The Guy Named Harrison: Book One

48

They were home and settled by midnight. Harrison looked a lot better after the flight home. He didn't look alarmingly out of it like he had before, and he responded to her much quicker than before.

After taking a shower with him, and helping him get cleaned up and into bed, Carrie unpacked everything. It turns out that the team flew home a little later than they did. Luke and Cam brought over their things only a few minutes ago.

Harrison fell asleep for the first time since he suffered his concussion with Gary and Wilson next to him. Carrie let him sleep with strict orders to wake him up every 45 minutes to an hour to check on him.

While he slept, she sat on the floor and unpacked the first of many bags. It was the bag packed with everything from his locker. She pulled out his muddy jersey and pants that were tied in a separate plastic bag. Under that was his helmet that she gently set next to herself. The rest was all clothes, a few pictures he always took with him, and a small black box.

Her jaw dropped when she realized what it was. Slowly, she began to open it but let the lid snap back down before she had a chance to see it. I'll see it when he opens it, she told herself.

Carrie got up and set the small box down on his nightstand before heading back over to finish unpacking the boxes.

❺❾

A half hour later, she was under the covers next to him with her laptop on her lap, researching concussions and the long term effects of them when her phone rang.

It was loud enough to wake Harrison. She cussed and hurried outside their bedroom with her phone to answer her boss.

"CARRIE!"

Just great.

"Tony."

"Where's your post game article? You were supposed to have that published three hours ago."

"I had Karen take care of it. I sent you an email about it."

He didn't say anything right away. When he did, it was out of frustration on his part, since he was wrong and he knew it.

"I want you to ask Harrison a few of the questions I sent you."

"And what are those?"

"I want you to ask him about his concussion, and how it's going to affect him since this was his second concussion in two seasons. And being as big of a player as he is, it's going to get people's attention."

She took a moment to think. Harrison was in no shape to be answering questions from anyone. Carrie couldn't overwhelm him. And nor did she want to.

"No. I won't do it."

"You will do it or you're fired."

"I know Harrison on a very personal level. And you using me to interview him behind the scenes is unacceptable. Right now he's in no shape to be answering questions."

"You're fired."

"Good, because I quit!"

Carrie ended the call, took a deep breath, and entered their bedroom. He was sitting up against a pillow with Wilson laying across his lap. Harrison watched her cross the room to her side of the bed. She plugged in her phone before grabbing her laptop and climbing back in bed next to him.

"How are you feeling?"

He shrugged. "A little better than earlier. My headache isn't as bad."

She opened her laptop and turned the brightness setting down to the dimmest possible. That way the glow of the screen wouldn't hurt his eyes if he looked at it.

"I heard everything," he admitted.

Carrie shrugged. "It's fine."

"Did you really just quit your job for me?"

She nodded. "Why?"

Carrie then explained to him what her boss wanted her to do. "He's always like that. And he's horrible to work for."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know."

"You're not going home right?"

She shook her head. "This is my home."

Probably no double update today because I'm having a huge picnic for my softball team.