Worth the Fall Read Online Free PDF Page B

friends now lived in a different city, played for a different team? Had missed the Stanley Cup years with the Red Wings?
    Or was she playing him? Is this what she did with her patients? To do what—throw them off? Get them to open up more?
    He needed to get her off this patient tactic she was taking with him before she started spouting words like “closure” and “acceptance.”
    He was not one of her patients. Had she moaned and arched while underneath one of her patients? Not damn likely.
    “So. You and Doc Thompson? What’s going on there? Fuck him yet?”
    Her head came back and she pulled out of shrink mode. She blinked those huge brown peepers a couple of times. Yeah, that’s right. I’m not some poor sap who needs the couch . He sat up a bit straighter, though it sent a flash of pain through him, and waited for her to hiss and spit like the wildcat he knew she could be.
    “ As if I’d tell you.”
    “ Hmm, normally I’d say that meant yes. But with you….”
    “ Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “ Then set me straight. You and the good doctor….”
    She looked like she wanted to spar with him, then he saw her glance at his knee and he knew the instant she decided to go easy on him. Oh, hell no .
    “ He’s totally your type, you know. Safe. Boring.”
    “ Educated. Civilized.”
    There she was.
    “If you like that sort of thing.”
    She snorted a small laugh, and that familiar feeling he got whenever they verbally went at it came over him. Like her jabs were small tokens of affection.
    “I do. I do like that sort of thing,” she said quietly.
    Or like small daggers to the soul.
    “Listen, Al—” he began, not really sure where he was going, but also not sure how much of their seesaw he could take right now. He didn’t get the chance to finish as the doctor chose that moment to make his way back into the area, chart and printouts in hand.
    “ Mr. Ryan, you were right. It is the ACL and the meniscus. You really did a number on this knee.” He turned to the nurse who’d come from the desk area to join them. “Let’s get some Percocet for Mr. Ryan right away.”
    “ That’s not necessary,” he said.
    The doc shook the papers in his hand, as if trying to remind Petey how messed up his knee was. Oh, he knew, all right. “Mr. Ryan, you must be in tremendous pain. I really think—”
    Petey held up a hand, stopping him. “No meds. At least not until you have to put me under for surgery.”
    “ Don’t be an ass. Take the painkillers,” Alison said.
    He ignored her and asked the doctor, “How soon can you do the surgery?”
    The doctor nodded as he said, “I’m glad you’re okay with doing the surgery here. I assumed you’d want to have it done in Detroit. Maybe by team physicians?”
    He waved that away. “This needs to be done ASAP. And I can’t keep it immobilized for that drive or flight.”
    The doctor was nodding along with him, but also seemed surprised. Like he didn ’t think Petey had it in him to be so astute. Christ, did everyone in the room think he was just a dumb jock?
    “ Since it’s so late, I’d like to keep you overnight and do the surgery first thing in the morning. I’ve already called Dr. Wright in Marquette and he’s on standby to drive over tomorrow morning. I’ll assist.”
    “ You’re not going to do it yourself?”
    “ No. He’s an orthopedic surgeon. You’ll be in better hands with him. For minimal invasion and a much smoother recovery, he’ll go in arthroscopically. Which, given your scars, you’ve obviously had done before.”
    “ But you’ll be there?”
    “ Yes.”
    He didn ’t know why that would make him feel better, but it did. “Okay, Doc, let’s get this show on the road. Find me a bed.”
    “ Fine. Good. About the painkillers….”
    “ Nope. Nothing until the drip tomorrow morning. I’m good.”
    The doctor looked at him skeptically, but just nodded and walked away, giving instructions to the nurse