Page 199 of Make Us Yours
~ Ten Days Later ~
Ten days.
That’s how long I stayed in the hospital.
Ten.
Freaking.
Days.
God, am I glad to be heading home.
“Now remember, six more weeks before you can do anything. No heavy lifting, no baths, no sex! And I mean it, Noah, we don’t want you back here in a few weeks because you ripped yourself open.” Nurse Wendy narrows her eyes at me with the point of her wrinkly finger. She’s my favorite out of all of them.
I laugh, holding Veronica closer to my side with my arm draped around her shoulder. “I can promise the first two, the last might be hard to follow.” I wink.
“Noah…” She gives me a stern look.
“Don’t worry, Wendy. I won’t let him get near the goods.” Veronica giggles when I frown at her.
“And don’t forget to take your painkillers. I know you athletes think you’re all high-and-mighty, but you need them. So stop being a big baby and take your damn pills when you’re in pain.”
“I’m not a big baby.” This time it’s my turn to furrow my brows at her.
Wendy rolls her eyes. “Not a big baby, my ass,” she murmurs. “The guy was in so much pain, couldn’t even get out of bed. Yet he refused to take his pills.” She shakes her head.
“I’ll make sure he takes them. Simple, if he doesn’t take them, then no sex.”Veronica shrugs with a smile, and Wendy’s mouth drops as she flaps her arms at her side. Veronica bursts with laughter. “I’m kidding! No sex, take your meds. That’s my motto for the next six weeks.”
“You kids drive me insane,” Wendy mutters as she heads for the door, with us following suit.
She sighs once we stand outside my latest housing and reaches a frail hand up to pat my cheek in a grandmotherly way. “We’re going to miss seeing your pretty face around here, but I’m glad you finally get to go home.”
I crouch down slightly and wrap my arms around her. “I’ll miss you, too, Wendy girl.”
She pushes against my chest. “Now go on, before I get emotional and ruin my makeup.”
She waves a hand at her face, because yes, she’s the oldest nurse here and still wears makeup. She might be close to her seventies, but that woman is as sharp as they come. “I know you have some friends at home who are excited to see you back on your feet.”
“That he does.” Veronica beams at me seconds before she goes in for a hug of her own. “Bye, Wendy. Thank you for taking such good care of my man.”
“It was all my pleasure.”
We wave goodbye to everyone on our way out of the hospital and over to my car. And of course, Veronica is driving and I’m in the passenger seat. I lower myself, getting seated into the bench with a groan. Even though I can now walk around and move pretty fine with ease, certain movements still cause a pull inside my gut that’s pretty damn uncomfortable.
“Are you okay?” Veronica searches my face with worry.
“Yeah.” I drop my head against the headrest and close my eyes, letting out a breath. “Just the car is pretty low.”
“Shit, I should have thought about that and taken a bigger car.” She frowns at herself.
I reach out and cradle the back of her head. “It’s okay, Kitten. I’m just happy to be with you and finally get home and back to our normal life.”
Despite my annoyance with having to stay in the hospital for so long, I was lucky to have Veronica by my side the whole time. The only time she left was to get us spare clothes and see Blubber for a few hours. The rest she did here; shower, eat, sleep, although the nurses weren’t too thrilled about her sleeping in the bed with me. But she needed comfort, and I needed her.
I haven’t seen Gabe since my first two days here, except for when he videocallsduring his free time. He’s been gone with the team for their series of away games and came home early this morning. He wanted to drop by, but since we knew I was being discharged today, we told him not to bother and rest instead.
We made the news again. Word spread really fast about what happened, and everyone wanted to know if I was okay, what this meant for my career, and if I would ever play again. They’ve been harassing Gabe at every game to get as much information as they can out of him. But he’s kept his mouth shut about it all, only telling them that I’m out of the woods and recovering. Even Coach and our GM haven’t said much about it to the press. Only that they were waiting to see how things went before making any major decisions.
