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all right?”
    “He is not all right,” Doc said. “He needs to be resting.”
    Ryan would have defended himself if he could’ve spoken. He wished he had taken the pain pills.
    “Almost done,” Doc said.
    By the time Doc left, Ryan was stretched out on the sofa trying to breathe his way through the pain.
    “Jesus,” Bernie uttered. “You’re freaking me out, Sandy.”
    “Sorry,” Ryan rasped. “Hurts like a sonofabitch.”
    “Don’t you have drugs or something?”
    “Yeah, but I’m trying not to take them.”
    “Why the hell not?”
    “They fuck me up.” Ryan rested a hand on his pounding head. “Just give me a minute. It’ll pass.”
    Bernie sat down across from Ryan.
    Darling came into the room. “Ready for some chili?”
    “Sandy’s down for the count, man,” Bernie said. “We should probably go.”
    “I’ll be all right,” Ryan said. Under normal circumstances, he would have razzed his friends for being so concerned. Right
     now, he just didn’t have it in him. “You don’t have to go.”
    Someone turned up the rap music in the kitchen, and it pounded through the house.
    A few minutes later, Susie came in through the front door and made a beeline for the den. With her hands on her hips and her
     eyes shooting daggers at Ryan, she said, “What the hell is going on here?”

Chapter 4
    BERNIE GOT UP TO HUG SUSANNAH. “SO GOOD TO SEE YOU, Susie.” He kissed her cheek. “Mary Jane and I have missed you.”
    “I’ve missed you, too,” Susannah said with a smile.
    Ryan was relieved to see her soften as their old friend embraced her.
    “I was so happy to hear you and Ryan are back together,” Bernie said.
    Ryan winced. Oops.
    Susannah’s eyes narrowed. “We are not back together.” She tossed a pointed look at Ryan. “I don’t know where you got that idea.”
    From his place on the sofa, Ryan shrugged with innocence.
    “Oh,” Bernie sputtered. “I thought, I mean, Coach said . . . ”
    “Don’t sweat it, Bern,” Ryan said.
    Darling broke the tension in the room when he planted a loud kiss on Susannah’s cheek. “You look gorgeous, as always.”
    Despite her annoyance at Ryan, she smiled and patted his cheek. “Still a charmer, aren’t you, Marcus?”
    “Yes, ma’am, so they tell me.”
    She cast a glance at the kitchen where voices competed with loud music. “Is the whole team here or does it just sound that
     way?”
    “Oh, no,” Darling said. “Only about fifteen of us.”
    “Well, that’s a relief,” Susannah said dryly. “What are you cooking?”
    “Oh, shit!” Darling bolted from the room. “The chili! Stay there. I’ll bring you some.”
    “Great,” Susannah muttered as she removed her black leather coat and draped it over the chair in front of her antique roll-top
     desk. “Fifteen football players and a bowl of chili.”
    “Sorry about all this, darlin’,” Ryan said with a sheepish grin. “The guys just wanted to see for themselves that I’m still
     alive.” He could tell she was working hard at not being a poor sport in front of his friends. “How was your meeting?”
    “Fine,” she said. “The Black and White Ball is next weekend.”
    “And you’re the chair again?” he asked, ashamed he didn’t know for sure and embarrassed that Bernie was witnessing just how
     out of touch he was with his wife.
    She nodded.
    “Does that make five years in a row?”
    “Seven,” she said quietly. Her sad blue eyes were a reminder of one of the many issues that had come between them—his inattentiveness
     to the things that mattered to her.
    Ryan cursed himself for being so stupid. Children’s Hospital was one of the Mavericks’ favorite charities, and Susannah had
     been leading the team’s involvement in the hospital’s largest annual fund raiser for almost as long as Ryan had been leading
     the team itself. Their pending divorce apparently hadn’t stopped her work on behalf of the hospital.
    “Well, I’ll leave you to visit with your