The Ace (22 page)

Maddie grabbed her hand and turned off the TV. “Let’s go. I know where they’re taking him.”

Karen could only nod and let Maddie drag her around. She was numb and paralyzed with fear. She couldn’t get past the irony of how she’d finally admitted that she couldn’t live without him, was determined to have everything with him, and now she was losing her chance. She’d beaten around the bush one too many times and fate had decided to take it out of her hands and give her one big bitch-slap across the cheek.

Maddie squeezed her hand and gave her a small smile as she raced down the road. “He’s going to be okay. We’ll get there and it will be okay.”

She nodded, knowing Maddie was trying to keep her thoughts positive, but Karen couldn’t keep her panic at bay as her worst fears crowded her mind and filled her head with horrifying visions. All of her nightmares were coming true, even the ones she didn’t know she had.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Karen paced in the stark white hallway of the hospital, which glowed eerily from the fluorescent lights lining its full length, biting on her thumbnail. She had no idea where they had him—no one would tell her anything—but Maddie was trying to find out as much as she could. She had to see him, but she knew that without being family or a wife, or even a long-term girlfriend, it was unlikely they would let her back there. Despite those restrictions, she was determined to get into his room any way she could; she wouldn’t rest until she saw Jerry with her own eyes. He had to be okay, that was all there was to it.

She flattened her body against the wall, out of the path of a passing nurse hurrying toward a room down the hall. She really hated hospitals. She never knew what to do with herself, always felt like she was in the way, that there was no escape from the sickness slowly closing in on her. Karen squeezed her eyes shut and took deep, calming breaths, trying not to panic. She was going to go crazy if she didn’t hear something soon.

“Okay, here’s what I’ve found out,” Maddie said as she walked up to her.

Her eyes flew open, eager for any information she could get.

“It’s a pretty nasty concussion. He’s being put through all these neurological tests now. He’s conscious and able to talk to them, but they need to see how severe it is.”

She let out a breath in relief as she nodded. “Do you think they’ll let me see him?”

“I’ll figure something out,” Maddie said as she squeezed Karen’s arm encouragingly.

Karen nodded again as she rubbed her damp palms on her jeans, grateful for Maddie’s help. She let Maddie guide her to the waiting room and pull her down into a chair with a bottom cushion so worn that it no longer provided any padding. They sat watching as people came and went while some news program spewed incessant chatter from the television hanging on a far wall. She tried thumbing through an old gossip magazine, but eventually flung it down onto the chair next to her when it was apparent she was only flipping through the pages, not seeing the big glossy pictures or reading the articles. Her mind was so jumbled and she was such a ball of nerves that there was no way she could even think straight. She kept reliving the panic and fear that had engulfed her as she thought about what would happen if he wasn’t okay, how she’d wasted so much time being an idiot, that she was convinced she’d lost all chances with him.

The drive to the hospital had been a blur. She wavered constantly between wanting to scream and yell, and breaking down completely into a sobbing heap, but somehow she managed to do neither, as she sat and stared blindly out the window. All that rushed through her mind was the certainty that they were going to arrive and be told that Jerry was dead. The one guy who could put up with her stupidity and still say he wanted to be with her, the one guy who actually cared about her and told her he loved her, was going to be whisked out of her life and she’d be left with nothing. She’d let too much time slip by, wasting it on her silly games.

Now that Karen knew he was okay, she didn’t want to waste any more time. She had no more patience to give.

She sat jiggling her legs with nervous energy before standing up with the need to move around. She paced for a few minutes wringing her hands together before stopping in front of Maddie.

“I can’t take it. I have to see him.”

Karen plastered a bright smile on her face and marched out toward the nurses’ station, Maddie on her tail.

“Hi. What room is Jerry Smutton in, please?”

The nurse, white-haired with shrewd eyes, had been around long enough to know all the tricks fans tried to use in order to gain access to their favorite players.

“And you would be?” she asked.

“I’m his girlfriend, Karen Bently. It’s probably in his chart.”

“I’m afraid it isn’t, sweetheart.”

“Well, I guess that’s understandable. I mean, he was unconscious when he arrived,” Karen said pleasantly, trying for a sympathetic note with the woman.

“But the team provided emergency contact information for him and your name wasn’t on it.

“They just started dating,” Maddie put in, trying to help.

“Well, even if that’s true, I’m afraid I can’t let you go in without approval from the team.”

