Page 81 of Play the Last Card
I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s that for?”
“Oh nothing.” He tries to wave me off, tapping the table with a knuckle after he throws down another red numbered card. “Uno.”
“What are you setting alarms for? Do you have someone else coming in to see you?” I ask, swiveling myself around to watch the door of the hospital room.
“Uh,” Pops sighs before grabbing the TV remote that sits next to his alarm clock. “It’s for the Broncos game this afternoon.”
“Oh.” I tighten my grip on the cards I’m still holding, game forgotten as I watch Pops flick through the channels.
“Playoffs are a shoe-in if they keep playing the way they have been.” When he lands on the right channel, he turns up the volume. I keep my back to the TV but the commentators are speaking as clearly as ever and when they mention Scott’s name, I jolt.
Pops stares at me, my flinch not going unnoticed. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I— um, well—” I wring my hands together. I want to tell Pops about Scott. He already knows I’m seeing someone and I waved off any questions about Scott during our little … break. I put the cards in my hands down. “You remember the Scott guy I was telling you about?”
Pops eyes snap back to meet mine, the screen forgotten. He sits up. “Yes. How’s that going? You haven’t said much so I haven’t wanted to push you but I can’t lie that I haven’t been curious.”
“Curious?” I giggle. “You know, other grandfathers don’t really want to hear about their granddaughter’s boyfriend’s.”
He shrugs. “I like to gossip with the nurses. Sue me.”
“You gossip with the nurses? About me?” I can’t help the laughter that bubbles up. Pops has always been a character. Carefree, worldly, open. He always encouraged me to be open with him and Nan. That I was able to tell them whatever I wanted to tell them and they would never judge me for it. I guess that’s why now, I actually want to confide in him about Scott.
I have to keep him a secret from the rest of the world, but Pops is the one expectation I’ll make.
“The Scott I’m seeing is Scott Harvey.”
“Harvey? Scott Harvey … where have I heard—” The presenters on the TV cut him off, calling the starting lineup for the Broncos. I don’t turn around but I know enough about football to know that they are running out of the tunnels right now, screaming and cheering along with the crowd.
“You’re dating the starting quarterback for the Broncos?” Pops practically jumps out of his bed as he shouts the question at me. “You said he was tall, his name was Scott, that he was nice but you failed to mention that he was a damn football player, Ivy.”
“I—” I shake my head at him. I can’t help the stupid smile that crosses my lips when I see how excited Pops has gotten. “I didn’t know. He didn’t exactly tell me at the beginning that he was a player and I’m so far out of that world that I had no idea who he was when we met.”
“You have your head buried in the sand sometimes.” Pops is shaking his head at me, pointing to the screen. “That man is the highest paid QB on a starting roster right now. He is a machine.”
We rarely talk about sports so I’ve forgotten over time how animated and excited Pops gets whenever he watches football. Another pang of guilt hits my stomach as I think about all the time we probably could’ve gone to a game or watched on TV in the last few years but he’s avoided the sport just for me.
“I … I wouldn't know. I still haven’t really watched him play or anything.”
“What? Ivy …” Pops gives me a disapproving look.
“In my defense, I didn’t know he was a player for the first few months and he knows that I don’t like the game.”
“He does?”
“We spoke about it briefly, when you were in surgery. He came to the hospital.”
“He did?”
“Yes.”
“So that was the man the doctors said you were with.” Pops nods his head, as if putting pieces together. “Why haven’t you gone to his games? Or watched him play?”
I shoot him a look. “You know why. Besides, we’re keeping things quiet while we get to know each other.”
“Is that smart, sweetheart?” The concerned look Pops gives me has my chest tightening.
I don’t answer. I give a noncommittal shrug and pick up my cards again. But I’ve lost Pops to the game playing on the TV at my back. From the sounds of it, they are well into the first quarter now and the offensive team from the Broncos are back on the field.