Page 58 of Saving Forever with the Hockey Captain

Tomorrow...his bones will be a little stronger, his breathing a little easier, and his body a little closer to home.

Everything medicine could fix...is healing beautifully.

Everything else...is going to take a little longer.

Chapter seven

Jamie

Going Home Isn’t Easy

I wake before dawn with one thought.

Today. For the first time in nearly a week, the word doesn’t feel like something I have to survive.

It feels like a door.

I lie still for a minute, listening to the familiar sounds of the orthopedic floor waking up around me. The soft voices. The distant beep of monitors. Someone laughs near the nurses’ station, and I already know it’s Keisha because she laughs like she’s trying not to get caught.

I should feel relieved.

I do.

Mostly.

The hospital has done what hospitals are supposed to do. Put the broken pieces back where they belong. Make sure the lung is behaving. Teach me how to stand, breathe, walk and sleep without making everything worse.

Now it’s time to leave. Time to go home. Time to get my life back.

At least, that’s the lie I’ve been telling myself since four-thirty this morning.

Annette steps in carrying a thick stack of papers, a tablet and the kind of expression that tells me she has come armed with instructions.

“Good morning.”

I glance at the papers. “That looks dangerous.”

“It’s discharge paperwork.”

“Same thing.”

Her mouth curves a little. “You’re cheerful this morning.”

“I’m leaving.”

“I noticed.”

“That should improve my mood.”

“We’ll see if it survives the instructions.”

I sit up slowly, because I have learned the hard way that fast movements are for people with ribs that aren’t currently holding a grudge. Annette waits like she always does, No rushing. No hovering. No grabbing my arm before I need her to. She gives me exactly enough dignity to make accepting help feel less like losing.

That may be the most annoying thing about her. She’s good at this. Too good.

I point at the packet with my good hand. “So…you’re saying I shouldn’t play this weekend?”

Annette doesn’t even blink. “Only if you can do it without shoulders.”