“Approval from the...do they need to write a friggin’ permission note or something?” Karen scowled at the old hag, figuring she could take her if needed.

She was saved from having to do any physical damage when Chase rushed up to them, coming straight to the hospital from the park after the game. “What’s going on? Have you seen him yet?”

Karen pointed an accusing finger at the nurse. “No,
she
won’t let me.”

Seeing the lethal look in her eyes, he gently took her and Maddie by the arms and guided them in the direction of the waiting room, away from the nurses’ station before Karen could rile anybody else up. “Go on, I’ll take care of this.”

Karen glared at the nurse as Maddie led her away, only stopping when they finally turned the corner. “I can’t believe that old bitch.”

“She’s just doing her job. If a crazy fan was trying to get into his room, you’d want her to stop them.” Seeing Karen wasn’t listening and was continuing to scowl down the hallway at the nurse, Maddie pulled her back. “Relax. Chase will take care of it.”

“For your sake, he’d better or I may have to go off on him too. If not, you’re down a fiancé.”

She grinned. “I see the old Karen’s back.”

Karen let her shoulders sag under the weight of the stress and worry. “I just want to see Jerry. That’s it.”

“I know and we’ll get you in.” Maddie glanced down the hallway and stood up straight. “Here comes Chase.”

“Okay,” he said as he approached them. “I’ve gotten it all squared away with the hospital and the team so you can see him. He’s in room 428B. Let’s go.”

Karen squealed as she leapt forward and threw her arms around his neck. “I knew you were my hero!”

He patted her back and smiled at Maddie over her shoulder. “I’m glad that I could help. Now, come on.”

They followed him down the hallway and stood behind him as he slowly opened the door and peeked in. The room was dim, but Jerry was sitting upright in bed, clearly awake. Chase pushed the door open the rest of the way, letting them all in.

“There he is,” Chase said in a low voice as he approached the bed and shook Jerry’s hand.

“How are you doing, Jerry?” Maddie asked as she stood next to Chase, both of them looking down at him with concern.

Jerry looked gray and haggard, but his eyes, although duller than usual, still had a hint of humor in them. “I’m all right. Just trying to find other ways to get all the attention. You know how it is.” His voice was almost a whisper and he sounded groggy.

“Either that or trying to take the attention off your pitching,” Chase said, joking.

“No doubt,” Jerry agreed with a puff of laughter, but then he grimaced. “My head hurts like a bitch, that’s for sure.”

Karen remained planted by the door, unable to take the next step forward. All the fear and anxiety she’d lived through since witnessing him lie motionless on the mound flooded through her and pressed her control on her emotions to the edge.

He finally noticed she was in the room and looked around Maddie and Chase. “Oh, I didn’t realize you brought someone else with you.” Jerry smiled tiredly at her. “Hi, Aunt Karen.”

Something in his voice, never mind the fact that he called her Aunt Karen, had the hair at the back of Karen’s neck prickling. He had a puzzled look on his face, as if he wasn’t quite sure why she was there. Something obviously wasn’t right, so she stayed where she was.

“Hi, Jerry,” she said quietly and her voice quivered as she fought to keep herself from falling apart.

“It’s nice of you to visit me. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” He looked back at Chase and Maddie, who were both frowning at him. “Karen agreed to show me some houses when we had dinner at your house, but we haven’t been able to do that yet.”

A surge of cold, stark devastation flooded Karen.
He doesn’t remember a thing.

Chase broke the uncomfortable silence with a nervous chuckle. “That’s a good one, Smutty. Yeah, nothing’s happened.”

Maddie smiled weakly before glancing worriedly over her shoulder at Karen.

“What are you talking about?” Jerry asked, clearly confused by his comment.

“Jerry, what’s the last thing you remember?” Maddie inquired gently.

“Taking a ball to the head on the mound.”

“And before that?” she pressed.

Jerry opened his mouth to answer, but then shut it as his eyebrows creased. “Uh, I guess it would be that night we had dinner at your house. I can’t really remember anything after that...” He broke off and his brows bent in confusion. “That wasn’t yesterday, was it?”

That was all Karen could take. She let out a small whimper as her hand flew over her mouth. She had to get out of there. She couldn’t handle the sympathetic looks on Maddie and Chase’s faces, or the confusion on Jerry’s.

