Page 133 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

“I’m sorry about that,” he said.

“And stop apologizing. I’m just being honest. Now I’m going to work and you relax.”

She removed the plate and put the rest of his lunch away, then returned to the sunroom to write.

Two hours later, her brain had emptied for the moment, so she went to check on her notes and detoured to Facebook.

She had several private messages and went to scan them over. Most were readers or fellow authors and she’d get to them when she could.

But one caught her eye and had her clicking on it to see if it was him.

Sean Showers.

What the hell?

She went to his profile and yep, it was Warren’s father, but why was he contacting her?

She looked over to see Warren had moved to the couch and was sleeping.

Emma opened the message to read that Sean had been reaching out to see how Warren was doing. He’d seen him get hurt and no one would give him any information. He’d been reaching out to Warren for weeks and needed his help, but Warren wasn’t returning his messages. If she could let him know.

Was that part of why Warren hadn’t been himself at the last game?

And why wouldn’t he tell her any of this?

She told him everything, but it seemed he didn’t share that with her.

38

GHOST FROM HIS PAST

“Warren,” Coach said to him when he walked into the facility two and a half weeks later.

He knew damn well Emma was going to kick his butt, but he needed to see everyone. It was not like him to be gone this long and they were all blowing up his phone anyway.

Maybe if they saw him, they’d give him a little peace.

“Hi,” he said. “Got a minute to talk?”

“Oh boy,” Coach said. “I don’t like the look on your face. You had your appointment earlier, right?”

“I did,” he said. “With the team doctors.”

He also saw a specialist on his own and didn’t tell anyone. He wanted to know from more than one source what could be going on.

“And?” Coach asked. “What did they say? You’re looking good.”

“They said I’m healing well, and on track, but still at least another full week or more before they’d consider releasing me to practice.”

“There aren’t that many more weeks left,” Coach said. “We need you.”

“I know,” he said. “But I can’t push this.”

“We might miss the playoffs,” Coach said.

“We might,” he said. “But the team played well last week and won. If they can hold it together for a few more weeks, I hope to be back.”

Maybe. He wasn’t so sure. He didn’t like what the specialist he saw had to say.