Cam laughed. “No, he’s not. So, what happened between you and Dickhead?”
She frowned.
“Sorry, that’s what Hunter always called him.”
Lilli sighed wearily. “I know. Steve took advantage of my inability to see. He was having multiple affairs right under my nose. I knew something was wrong and didn’t listen to my instincts when it came to him.”
“What did they tell you?”
“That he was never the right man for me, but he’d seemed so perfect, so attentive, so unconcerned about my blindness.” She sighed wistfully. A twinge of guilt tweaked Cam for being so nosy and dredging up her pain.
“I’m sorry. That must be difficult.”
“It’s one of the many challenges I face. Trust is the one thing I don’t give lightly, and Dickhead betrayed that trust. I’ll be more careful next time.”
His heart broke for her. She held herself so proudly and with such dignity. He’d love to punch Dickhead’s smug face and give him a little of the pain he’d caused her.
“Don’t feel sorry for me.” There was steel in her voice.
“I don’t. You’re the last woman I’d feel sorry for.”
His words made her smile, which lit the corners of his cold world.
“I should go.” He’d overstayed his welcome. He rose to his feet, reluctant to go but knowing he should.
Her face fell. “Thank you for watching the movie with me. I’ll see you next Tuesday? I’ll have Hunter give you the details as soon as I know them.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Cam meant every word he said.
He hadn’t looked forward to anything this much since the national collegiate football championship.
* * * *
After Cam left, Lilli sat in the same spot for several minutes, playing back the last three hours in her mind. Cam had lit up the darkness, bringing her world into focus. He’d described stuff on the screen in such vivid detail she could see it in her mind. He’d joked with her about anything and everything. He’d never once treated her like less of a woman or been patronizing.
He’d been warm, and wonderful, and real. Three things she now realized Dickhead had never been. She giggled at her use of the insulting nickname. Calling him that instead of his real name gave her perverse satisfaction.
Hunter’s heavy footsteps thumped on the hardwood floor. She gave a guilty start, as if Hunter could read her mind regarding her current thoughts. Thank the spirits above, he didn’t have those skills.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Hunter explained. The fridge door opened, and the top was popped on one of those microbrews Hunter loved.
“From the way Cam described your appearance, you had a good time.” She loved teasing Hunter. He was too serious for his own good.
“Too good.” Hunter dropped into the chair next to her. She could hear a rustling of paper, a sure sign Hunter was fidgeting.
“You can talk to me,” she said simply.
He sighed and fidgeted some more. “I’m confused.”
“Why?” As if she didn’t know, but she wanted to hear it from him.
“Because Kate’s not the one, but I just had the best sex of my life—twice.”
“TMI, little brother.” Lilli made a gagging sound and held her hands over her mouth.
Hunter chuckled, and she could feel him loosening up a bit. “We both have the gift, and I’m not seeing a future with her.”
“I have the gift. Your abilities are questionable,” she reminded him.
Hunter grunted.
“Maybe you don’t need to see a future with her. Maybe your endless pursuit of the right woman has worn you down and this is life’s way of telling you to just go with your emotions and have fun. Sex doesn’t have to mean any more than that.”
“Have you had sex just for fun, even though you knew the person wasn’t a long-term fixture in your life?”
Lilli squirmed a little. She shouldn’t be having this discussion with her brother, but they’d always been open with each other about everything. “Yes, I have, and the world didn’t end because I engaged in personal pleasure.”
He was silent for a long time. His heavy sigh echoed across the large room. “I guess I’m a dinosaur in my thinking.”
“Nothing wrong with dinosaurs.”
“Except they’re extinct.”
She laughed. “That is a problem.”
“Yeah, a big one.”
“Hunter, you’ve been attracted to Kate all along. Go with it. Let your instincts take over. Trust them. See what happens. Nothing is preventing you from pursuing this.”
“She could be using me to get to Sid.”
“She’s smarter than that.”
“I hope you’re right.” He was quiet, and the friendly atmosphere altered like a change in weather. “What about Cam and you?” The tenseness came back to his voice.
