Page 3 of Good Girl’s Guide to Love (Guide to Love #4)

linc

“Holy crap! You’re Linc Kincaid!”

I laugh as I step into the hospital room of a teenaged boy. Maybe thirteen, if I had to guess? He’s not as young as some of the patients I visited earlier, but he still has something youthful about him, despite the wires and machines that are surrounding him.

“In the flesh. But since you know my name, wanna tell me yours?”

“Caden.”

“Nice to meet you, Caden. You a Nashville Fury fan?”

He nods as he grabs a Fury snapback hat from a bedside table and waves it at me. “Hell yeah, I am! I never miss a game.”

I laugh at his language, but only because it sounds like me at his age when I started pushing the boundaries of what I could say and get away with. My poor grandmother didn’t know what to do with me.

“That’s awesome. Can I see that hat? I don’t know if I’ve seen one of those before.”

I have. I think I might even have it. But if I’ve learned one thing about kids in visits like this is that they love telling people about stuff. And if this boy wants to talk to me about hats, well then, I’m all ears.

“My parents got it for me for Christmas a few years ago,” he says. “I wore it every game of the playoffs. And they won the whole thing!”

“Then it’s a good luck charm,” I say with a smile as I take a seat next to him.

“I don’t know about that,” he says, his excitement fading. “I think the luck wore off last year. I was wearing it when Brad Rockwell got hurt.”

Don’t smile, don’t smile, don’t smile…

“Injuries happen, my man,” I say, trying to give a baseline answer. Even though Brad’s injury is the reason I’m sitting here today. And I fucking hate the guy. “Believe me, you and your hat had nothing to do with it.”

In my years of playing football, I’ve never wanted a player to get hurt. I’m not a superstitious guy, never have been, but even I know it’s bad juju to do that. Plus, I wouldn’t wish an ACL tear on my worst enemy.

But Brad Rockwell is a shitty fucking human who would be rising up about twenty spots on my people ranking if he was given the title of my worst enemy.

We’ve hated each other since college, when I transferred into the same conference and dethroned him as the best in the league.

It didn’t help that he went to my rival school.

I’d never met him off the field, so I thought our rivalry was just that. Then I got signed to the Fury to replace him after his injury. Since then, he’s made it his mission to make my life miserable.

“I know that,” Caden says. “And it wasn’t all bad luck. I wore it when you started playing, and the luck came back. Do you remember that one catch you had? It was against Cincinnati when you…”

Do I remember? I could be on my death bed at ninety-eight years old and still remember that catch.

Seventy-five yards. One handed. Leaping over a defensive back who was on my ass the entire time I was running down field.

It was a beauty. Play of the year on every sports network.

But it was more than a highlight-reel catch.

It was the kickoff to my tear through the league.

I was shattering numbers. Guaranteed a touchdown a game.

I was a fantasy football player’s dream come true if they picked me up.

In the blink of an eye, I went from the guy no one would sign because of my problematic past to the guy who everyone had slept on. And all during that, the man who hates me most in this world had to sit on the sidelines and watch it happen.

But I can’t let him get to me. I have to block out his dirty looks, and his goading words. And more so, keep my “famous temper” in check. Because I’ve been given a second—hell, my millionth—chance with the Fury, and I’m not about to fuck it up.

Which is why I’m here today. A little good will goes a long way. Plus, I like talking to kids. I know what it was like to be given a hand you should’ve never been dealt. If I can make them forget about that for even an hour, it’s worth it.

And if I run into a cute nurse while doing that, then that’s just a bonus.

“So Caden, have you ever been to a game?”

His eyes turn sad, and I immediately realize that may have been the dumbest question I could’ve asked him.

“No. I’m…I’m in here a lot. And the medical bills, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for things like football games or extra things.

But it’s okay. I get to watch every Sunday.

And maybe watch with an autographed hat? ”

I make a mental note to make sure I get this kid’s information so I can get him and his family to a game this year. And the name of the nurse with the gorgeous blue eyes and body that had me biting my bottom lip.

Two birds. One stone.

“Damn straight an autographed hat,” I say, sending him a wink as he hands me the flat brim hat back to me. “You know, there are some of the other guys here today. I bet you can fill this up if you want.”

