Chased Dreams (3 page)

I dialed her number.

“Hey, Brett,” she answered on the second
ring. Her voice sounded tired.

“It’s Chase,” I replied.

“Chase!” she practically screamed. “Oh my
gosh! I’ve been so worried! I haven’t heard from you for two
days—not since your text. I’ve been calling and calling and leaving
messages for you. I didn’t know who else to get hold of.”

“I’m sorry.” I felt like the biggest jerk on
the planet.

“Why do you have Brett’s phone? What’s
happened?” she demanded.

This was it. “Well, baby,” I paused, not
knowing how to break it easily to her. “Uh, well, there’s been an
accident,” I continued in a serious tone, not knowing what to
expect.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Within an
instant she went from angry to worried.

“I’m not sure, but we’ll talk about it when
I get home, okay? I love you,” I added, at a loss for words, trying
to hold back tears.

“Chase, don’t you dare leave me hanging like
this!”

I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came
out.

“Chase?” she questioned again. “Chase, talk
to me, dammit.”

A feeling of despair washed over me and I
hung up. I didn’t know how to tell her.

How could it end this way? I just couldn’t
understand.

Chapter Three

I was kidding myself if I really thought
Brittney was going to wait for me to get home. She’d probably gone
straight to her boss as soon as I’d hung up and told him there was
some sort of family emergency. So, it wasn’t really a surprise when
the front door slammed and she suddenly appeared from around the
corner.

“Chase, what happened?” she demanded, her
gaze washing over me as she took in my appearance.

I knew I looked rough—I hadn’t shaved in
days and was getting scruffy, not to mention I was in pretty
desperate need of a shower. I hadn’t been able manage one on my
own. I felt like a friggin’ invalid.

I self-consciously adjusted the blanket Tana
had given me over my shorts, making sure she couldn’t see my
leg.

“Hey, babe. How’ve you been?” I asked,
trying to avoid the obvious and hoping to calm her down a bit.

“Don’t even try to play games with me.
What’s wrong?” She pursed her lips as she stared hard at me.

I knew there was no way out. A billion
thoughts raced through my head as I tried to figure out how to
answer. I felt my face getting hot and my skin flushed anew with
anger over the whole situation. We’d planned our whole future on me
being able to play at the next level.

I sighed. “Would you still love me if my
dreams changed?” I asked, hearing the shame and heartache in my own
voice.

Her face softened and she stepped toward me,
moving to sit on the edge of the coffee table in front of me. “I’ll
always love you, Chase, no matter what. Please tell me what’s going
on. I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me.”

I couldn’t stop thinking about all the pain
in my knee. “Well . . . I think my future may have changed,” I
said. I wasn’t sure how to finish, so I reached down and pulled the
blanket off.

Her eyes flickered over me, resting on my
grossly distorted leg—so red and swollen that it looked completely
deformed. “Oh my . . . ” Her hands floated up to cover her gaping
mouth. Her eyes instantly filled with tears that dripped over the
edges and down her face. “What happened?”

She looked as devastated as I had feared she
would, and I rushed to reassure her. “It’s probably just a minor
injury, Britt. You know these kinds of things always look worse in
the beginning than they really are. Once the swelling goes down,
I’ll be as good as new. I’m sure of it,” I lied through my teeth.
“I’ve already got an appointment with the doctor—tomorrow at
three—a precaution really, to make sure everything is fine.”

Her hands dropped into her lap and she
continued to stare at my knee. “This is not fine, Chase.” She
searched out my eyes, pity written clearly in hers. “I don’t
understand. Why you?”

That was the question I’d been trying to
answer for myself. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.” I was at a
complete loss for words.

She slipped to her knees beside me and
wrapped her arms around my neck, laying her face against mine. “I’m
so sorry, honey.”

I blinked back my own tears as I wrapped my
arms around her, inhaling the scent of her hair and soft perfume,
letting her fill my lungs. I had no idea what the future held for
us.

***

The trip to the doctor’s office seemed as
though it took forever. I continually had to adjust to operate the
truck with my left foot. Since Brittney and Brett both had work, I
was forced to fend for myself.

