Playing for Keeps by Julie Hammerle

Author:Julie Hammerle [Hammerle, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Women's Fiction, Women's Humorous Fiction, City Life Fiction, Contemporary Romance Fiction, Romantic Themes Love Triangle, Romantic Comedy, Women's Fiction, General Humorous Fiction, Julie Hammerle, Operation Cinderella by Julie Hammerle, Write Before Christmas by Julie Hammerle, Entangled Publishing, Amara, Single Title Romance, Stand Alone Romance, USA Today bestselling author, Laugh out Loud romance, Humorous Romance, RomCom, It’s Raining Men by Julie Hammerle, Beach Reads, Beach Reads 2023, funny romance, contemporary romance, Contemporary, Sweet Romance, law enforcement romance, law enforcement, Sports Romance, sports, fake relationship, fake relationship romance, Playing For keeps by Julie Hammerle, Playing For Keeps, Redemption, redemption romance, revenger, revenge romance, small town, Small town Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Swish

Pat Warner was not a small man, but the hospital bed made him look frail and at least ten years older than he was.

Jake cautiously approached his father’s bedside, unsure of how close he should get to the wires and tubes and monitors. He hadn’t been in this position…ever. He’d never been a visitor in an ICU room before. You had to be deep in someone’s inner circle to do that, and Jake didn’t do inner circles.

As machines beeped and whirred, Pat reached for Jake, and Jake pulled a chair closer to the bed, leaving a bit of room between himself and his dad.

“How are you feeling?” Jake asked.

Pat reached across the chasm Jake had left, found Jake’s hand, and gripped it. Jake couldn’t remember ever holding his father’s hand. He was sure he had as a kid, but they’d abandoned the practice long before Jake got to grade school. His dad’s grip felt rough and foreign, but Jake didn’t pull away. He consciously tried to relax his hand so his dad wouldn’t sense his awkwardness.

“Where were you?”

“I had somewhere to be, Dad,” Jake said.

“I wanted you to hear my speech…at the party,” Pat said. “I talked about Dennis.”

Jake shook his head. He couldn’t take this. He’d left the event to avoid having to witness his dad’s speech and now he was being held hostage at his father’s bedside.

“We started a foundation,” Pat said, “which is long overdue.” A tear glistened in his eye, and Jake had to look away. His dad didn’t do emotions. Jake as a kid always had to buck up or walk it off. Tears were not permitted in the Warner household, at least not for Pat and Jake. Drea was allowed to cry and scream and whine all she wanted. But now, it appeared, the rules no longer applied. “Jackie and I had been talking about this for years, and we finally decided it had to be done.”

What foundation was he talking about? Some kind of rehab center for playing through the pain? An institute for learning how to suppress your feelings and get over it? Jake bit his tongue. His dad was lying in a hospital bed. Jake didn’t need to pile on.

“We’re opening up a facility to focus on our athletes’ mental health.” Pat drew in a deep breath through his oxygen tube. “We want to make sure our players are fit both physically and emotionally.”

“So, what, like”—Jake shrugged—“plying them with meds and calling it a day?” He couldn’t resist one little dig.

“No.” Pat squeezed his son’s hand. “We’re serious about this, Jake. We’re hiring counselors to help our players with whatever they need to deal with injury, stress, career questions. What happened to Dennis was a tragedy. We failed him.” Pat’s lip quivered.

They did fail him. They cast Dennis aside when he was no longer of use to them, and he died for it.

“We don’t want Dennis’s situation to happen to anyone else. Our players are our players whether they’re on the court or not.

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