Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (27 page)

That was the second thing that made my dad
really sad. It was also when the true character of my parents came shining
through. My dad called my mom, who left her husband, her job, and her new kid
to come be at my side. My dad took a sabbatical from work and he literally
never left me. I had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and the initial report
by the surgeons and oncologists was that they could take it out. Once they got
in there though, they found that it had wound its way around my brainstem. They
put in a shunt to drain the fluid that was building up and causing me
headaches, and they closed me up. Then the real fun started with five rounds of
chemo and thirty radiation treatments. My mom had to go back home. I
understood…kind of. She had a five-year-old kid, my little brother, and she had
a job…I guess at the time I resented her a little because of it, but I’m
totally over it now…mostly.

I was out of it most of the time during my
chemo sessions. I would wake up and eat; they had me on steroids and man was I
hungry. I didn’t like to open my eyes because the light hurt them. I always
knew dad was there though…I could hear the football games on TV. My dad loves
football.

I wanted to tell him to turn it off. I had
just made the high school team before I got sick. In my mind, I was going to
play freshman football and I was going to date the head cheerleader, and
then…before I became a famous rock star, I was going to play some college ball.
The thing in my head had caused all of that to come to a screeching halt in one
fell swoop, and hearing the game every time I woke up made me want to scream.
It made Dad happy though, something he hadn’t been again since I’d gotten
diagnosed, so I didn’t tell him.

That explains my aversion to football
though, and why the only reason I am going to this game tomorrow night is in
hopes of seeing Molly.

CHAPTER
THREE

MOLLY

“I’m taking off now Cassie, okay?” Cassie
was a barista at the university coffee shop. The same where I was now working
too, and where she was training me. I had only just started a few days before.
Today had been my third day of training, and I was allowed to touch the blessed
espresso machine. I didn’t do too badly. I mixed up a mocha with a caramel
macchiato once, and I completely forgot to steam the milk for one drink, and I
made the next one so hot that the professor I made it for burned his tongue.
Hopefully he won’t decide to sue.

“Okay Molly. I’ll see you tomorrow. You
did great today.”

“Thanks!”

Cassie is a great teacher. She’s patient
and she has a knack for explaining things so even a coffee idiot can
understand. She was a lousy liar though. We both knew I hadn’t done great. But,
tomorrow I intend to do better. As I walked out the door and headed in the
direction of the dorms, I decided that the reason I hadn’t gotten those drinks
exactly right was because I was thinking about the football game. Not so much
in a good way. It was more along the lines of, “I can’t believe I agreed to go
to this stupid football game.” I mean I…really…can’t…believe it! I hate
football, I always have. My grandma and I never watched football, so when I got
to high school and decided to go to the games because, well, that’s what you
did in high school, I realized that I had no clue what they were doing out
there. Also, football is usually played during the coldest months of the year,
and outside to boot…it just makes no sense to me. I hate being cold, and I
couldn’t figure out why people would sit through something as miserable as a
blizzard to watch a silly game.

Now baseball…there’s a sport that makes
sense. It’s played outdoors as well, but during the spring and summer when
normal people want to be outdoors. It’s also a hell of a lot easier to
understand. One could even go so far as to say that it’s self-explanatory. But
football sucks, and although I won’t admit it to Megan or Jake, I only agreed
to go because I actually want to see Brock again. It’s crazy, I know. I don’t
want a boyfriend; I categorically do not. But there’s just something about this
guy. Maybe I just want to get to know him better to find out what it is he’s
always amused about? Or hey, maybe I just want to see him. I’m human, right?
He’s hot, so there you have it.

I got back to my dorm, and Megan had left
a note. It said, “Gone to pick up Jake and Brock.” I pulled things out of my
closet, trying to decide what to wear and glad that Megan wasn’t here to see
me. If she saw me going through my clothes acting like I was getting ready for
the senior prom, she would take that to mean she was right and I really did
like this guy. She would never believe that it was more curiosity than
anything. I just don’t know that much about guys my age. We could call it
research.

