Cross My Heart by Darcy Archer EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Darcy Archer
- Language: English
- Genre: contemporary romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
TYLER FANTANA slammed into the dirt, and a meteor hit his chest with
scalding force. His heart had stopped beating. Sixty-nine thousand fans
shouting, the smell of sweat and grass. Blinding lights, all the cameras.
Groggy, Tyler blinked and shook his head slowly, trying to situate
himself.
He flinched. This had happened before, he felt certain. Why did he feel
so disoriented?
Right. NFL game at the top of the season, the pinnacle of his career
with the San Diego Swells. A pile of guys on top of him.
Suddenly he was back on the ground, blood in his mouth, skull echoing
with the impact of the tackle that had brought him down, an entire
linebacker landing on his sternum and the sudden crushing pain in his chest
as he hit the thirty-yard line sideways and knew in his bones that he’d never
get up again in this life.
Team gone. Light gone. Not breathing. Just that jagged, grinding agony
like a fist squeezing him into paste.
I already did this. Oh God, please, I already did this.
The world had winked out, only fading back into focus as he woke up
in the back of an ambulance, his heart pounding erratically as he gasped for
breath and grabbed at the EMTs.
“Tyler?”
Dr. Reynolds’s question yanked him back to the present. The older
woman’s voice was firm, professional, and had a no-nonsense edge to it.
“Talk to me. Slow breaths. What happened just then?”
He tried to take deep, slow gulps of oxygen. Counted heartbeats.
Visualized. All that holistic new age crap. His stupid, screwed-up heart
wouldn’t slow down. Where was he? He couldn’t get enough breath to
answer her. Why couldn’t he talk? His eyes stung, and he blinked rapidly.
“Bad.”
Dr. Reynolds’s office smelled of lemony antiseptic. It was autumn.
November. Tuesday? This was another checkup with his cardiologist. His
sister had driven him. He still wasn’t allowed behind the wheel. Right. Was
Nadia here?
“Stay with me now.” Reynolds stood back, giving him space. “Are you
all right? Can you describe the pain? Look at me.” She leaned back and ran
a penlight over his pupils, frowning at something. “Your heart rate was—
Does that happen often?”
“Maybe.” He shook his head, then nodded. Did she want the truth or
the lie? “I don’t know.”
“I was taking your vitals,” Dr. Reynolds said briskly. “Use your threethree-three and breathe for me. Take a moment. Three objects. Three
sounds. Three body parts.”
Tyler nodded and tried to focus. He found the objects as he inhaled
slowly and shifted his eyes around the bright room, consciously counting
each one: Clock. Pen. Shoe. This was so embarrassing.
“I’m going to remove this, if that’s okay.” She leaned in to unwrap the
blood pressure cuff from his thick bicep with practiced efficiency.
Velcro rip. Hum of the AC. Paper rustling under him. He held the
breath inside himself, and his galloping heart slowed to a trot.
As the cuff loosened, she unthreaded it and stepped back again,
presumably to give him space. She glanced over his chart, and her brow
furrowed in obvious disapproval.
His muscle mass was way off, whittled down by two months of sitting
on his butt.
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