Line of Scrimmage Read Online Free PDF

the word hesitantly.
    “Worse than that?” Jake could hardly get the words out. “Is this a Joe Theismann break?”
    “Let’s not apply terminology. We’ll let the doctors do that.”
    Fuck. The man was evading the issue. If possible, Jake felt even sicker. Football was his savior. The sport was what made him who he was. Made people look up to him and respect him. If he lost that, he lost everything.
    “Don’t lie to me.”
    Scott sighed. “They won’t make any determination right now beyond getting you through recovery and rehab. If all goes well, you’ll be back on the field next season.”
    “If all goes well?” Rage at his situation coursed through him. “I’m not sure I want to know what that means. But this season is over for me, right?”
    “You’ll be getting the best care,” the agent guaranteed him. “We want to get you back on your feet as soon as we can.”
    “That’s dodging the issue,” Jake pointed out, his words beginning to slur from the medication.
    Scott took his right hand and squeezed it.
    “We’ll worry about that issue later. Right now just concentrate on healing.”
    Yeah, right. Healing. Who cared if a worthless no-good healed or not?
    “You are so much more than football, Jake. You need to believe that.”
    He could hear his mother’s voice in his head, but it didn’t help now any more than it had when she first said it.
    Scott was barely out of the room before Regina was back.
    “I want to make sure you’ll be as comfortable as possible,” she told him. “That morphine’s going to hit you full force any minute.”
    Even as she spoke the words, he felt himself fading. At least for a few hours he wouldn’t have to face the terrible reality his life had become.
     
     
Chapter 3
     
    “I see they’ve taken the leg out of traction.”
    Jake looked up as his sister walked into his hospital room and frowned. “Yeah, big deal. And by the way, nice of you to show up today.”
    Ivy stopped just shy of the bed and glared at him. “Are you for real? I was here every damn day for the first two weeks. Took off work so I could do it and handle things for you. And I’ve been here every other day since then, listening to you bitch, answering your questions, talking you off the ledge. You’ve got some nerve, Jacob Marlowe Russell.”
    He managed to pull out a tiny smile. “The full name, huh? You must be really mad at me.”
    “Trust me. It’s hard sometimes not to be. I understand the nurses just want to throw you raw meat before they come in to check you and give you meds.”
    “You try having your whole life jerked out from under you and destroyed and see how happy you’d be.”
    The grim lines on her face softened as she moved closer to the bed. “I know this is hard on you. And yes, I’d probably be in the same snit you are if I was in that bed. But Jake, all you do when you get angry is make yourself sick. You need to think healing thoughts right now.”
    Jake grimaced. He needed a hell of a lot more than healing thoughts to get him out of this fix. He couldn’t gripe about the way the Mustangs were treating him. DiMarco had been in to see him several times along with Coach Raymond. Trip Faulkner, the quarterback, had been in every day after practice along with some of the other players. And Larry O’Donnell, the offensive lineman who’d missed tackling the defender who’d taken him to the ground, had practically cried all over the bed.
    But Jake could hardly talk to them. None of them could possibly understand how devastating this was to him. After all, they were still out there, admired and respected. While he was just…just…a lump of nothing.
    Scott had stayed in town for nearly a week, a record for the man with all he had going. But, to give him credit, he’d been at the hospital every day checking on Jake and his condition. And feeding him equal doses of optimism and practicality. If anyone knew what the devastating possibilities of an injury like this