Page 28 of False Start
“Yeah. I get it. You guys light up when you’re in the same space. There’s so much sexual tension between you two. And when the passion burns hot like that, it’s a lot to take in. It would be easier to believe Charity than put yourself out there to be hurt by a man who has the power to do it.”
I know she’s right. I’m scared of Bryant for many reasons. If he hasn’t been with Charity, then I need to decide if I want to see something through with him. Shit or get off the toilet as they say. “Let’s go check on Grandma Rose.”
The smell of antiseptic fills my nose as we walk through the hospital lobby. I put Bryant out of my mind and focus on being present for my family. My grandma needs our prayers and support.
We find our mom inside Rose’s hospital room with a magazine in her hand. Our grandmother has an oxygen mask over her face as she sleeps soundly.
“Hey, girls,” Mom greets and stands to hug us before she gives us an update. “She’s having a hard time breathing. They may have to put a tube in her chest to help her.”
Tears prick my eyes. “Will it hurt her?”
“No, they’ll sedate her so she’s not uncomfortable.”
“How did she become sick this fast?”
Mom takes my hand and rubs her thumb over the top. “When her memory comes and goes, she doesn’t always have the ability to communicate how she’s feeling. She’s lost in another time.”
We sit for hours and wait by my grandma’s bed. She wakes herself up coughing but doesn’t stay awake for long before she dozes again. After a late lunch, I pass time by holding my grandmother’s hand and watching her favorite shows. She may be asleep, but I thought a familiar sound in the background would be comforting. The nurses come in and check on their patient and update us with her worsening condition. She’s not responding to the antibiotics fast enough.
As day turns into night, Grandma Rose continues to struggle breathing. Mom offers to turn the game on for us at seven, but I ask her to leave it on the Golden Girls. Plus, I don’t want to see Bryant on television and think about the Charity situation. It’s hard, but I need to tuck the situation away until later and focus on what’s in front of me.
Zina announces we won the game when she returns from the vending machine around 10:30. “Twenty-four to ten.”
“Good game.”
“Hudson threw the damn ball.”
The smile her words bring to my face is instantaneous. The familiarity of an inside joke about how I met him warms me all over.
“What’s going on?” Mom asks.
“Zhanna’s tapping dat ass,” my sister replies.
I send a glare her way. “Thanks.”
“I hoped you’d warm up to him. He seems like a nice young man,” Mom says.
“You think he’s hot,” I point out.
“He’s a very handsome young man.”
Zina gives mom the business about Charity, and Mom’s mouth drops open. “He left on game day to chase you?”
“Sho ’nuff did,” Zina answers for me. “Ben said Tombs almost had a massive coronary and threatened to bench Hudson. Bryant left anyway. He gives a shit what you think.”
I was so angry and upset about Charity and Grandma Rose when I saw him. It didn’t register that he’d left when he had somewhere important to be. If it gets out he left against the coach’s orders, pro teams could push him back in the draft next year. Before I can reply, Grandma has a coughing fit, and the three of us leave our seats to see about her.
Her nurse comes in and gives her a breathing treatment, so we step outside to stretch our legs. I run down to my car to grab my bag to change into something more comfortable than jeans and run into Bryant and Ben a few yards from my Jeep. Bryant’s hair is down instead of pulled back in his usual man bun. I don’t know why his shoulder-length hair turns me on, but it does.
“I’ll go in and check on my girl,” Ben says and leaves us.
Bryant jams his hands inside the front pockets of his athletic pants and chews on his lip. “You didn’t unblock me.”
“Shit,” I say and reach for my phone. “I forgot all about it once I hit the road. I’m sorry. I’ll do it now.” I quickly unblock him.
“How’s Rose?”
“She’s not good. They’re giving her a breathing treatment to hopefully open up her airway.”
