Page 14 of Playing for Keeps (Checkmate 4)

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Riley

A Whole New World

My coworker, my friend, my superior… Oz Franks is my only connection to the woman who makes my heart bleed. Every time he walks into my room – or worse, every time hiswifewalks into my room – I bite off the nasty vitriol that sits on the tip of my tongue. Lindsi looks just like Andi, and my loss is just too much to bear when I stare into blue Conner eyes.

I don’t speak to my visitors.

I don’t entertain their ‘it’ll be okay’ talks.

I don’t give a flying fuck about anything they have to say, because every time I look down my bed, my blankets droop where there should be a leg.

My fucking leg!

It’s gone, and nothing will ever be okay again.

“How are you doing, Mr. Cruz?” One of my younger nurses steps into my room with a falsely bright smile and snaps the curtains open. She swings by my bedside table and takes the urinal like it’s normal for a thirty-year-old man to piss into a bottle rather than a toilet. With rubber gloves on and her hair tied back, she takes the bottle into the bathroom, empties it so we canallhear the splash, then she rinses it at the sink and brings it back to my bedside. “It’s almost time for you to be sprung, Mr Cruz. That’s exciting, huh? The administrators have organized for a physical therapist to come in and work with you today.”

“I don’t want them.” My voice croaks, rusty from disuse. “I’m fine.”

Not as professional as her sixty-year-old counterparts, the young nurse rolls her eyes while scanning my file. “You’renotfine, Mr. Cruz. You need to learn how to transfer in and out of a chair.” She drops my file on the end of my bed and folds her arms. “We can’t discharge you until you show us you can do it.”

The black sludge of anger slides through my veins; anger at this girl for telling me I can’t do something, anger at Oz for wanting to step up and help me, anger at Lindsi for looking at me with those fucking eyes full of pity.

“Bring the chair in.” I speak only to the nurse. “And crutches. I don’t want any visitors for the rest of the day. Please have them removed.”

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