“Doc!” I shot off the treatment table, nearly staggering when my right thigh took my full weight.
“Kane. You’re a first baseman. By tomorrow, your thigh will be twice that size. You won’t be able to squat, and your agility will be shit. Do you want your team to suffer because of your ego?”
Fuck.
Dropping a bag of ice on my thigh, he attached it with an ace bandage before peering up at me again. “Heard about your troubles. Sorry to hear about it. The internet is a wonderful and a terrible tool.”
“Yeah, the entire situation is fucked. Sorry, Doc.”
“Heard worse.” He paused and then took the glasses off and tucked them into his jacket pocket. “Kane, I know you’re probably hurting and embarrassed by all this, but let me tell you that you’re probably only feeling about a fraction of what your girlfriend is feeling. I know it’s the twenty-first century, but some things are slow to change. One of those things is how we judge women opposed to men, especially sexually.”
I felt like I was having the birds and bees talk with my dad all over again.
“You, as the man, will be cheered for having sex. She, on the other hand, will be labeled as a whore. So, you remember that when you go to her tonight. She’s hurting in a way you’ll never face or completely understand.”
Doc’s words took some of the steam from the anger hovering below the surface. He was right. I’ll get high fives, and Eliana will get judged.
This would most likely never affect me from a career standpoint. I was still a Beast. I was still going to be the CEO of Steele Global one day. This was a blip on my radar whereas Eliana’s entire career could be tarnished. Hell, she might have trouble being accepted in veterinarian school if the admission officers googled her name. And they would.
Damn.
Heading back to the locker room, I pulled on a t-shirt and hoodie, skipping the shower until later. Stuffing my feet into some shoes, I kept the ice bag on and headed out to find Eliana and Zoe.
I heard them before I saw them, and I stopped so as not to interrupt their conversation.
“I’m sure he hates me now,” Eliana said in a low voice. “I would hate me if I were him.”
“Stop,” Zoe snapped. “How are you to blame in any of this? You’re a victim too, El. Both of you are. Stop taking the blame for everything in your life.”
“It’s just driving me crazy trying to figure this out. And I hate putting Kane in the middle of this.”
Zoe snorted. “From what little I could see on that video, Kane kinda jumped in the middle, and he didn’t look like he’d been dragged there either.”
There was a slap and an “ouch.” I didn’t need to see the two to know what happened.
“I don’t know,” Eliana said, her voice dropping a bit lower. “Do you know what worries me the most?”
“What?”
“Kane is such a good person. I’m afraid he might try to stick with me out of some sense of obligation. And not just for his grandmother. I mean, think about how crappy it would look if he up and dumped me after this. So, I think he’ll stay, at least for a while.”
Eliana sounded so miserable that I almost went to her then, wanting to assure her that I would stay because I cared.
I heard someone sigh, and I thought it was Zoe. “You still don’t get it, do you?” There was a short pause, and I imagined Eliana shaking her head. “The people in your life are lucky to be in your life. You’re the best friend, the best person I’ve ever known.”
“Don’t you see? None of this would have happened if he hadn’t tried to save me from Alize at brunch that day. That sense of honor snowballed into me being his fiancée and then agreeing to a wedding date, and now this…”
“He followed you, remember? He sat down with you, remember? He asked you to the gala, remember? He asked you to marry him, remember? You didn’t grab him by the throat and make him do anything. This was out of control for you too.”
There were sniffs and movement, and I decided it was time to interrupt. Then Eliana spoke again. “I love him, Zoe, but I think it’s best if I let him go. His future is so big, so bright, I’ll only be like a dark fog hovering around him.”
Another sigh. “Oh, El. Please don’t do something that drastic yet. If you love him, fight to be with him. Don’t run at the first hint of trouble. You deserve him, and he deserves you. Promise me you’ll wait to decide. Try to find out why this is happening and who is responsible before tossing both of your chances of happiness away. Because, El… I’m pretty sure he loves you too.”
“Kane?” I whipped around as fast as my bum leg would let me to see Katrina strolling toward me at full speed, her hand tucked into Todd Morris’s hand. “I’ve got security at the players’ entrance. Where’s Eliana?”
There were clicks of heels behind me, and I turned to see the two women rounding the corner, Eliana’s eyes wide with surprise. “Have you been there long?”
Scrubbing my face with my hands, I admit, “Just a couple minutes. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
Eliana blushed from her chest to her roots. “Oh… and you…?” I stepped toward her, and she got sidetracked by the limp and ice pack strapped to my thigh. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?”
“Heard you’re out for the road trip,” Todd said, and Eliana’s hand flew to her mouth. “Damn ball came off that bat a thousand miles an hour.”
“Yep. It felt like a freight train hit me. Sorry I missed it.”
Todd slapped me on the back. “You almost caught it. You were closer than most anyone else could have been. Damn ball dipped at the last second and went just under your glove. Must have hit the very end of his bat because after it hit you, damn thing took another spin and went straight to the fence. If it had spun the other direction, we could have gotten him out, gone another inning.”
I stared at him. I didn’t remember reacting at all. I’d been so caught up with what was going on in the stands, that I didn’t recall even moving a fraction.
“It happened so fast, I don’t remember anything until I was on the ground,” I admitted.
He clapped me again. “Watch ESPN when you get home. I bet the replay will prove different.”
Feeling a bit lighter, I smiled at him. “Thanks.”
He took Katrina’s hand again. “No problem. Now, let’s get you all to your car so we can get home and get some sleep.”
***
We got home, but sleep wouldn’t be coming anytime soon. Paul Beck was waiting in the lobby to do a check of my apartment.
In the kitchen, he pulled the video back up and maneuvered his iPad until the layout was right. Then he turned and walked to the small TV hanging in the corner.
“This a smart TV?” he asked, and I nodded.
“The smartest.”
He made a noise then picked up his iPad. “Where’s your bedroom?”
I led him there, Eliana and Zoe following behind me. The housekeeper had come and gone, so I didn’t have to worry about condom foils lying on the floor.
Paul pulled up the second video and set the iPad on the bed, turning it a few inches to get the angle right. Again, he turned and walked to the television.
“Another smart TV?” he asked.