“Relax and unbunch your fists.”
“How do you know my fists are bunched?”
“Seriously, Hunter.” She laughed. “I know you. You’re worried about me getting hurt again. Quit fretting like an old woman. Cam and I are friends. He treats me like…like a normal person—not like a handicapped person or a person to be pitied. Very few people do that. I like it. I like him.”
“He’s a player.” Hunter’s tone dropped a gruff octave.
“I don’t care. Who he sleeps with is none of my business.” Lilli laughed and reached over to pat his arm using her uncanny ability to feel where people were as opposed to seeing where they were.
“A superficial guy like Cam can never be who you need.”
“I think you underestimate him.” Lilli defended Cam and wasn’t sure why.
“Just promise me you won’t go beyond friends.”
“I promise.”
She intended on keeping that promise no matter how hard it would be.
Chapter 10—Setback
Over a week later on a cold and dreary Sunday afternoon in Seattle, Hunter sat on the bench and watched the defense give up too many yards to the New York Cougars. The Cougars were a team who took advantage of opportunities, and letting them get a leg up could lead to disaster and a loss. The Steelheads had a so-so season so far, losing as many as they won. They were still in the battle, as it was only mid-November with a good part of the season left to play.
They neared the end of the third quarter, down twenty-one to fourteen. There was still a good chance they could win this one, only Hunter couldn’t shake a feeling of foreboding that sat heavy in his stomach. Something bothered him, and he couldn’t put his finger on it. His problem most likely had to do with Kate. She seemed to be the source of most of his irritations lately. The woman sure did know how to get under his skin.
For a week, Hunter avoided being alone with Kate, not really sure how to proceed and hoping against hope his desire for her might wane, but it didn’t. He took Lilli’s words seriously and had mulled them over for days, still not having made a decision on what to do with Kate. He still saw her, as she often came to the house to hang out with Lilli and talk horses. He couldn’t help joining in the conversations. Kate knew horses, and Hunter didn’t mind picking her brain regarding her opinions on possible Derby contenders.
Tanner gave him a playful punch in the arm. “Hey, wake up, we have a game to play.”
Embarrassed at being caught daydreaming, Hunter donned his helmet and sprinted onto the field.
Hunter jogged to the huddle. He pushed into a spot between Cam and Tanner. He bent low listening for the play.
“Listen, bitches,” Tanner growled with his usual huddle snarl, “we’re going to stick it to them on this play. I’m going for it. We’re running Blue 85.”
Nodding, Hunter gave Tanner the thumbs-up. Taking his place on the end of the line, he waited for the snap. He had a really bad feeling about this play, but he pushed his misgivings out of the way and concentrated on his assignment—get up the field, shake his defender, catch the ball, and run like hell.
Rhino, the aptly named burly, neckless center, hiked the ball, and Hunter was off. He ran up the middle, using his underrated speed to break away from the defender and open up several feet of daylight. He turned just as a perfectly placed ball sailed over his shoulder. He snagged it out of the air and ran, dragging a few safeties with him until he crossed the goal line.
Leaping to his feet, he grinned and looked around, expecting to hear the roar of the crowd and be greeted with backslaps by his teammates.
The stadium was eerily quiet. None of his teammates looked at him. Most of them stared at a circle of players on the field several yards away near the line of scrimmage.
A cold sliver of fear cut Hunter to the bone. He shivered and hurried toward his teammates. Elbowing them out of the way, he froze at the sight on the turf in front of him. Tanner lay still on the fake grass. One ankle turned at an angle that ankles weren’t meant to turn. His face was gray. His eyes were shut. Not even an eyelash moved, nor a muscle twitched.
Hunter dropped to his knees and checked for breathing. Tanner’s chest rose and fell with a faint and ominous rattle.
“Fuck,” Hunter swore under his breath.
He glanced up at the shocked faces of his teammates, who parted for the team trainer and doctor. The crowd maintained their eerie silence. Grady, one of the wingmen, took hold of Hunter’s arm and pulled him out of the way.