Driving had always been a way for me to
relax and think things through. I’d gone on countless drives after
I’d lost Nikki to a blood clot following her car accident, and had
pretty much reconstructed my whole life through my thoughts during
that time. This time was no different. I found my mind wandering
over all the events in my life and the decisions I’d made.

Images of my mom flashed through my mind.
She’d always been there for me, strong and supportive, even when I
was a terror and going through my self-destructive stage. I was
embarrassed by the trouble I’d caused her—embarrassed that I’d been
disrespectful to the woman who’d brought me into this world.
Ironically, I wished she was with me right now. She always seemed
to know exactly what to do. I hadn’t told her about my accident
yet.

A car honked loudly, bringing me out of my
reverie and to the realization I was driving much slower than the
speed limit. I noticed many cars whizzing by, eager to get around
me. The image hit me hard as I related it to my life, imagining
those cars were the other quarterbacks I’d competed against the
last four years, passing me up like I was standing still.

I felt a salty tear hit the corner of my
mouth. I was crying and I hadn’t even noticed. Ashamed, I told
myself I would never cry again– even as I wondered, for the
billionth time, why this was happening to me.

I pulled into the parking lot of the clinic
and turned off my truck. Sitting there, I stared out at the
building, still holding on to a small bud of hope inside that maybe
things weren’t as bad as I thought, knowing that soon I’d find out
the truth. Sure, I’d missed my chance at the camp, but maybe all I
needed was a little healing time before I’d be as good as new.
Surely my career, prior to this, would still count for something.
My stats spoke loudly as to my athletic ability. Someone should
still recognize that. This could be just a small setback.

Grabbing my crutches, I got out and hobbled
inside. I signed in at the desk and found a chair in the lobby.
Reaching for a magazine on the table next to me, I saw my own face
staring back at me from the cover of one of the college sports
magazines.
Walker’s Football Career… a Shining Success Story,
t
he headline proclaimed.

I returned the magazine to the table,
sliding it under the others, making sure it was on the bottom where
I couldn’t see it.

“Chase Walker, you’re up,” a nurse said from
the doorway, several minutes later.

I stood and crutched over toward her.

“How are you, hun?” she asked. I didn’t miss
her appreciative glance over me. I was used to women hitting on me
everywhere I went and had learned to shrug it off. It had no affect
on me, but I knew it drove Brittney crazy.

“We’ll see in about twenty minutes,” I
replied curtly, hoping I didn’t sound too rude.

She took me to the back first, for my
scheduled x-ray and MRI that had been ordered after a brief phone
consult with the physician’s assistant. The x-ray was over in a
matter of seconds, but the MRI scan seemed like it took forever. I
found myself dozing on and off in the machine.

“Chase? Chase, wake up.” The nurse was back,
speaking softly, but loudly enough to awaken me without startling
me. She was smiling sweetly and I was pretty sure she thought I was
hot, but was trying not to be too obvious about it. “Follow me and
we will get you set up in a room for your consult with the doctor.”
She took another long, appreciative glance up and down my body as
she watched me get up. She was definitely into me.

I was deposited in a small room with an
examination table, but chose to sit in one of the chairs against
the wall where I could check out the random medical graphs and
charts around the walls.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I dug it
out.

How’s it going?
Brittney texted.

Tests R done. Just waiting
4 results,
I replied.

Call me when U R done.

K.

Love U.
She
added.

Love U 2.

I slipped the phone back into my pocket as
the door opened.

“Hello, Chase. How are you?” The doctor
spoke in a booming voice. He held my file in one hand as he flipped
his white medical jacket out of the way and took a seat on the
rolling stool across the room from me. “I’m Dr. Price and I’m going
to do everything I can to get you back on the football field.”

My first thought was that this guy was a
lying suck up who just wanted to get deep in my pockets for some
money. He didn’t know anything about me—why would he want to help
me so badly?

“Yeah, I’m hoping all of this is minor,” I
replied, trying to act as if my confidence in my knee was strong.
“I’m here mostly to err on the side of caution.”

