Free Wild Heart (Viper's Heart Duet Book 2) by Beth Ehemann Page B

near his mouth, picking at his lip like a scared little kid.
    “Did you hear me?” I asked when he said nothing.
    “I heard you. You’re wrong, but I heard you.”
    “Wrong about what?”
    “Everything being fine. If my knee is fucked up, nothing will be fine.” His tone cut through me like a knife.
    “Viper, don’t talk like that, okay? I know you were hoping Dr. Jennings was going to send you home with an ice pack and it would be fine, and maybe it still will be, but of course they are going to do an MRI to be safe. You knew this was probably going to happen last night. So let’s not freak out until there’s something to actually freak out about, okay?”
    “Fine,” he agreed dryly, looking down at his lap at his MRI script for the tenth time.
    “Good,” I said triumphantly, a little surprised that he’d agreed so fast. “Now hold my hand and take a deep breath. We’re almost there.”
    Could the timing of all of this be any worse?
     

 
     

     
    “Four hours!” I shouted angrily. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
    “Viper! Shhh!” Michelle scolded, grabbing my arm gently as the technician’s eyes grew as big as the glasses on her face.
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Finkle, but the results take a little while and then they need to be read,” she said with an attitude. “Dr. Jennings asked that we send him the images as soon as we have them. He said that he’d contact you.”
    “I can’t believe this can’t be done sooner.” I shook my head incredulously, beyond pissed that I wasn’t getting answers. “This is seriously fucking ridiculous.”
    The technician rolled her tongue between her top lip and her teeth. “Sir—”
    Michelle raised her hand, stopping her. “Let me talk to him. I’ll handle this.” She turned back to me and placed both hands flat against my chest. “Hey, look at me.”
    My eyes were fixated off to my right at a picture of a bunch of flowers on the wall, and it took all of my self-control not to rip that picture off the wall and throw it across the room.
    “I said look at me,” Michelle said as she took a hold of my chin and lowered my face to hers. “Calm down. It’s four hours, not four years. Let’s grab the kids, go have some lunch with Gam, and then when we hear from Dr. Jennings, we’ll come back. Okay?”
    I wiggled my twitching fingers, desperately trying to keep a lid on my temper before I punched a hole in the wall of the radiology waiting room.
    “Viper, please. You’re scaring me.” Michelle blinked up at me, her eyes darting back and forth between mine.
    Staring into her eyes brought me out of my rage as I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Sorry,” I grumbled quietly, feeling guilty that I’d scared her. I gripped the sides of her face with my hands and pulled her close, kissing her forehead. “Let’s get outta here.”
     
    We walked to the car in silence, and then drove to Kacie’s in silence. She ran in to grab the kids while I waited in the car, going over every possible outcome in my head for the hundredth time. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I fished it out. I had a bunch of texts from Brody that I hadn’t opened yet, and a new one from Andy, my agent.
Andy:        Finkle. What’s going on? I saw the game last night and talked to Brody today, but he said he hasn’t heard from you. Are you okay? What did the doctors say? Answer me now so I can brag to Brody that you answered me before him.
    I was lucky to have Andy as an agent. He wasn’t stuffy and obnoxious like ninety-nine percent of sports agents out there. He was your best friend all the time and your pitbull agent when he needed to be.
Hey, buddy. Sorry. Long night and an even longer day. I have no idea what the hell is going on. X-rays on my knee were negative, waiting on MRI results now. Apparently that takes all fucking day. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something.
Andy:        Jesus. Hope it all turns out to be nothing. Yes, please keep me posted.