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“Alright, let’s get moving.”
As soon as Doc left the room, I sat there looking around at my teammates’ cubbies with their bags and extra sticks thrown around haphazardly. I wanted to embrace having my equipment on for one last second. As soon as I took off my jersey, my season was done. The rest of the guys, including Griff, would get to keep pushing for the Stanley Cup again… and I’d have to sit back on my broken ass and watch.
“Need help?” Roger asked.
“Nah.” I took that as my cue to start moving. “Just remember though…”
“Huh?”
“When you’re getting up at 3am and having to wake me from my beauty sleep, just remember thatyou’rethe one who roped us into concussion protocol,” I grumbled.
2.Duke
The next morning, I crutched my way pretty slowly through the long hospital hallway as I followed behind a cute blonde nurse named Maggie. I usually would’ve turned on my charm and flirted with her— I had a reputation to uphold after all— but I just wasn’t feeling it today. I was still bummed out about missing the rest of the playoffs with my team.
Maggie gave me a bright smile and gestured to the door where Sav and Griff were.
“Thanks.” I nodded.
She hesitated for a second, and I did feel bad for not giving her the regular old Duke Callahan cheesy pickup lines, but my shit mood won out. I just turned away and knocked on the door instead.
“Come in!” I heard my sister call out.
Of course they wouldn’t just come get the door for me. They probably had no clue I was injured. I immediately wished for Maggie back as I struggled to hold down the door handle, shove it open with my hip, then crutch in without the heavy door coming back to hit my banged up right side.
As soon as I entered the room, Sav shouted out, “No! What happened?!”
She looked at me with wide, worried eyes and Griff’s face hardened as he took in the sight of the cast on my right foot going up to the base of my knee. Griff was a pretty intimidating looking guy with his crazy fohawk hair, playoff beard, and serious blue eyes.
I sighed. They just had a baby, there was no point in acting all upset and bringing their moods down too.
“Without you there I got broked up!” I said to Griff. “It’s okay though, it’s not my landing foot.” I shot Sav a wink.
She studied my feet, trying to decide if I was right about this “landing foot” statement. I was. She just still didn’t know her lefts and rights, and she probably forgot I was a leftie. When she broke her ankle back when she was a figure skater, she broke her left one, and we always joked it wasn’t so bad because she landed jumps with her right foot anyway.
“Oh, Duke. I’m so sorry,” she said with sympathy.
“Which bastard did it? He’ll be fucking sorry,” Griff growled. I think holding a newborn baby made him even more protective than usual.
“Language! You’re holding a baby!” I chastised him, which made Sav snort. She was always the one correcting my language– I was a bit of a potty mouth growing up. “Yeah, it was a cheap shot. But they’re out of the ploffs now, so whatever. I’m out too though, which sucks.”
“How did it happen?” Sav’s eyebrows scrunched up in concern.
Griff handed my sister the baby very carefully. It’s funny, he made both the baby and my sister look very small. Sav was always on the short side for a girl, where Griff was 6 feet and 3 inches of pure muscle. He gently kissed her forehead, and she closed her eyes, taking in his touch… And that’s why I loved Griff so much. He was great at loving my sister.
As soon as Griff straightened up, he pulled his phone out of his back pocket and started making a call. He looked at my foot again and shook his head furiously.
“I got tripped while heading to the net,” I explained to Sav. “I was moving full speed up ice, so I slammed into the boards and ended up breaking a couple bones in there. It’ll be okay. I’ll just be laid up for a couple months. Sucks I won’t get to be on the ice if we make it all the way to the Stanley Cup game again though.”
“Well, at least you’ll have a long offseason to recover?” she asked weakly.
“Yeah, guess it’s better to happen now than in September.” I made my way to the chair next to her and plopped my cast up on the edge of her bed. I stiffened with a bit of pain but tried to keep a straight face. Today was about Sav, not me. “So how are you feelin? How’d it go?”
“Eh, could be better,” she said with a light laugh. Her eyes looked tired and her short blonde hair– which was usually neatly straightened– was sticking out at weird angles. “We’re both healthy, so all is well. Want to hold her?” She nodded to the baby.
“Lay her on me,” I said with a grin.
After fixing her in my arms, Sav smiled back at me with teary eyes. “You’re such a natural. You need to be a daddy one day very soon.”
