Lakeside Romance by Lisa Jordan Page B

of her eye warned her to head back to third, but she was so close.
    Barreling toward home, she pushed herself to move faster. Her teammates touched home base, creating dust clouds as they ran. Lungs screaming and sweat dripping into her eyes, Sarah kept her eyes fixed on home plate. The toe of her sneaker tagged the plate as Alec caught the ball and jumped forward to tag her.
    Her head came up and knocked into his chin as he reached down to touch her arm with the ball. She tripped over his foot and lost her balance, crashing to the ground with a heavy weight pinning her shoulder to the dirt.
    A fiery pain set her nerves and muscles aflame, searing her right arm from shoulder to wrist. Tears blurred her vision. Her splintered breathing caught in her chest. The weight lifted quickly, and she rolled onto her back, cradling her arm to her chest. A whimper slid over her lips.
    She cinched her eyes closed to block out the blinding sun. She needed to move—to stand, to get her head off home plate, but every time she tried to sit up, the ground spun and the pain kept her pinned to the dirt. Her stomach rolled. Bile burned her throat.
    People called her name, but the only voice she homed in on was Alec’s. He knelt beside her and placed his hands on her cheeks, thumbing dirt off her skin. “Sarah, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?”
    â€œMy arm.” Her voice sounded as dry as the dirt caking her lips. “And my head.”
    â€œYou hit the ground pretty hard.” He reached for her left hand and slid an arm around her shoulders. “Can you stand?”
    Leaning on him, she dug her feet into the ground and forced her legs to lift her. The second her right shoulder left the ground, a scream escaped from her throat. Multicolored spots danced in front of her eyes as darkness rushed through her head. Her stomach tossed again.
    â€œSomeone call 911!” Alec’s shout close to her ears made her cringe.
    â€œI’m on the phone with them now,” Nate called out.
    Shouting increased the pulsing in her head. She wanted them to hush, but when she opened her mouth to say something, a wave of nausea crashed over her again. She swallowed several times to push the feeling down. Dropping to her knees, she vomited in the dirt.
    If only she could curl up in the grass and take a nap—long enough for the pain to stop.
    Alec pressed a wet cloth against her face. He stroked her hair off her forehead and then pressed her head against his shoulder.
    Wailing sirens in the distance grew louder until the noise threatened to crack her skull in half. Two uniformed EMTs knelt beside her and started asking her questions. She tried to mumble responses. Minutes later, they lifted her onto a gurney and rolled her into the back of the ambulance. She tried to sit up, tried to get Alec’s attention, but the sudden movement stole her breath. She fell back onto the pillow and closed her eyes. Darkness beckoned and offered sweet relief against the pain.
    * * *
    Waiting on word about Sarah was driving Alec nuts. He couldn’t erase the look of pain that had contorted her face...pain he’d caused. She was here because of him. He paced from the vending machines to the rose-colored vinyl chairs that formed a horseshoe shape around a glass table covered in dog-eared magazines in the Shelby Lake Memorial emergency department waiting room.
    Since her brother and sister-in-law waited in the exam room with her, he was stuck out here with Daniel and Toby. After the EMTs had loaded Sarah into the ambulance, he’d had no choice but to bring the boys to the emergency department with him. With their grandma still in the hospital and now Sarah injured, someone needed to keep an eye on them.
    No doubt they were as upset and tired of waiting as Alec.
    After getting another glare from the triage nurse, he dug a handful of change out of his pocket, fed quarters into the vending machine and punched the water button. He repeated the