This type of emergency would probably never happen again, but it might be nice to have a plan when she was seven hundred air miles away from Seattle and he couldn’t get himself on a plane without significant assistance. Injuries weren’t unheard-of in his job. As a matter of fact, the injury rate in the NFL was one hundred percent.

It wasn’t if he got hurt, it was when he got hurt, and how badly. Teams invested huge sums of money in the best medical care and conditioning staff they could obtain. The league’s go-to surgeon was located in Georgia and insisted patients fly to him if a procedure was needed. Drew wanted the best surgeon he could possibly get, but he also didn’t want to spend the next four to six months rehabilitating in Georgia.

“I’m guessing I have another doctor’s appointment when we get home,” Drew said to Coach Stewart.

“That would be a yes. Dr. Ellis will do the procedure,” Coach Stewart said. “His office is on Capitol Hill, and you can rehab with us. We talked with him earlier. He’d like to perform the surgery on Wednesday morning. He’s operated on several of your teammates with a lot of success, as well as guys from the baseball team and the soccer team. Would you like to talk with him beforehand?”

“Yeah, I would.”

Drew shifted uncomfortably in the airplane seat. He knew he’d had enough medication to knock a bear on his ass, but he felt a sharp twinge of pain whenever he moved the right side of his body. He shouldn’t bitch. If he was in a traditional airline seat, they would have had to sedate him to get him home. He was looking forward to seeing his mom, but he really wanted Kendall right now.

He knew he wouldn’t be dazzling company. Holding her hand might be nice. He’d appreciate her simply being in the same room with him.

Four hours later, he stepped gingerly off of a small staircase and was strapped into a black Suburban with tinted windows.

“Hey, Drew. Heard you’re a little under the weather,” the guy behind the wheel said. Drew recognized him as part of the Sharks’ security detail. “I’m Chuck. I’ll be taking you to the surgeon’s office.”

“Thanks. I feel like shit.”

One of the Sharks’ training staff got into the front passenger seat.

“Good to see you, McCoy.”

Drew gave him a nod and flinched. He couldn’t move at all without pain. His shoulder was in a sling, but it wasn’t helping.

The coach tapped on Drew’s window. “We’ll talk with the surgeon as soon as he’s done chatting with you. Take it easy.” He gave Drew a fist bump on the hand that still worked and got into another black Suburban.

The visit with the surgeon was relatively quick. Drew liked to think he would have been able to ask a few more substantive questions if he was a little more with-it, but he took a look at the testimonials from other pro athletes the doc had operated on previously and gave the go-ahead for the surgery. He got a sheaf of paperwork in return, which needed to be filled out and returned prior to showing up at the hospital at six AM on Wednesday morning.

Chuck, the security guy, was nice enough to retrieve Drew’s smart phone out of the garment bag he’d loaded into the back of the vehicle at the airport. He handed it to Drew for the ride home. Drew scrolled down the contacts with one hand until he found Kendall’s number, clicked on it and the speaker function, and listened to it ring.

“Kendall Tracy,” she said.

“It’s me,” he said.

“Where are you?”

“I’m on the way home. I’m having surgery on Wednesday morning.” He pulled in a breath. “What’s new with you?”

“Things aren’t good, but I am more worried about you.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said, and he heard her let out a long breath. The guys in the front seat were pretending like they were ignoring his phone conversation, which was nice of them.

“I have some meetings today and tomorrow. I will be there by the time you are out of surgery on Wednesday morning. Did your mom come back to Seattle?”

“Yes. She’s probably baking a cake as we speak.”

“Drew, I’m so sorry. I should have been there with you—”

“You couldn’t have been on the field,” he tried to joke. “You needed a pass for that.”

“I could have sat with you in the hospital, or gotten you something to eat, or fixed the pillows.” To his shock, he heard tears in her voice. “Anything.”

He clicked the speaker function off and brought the phone up to his ear. “I’ll still be here on Wednesday. Maybe you’ll be there when I wake up from the surgery.”

“I could hold your h-hand.”

“I’d like that.” He flinched again as Chuck drove over a speed bump which caused a fresh spear of pain through his shoulder. “So it’s a date?”

“It’s a date.”

KENDALL HAD SPENT the past several days attempting to concentrate on the work that had to be done instead of dwelling on the comments made to her during the disastrous meeting she’d crashed. She’d also succeeded in finding Sydney an assistant job at Google with one of Kendall’s former sorority sisters. Sydney’s last day with the Miners would be tomorrow.

Kendall knew she wasn’t going to be able to find as capable an assistant at wherever else she ended up, but to keep Sydney here to ride it out with her was wrong.

“Are you sure?” Sydney said for the one hundredth time in the past week. “You’re going to be alone here. I don’t feel good about your having to deal with those idiots by yourself.”

“I can handle it,” Kendall said. “I’m leaving at noon to go to Seattle anyway. I’m hoping they’ll make an announcement they’ve hired a new GM by the end of the week. I’ll take another job and get out.”

“Do you know which job you’re going to accept?”

“No, but I wouldn’t have to move if I went to work for Oakland. My parents would probably be happiest if I took Arizona’s offer. I don’t want to live in Miami.”

“Did you ask Drew what he thinks?”

“Not yet. I can talk with him tomorrow. I know he doesn’t want to leave Seattle, so that might be a problem for me.” She propped her elbow on the desk and rested her chin in her hand. “We’ll be meeting in the middle a lot.”

She was turning her life upside down for a guy she’d met three weeks ago, and they’d been on only a couple of dates so far. If any of her friends were telling her the same story, she’d tell them to slow down and think before acting. She realized that it was a little nuts for her to consider which job offer would work best for her skipping off to Seattle to see Drew as often as possible.

Above all, she wanted to spend more time with him. She knew he was interested, and she was into him too. The sex was great. He made her laugh. She had no idea, however, if they had what it took to build a life around. She’d been burned enough as the result of her experience with a married man. If things got any worse, she’d be doodling “Kendall McCoy” on her Trapper Keeper. It took a lot more to make any relationship work, though, than almost overpowering physical attraction and the fact they both liked to read. They’d be dealing with the day-to-day of real life for two people who worked an hour and a half plane ride away from each other.

The best thing she could do now was finish up the work on her desk and go to Seattle. She could spend time with Drew and maybe get some answers to the questions she had about any future they might have together. She pulled up the salary cap spreadsheet she’d been working on and forced herself to concentrate. The sooner she was finished, the sooner she’d be on her way.

KENDALL SAVED HER work to a thumb drive a few hours later and stuck it in the zippered pocket of her handbag. She knew she’d need the information to answer questions and be up to speed for the Friday morning conference call she’d agreed to as a condition of her staying in Seattle until Saturday morning. She’d meet up with the Miners in Atlanta on Saturday night for Sunday’s game.