“Well, we all hope for the best, son,” he
announced, his voice seeming to get deeper. He glanced down to
where my knee was exposed beneath my athletic shorts.

Man, what’s up with this guy? He acts
like there’s no chance I’m okay,
I thought. “Thank you, I
guess,” I muttered, not sure what to say.

“I’m waiting for the last of those pictures
to come in. Then I’ll come talk with you some more and we can start
discussing some options, okay? I’ll be right back.”

I sat in the small, windowless room after he
left thinking about how negative he’d sounded. But, he acted like
he truly cared about my career and me. My mind was a jumble of
mixed emotions.

He reappeared a short time later, looking
grim.

“Well?” I demanded, my patience wearing
thin.

“Chase, there’s some serious damage in your
knee.” He paused, seeming hesitant to continue. “Honestly, most
athletes don’t recover from an injury like this.”

I was shaking my head before he even
finished. “No. You must have the wrong images, sir,” I said softly,
but sternly. There was no way he was right. Yes, I was injured, but
not with a career-ending injury.

“You have a tibia plateau fracture and torn
inner and outer meniscuses,” he continued on, as if I knew what
that meant.

“Explain—I don’t understand.” I demanded, my
frustration racing quickly to the surface.

“The top of your shin bone has been broken.
And the cushion that keeps the bone in your thigh from hitting the
bone in your lower leg has been blown out.”

I gave a wry laugh. “This isn’t possible. Do
you understand? I just took a step backward in the grass and it
gave out. I wasn’t tackled; I didn’t twist weird, or fall hard. How
can it be broken and blown out like that?” This made absolutely no
sense.

He didn’t say anything more, just continued
to stare at me with his sympathetic expression.

“Well, can’t you fix it? You’re a doctor . .
. fix it!” I said, my question turning into a plea. This couldn’t
be it—my promising career couldn’t end this way.

“We can operate, but you need to understand
there is a high risk it will just become reinjured if you play
again. This is major surgery, and ninety percent of the patients
who have it end up getting arthritis in the knee.”

I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t find the words
to say. My heart felt as if it’d been torn out of my chest, and
dashed to the ground—after all I’d done to carefully sew it back in
since Nikki’s death.

“When can I have the surgery?” That was all
that I could think of. If I needed to have it, then I was going to
get it done as soon as possible.

Dr. Price glanced down at my chart. “I can
fit you in this Thursday if you’d like. That’s the soonest I can do
it.”

“Okay, that works for me. Set it up.” My
mind was whirling with a thousand thoughts all at once, yet I
seemed unable to concentrate on any one of them. Everything was a
blur.

The nurse came and got me, leading me out to
the front desk to fill out the paperwork for my surgery and get
fitted into a temporary leg brace.

“Have a great day,” she said with a wide
flirtatious smile when we were finished.

I successfully resisted the urge to slap it
off her face or flip her off with my ring finger. Was she blind, or
could she not see I was married? And who says, “Have a nice day” to
someone after giving them news like this? Even if I were single, I
would not be in a flirtatious mood at this point.

I gimped out to my truck; all the while
feeling like my world had turned completely upside down. I couldn’t
see clearly. Did this doctor really want to help me? Was he just
blowing smoke and trying to get money? I felt so lost.

Thoughts of Nikki and the past plagued me as
I drove home. I remembered how badly I’d wanted her, how hard I’d
worked to have her—to make her fall for me. And then she was gone .
. . slipped right through my fingers.

What if the same was happening to me now?
What if I’d played my last down? How could I manage to make
Brittney happy if I wasn’t the Chase Walker she’d fallen in love
with? I couldn’t lose her too.

Why did it seem like my whole world was
crashing down on me? Maybe I wasn’t meant to fall in love . . .
with football, with Nikki, or Brittney.

Chapter Four

“Talk to me, Chase,” Brittney said, as she
slid into bed beside me and wrapped her arm around me. I was
currently studying the ceiling in the glow of the low lamplight, a
billion thoughts running through my head.