“Fuck,” Hunter muttered again.
“Yeah, fuck,” Grady added, his face solemn and etched with worry lines.
Cam joined them, stricken and shaking. “He’s—he’s still alive, isn’t he?”
The doctor shouted with urgency to one of the trainers, and a second later the ambulance motored onto the field. Hunter’s stomach rolled. He fought to keep down his breakfast. For a minute, the field spun around him. He grabbed Grady’s and Cam’s arms to hold himself upright, knowing they’d think the gesture was a show of solidarity for their fallen comrade.
“Give us room,” ordered Coach Meyer.
Hunter backed up, as did his teammates. They watched in stunned silence as Tanner’s motionless body was strapped to a board and loaded into the ambulance, which quickly exited off the field and down the tunnel, lights blazing.
Hunter jumped when Cam gripped his shoulder. “We have a game to play. Tanner wouldn’t expect anything less of us. He’d be calling us pussies right about now.”
Hunter nodded, shaking off this reminder of his own mortality. They’d been larger than life since their freshman year of college, managed to avoid major injuries, and considered themselves impervious to anything but the normal bumps and bruises associated with football.
What happened to Tanner went beyond normal. His deathly pale face and shallow breathing burned into Hunter’s memory. He sent up a silent prayer to whatever gods watched over football players and followed his fellow wingmen to the huddle.
* * * *
Kate didn’t like football. She didn’t like the violence or the stopping and starting of the action. She didn’t like the ridiculous amounts of money professional athletes were paid to play a game.
When Lilli begged her to go to the game and be her eyes, Kate couldn’t say no. Lilli rarely asked for favors, and they’d become good friends, even though they avoided the elephant in the room—Kate’s non-relationship with Hunter.
Kate and Lilli watched the game from a suite, and Kate did her best to describe stuff she didn’t understand, causing Lilli to laugh several times at her neophyte descriptions. Kate laughed, too.
At halftime, Kate helped herself to the snacks in the suite and a glass of amazingly decent wine. Even Lilli had a small glass as she carried on a conversation with women Kate remembered from the wedding reception: Emma, who was married to the Steelheads starting quarterback, Tanner, her twin sister, Avery, and older sisters Bella and Izzy. Just to prove what a small world it was, Bella’s, Avery’s, and Izzy’s husbands all played hockey for the Seattle Sockeyes and were currently on a road trip.
At the end of the third quarter, Hunter snatched the ball out of thin air and ran for a touchdown. Kate got caught up in the moment and leaped to her feet cheering along with Lilli, who was screaming and clapping.
Until she wasn’t anymore.
“Something’s wrong. I can feel it.” Lilli’s face turned white, and she dropped into her seat as if she’d taken a bullet to the heart. Kate took longer to catch on. Then she noticed how quiet it was. She glanced around at all the concerned faces.
“What happened? Did somebody die?” she quipped. Before the words were out of her mouth she knew she’d said the wrong thing.
“No, no, no!” Emma pounded on the glass, screaming. Her sisters surrounded her, and she collapsed into the arms of her oldest sister. Her body shook with heart-wrenching sobs for a few brief minutes. Right before Kate’s eyes, she pulled herself together and ran for the exit. “I need to go to him.”
Emma and her sisters disappeared out the door.
Lilli tugged on Kate’s sleeve. “What’s going on? What do you see? Someone’s down, aren’t they? It can’t be Hunter. I don’t feel that it’s Hunter. Is it Tanner? The announcer isn’t saying anything.”
“Let me find out. I’m guessing it is Tanner.” Kate focused her attention back on the field and picked up a pair of binoculars. Her stomach churned with fear. She located the number eighty-five on Hunter’s jersey among all the other jerseys standing in a circle. Yes, she admitted to knowing Hunter’s jersey number.
The men’s expressions were grim. She couldn’t make out who was lying on the field.
“It’s not Hunter,” Kate assured Lilli.
