The brunette nurse chose that moment to walk back into Drew’s room.

“He’s hungry,” his mother told her. “He needs more food.”

“Let’s see if he keeps what we just gave him down first,” the nurse said. “Can I find you another chair or two, Mrs. McCoy?”

“That would be great.”

Two sturdy folding chairs materialized minutes later. The nurse was checking his IV again, taking his pulse, blood pressure, and listening to his heartbeat. She put a small plastic basin next to him in the bed.

“Let’s hope we won’t need this,” she said. In other words, he might puke up his snack.

Drew gave her a nod. “I hope not as well.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” the nurse said, and she hurried out of his room.

“Mom,” Drew said. “Is Kendall here? Have you seen her yet?”

His mother reached out for his hand. “She called your phone earlier. There was an emergency at her office, and she missed her flight.”

“Did she say what happened?”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Is she still coming?”

“I don’t know.”

His heart dropped into his stomach. Why didn’t she tell his mom she’d be on a later flight or she’d be calling him later? She’d been so insistent that she would be at the hospital when he woke up. He was going to live, but he’d looked forward to waking up and seeing her.

It was middle school puppy love crush time, but he wanted to hold her hand when he didn’t feel well. He’d like to be a tough guy about all this, but right now, he couldn’t. He was glad his parents were there, but he wanted Kendall.

He grabbed the remote control velcroed to the railing around his bed. He clicked the TV on, but no picture appeared. “The TV’s broken,” he said.

“I’ll get the nurse,” his dad said. He got up from his chair and walked out into the corridor outside of Drew’s room.

“She told me she was going to be here,” Drew said.

“I’m sure she will be, honey. She had to deal with something.”

Drew frowned at the small sign posted next to his bed. He wasn’t allowed to use his cell phone in here. There was a landline phone, at least. He picked up the handset and stabbed in Kendall’s cell number. His call bounced to the hospital’s operator.

“I’m so sorry, but you can’t make long distance phone calls from your room, Mr. McCoy,” she said.

He wanted to ask how the hell she knew who he was, but that was too much for someone still a bit woozy from the day’s adventures.

“I can’t use my cell phone in here, and I need to make a call.”

“Is there anyone who can step outside the hospital and make that call for you?”

“I’ll work on that. Thank you,” he said and hung up.

“What’s the matter?” his mother asked.

She was currently reading the menu that had just been delivered by another one of the nursing staff. It was nice to know the hospital was going to allow him to eat actual food sometime in the next few hours. He was hungry, he was still tired, he was pain-free, but he knew the latter would change in a big way when the anesthesia wore off. Maybe he should consider getting some sleep until then.

“I tried to call Kendall and they won’t let me. I can’t use my cell phone in here, either.”

“Let me call her,” his mother said. She produced Drew’s phone out of her purse and stared at the screen. “How do I hit ‘redial’?”

Drew managed to unlock the screen and find the correct number for her. She scooted out into the corridor while Drew leaned back against the pillows.

IT WAS SHAPING up to be one of the worst days of Kendall’s life, and it wasn’t over by a long shot. She was back in the Miners’ offices after taking a cab from the airport. She had no other choice but to return, and she was upset and frustrated over this fact. The director of player personnel ignored her phone calls and was in Vegas bailing out Rocky Hill. Her phone was on perma-vibrate in her pants pocket. She didn’t even want to look at it right now. Sydney was currently answering her desk phone while she notified the Miners’ department heads that she would like to meet with them in half an hour in the conference room.

Kendall was using Sydney’s cell phone to reach Rod Carpenter. She was cutting Hill as quickly as she could find him, and she’d announce this fact at the meeting she’d just called.

The Miners’ PR group filed into her office and waited for Kendall to end her call. Sydney glanced up, gestured for them to wait while Kendall ended her call, and went back to her phone call. They’d have to duke it out over the two available chairs in front of Kendall’s desk.

“I’m very sorry, but Ms. Tracy is not available for comment right now. May I take a message?” Sydney said for the fifteenth time in fifteen minutes. “I’ll make sure to pass that on,” she said. “She will call you back at her earliest convenience.”

The PR department would be scheduling a press conference when she could announce she’d cut Hill, and she’d answer most of the press’s questions at that time. She would deal with the director of player personnel later on. She’d been overridden for the final time. She needed to stand up on her hind legs.

She called Rod’s phone for the third time in fifteen minutes, and miracle of miracles, he picked up. She hit the speaker function as he spoke and put her finger up to her lips so Rod wouldn’t know there were others listening to their phone call.

“Sydney, I don’t have time for this right now—”

“That’s nice, because this is Kendall. Where are you?” She could hear him gulp at the other end of the phone.

“I just paid the bail and Mr. Hill will be on his way back to San Francisco as soon as I can get him there. This is just a misunderstanding.”

Misunderstanding, my ass. She wasn’t harboring that guy for one more minute than it took to get rid of him. Either one of them, actually.

“Didn’t I tell you I didn’t want you bailing him out of jail in the first place, Rod? Why did you think you could defy me?”

“He’s an All-Pro. We can’t get through the season without him. We’re having enough trouble on the offensive line already—”

“How much more trouble are we going to be in when the security camera recording of the incident is made public? The witnesses are already talking to the media as well. No.” She could hear a male voice in the background.

“Hey, Rod, great to see you. Sorry about all the excitement.”

“Don’t worry, Rock. We’ll be on our way in a few minutes. Why don’t you have a seat?”

“NO,” Kendall said. “Put him on the phone right now.”

“Maybe you should cool off for a while before you talk with him,” Rod said.

Kendall saw red. Enough was enough, and she’d had enough.

“Let me make it easy for you, Rod. You either put him on the phone right now, or I’ll fire you. How’s that?”

“You can’t fire me—”

“Yes, I can, and I will unless Rocky’s on the line in five seconds,” she said.

Rod’s voice was nervous. “Hey, Rock, the boss lady would like to chat with you for a minute. C’mon over here, will ya?”

“I don’t have to talk to that bitch. Tell her to talk to my agent.”

“No can do, buddy. She insists.”

A few seconds later, she heard Rocky Hill’s “What the fuck do you want?”

For the first time since she’d walked in the building that morning, she smiled.

“Hi Rocky, it’s Kendall Tracy. I’d love to do this in person, but it can’t wait. You’re cut from the team. We’ve disabled your playbook tablet already, so there’s no need to return it. We’ll pack up and mail the items in your locker to the address on file. Sorry it didn’t work out.”

She heard a few seconds of silence, and then the man who (allegedly) beat up his one-third-his-size girlfriend in the lobby of one of the most famous hotels in the world recovered his voice.

“I’ll make you pay for this, bitch.” He took a noisy breath. “You’d better watch your back, because I’ll be there when you least expect it, and I’ll make sure that pretty face isn’t quite so pretty anymore. You dig?” His voice was low, chilling, and furious. Kendall heard the other Miners employees in the office gasp.