He would’ve said more, but Joe stuck his head out the back door. “There you are,” he said, looking incredibly relieved. “We have a problem.”
Alex frowned and hit send. “Grab that crutch for me, will you?”
Joe did and began telling him about their latest construction headache. Joe had already warned him. He would do his best to keep things running as smoothly as possible without having to bother Alex, but with a job this big, he could expect for things to go wrong left and right.
He’d gotten so caught up with the issue that Joe had played way down when he first explained it that it was days before he could put some real thought into his Valerie disaster. His heart hadn’t stopped hurting since the day he’d last spoken to her, and he’d barely gotten any sleep.
There’s a good chance I’ll be entertaining someone. It’s over. Accept it. I have.
The brutal words played out over and over in his head, especially when he was lying in bed at night. He’d been close to just driving to her place more than once and to hell with her warnings. He’d beat the shit out of anyone she might be entertaining then drop to his knees and beg her to hear him out. But it was too risky. He knew her too well. She would’ve never answered his call if she wasn’t serious about her threat of calling the cops on him. The last thing he needed right now was to be thrown in jail. And if he was, he wouldn’t be getting out soon because if, in fact, she did have a guy—that smug ass**le Eli—at her place when he showed up, Alex was going away for a long time. If he felt what he had when he thought Isabel’s brother was someone she was entertaining, there’d be no holding him back. Not even Valerie jumping into his arms as she’d done then would stop him because this time she’d made it clear that any guy at her place now would not be just a friend.
If his damn ankle didn’t get any better soon, he could be looking at losing his scholarship. All the sneaking around he’d done and risked losing Valerie for, would be all for nothing if he couldn’t play anymore. Overseeing everything at the restaurants so his parents wouldn’t have to worry would be the only thing he’d have left to make up for all his other failures.
Alex dropped his face into his hands, leaning both elbows on his desk for a moment and took a deep breath. There was so much floating around in his head. He could barely keep it all straight, and he was actually tempted for a moment to drop his biggest anguish of all. Forget about Valerie. He didn’t deserve her anyway. He’d let his f**king pride come before her feelings. If anyone else hurt her the way he had, Alex would be ready to kill him. He should just respect her wishes and let her be. His life would continue to be this storm of one thing after another for a while anyway. He’d likely f**k things up again. Hurt her again. He should just walk away.
But he couldn’t.
The phone rang, yanking him out of his tortured thoughts for the moment. As if he didn’t have enough to deal with, the name on the caller ID made him wince. Dr. Gupta was another one he had on a speed dial and spoke to more often than he’d like to lately.
Yesterday he’d gone in for another MRI since the pain in his ankle was only getting worse. She’d given him a tongue lashing for not staying off it as she’d told him to, but he explained he just couldn’t.
“Mr. Moreno,” she said when he answered. “How is your ankle feeling today?”
“Not so good,” he said, still leaning his forehead against his free fist.
“I’m not surprised,” she said. “I don’t suppose you finally took my advice and stayed off it?”
“Sort of,” he said, wanting to avoid any more lectures.
“Sort of?” She tsk-tsked then began speaking as quickly as she normally did. “Well, normally I’d wait to get you back in here to discuss your results, but I know how busy you said you are, so I thought I’d save you the extra trip and just call you. You’re going to need surgery again. And soon. The tendon is now torn, and it looks as if you’ve pulled another. I can’t risk your stubborn behind continuing to walk on it. I want to schedule your surgery ASAP.”
Alex placed the phone on speaker and put it down on the desk, dropping his face back into the palms of his hands. Dr. Gupta continued with all the details of what exactly was wrong and how long it was going to take to recover enough, if ever, to play football again. She’d never been one to sugarcoat things, and Alex could hear it in her voice now. She didn’t anticipate his playing days to go on much longer. He was so screwed.
Angel and Sarah walked in just at the tail end of Dr. Gupta’s spiel. Angel stared at him wide-eyed. “You’re gonna need surgery again?”
Alex nodded with a frown, but seeing Sarah brought back thoughts of Valerie again. He’d debated about asking Sarah for help in trying to get Valerie to listen to him, but she’d hardly made herself approachable since the whole thing had gone down. Sarah had been noticeably miffed at him in the past because of his and Valerie’s ongoing antics, but this was by far the coldest she’d been with him. All the more reason to think maybe this was really it for him and Val. No telling what Valerie had been saying to her, a thought that rendered him almost breathless again like when Valerie had dropped those cruel words on him.
Angel asked a few more questions about his surgery, once again offering to drop this semester’s classes if Alex needed him to. Alex assured his little brother he had this. He might be gone for a couple of days—a weekend tops. But he’d be back sooner than they’d notice him gone.