Running Game(9)

I’d taken this job a year ago, knowing in the back of my mind that if fate intervened, I might find myself in this predicament. And yet, I wanted the job so badly, that by the time of my second interview, I’d somehow disillusioned myself into thinking that the odds were in my favor.

Denver’s a big city, I’d told myself. Hell, the United States is a big country.

If Jesse Colorado needed sports rehabilitation, he would have his pick of the best facilities in the entire world, right? The chances of him walking into the Steadman Hawkins clinic were slim

I’d been so wrong. So naive, so stupid, so disillusioned.

And now I was stuck.

Once again, I reminded myself I was a professional. I could do this. The past didn’t matter, that was all over. I wasn’t the timid little girl in a small town anymore.

I was a grown-ass woman, with talent, skills and a rigid backbone that had never let me down.

Jesse Colorado was just a dumb jock.

That’s all. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Nothing I couldn’t handle.

That’s what I kept repeating to myself, over and over, as I finally turned that door knob.

Dumb jock, dumb jock, dumb jock…





5





JESSE





I didn’t recognize her at first. She walked in full of confidence and throwing clipped clinical terms at me while refusing to look me in the eye. I knew right away something about her was familiar, though…

The hair.

Those unruly black curls that stuck out every which way from her head, despite her best efforts to pull it back into a tight bun.

Maybe it was the stubborn set of her jaw.

Or her profile - the same profile I’d sat staring at for months while she’d tutored me so many years ago.

These things were all nagging at me far in the back of my mind as I tried to figure out where I knew her from. I tried to listen to whatever she was saying about my knee, something about a long treatment plan, but I was distracted right away.

When she finally met my gaze, it all clicked.

Those eyes! I’d never forget eyes like that, because nobody in the entire world had eyes like hers.

Grass green with golden, sparkling flecks.

“Dr. Green is the best in the city. He and I have created an extensive treatment plan for you, and if we follow it very strictly, you should be back on your feet in no time,” she nodded firmly as she finished her sentence, and that’s when she first looked at me.

I turned away and turned to Grady, who’d accompanied me to the clinic. Coach Fox had left him with strict instructions not to leave my side.

“Grady, can you excuse us, please?” He’d been standing stoically silent in the corner the entire time.

“Sure, boss. I’ll be right outside the door.” He walked out, closing the door softly behind me.

I turned back to the woman in front of me and smiled.

“Damn, it is you,” I said, shaking my head.

“Excuse me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Maisey, don’t be coy. We went to Highland High together.”

“Oh, we did, didn’t we? That was a long time ago,” she said curtly, tearing her eyes away and looking back at my chart. “I see here that you were hit on your left side —.”

“Oh, come on!” I said, laughing.

“What?” she asked, still refusing to look at me, her eyes glued to the clipboard in her hand.

“Maisey,” I whispered. “Don’t act like you don’t know me.”

Slowly, she raised her eyes and I was blessed with those golden flecks again.

“Sorry,” she said, her voice even shorter than earlier. “Hello, Jesse. Yes, we went to school together. I just didn’t think you’d remember me,” she shrugged. “We hardly knew each other.”

“What!” I scoffed. “That’s not true!”

“Well, that’s how I remember it. Didn’t I do some tutoring for you or something briefly?” she dragged her eyes away again, turning her back to me completely this time as she sat my file on a cabinet in the corner and studied it.

“Well, yes,” I replied, smiling at her back as I remembered those times so very long ago. “I think we did a little more than tutoring, though.”

“Did we?” she murmured dismissively, her voice cool and calm. “I don’t recall.”

Wow. Well, that hurts, I thought. How could she not remember? I remembered every last second… I took a second to look away from her, my mind drifting back.



* * *



“Jesse, you really need to pull these grades up if you want that scholarship.”

The recruiter from Colorado State had taken me and my parents out to dinner and while he was being honest, I hated what he was saying. If I could spend the rest of my life playing on the field, then I’d be happy. Instead, I had to learn about shit that didn’t interest me to do what I loved.