Page 42 of Unhinged Kallie

Chapter Sixteen

CARTER

I loved that they’d decided to do this. A night game that anyone could watch. It was electrifying to play in front of a packed crowd. This was my big moment to shine. It was the final trial, and we’d been divided into teams to play a game. If we won this, not only would I impress the scouts, but we would have bragging rights for the next year.

More importantly, this was my ticket to a free ride at college and my path to all my dreams coming true. It was the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, and I was the winning run with no one out. I’d hit seven home runs off this guy last season.

The pitcher wiped his brow as he mumbled to himself. Good, stay worried. I smirked as he got set. I could feel it. This pitch was going out of the park. Adrenaline flooded my body, and the chanting voices fueled me. He reached back, picked up his knee, and the ball left his hand. The second it did, I knew it was off and cringed, turning to avoid the impact, but I didn’t move fast enough, and the fastball smashed into my kneecap.

I screamed in pain and dropped to the ground. It was broken. I didn’t need an x-ray to tell me that. I heard the bone crack.

My eyes flew open, and I tried to sit up, sucking in a deep breath a moment before the pain hit.

“Ah.” I flopped back onto the hospital bed, my arm draped over my eyes. It wasn’t a bad dream. The doctor had given me pain meds, but they must have been wearing off because it was doing nothing for the throbbing in my knee. It felt like someone was stabbing it over and over again.

A hot tear trickled down my cheek. No team was going to want me. My free ride, my ticket to punch into the big leagues, it was all gone. By the time I was able to run again, all the teams would be full, and every team would question if I was a ticking time bomb of medical issues.

“Carter?” Kallie’s voice was as soft as her fingers on my arm. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I know how much this meant to you.”

“You should be happy. It means I’m trapped here,” I said, jerking my arm out of her hold. It wasn’t her fault, none of this was, but I also knew she didn’t want me to go, and the sad look on her face seemed fake, even if it wasn’t.

“Don’t be like that.”

“It’s the truth?”

She glared at me, and the look should’ve made me get up despite my broken knee and run away. Instead, I wanted to grab her and pull her down onto the bed with me as I kissed her.

“So, being around me is like being trapped?”

How did I explain that it was? How did I say that I fucking loved her and that every goddamn second I spent in the same house was a torture that was eating me alive? I glanced behind her, but I didn’t see Cain.

“He’s not here,” she said, guessing who I was looking for.

“Trouble…I…” I licked my lips. “I…” Sighing, I looked away. “I’m sorry. You didn’t throw the ball, but I’m angry, and you’re here.” I looked up at the monitor showing my heart rate, but it was silent. “Why am I still in the hospital? I thought they were going to discharge me.”

Kallie sat on the edge of the bed and picked up my hand. Her touch was freezing, but her skin was soft. I couldn’t help running my thumb over her hand. She was the farthest thing from cold. Her dad was like ice, but Kallie was the complete opposite. She ran hot and was the most determined and fiery person I’d ever met. My heart pounded harder with every touch we shared, and my resolve to do the right thing was slipping. I would lay in bed at night, thinking about her. I jerked off at the thought of crawling into her bed in the middle of the night. I was an asshole. Living with the Buchanans was screwing with my head.

I made a feeble effort to try and get her to let go. But just like all the other times I tried to push her away and keep boundaries firmly in place, she ignored them and held on tighter.

“Don’t bother, I’m not letting go, and I’m not going anywhere.” Rolling my head to look at Kallie, I was instantly drawn to her, staring at her mouth as she talked. “The doctor came in and said that he talked to a sports injury specialist, and he is flying in tomorrow. He’s some fancy surgeon for MLB teams. He said he can stabilize your knee, which will heal in half the time and be stronger than with just a cast.”

“What?” Was this the dream I needed to wake up from?

“My dad researched your injury and asked the doctor to make the call,” Kallie said.

That all seemed above board and what a parent would do regardless of whether they were blood relations. But in this case, that was code for—he ordered the doctor to make the call, or the doctor would never perform surgery again unless he wanted to learn how to work without hands. What scared me was that I didn’t care how he accomplished it.

“How much faster?”

“I’m not sure what half would be, but I overheard four to six weeks.”

A smile spread across my face before I chuckled, which turned into a whole-body laugh. I shook my head as I realized my moral compass had been spinning out of control for so long that it now always seemed to point north. I had no idea what was right anymore as hope rose in my chest and glowed brighter than any sun.

I locked eyes with Kallie. She was so fucking beautiful it hurt to look at her. “I have to ask, was it you?”

“Me what?” She smirked, and despite the pain in my knee, I wanted to pull her down and roll her over so she was under me.

“You know what. The reason the men’s locker room was closed and the team had to use the women’s instead.”