Out of Left Field Read Free Page A

cheek.
    Oh, hell. He was crying.
    Could it get any worse?
    Yeah, but only if it was his balls in a vise.
    He realized the field was almost clear. The other team had begun clearing the dugout. Well, whadyaknow . His throw had won the damn game. How ironic.
    Grayson appeared at his side. “You really are a dumb shit, aren’t you, X?”
    “ That seems to be the consensus.” He groaned.
    “ They should fire her—”
    “ Ah, come on, don’t blame Doc.”
    Grayson gripped Xavier by the left arm and escorted him through the dugout into the locker room.
    Frankie stood with her back against the wall, arms folded across her chest. “Of all the idiotic things to do, X!”
    He hoped his look voiced the disgust he couldn’t. The only response she gave him was a shake of her head and a roll of her blue eyes.
    “ I could say the same to you, Frankie.” Grayson did a head shake of his own.
    “ Grayson, I notated—”
    She was cut off by a slamming door. All three of them gawked at Coach. The man was about ten years older than Xavier, but looked damn good for his age, if you ignored the red face and pulsing vein in his forehead.
    “ Would somebody like to explain what the hell is going on?”
    Frankie opened her mouth, probably ready to take the hit for him, but Xavier cut off her explanation to substitute one of his own.
    “ My shoulder’s been bugging me. Before the game I asked Frankie to give me a shot of Cortisone. I was planning on coming to you—both of you—after the game.” He chanced a glance at Doc and hoped her report didn’t contradict his next statement. “I didn’t realize how bad it was.”
    Both Coach and Grayson looked at her. Coach narrowed his eyes. “Did you examine him?”
    “ There wasn’t time to do a complete evaluation. But I did have Jeff do a quick once over. Everything seemed fine. I told X that after the game we would inform both of you of the injury and do a full medical exam.”
    “ She came to me after the seventh inning stretch and informed me of the situation,” Grayson confirmed. “She was really concerned the injury was more severe than he let on.”
    Well, wasn’t that freakin’ perfect!
    Coach huffed. Cursed. Threw his hat across the room. Slammed his fist into a locker. “Get an MRI on him. Yesterday. Geez, X, like I really need this shit the first game of the season.” His cursing continued, following him like a kite’s tail whipping in the wind.
    Grayson unleashed an uncharacteristic string of curse words creative enough to make a sailor blush then glared at Frankie. “Take him to the PT suite. Get some ice on that shoulder. I’m gonna go schedule him an MRI. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get him in … yesterday .”
    The door announced his retreat and for the first time, Frankie laid her baby blues on him. “You heard the man. Let’s get you some ice.”
    “ I’m sorry.”
    “ I really don’t want to hear it, Xavier.”
    And that was the end of that.
    ***
     
    Xavier held his glass up and stared through the dark liquid to watch the flames lick the fake logs in the fireplace. He certainly didn’t need the fire for heat, but needed the mesmerizing dance to keep his head from exploding.
    He raised the squat glass to his lips and downed the contents. It burned and bubbled its way to his belly.
    So … he could still feel something. He’d wondered.
    Since collapsing in a pathetic heap smack dab in the middle of his favorite place on earth, Xavier’d been numb. He’d stood in the locker room, gotten his ass handed to him by Coach, and the world around him hadn’t quite seemed real. It’d been more like a foggy haze, one of those nightmares where no matter how hard he ran, the boogeyman stuck right on his heels.
    But the cold sweats of this nightmare weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
    The situation sucked. Big time.
    The silence of the house wore on him, but he couldn’t bear to turn the television on again. Just like he’d predicted, the most