The Baller - Vi Keeland Page 0,62

bring Abby? She’s my friend’s daughter, and we were around the corner at the park, so I thought I’d drop in again.”

“Sure. Marlene was sleeping when we last checked in. But if she wakes up while you’re in there, she just might be a little more confused than usual.”

I explained to Abby on the walk down the hall that we were going to visit my grandmother, who sometimes got confused, but I didn’t want to scare her, so I left it at that. Cautiously, Abby and I entered Marlene’s room.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I found her sleeping peacefully. She didn’t wake up during the hour we sat there, but the nurses came in every fifteen minutes and checked her vitals and told us everything was fine. Eventually, Abby started to yawn. It was almost eight and probably close to her bedtime. So I said goodnight and left my cell phone number at the nursing station, asking them to call me if anything changed. Even though the nurse said they would, I didn’t put it past them to clear it with Brody first.

After we got back to our apartment building, I tucked Abby in at my place and told her to lock the door so I could go check out what was going on next door. The door to her apartment was unlocked—in this crappy neighborhood. That alone was enough to tell me there was no way I was sending Abby back to sleep there tonight.

Inside, I was relieved to find Lena sleeping alone in her bed. There was drug paraphernalia all over the place. On the way out, I grabbed a cell phone that was on the kitchen counter, hoping to find it unlocked and to see if there was anyone who could take Abby until things with her mother turned around. I knew from experience this wasn’t going to be a one-night thing.

Abby told me her grandmother’s name, and I went into the other room to call her. It definitely wasn’t the first time the woman had gotten a call about her daughter. There was no shock in her voice at all.

Sophie, Abby’s grandmother, only lived a few blocks over, so when she agreed to take Abby, I offered to bring Abby by. There was no reason she needed to see her daughter’s place the way it was.

The chilly November air felt good as I walked back toward my apartment. Sophie lived in a decent building, and she and her husband had invited me in for coffee. I’d stayed until I saw Abby was comfortable at their place. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Abby seemed so unaffected by being shuttled all over. Craziness had already become her norm. She just didn’t know that her life was crazy . . . yet.

A few blocks from my house, my phone buzzed in my pocket. A local number was flashing on my screen when I dug it out.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Garner?”

“Yes.”

“This is Shannon. I’m a nurse at Broadhollow Manor.”

I stopped on the street. “Is everything okay?”

“We just called an ambulance. Your grandmother’s stats are declining. Everything may be fine, but—”

“I’m on my way.”

Whatever fear had taken up residence inside of me was slowly beginning to dissipate. Three nights of sharing a suite with Brody in sunny Florida had given me back my confidence in us. I still hadn’t given up the room that WMBC paid for, not wanting anyone to ask any questions. Although, at this point, it was common knowledge that Brody and I were a couple. Some of my male colleagues who held a grudge because I was promoted over them had taken to making snide remarks whenever I walked in the room, alluding to how women reporters secured their interviews. I hated it, but not enough to stop dating Brody.

After the game against Tampa, then locker room interviews Sunday afternoon, Brody and the team got ready to head to the airport while I was meeting Michael Langley to drive down to Miami. The team was loading their bags on the bus outside of the hotel when Michael pulled up in a shiny red Jaguar convertible, the top already down.

Brody and I had talked about who I was traveling with, so it wasn’t a surprise to him. But that didn’t mean he was happy about it, by any stretch of the word. He wasn’t angry, really. I would say it was more of an alpha-possessive-caveman-style jealousy thing he had going on. Strangely enough, I sort of liked it.

After