Before I could blink, she was on the ground.
Chapter 12
Lacey
Iwinced, opening my eyes, but a haze of cloudiness shrouded my view. Muffled voices trickled into my ears, and I recognized Kade’s. His husky and panicked voice was unmistakable. I’d heard him panic before. I’d heard him freak out before.
It took me a minute to realize I wasn’t upright but on a stretcher. Bright lights shone down from overhead. I blinked several times to orient my vision. I raised my hand, trying to sit up, but the dizziness was too much. “Kade?” His name was barely a whisper, maybe because my throat was as dry as the Sahara Desert.
“Yes, baby. I’m here,” he said before his beautiful face came into view, albeit a little blurry.
“What happened?” I swished around the saliva in my mouth.
“Room five,” said a nearby female voice.
Then Kade’s handsome mug was gone, and I was moving, or maybe my head was spinning too much.
I shut my eyes tightly and thought real hard. But before I could pull up a memory, nurses were surrounding me, hooking up an IV, and pressing pads to my chest. Then something was squeezing the hell out of my arm.
“Blood pressure is still low,” one of the nurses said.
I was in a haze as they tended to me hurriedly, as if I were a heartbeat away from dying.
A pretty brunette nurse with wide hazel eyes smiled at me. “I’m Steph, one of the ER nurses. Can you tell me your name?”
I licked my lips. “Lacey Maxwell.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” Steph asked as her partner stuck the IV needle into the back of my hand.
I winced at the sting of the needle as images of me on the mound filled my vision. “One minute, I was ready to pitch, and the next, a wave of dizziness hit me out of nowhere.”
The nurse who pricked me regarded me with crystal-blue eyes. “I’m Blaire. Are you dizzy or nauseated at all?”
“Just dizzy. Where’s my husband?” I lifted my head to search the room but couldn’t find Kade.
“I’m here, baby.”
I rolled my head around like I was working out a kink in my neck. But the act only served to make the room spin. “I feel sick.”
Blaire patted my arm. “You should start to feel better once we get fluids in you. You’re probably severely dehydrated.”
“She was puking this morning,” Kade said from somewhere in the room.
A machine beeped behind me.
“Bad food,” I added.
“Lacey,” Blaire said. “I’m going to take some blood, and Steph is going to ask you some questions. All of this is routine. Okay?”
I nodded. “I need to get back to the team, though.”
Steph tossed a look behind her, flicking her head in a swift move.
Within a second, Kade was standing at the bottom of the bed. He grinned, although his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “The game is over.”
“What? How long have I been here? Did we win?” My pulse quickened. My manager was probably going nuts. My teammates were probably concerned too. Suddenly, my cheeks heated. I’d passed out on the field during a freaking game in front of a packed stadium.
Mortified was the perfect word to describe how I felt underneath the cloudiness that seemed to want to stick to my brain and skin.
