Playing Hurt by Kelly Jamieson

Author:Kelly Jamieson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2018-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

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“Did you know that you can go topless on the beach?”

I smiled against Chase’s shoulder much later. “I did see that when I looked at the hotel website.”

“I’ll go topless if you will.”

I tapped his chest. “What a deal.”

The idea of going topless was actually kind of exciting. Especially if it would make Chase crazy. I loved how hot he was for me. He made me feel so…desirable.

Now you might think having lots of fans praising me and admiring me would make me feel plenty desirable. But it was different. This was…personal. Because Chase was seeing the real me. The me who lost her keys and forgot her phone. The me who was afraid of fire. The no-makeup, hair-not-done me. The me I wasn’t able to be with many people. With him I felt safe, somehow knowing that I could be my true self and he would still want to be with me. And knowing how much he wanted to be with me…that felt amazing.

“How long has your wrist been bothering you?”

He tensed briefly, then sighed. “Since I broke my thumb last year.”

“Chase!”

“Not all the time. Off and on. Over the summer it was fine. Then when we started playing again in the fall, it hurt sometimes. I’d just take an Advil and play through it. When I told Coach it was bothering me, that’s when they sent me to the team doc. The injection helped, for a while.”

It was my turn to sigh. “Is that what’s affecting your game?”

He was silent for so long I was afraid I’d really pissed him off. I lifted my head to peer at him in the shadows. His eyes were closed, but he opened them and met mine. He let out a short exhalation. “Yeah, that’s probably why I haven’t been playing great. Shooting the puck is hard, sometimes. Then I got into a mental slump because I hadn’t scored and that just made things worse.”

“When is the MRI?”

“Haven’t scheduled it yet.”

“Chase,” I urged him softly. “You need to do that.”

“I know, I know.”

“Are you worried about what it might be?”

“No. I don’t know. I just…I guess it scares me a bit. You know?”

I could tell how hard that was for him to admit. “I know. You know I know.” I caressed his rough cheek. “I was freakin’ terrified.”

“Shit. You’re braver than I am.”

“No, I’m not. I didn’t have a choice. Right now you have a choice. What if it gets worse? What if you’re doing some kind of permanent damage to it? That could have a long-term impact on your career.”

His jaw tensed beneath my fingers, and his lips thinned. He rolled away from me and got out of bed. “I’m not doing permanent damage, for fuck’s sake.”

The bathroom door banged shut.

I turned onto my back and stared at the ceiling. Shit.

Had I been too interfering? My stomach hurt.

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