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“So I guess I’m skating on my own for a while,” Anthony said.
“For a while,” Cadence agreed. “I’m hoping it won’t be a long while, though.”
“We’re not messing around with a concussion, though,” he said, ignoring her pout.
They hung around for a while but excused themselves before I was ready to kick them out.
Then Jonny and Sara came over—sans kids, thank goodness—late in the day.
“They’re with Daddy,” Sara said.
“How’d you manage that one?” I asked.
“He’s wrapped around my little finger,” she replied. “Cassidy is quickly learning how to convince her Pops to do anything she wants, too.”
Cadence raised a brow. “How’s that?”
“Kisses and giggles.”
Jonny took a seat in the recliner and stretched out his long legs. “I convinced Mom the last thing you need while you’re recovering is for all of them to come down from Winnipeg.”
Cadence let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Today has been more than enough, and that’s without Mom getting in the middle of it.”
“You look tired,” he said.
All she did to respond was nod. She felt tired to me. Once again, she was curled up against my side on the couch, resting her head on my shoulder. Usually, she kept more of her weight off me than this, but right now she’d completely collapsed into me. I didn’t mind in the least, other than recognizing just how worn out she was in order to let go like this.
“I told Jim I could rejoin the team,” he said slowly. “Play in the next game.”
Shit. I wasn’t ready to leave her again. Not yet. Why hadn’t Jim talked to me about this?
“He’s had Rachel book me a flight to join the team in Edmonton tomorrow morning.”
“Just you?” Cadence asked, inching closer to my side. I rubbed my hand up and down her arm. There was no chance I’d be allowed to miss another game now that we knew she was going to be all right. Especially not if Jonny was going back already.
“Just me. We’ll be home again the next day.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
Jonny fixed me with a stare. “I told him that even though she’s going to be fine, my sister is in no condition to be left alone. That she needs you.”
I had to fight off a grin at understanding what that meant.
Jonny wasn’t going to kill me. He’d decided to accept me as part of Cadence’s world.
GRADUALLY, CADENCE WASstarting to get back to everyday life.
For the first couple of weeks after Guy’s attack, she’d spent a lot of time in dark, quiet rooms with her eyes closed. Jens, Jonny, and I had ganged up on her about going to see the concussion specialist, and she’d eventually given in. Now that spring was in the air, she was starting to act more like her normal self.
They still hadn’t cleared her to resume skating again, but some lighter exercise was allowed. On my days off when the team was in town, I tried to spend every possible moment at her side, at least as long as she wasn’t growling at me to back off.
She was a lot like Sophie, in some ways. Cadence wanted to do everything for herself and not be coddled along. I found it difficult to avoid helping her more than I should. It killed me to see her struggling to do everyday things, or becoming exhausted from what she could have handled with ease only a month ago.
Still, Cadence’s concussion had turned out to be great for me on one score—it got me out of the Light the Lamp Foundation’s annual fundraiser that had been moved back to St. Patrick’s Day, due to Noelle Kallan’s and Jessica Lynch’s pregnancies. Most of the rest of the guys were being forced to dress up as leprechauns and carry around pots of gold, but I got to spend the night at home on my couch, making out with my girlfriend in between bouts of equally silly and serious discussion.
“Do you want to have kids?” Cadence asked me, staring up into my eyes. Hers had taken on that deep, mossy green tint again.
I quirked up a grin. “With you?”