Blinded by tears, she fumbled with the knob before yanking open the door and lurching out of the room. She staggered against the wall and tried to breathe past the rock-hard emptiness that filled her. She made her legs, so heavy and weak, move her slowly down the hallway, narrowly avoiding crashing into the people she passed even though they gave her a wide berth. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t care and just kept walking, determined to get away from the overwhelming heartache that she’d left behind her. She pushed open a stairwell door and collapsed into a ball on the cold cement floor in the corner. Hard, painful sobs racked her body, but she couldn’t stop, not even when she eventually felt arms wrap around her.

“It’s okay,” Maddie cooed in her ear as she rocked them both gently. “It’s going to be all right.”

She shook her head, unable to say anything. Years of pent-up hurt and anger gushed out of her. If it hadn’t been for her cheating father or her ass of an ex, she wouldn’t have had these issues to begin with and she wouldn’t have wasted so much time trying to hide her true feelings from Jerry. But she
had
wasted so much precious time and now that she was ready to admit them to him, tell Jerry that she loved him and wanted to be with him, he was yanked away from her.

Karen had no one to blame but herself and now she was in this predicament because of it. She was clueless as to what to do next. Did she move on? Could she move on? Could she pick up the pieces of her heart and soul and become whole again?

She took a gulp of air and sniffled loudly. “I really fucked things up.”

“It’s just a minor setback,” Maddie said as she brushed some hair out of Karen’s eyes.

“He doesn’t remember anything, Maddie! It’s more than minor,” Karen exclaimed in between hitching breaths.

“It’s probably temporary amnesia or something. I’m sure he’ll remember everything in no time.”

Karen pulled back and looked at her dear friend through bleary eyes. “And what if he doesn’t?”

“He will.”

“And maybe he won’t ever...” Karen said on a sob.

“Of course he will,” Maddie insisted. “You guys were meant to be and I truly believe that.”

Karen wasn’t so sure. If they were meant to be, would fate be as cruel as this? She couldn’t believe so, but it seemed all she could do was wait. Wait to see if Jerry ever remembered, and if he did, if he’d even want to have anything to do with her after she’d essentially turned her back on him when he told her he loved her. Either way, the outcome looked bleak from Karen’s perspective.

* * *

Jerry lay in the dark. It was the middle of the night on day three of his stay in the hospital. He couldn’t sleep and so he lay there rolling things over in his head. He was sick of being in bed, but they refused to let him go until they were convinced there were no other side effects from his concussion. So far, it appeared that his only issue, besides a nasty headache and feeling nauseated all of the time along with some dizziness, was a frustrating gap in his memory.

Mild retrograde amnesia. That’s what the doctors had called it when they’d explained it was a symptom of the concussion. They couldn’t tell him when his memory would come back, but they felt positive it would. They advised him to just to continue on as is and one day it might just fill itself in.

It
might
fill back in. Wasn’t that reassuring?

He hoped to hell it did. It drove him nuts that he didn’t remember anything between having dinner at Maddie and Chase’s and then the game a few nights before. He knew there was a span of time in there, but what he did during that time, he couldn’t say. He felt significant things had happened; what they were, however, Jerry had no idea. There was just a big expanse of nothingness in his memories and that frustrated the hell out of him, making his already pounding head worse.

After seeing Karen the other day and based on her reaction to him, Jerry had to guess something had gone on between them. He’d tried to get it out of Chase, but Chase had remained quiet, saying only that perhaps it was for the best if Jerry remembered on his own. Had he and Karen gotten together? God, he wished he could remember if they had. He recalled thinking how beautiful she’d looked that night at dinner and how he was anticipating spending time with her looking at houses, but after that...just a black hole.

Jerry closed his eyes and rubbed his hand through his hair. He knew trying to force himself to remember wasn’t going to do it, but he couldn’t help trying to will anything to come back to his memory. He had feelings flying around inside that really made no sense to him, and he wanted to match a memory to them and figure out what everything meant.

He sighed. He obviously wasn’t going to figure it out any time soon and he just had to hope his memory came back sooner rather than later. He had a feeling that if it took any longer than that, he would be losing something big. He just wished he knew exactly what that was before it was too late.

* * *

Karen and Maddie sat outside on Maddie’s backyard patio a few weeks later. They both sat in silence, the conversation between them stiff and uncomfortable as it had been since that night in the hospital.