“Ha! That’s more than you ever did back when you were fighting. I swear, you’re gonna come back stronger,” he laughed, slapping my sweaty back.
I snatched the towel from a nearby rack and glanced up at the time. Fuck, I’d been here for hours and still had a lot more to go. Deke was pushing me hard, but I could feel the difference in my muscles, in the way my body moved. He was right. I was doing better than I was before my injury, and part of me attributed it to the lifestyle change that was thrust upon me.
“See? I told you getting laid would make all the difference in the world.”
I smirked at him, but it quickly faded as I remembered the promise I’d made just last night to Cassidy. “Fuck!”
I shot out of there, rushing to my car parked on the curb. My balls froze the minute the cold air hit me, but none of that mattered when I was supposed to take Cassidy to her doctor’s appointment this morning.
It was bad enough that I was late picking her up the day after I told her I would get her. She’d already made it to the shop, having called Josie to pick her up. And now I was going to make her late for an appointment that would determine if she needed to wear the cast for more than six weeks.
In the two weeks since I promised myself I would move out, I’d come up with every reason under the sun that I couldn’t leave just yet. Most of them were ridiculous, and some were just because I wasn’t ready to leave her bed yet. But I knew it was coming. This stalemate going on between us since the dreaded M conversation would only hold so long.
I cursed under my breath as the car slipped and slid all over the frozen road. Of all days to be late, this was not the one. With recent snow, the roads were terrible, and I fucking knew that last night, which was why I had set the damn alarm on my phone to leave early today.
Except my phone had been left in my locker.
As I pulled up to the house, I knew I was in trouble without even seeing her face. The curtain fell to the side, and she was out the door before I even got to the steps. The look on her face made my balls shrivel up further than they already had from the cold.
“Cassidy—”
“It’s fine. Let’s go.”
I was not fine. I’d been living with this woman long enough to know that when she said something was fine, that meant for me to shut my mouth and cease to exist in this world.
Not that I could do that, but I could shut my mouth.
I didn’t dare carry her to the car, but I did walk beside her, my hand outstretched just in case I needed to catch her. She walked on her crutches with a determined stride, as if she was going to prove to me that if she weren’t in a full leg cast, there wasn’t a single reason in the world she would need me.
“I really am sorry,” I said as we drove to the hospital. “I just lost track of time.”
But she continued to stare out her window, ignoring me altogether.
“My phone was in the locker. I didn’t hear the alarm.”
“I said it’s fine,” she snapped. “Can we just drop it?”
So, I did. I kept my mouth shut the rest of the drive to the hospital. But what really fucking hurt was when she told me to stay in the waiting room. I’d been relegated to the sidelines like some nobody.
An hour passed, and I was still sitting in the damn chair, waiting to hear how she was doing. When Caroline walked out, I nearly jumped up in relief, hoping she had some news for me, or was coming to get me.
“Is she okay? Did she get the cast off?”
“She’s fine. They’re removing the cast, but she’ll need to wear a brace for a few weeks. It’ll help her get around more easily, but also provide the stability she needs for recovery.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, nodding to Caroline as I took a step back. For some reason, I felt like the whole world had been pressing down on my shoulders until this moment. Which didn’t make sense because Cassidy’s recovery had very little to do with me.
“So, what did you do?”
Still reeling from the news, I didn’t understand the question at first. “Huh?”
“Well, you’re out here instead of back there with her. So, what did you do?”
“Uh…I may have been late picking her up. Again.”
“Well, if you want to stay on her good side, may I recommend that you become a better, more attentive boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend?” I laughed. “That’s not what this is.”