It wasn’t that I was a dork in high school
or anything when I was supposed to be practicing for the real world.
Actually…before I got sick, I was pretty popular. Things just got weird after
that. The summer before my junior year, about the time Grandma thought I was
old enough to date, I was diagnosed with a tumor on one of my kidneys. They
went in to take the tumor, but found out that it had damaged the kidney too
badly to save it, and they’d had to take the entire kidney out. I was a little
freaked out by that at first, but the doctors assured me that it was fine, and
anyone could live on only one kidney.

After they took it out, they did a few
rounds of chemo just in case. I lost my hair and everyone at school knew I had
been sick. Grandma bought me a wig and I would wear it every morning to make her
feel better, but before I got to school I would take it off and put a scarf
over my head. I didn’t have the heart to tell her she had bought me a wig in
bold nineteen-eighties style. Everybody still tried really hard to be nice; I
guess I have to give them credit for that. It was weird though, an awkward kind
of nice. People who had never spoken to me before would give me that piercing
look and say, “How are you, Molly? Really?” Again, they were just being nice,
but it annoyed me.

In my senior year, just as my hair had
finally grown out enough so I no longer looked like Peter Pan, they found a
tumor on my left kidney…as in the only one I had left. So most of that year was
spent with more chemo and radiation. The tumor was stubborn, and although it
was small and it seemed to grow slowly, it just wasn’t going to go away. That
was the reason I decided to go to school here. My doctor had found out that
they were having a lot of success in their experimental treatments of my kind
of cancer. So here I am…a guinea pig with one missing kidney and one bum
kidney. I do my best to live and act normally; that’s why I don’t want anyone
here to know except Megan. She’s never treated me any differently. She was just
always my friend and things never got uncomfortable.

But if I were to have a boyfriend, I don’t
think this would be something I could keep hidden forever. I mean at some point
when I was sick from the medications or refusing to eat ice cream because the
dairy doesn’t sit well with me, he was liable to ask questions…wasn’t he?

I pulled on my red sweater and my favorite
pair of jeans. Looking at myself in the mirror I thought, “Good enough.” Then I
threw on a knit hat my grandma made me and grabbed my red coat and I was ready
to go. I stuffed all the other clothes back into the closet so that when Megan
came home, she would never know. And speaking of the devil, she came bounding
in just as I tossed in the last pair of jeans and closed the closet door.

“Hey, Molly. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready. Where’s Jake?” What I really
meant was; where’s Jake’s friend? But it may have been rude to phrase it that
way.

“He’s in the car. He says that Brock was
doing something, but he was going to meet us there. I hope he doesn’t flake.”

“Oh well, if he does it’s no big deal,” I told
her. I was trying to sound casual but Megan knew me too well.

“Sure,” she said with a grin. “That’s why
you look so cute, because it’s no big deal.”

“Shut up,” I told her.

“Okay,” she said, still grinning. “Let’s
go.”

I followed her out the door, wondering
what the hell I was doing. I was also wondering what Brock was doing. Did he
change outfits three times before he left too? I laughed at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” Megan said.

“Oh nothing,” I told her.

I got into the back seat of Megan’s Honda Civic
and I said hello to Jake. He immediately said, “Brock’s coming. He was
finishing something up, but he’ll be there.”

“Yippee!” I said, sarcastically…I hoped.

“He likes you, Molly.” Jake said.

“How nice for him.” That time the tone was
acerbic, I was sure of it.

He turned around in his seat as Molly
pulled away from the curb.

“You know, Brock could have any girl he
wanted.” Jake said, suddenly incensed with the need to stick up for his friend.
“It’s a compliment that he likes you so much after you only met once.”