“Is it Cam?” Lilli’s voice cracked, almost as if she were going to cry.
“What’s his number?”
“Eighty.”
“Not him. He’s standing next to Hunter.”
“Thank God.” Lilli breathed out a sigh of relief and stuck an earbud in one ear. “The radio announcers will tell us.”
Kate studied Lilli for a moment. Interesting. Very, very interesting. Lilli and Cam? She’d almost been in a panic.
Kate lifted the binoculars again, surprised at her shaking hands. “They’re putting him in an ambulance, but I can’t see his jersey number. It has to be Tanner by the way Emma shot out of here.”
“It is,” Lilli said quietly. “Is he conscious?”
“He’s not moving.” Kate swallowed, feeling as if her mouth were stuffed with cotton. She knew enough to know that Tanner was a longtime friend of Hunter’s.
“We need to go. Hunter needs me.” Lilli stood quickly and grasped the handle on Charlie’s harness.
“They won’t let you on the field, and there’s still a game to play.”
“But we can’t just sit here. What if Emma needs us?”
“Emma has more people around her than she probably wants right now. We’ll just get in the way.”
Lilli sat back in her seat and sighed heavily. “We have to do something.”
“I don’t want to sit here, either, but they’ll have taken Tanner to the hospital by now, and there’s nothing we can do at this point but wait along with everybody else.”
Lilli cast a wry smile in Kate’s direction. “You are the practical one.”
“Someone has to be,” Kate joked, attempting to lighten Lilli’s mood.
* * * *
After a fretful fourth quarter, Kate hustled Lilli to the area outside the locker room to wait for Hunter. The Steelheads had lost the game after the backup rookie quarterback threw two interceptions and fumbled once in the fourth quarter. Even the defense couldn’t get their act together and became as porous as a colander.
“Lilli?” Kate’s concerned tone startled Lilli. She jerked slightly and almost fell off the bench she’d been sitting on.
Lilli sat up straight and scooted away from the edge of the bench.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just worried about Tanner.”
“He’ll be okay.”
Kate didn’t feel any more confident than Lilli appeared. “Here comes Hunter.”
Lilli shot to her feet and waited for her brother to approach her. He hurried to her and scooped her into his arms, hugging her tight. Over her shoulder, he met Kate’s gaze. His grim expression said more than words. Tanner’s situation wasn’t good.
“How’s Tanner?” Lilli asked, drawing back while holding her brother’s arms.
“We don’t know a lot yet. He’s conscious, but he doesn’t have any feeling or movement in his arms and legs.”
“Should we go to him?” Lilli brought her hands up to her mouth but couldn’t stifle a choked sob. Kate stood by, utterly useless and helpless, two things she hated.
Hunter shook his head. “The family has requested we not go there tonight. There’s nothing we can do at this point in time. The team is going to be texting updates to us whenever they find out anything.”
He glanced behind him as Grady and Cam joined them.
“Grady and Cam,” Hunter told Lilli, so she’d know who had joined their small group.
She nodded but said nothing more. Grady, usually the joker of the group, was unusually quiet. Cam stared at Lilli with longing, which had Hunter scowling like a curmudgeonly old man.
Kate stepped forward to distract Hunter. “Congratulations on the touchdown.”
He gaped at her, completely taken by surprise. “I’d forgotten I’d scored a touchdown. Funny how things like injuries put the game into perspective.” His dark eyes met hers. Despite the gravity of the situation, her heart skipped with giddy happiness like a little girl running through spring flowers.
The passion they’d shared a week ago seemed more like years, and she sensed Hunter pulling back, resisting the chemistry between them, as much as he resisted defenders attempting to bring him down.
Kate shook off the feeling. She was being selfish. Right now wasn’t the time for anything but concern for their friend.
Lilli clapped her hands together to get their attention, not that it was necessary. They were solemn and quiet. “Let’s go to the Elliot Bay pub and wait for news. Standing here isn’t doing us any good.”
Game Changer: Seattle Steelheads Football (Game On in Seattle Book 7) Page 9