Page 126 of Break the Ice
It’s way more bandwidth than I know how to control. I can’t wait to start working with the physical therapy team tomorrow to get me back onto the ice so I can exhaust myself physically and mentally.
“What did the two of you do today?” He asks, breaking the silence.
Finley looks between the two of us before she mutters, “We argued.”
Fuck.
“What? Why?” Jayden asks.
Her sassy smile turns to me. “Well, don’t you have anything to say for yourself now?”
“About what?” Jayden sits up on Finley’s other side, leaning all the way forward to peer between us. “Why were you arguing?” His stare zeroes in on mine. “What happened to keeping it chill?”
“Yeah, Elijah, what happened to keeping it chill?”
“Apparently, I can't go for a walk now,” I grumble.
“A three-hour walk that had you totally out of breath and drenched in sweat when you returned.” Finley twists so she’s leaning back into Jayden while the two of them glower at me.
“I can’t sit here all day doing nothing.”
Finley shakes her head with a huff. “That’s all you’ve got to do until the doctors tell you otherwise.”
“No, it’s not!” Her face falls at my sharp bark, and regret instantly grabs me by the throat when I catch a glimpse of Jayden’s frown.
Staring from me to her, he appears so torn on what to say that I feel like a total bastard when his frown softens on me. Because even though he knows he would do the same thing, he’s on Finley’s side of the argument. They want to bundle me up in cotton and shut me away until they feel better about what happened.
Except they won’t ever feel better.
And I am going crazy in these walls.
“I had a bad migraine, and now I’m stuck here like an invalid!” Pushing to my feet, I ignore the wrench of my heart when they both follow.
“Relax, man,” Jayden pleads with me as I round the coffee table and pace the length of it. “We know you’re not an invalid.”
“Do you? Because I can’t move without either of you holding your breath.”
“Because you’re hellbent on ignoring your neurologist’s advice,” Finley snaps back. Like earlier, her eyes are swimming with tears. “You just don’t get it, do you?”
“Fin...” Jayden coils his arm around her waist, coaxing her closer when she turns to stomp away. “We can’t unsee what that migraine did to you. So, while you’re fine now, there’s nothing to say that you will be if you don’t stick with your medical team’s advice. We’re worried, Eli... because we care. Because...because...”
“I can’t go through that again,” Finley says, choking on her restrained tears.
Without a second thought, my feet carry me to her. My hands clasp hers, trying to reassure her in the best way I can.
“Even if I follow the doctors’ advice, I could have another episode like that.”
“Why do you think we’re scared?” Finley’s fingers thread with mine.
“If it were me, I know I would be as stubborn, and you would be the one begging me to slow down. I do get it,” Jayden says, dropping his arm from Finley’s waist.
I don’t miss the way she inches closer to him, searching for contact with him at the same time as she urges me closer with a light tug on my hands.
Even now, she doesn’t want to pick between me and him. And he’s pulling back like he’s doing something wrong when he’s the one holding her together.
“Sitting around isn’t helping me, Fin. I need to clear my head, to be able to think about things, and...”
“And?”