“But of course, I’m thrilled,” I told him
with a grin. I knew that I should be nicer to Jake. After all, he was Megan’s
knight in shining armor. It was fun to poke at him though. I always made sure
not to pierce the armor…

The football stadium was only a few blocks
away, but it was going to be super cold tonight, so Megan had wanted to drive.
We were all regretting it now, however, as we made our way around the lot for
the third time. Finally she decided to park on the street. We could hear kick-off
taking place as we hurried towards the entry gate. There was a sudden roar of a
motorcycle, and then Jake stopped walking and waved. I looked in that direction
and saw Brock, on a red Harley. Of course he had a Harley. It wasn’t enough
that he was gorgeous, he could sing, he could play the guitar and he seemed
really nice, he had to have a Harley too. I watched as he swung it into a small
space reserved for motorcycles and parked. As he had on stage singing, sitting
at the taco stand, walking me home, and watching as I went inside the dorm, he
looked amazing. I could feel my heart actually speed up in my chest. I was
afraid that it was beating so fast and so hard that if you looked directly at
it, my sweater and coat would be moving in and out too. This was ridiculous.

We stood and waited for him to saunter
over in his black leather jacket and dark shades that I personally didn’t care
for. I preferred the blue eyes. When he got closer and pulled off the shades, I
physically jumped. I suddenly worried that he could hear my thoughts. How
messed up would that be?

He and Jake did their stupid guy bump
thing, like maybe they didn’t just see each other before they left the house.
Then he looked at Megan and me. I don’t know if it’s my imagination or not, but
those blue eyes seemed to linger on mine a little longer than they had on
Meg’s.

“Hey Megan, Molly.”

Megan and I both said hi, and we all
headed for the entrance. The game was well into the first quarter by then and
the stadium was packed. Our seats were pretty good ones, but they were in the
middle of a row and I think we slightly pissed off a few of the people we had
to step over and push past. As we got closer to where we’d be sitting, I felt a
hand on the small of my back, helping to guide me. It was Brock’s hand, and my
silly brain thought that I could actually feel his body heat searing through my
coat and sweater onto my back.

I dropped down into the seat next to
Molly, and Brock took the one on the other side of me. He grinned at me then,
and again I had to wonder what was always so amusing to this guy. Maybe when
you were gorgeous and young and healthy and musically inclined, you just never
had any reason to not be happy.

I feigned watching the game for a while,
because just having him sitting so close with his arm brushing lightly against
mine left me afraid to open my mouth, not trusting what might rush out.
Sometimes my brain forgot that the opening of my mouth was the key to engage.
Finally, leaning close enough that I could feel his breath on my face Brock
said, “You look cold.”

Again, stating the obvious, but at least
he was trying. “I’m freezing,” I said, trying to smile through the tightness of
my face. The sun had just started to go down and a cold wind was kicking in. I
felt ashamed that I was still glad I came, however.

“Do you want some hot chocolate?”

I thought about that. Chocolate wasn’t
really on my diet, although the nutritionist did tell me that I could indulge
every once in a while as long as I didn’t overdo it. I also like the idea that
he cared enough to offer. “That sounds good, thanks.”

“I’ll be right back.”

I watched then as he risked his life, once
again crossing in front of the dedicated fans. Brock smiled at them all, and I
realized then that females weren’t the only ones affected by his blue eyes and
boy-next-door grin, and I also realized as I watched him, that he knew it.

CHAPTER
FOUR

BROCK

I made my way down the crowded aisle,
trying not to tramp on anyone’s foot. Towards the end there was a guy who
looked like a recent football alumni, sitting with his girlfriend. The guy had
to be at least two-twenty and his arms looked like the trunks of medium sized
trees. His girlfriend was petite and blonde, and she was smiling at me. Why
would a woman want to put me in harm’s way like that? Instead of looking
directly at her as I passed, I smiled at the big guy and said, “Excuse me.” He
stood up then, all six foot four of him and sucked in his gut so I could pass.
He smiled back too. I guess my strategy worked.