saw this coming. Sure, I imagined getting traded or benched, but was he asking me to break things off with Hannah? He could punish me all he wanted, but I wouldn’t let him hurt her.
Maintaining eye contact, I laid my cards out on the table. “What if I retire?”
“If you made that decision, there would still be a possible fourteen games left this season,” he stated.
He was taking this too far. “So, you’d have me break her heart on the off- chance I suffer another bad injury in the next month? The odds of that are slim to none.”
“But not non-existent,” he countered. “Sometimes in life, we have to make the hard choices. Her broken heart will heal.”
What about mine?
Nodding, satisfied he’d gotten his point across, Coach headed for the door to my hospital room. Pausing at the threshold, he looked back. “I wasn’t here tonight. Is that understood?”
Any respect I held for the man was lost entirely when he implied that he wanted to keep his hands clean while I blew up his daughter’s life. This wasn’t how you treated the people you claimed to love. I couldn’t tell Hannah that her father’s hand was guiding the knife I was about to sink into her heart.
Ace Moreau was nothing more than a coward. “Get out,” I forced out through gritted teeth.
Without another word, he left me alone, and the gravity of the past few hours hit me in full force.
I’d had plans to tell Hannah that I loved her tonight, but instead, I was being forced into letting her go forever. What a cruel twist of fate.
 |
Hannah’s body came into view, led by a nurse who looked at us both, warning, “Twenty minutes. That’s all I can give you.”
Swallowing, I steeled myself for what I had to do. The clock was ticking.
The nurse left us, but Hannah stood just inside the door, twisting her hands. “Cal?” her voice called out, hoarse, no doubt the result of hours spent crying.
Reaching an arm out to her, I beckoned, “Come here.”
Faster than I could blink, she ran across the room, launching herself into my arms. She began to shake as sobs racked her body, and she buried her face in my chest. For a moment, I just held her, committing the feel of her body against mine to memory. In such a short time, Hannah had become a part of me, and severing our connection was a wound I wasn’t sure would ever heal.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby,” I murmured, trying to comfort her.
Lifting her head, she stared at me with glassy blue eyes, before reaching up to cup my cheek. “I was so scared for you.”
“I’m so sorry.”
For so many things.
This would put us right back to the start of our relationship. Hannah would hate me, and I would secretly pine for her. Only this time, it would be worse. I loved her. I wanted a future with her, and she wouldn’t be able to stand the sight of me. There would be no coming back from what I was forced to do in this dimly lit hospital room. She would never forgive me.
Offering me a small smile, she pressed her lips softly to mine before cuddling back into my chest. “You know, if you had been less selfish and let someone else score, all of this could have been avoided.”
My heart squeezed inside my chest, and I banded my arms around her as tightly as I could.
Hannah was right—more than she could possibly know.
If I hadn’t scored the game-winner and gotten injured, her dad wouldn’t have found out about us and demanded I end our relationship under the guise of protecting her.
I would miss everything about this remarkable woman. Still, her ability to roast me no matter the situation—even lying vulnerable and injured in a hospital bed—would be missed the most. No one would ever match her wit or take the place reserved for her in my heart.
Unable to stop myself, I let my fingertips trace the letters of my last name stitched across her back. She was still clad in the jersey she’d worn to the game. The possibility of giving her my name permanently was gone. Hell, she would probably burn the jersey once I was through.
“We don’t have a lot of time.” My voice was thick with emotion at the double meaning in those words.
Nodding against my chest, Hannah replied, “I’ll be back first thing in the morning. I promise.”
No, you won’t.
Sitting up, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the hospital bed, she leaned in for one more kiss. Tangling my hands into her hair, I pulled her face to mine, pouring every ounce of love I had into this one last kiss—a goodbye kiss.
Reluctantly, I tore my lips from hers, but she didn’t pull back, instead dropping her forehead to mine. The gesture was intimate, and it shattered my heart into a million pieces.
I would never find this again. I didn’t want to find this again. Hannah was my one and only, and I wouldn’t be able to shut off my love for her, no matter how much she hated me for what I was about to do.
How did I even do this? She’d know I was full of shit if I just blurted out, “We’re done.”
Someone upstairs—or more likely, downstairs—must have been looking out for me because Hannah’s next words sparked inspiration. “I’ll go, but first, tell me what happened out there. Why didn’t you turn around? You left yourself vulnerable, knowing the entire team would rush you from behind. It could have just as easily been one of your teammates that sent you crashing into the boards by accident, instead of Booker with his hot temper and poor sportsmanship.”
Taking a calming breath, I kept my voice emotionless in my response. “I was thinking about you.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. She’d been the voice in my head from the moment Maddox tripped Jaxon.
Shock registered on Hannah’s face. “Me? When you’re on the ice, you have one job, and that’s to take care of yourself and your teammates.”
She had no idea how well she was setting me up to break her heart. “You’re right. I should be focused on the ice, but I haven’t been for months. You’ve been a distraction since the day I met you, and it’s only gotten worse since we started hooking up.”
“H-hooking up?” Confusion filtered through Hannah’s blue eyes.
Not pausing to address that strategic word choice, I pressed on. “First, it was your criticism of my playing style. Then it was the intensive film
sessions. Your voice in my brain won’t shut off. It’s become dangerous, as we saw today.”
Flinching as if I’d struck her, she stammered, “You’re blaming me?”
“If I hadn’t been thinking about you, I would have turned around. I would have seen Booker coming. I was lucky to come away with only a concussion. The way I hit the boards could have snapped my neck. I could have died, Hannah!” Raising my voice shot blinding pain through my head, but I needed to drive the point home.
Standing, Hannah backed away from the bed, her arms hugging her body tightly. “You think I don’t know that? I spent hours sitting in a room down the hall, worried and wondering if you were going to be okay. Only for you to wake up and tell me you think I’m the reason you were hurt?”
“Pretty much.” Fuck, I hated myself for playing into the asshole persona she’d believed of me for so long. “Being together was a huge mistake. I should have turned you away the day you showed up at my door in nothing but a jersey. It only took a near-death experience for me to see that. Our time is up. It’s time for you to go.”
Stunned, she stared at me like I was a stranger.
Just go. I need to fall apart, and I can’t do that with you here.
When she didn’t make a move to leave, I said more forcefully, “Get out, Hannah. Don’t come back. We’re done here.”
Tears fell from her eyes, and she nodded slowly before leaving the room. Finally, I was able to mourn the life I had planned for us. Without
Hannah, my life would be empty.
Slamming my eyes shut tightly against the pain, my chest tightened like it was being squeezed in a vise grip as I struggled to draw in air.
How the hell had I gone from being the overtime hero to hitting rock bottom and losing the only woman I’d ever loved in a matter of hours?
