Page 59 of Love of the Game
Loki started purring deeply, and I let that rumble lull me to sleep, too.
CHAPTER 14
JON
I woke up in Drake’s apartment as soon as light crept in around the curtains. My shoulder ached if I breathed in the wrong direction, and my head felt like someone had shoved scratchy wool into it, all fuzzy and itchy at the same time. Tears threatened to sneak their way out of my eyes, because I was in bed with Drake, in his apartment, with Loki sleeping between us and Thor curled up on my feet.
He’d opened his place to me. More than that—he was making it my space, too. My cats, my clothes, my laptop—my books, for goodness sake. Even the food that would’ve spoiled had it been left in the fridge.
Drake had even offered Papa a place to stay.
He wanted tomarryme.
Maybe it was my soft laugh that woke Drake. “Hey,” he said, then he propped himself up on an arm and peered at me, alarm taking over his face. “You okay? Do you need some painkillers?”
“No, no, I’m fine.”
“You’re crying.”
I guess I was. I wiped the tears from my eyes. “Sorry. I think everything has fucked up my emotions and I lost my filter, not that I had much of one, but—I’m just so grateful right now, that’s all.” My voice wobbled, and I should’ve hated that. But I didn’t. “You brought me mycats,” I whispered.
Loki stretched out a paw and heaved a very loud sigh.
That let me get my voice back in check. I huffed a laugh. “Oh, are we disturbing his majesty?”
Loki’s ear twitched and he flicked his tail.
Drake chuckled. “Of course I brought you your cats.”
“I know, but—” There was a lot in my head bumping up against the scratchiness from the anesthesia. Always took a couple days to get all of my brain back on-line. “You think beyond me. I mean, you think about my life.”
Drake reached over and cupped my cheek. “You taught me that, Jon. You’re the one who taught me to remember what’s important.”
That wasn’t it either, not entirely. “I can’t think of the right words. What I want to say. They’re just not there.” Fucking anesthesia.
“You don’t have to think. Not today.” He levered himself up. “We have post-op instructions, and a nurse will be here later. Your dad, sooner, I think. I need to go to morning skate, so he’ll stay with you.”
Morning— “Oh, shit. You have a game tonight.” I blinked a few times and the desire to bethereflooded me. “I wonder if I could…”
“Babe, no,” he said firmly. “You absolutely should not go to a hockey game the day after shoulder surgery.” He got out of bed and opened the curtains to let in light.
Yeah. He was probably right.
“Your dad said you’d watch together. He hasn’t watched a game with you in ages.”
I vaguely recalled that from last night. A lot of it was hazy. A lot was still fuzzy at the edges.
“How’s the shoulder?”
“Ugh.” It ached. Better than right after I was injured, yes, but this was a dull throb I felt when I breathed too hard or moved suddenly. “Hurts. Guess the nerve block wore off.”
“Do you want one of the strong pills? Or just ibuprofen?”
I debated, but settled on the ibu, which Drake brought to me, along with a glass of water.
I groaned and got myself upright to take it, then got to my feet. “I’m not spending all day in bed. I need to move.” Prove to myself that I could function.
Thor got up, too, and headed over to the windows, hopped up on a table underneath, and peered out. Loki merely stretched out more. “Lazy bones.” I gave him a scritch behind the ears.