His eyes light back up. “Seriously?”

“Absolutely. I’ll make sure everyone comes and visits. And if they don’t sign it, you let me know. I’ll rough ’em up.”

His smile punches me in the heart. “You’re the best Linc!”

“This is nothing,” I say as I hand the hat back to him. “But I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything.”

“I’m going to need you to get better to make sure you can watch every single game this season. I’m not a guy who believes in things like luck, but you do, so I’m going to need to lean on you for that this year.”

“You got it!” he says as we exchange a handshake we somehow make up on the fly. I take a few selfies with him before Katie is standing outside my door, pointing to her watch.

“I gotta get going,” I tell him. “But I’m going to be checking up on you this year. Now that I know who our good luck charm is, I have a vested interest in your recovery.”

The smile this kid gives me chokes me up.

Fuck. He didn’t ask for this. Wires and tubes and living in a hospital.

And he could be so fucking angry right now—I don’t know if I believe in God, but I don’t know how a god could make innocent kids like this have to fight for their fucking lives against diseases that they didn’t ask for—but he’s not.

He’s a fighter. The good kind. Not like me.

When I was his age, I was mad at the world.

Pissed that I was becoming an orphan at thirteen.

Having to move school districts because my grandmother was the only one who could take care of me.

I was always getting in trouble, fights specifically, a few shoplifting and vandalization charges along the way.

But mostly my anger was taken out with my fists.

Hell, up until a few years ago, they still were.

But not now. I can’t. Not if I want this chance with the Fury to go right.

“Linc, I know you probably hear this a lot, but you’re one of my heroes.”

I shake my head as I grab Caden’s hand. Mostly because I’m trying not to fucking cry.

“Nah, you’re mine,” I say. “When I was your age, I…let’s just say I know what it’s like to be in a situation you didn’t ask for. And you’re handling it much better than I did. So while I’m flattered, how about we be each other’s?”

Caden nods and we do our handshake one more time.

“I mean it, you get better,” I say as I stand up. “We’re going to need you at a game this year.”

“Hell yeah!”

I laugh and give Caden one more goodbye before making my way to the nurse’s desk.

On my way, I pass two of our defensive linemen and ask them to stop into Caden’s room.

There are about ten of us here today, so I fill them in and ask them to pass the word along to the other guys.

But I have another important thing to do before my time is up.

Katie seems to have left me alone, so I try to nonchalantly look for my new favorite nurse. I have a feeling she was on her way out, judging by her words of “leave, car, go,” and the cup collection and tote bag she was carrying, but it never hurts to look.

I hate that I didn’t get her name. Now I have to go ask her coworkers who the beautiful blonde was with rose-colored cheeks and eyes I could get lost in.

Rookie move, Kincaid. Rookie move.

I’ve normally gravitated to brunettes, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

Being a professional football player, I’m around beautiful women more than most. But never in my twenty-eight years have I seen a woman more naturally beautiful.

I don’t think she had on an ounce of makeup.

Her hair was in a long braid that looked like it had been through it, strands poking out everywhere.

But her eyes. Holy shit those eyes were a color of blue I’ve never seen before.

I’ve never seen the ocean, but I have to think that’s what it would look like.

I caught myself staring at her a few times, which I only got away with because she was just as frazzled as I was, only hers manifested into the cutest way.

And I don’t even know her fucking name.

I start heading to the desk where I see a few other nurses, but before I can get there, I see a familiar head of blonde hair step in front of me.

“Ding-ding, Linc. Time’s up. We gotta go.”

“Come on Katie.” Do I sound like a toddler having a tantrum? A little. And I know I pay her to keep me out of the news and to run my schedule, but today she’s even more Type-A than usual. “I’m done visiting rooms, but I need to make one more stop. It’ll take five minutes.”

“I really wish I could let you, because I know how much you love things like this, but we can’t today.

” I stand with my arms crossed, full pout, as she pulls out her tablet, also known as my life schedule.

I hate that fucking thing. “We have an hour to get you across town for a podcast interview, and you know traffic is just going to be horrendous. And, something’s come up that I need to talk to you about.

We need to go. I have a car ready downstairs. ”

“What happened?”

She shakes her head and tries to give me a reassuring smile. “Let’s talk about it in the car.”