Page 36 of Cross-Checked

My heart soars with hope. Maybe the pain and the swelling will subside and I’ll be good as new!

“You’ve got a distal radial fracture,” he tells me, slapping the X-ray film up to a light box on the wall. Pointing to the lower part, he traces his finger across the image as he says, “What that means is, your radius—this bone that runs along the inside of your lower arm from your wrist to your elbow—was broken in the fall. But the good news is that it’s only a fracture, not a clean break. You won’t need surgery to repair it. We’ll splint it for now, and you’ll need to be very careful with it so you don’t aggravate the injury. When the swelling goes down in a week or so, we’ll put your arm in a cast to let it fully heal.”

Thinking about what my life will be like with my right arm in a cast, I ask, “That’sgetting lucky?”

“Since the alternative would have been a much worse break, and surgery with 6-12 weeks of recovery time...yeah.” The last word is clipped, and I can tell he’s annoyed that I’m not happier about this news. But unlike me, he isn’t thinking about what it’ll be like to live on my own with an unusable right hand—the one I use to do everything. How will I dry my hair? Do my laundry? Shift while I’m driving? Actually, do I know how to doanythingone-handed?

“What about her ribs?” McCabe practically growls at the doctor.

“They’re not broken, and the X-rays don’t show bruising on the bones either. You’ll probably get a fair amount of superficial bruising because of the impact, but again, you’re lucky because the fall didn’t damage the bones. Jenn will go over your care plan with you.” He continues, nodding toward the nurse at his side. “And then we’ll get you discharged, and your husband can take you home.”

A laugh bursts out of me as he glances over at McCabe, whose face is an unreadable mask, where he now stands at the foot of the bed. The pain that shoots through my back as I laugh has me wincing, instead. “He’s...not my husband. We just work together.”

The doctor must not be a hockey fan.

“Okay, so who is taking you home and helping you out for the next week or so? You won’t be able to do much of anything without help. Even things as simple as getting dressed will be a challenge, and you’ll need help managing everything. You need to keep your wrist totally immobile until it’s casted—treat it like it’s glass—or you risk worsening the fracture and needing surgery instead.”

“Uh...I can just ask my brother to stay with me, I guess,” I say tentatively.

McCabe presses his lips together, but doesn’t call me out on my lie. He knows that Nicholas can’t stay at my place right now because Nicole’s mom is here and staying with them. Even as much as my brother loves me, he’s not going to risk World War III by leaving Nic and her mom alone. And we’re leaving the day after tomorrow for our away games. There’s no chance in hell I’m not going to those games, and Nicholas can’t come with me, because by then he’ll be staying with Abby.

“Alright. Which of you,” the doctor asks, nodding back and forth between McCabe and Lauren, “is taking her home tonight?”

“I can do it,” McCabe says quickly, and Lauren’s eyes basically pop out of her head as she glances over at me in surprise. “We live near each other.”

I appreciate the way he doesn’t say we live across the hall from each other, since I haven’t mentioned that fact to Lauren yet.

The doctor nods, and as he turns to say something to the nurse, McCabe tells us, “I’m going to Uber back to the arena and get my car, since we’ll need it for Abby’s car seat. Are you two okay here with her until I get back?”

“I brought your car, actually,” Lauren says, pulling her long red hair back into a ponytail. “I hope you don’t mind. Your keys, phone, and wallet are in the side pocket of that bag. Basically, everything that was in your locker. And Abby’s car seat is in the back seat, and her stroller is in the trunk.”

His jaw drops open. “Thanks?”

I’m a little shocked that he doesn’t sound more appreciative, but then he shakes his head and says, “I...I would never have expected someone to do that for me.”

There’s a small tug at my heart when he admits that. I mean, I don’t have a huge network of people in Boston, but I’ve got my brother and Nicole, Lauren and Jameson, and I’m getting closer to Jameson’s sisters, Audrey and Jules. But still, I wouldn’t be shocked if any of them, or anyone I work with, for that matter, stepped up to help me in this situation.

“It was no trouble,” Lauren says with a soft smile. “And it was Colt’s idea, actually. He was going to swing by with your stuff, but he had to hit the bike and shower first, so I offered since I could come right away.”

“So, your discharge plan,” the nurse says, handing me a whole stack of paper as she launches into the aftercare information for managing the pain and swelling. When she finally takes a breath, Lauren excuses herself and says that Jameson is waiting downstairs in his car for her, and they have to get home because their babysitter needs to leave.

McCabe offers to head down with her so he can grab Abby’s car seat, while the nurse gives me some additional information about scheduling a follow-up appointment with the orthopedist and reads me the riot act about not using my right hand to doanything.By the time she’s helped me out of the gown and back into my sweater, McCabe is walking back into my hospital room with an empty baby carrier in his hand.

He says nothing about my lie regarding Nicholas staying with me until I’m seated in the front of his SUV and we’re pulling out of the parking garage. As we turn onto the dark, empty street to head away from the hospital, he says, “Don’t for one second think that I’m letting you stay at your place without someone to help you.”

“Yeah,” I say with a small scoff, “because I have so many other options for people to just move in with me.”

“You have at least one other option.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

“You’re moving in with me.”

My laughter rings out sharply, filling the silent car, and for a second, I’m afraid I’ll wake Abby where she’s sleeping in her car seat behind me. “Yeah. Sure.”

“You can’t live by yourself,” he says. “Doctor’s orders.”

My entire body tenses at the thought of being in that close proximity to him, even if just for the next few days. “I’ll get a friend to stay with me, then.”

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