Page 119 of Bountiful
His phone beeped. He glanced at the text but then put it away. Unfortunately, it beeped again during dessert, and then rang in theparkinglot.
“Sorry,” he sighed. “But I don’t think they’re going to letitgo.”
“Whoisit?”
“The team doctor’sassistant.”
“Atthishour?”
“Yup.” He tapped the screen. “There are no regular business hours in professional hockey. Let me just returnhercall.”
I watched his face as a female voice spoke rapidly into his ear. “Tomorrow?” he asked warily. “I’m five hours away,though.”
The yapping went on, while his frown deepened, and my stomachdropped.
“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “If that’s the way it’sgottabe.”
He ended the call a minute later and looked at me, his face grim. “I’msorry,baby.”
“You have to gotomorrow?” That was two days early. I’d been counting onthosedays.
“I do. They got me an appointment with a specialist to talk about myshoulder.”
“And it has to be tomorrow?” I could hear a note of hysteria in myvoice.
“Yeah.” He cringed. “They’d told me it would be this week, but I didn’t know they’d schedule it for before training camp began. It’s partly myfault.”
Can’t you tell them you’re busy?The argument was on the tip of my tongue. But I wasn’t going to say it, because I knew in my gut that Dave would stay two more days with me if he could. Somehow I’d gotten myself to a place where I could at least be sureofthat.
Hallelujah. I waslearning.
“Okay,” I said slowly. “When do you need toleave?”
“Well…” He looked at the Timex on his wrist. “I have to pack. If I drive away from the cabin at four-thirty, I can make it backintime.”
“Four-thirty…”
“In the morning,” he said with agrimace.
“Okay,” I said more firmly than I had before. “I’ll helpyoupack.”
“Really?”
“Of course.” If he and I were going to consider a long-distance relationship, I might as well get usedtoit.
Benito lookedup from the television when we walked in the door. “Good dinner?” heasked.
“Yeah, but don’t get up,” I said. “Would you stay here tonight withNicole?”
Heblinked. “Okay.”
“I’m changing the sheets on your bed,” I said, walking away before he could make a snarky comment about why I might need to do thatforhim.
After that little task, I looked around the room for Dave’s things. He’d left a shirt and a pair of flipflops.
And his fancy watch. It was still on the bedside table where we’d left it after I’d showed it to him. “Never really liked that thing,” he’d said with a chuckle. “Except it taught me that spending money on bling wasn’t really mystyle.”
I left it on the bedside table like a talisman, and grabbed my nightgown and toothbrush to spend the night at Dave’scabin.
