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Chuckling, I rub her back. “You’re the sweetest, kindest, most genuine woman I’ve ever known.”
“I’ve got you fooled,” she sobs, and I feel her tears soaking through to my skin.
I hold her tight and let her cry it all out. I’m not sure Lilly’s ever had a good purging of her emotions like this and I’m not about to put a cork in it.
Eventually, the tears abate and I can hear her trying to breathe through a snot-blocked nose. I gently release my hold on her and reach around to the sink, grabbing several tissues from a box that Lilly brought up. One of the many thoughtful things she does is stock good store-bought toilet paper and tissue for Aiden’s comfort and boy could she use it now.
She’s an absolute mess with her swollen eyes, red flushed face and the honking sound of a goose she makes when she blows her nose.
And I couldn’t love her more.
Lilly moves to the sink and splashes cold water on her face, staring at herself critically in the mirror after she pats her skin dry. “Well, that was cathartic.” Her gaze moves to me standing behind her, the intensity of her stare not muted in any way as it reaches me through the reflection. “I love you, Boone.”
My smile breaks free. I had suspected as much and I hadn’t counted on hearing it just now because she’s got a lot more on her mind than me. But the way she says it so simply, staring at me in the mirror, somehow makes it more genuine than if she were in my arms, looking up at me with doe eyes.
It’s real and that’s the one thing Lilly and I have always been to each other.
“Come on,” I say, reaching for her hand and pulling her toward the door. “Let’s take a walk around the campus and get some fresh air. That will help clear your head a bit before Aiden is back.”
“Yeah,” she says, her voice raspy as she presses one of her palms to her cherry-red cheek. “I don’t want him to know I was crying.”
“Might need more than a walk,” I surmise as I take her in. That was a damn hard cry. “Maybe we’ll grab an ice pack for your eyes from Lori on the way out.”
Lilly laughs and puts her arms around my waist. She snuggles into me a moment and once again, I hear the words that have cemented our bond.
“I love you, Boone.”
“I love you too.”
CHAPTER 29
Boone
Sitting on thebench, my hands perched on the boards, I watch helplessly as the time ticks away. It’s game five and we’re down 1–0 with only three minutes left. I’m not a defeatist by nature nor do I ever give up. I’ve got another shift on the ice coming up and I’m ready to give it a hundred and ten percent to score a goal.
At least I think I am.
If I can keep my focus on what’s out there instead of letting it drift back to the hospital where I know Lilly and Aiden are watching the game.
Or, at least Lilly and Steven are. Aiden might be asleep because he’s very sick. His chest X-ray results from yesterday were not good, showing more infection in his lungs and he spiked a fever that isn’t responding to medication. I had a horrible night as Lilly insisted on staying at the hospital with Steven and I had no choice but to go back to my place to sleep. I had a game to prepare for mentally and physically, and I couldn’t do it sitting up in a straight-back chair in Aiden’s room so I could be close to the Hoffman family.
I went home and had a sleepless night there in a very comfortable bed. I went straight to the hospital after I woke up and paced Aiden’s room while I watched Lilly and Steven sit in worried silence as he slept. I stood in the hallway holding Lilly’s hand as Dr. Yoffe went over the most recent lab results, his forehead lined with concern that Aiden isn’t responding to the antifungal medications. His white blood cells are sparse and useless. The fever is added proof the infection is in control, not the doctors. In a matter of just three hours that I was at the hospital this morning, I saw Aiden worsen.
With my own eyes and all my senses, absorbing the grim expressions of the countless specialists who came in to see Aiden.
Everyone was fucking scared and here I am, trying my damnedest to focus on this game… my team… my city… and I just want to be by Aiden’s side, holding Lilly’s hand.
“There’s nothing more we can do,” Dr. Yoffe said this morning as they adjusted Aiden’s supportive medications and upped some dosages.
It was all on Aiden’s little body now, to pull on reserves and make a big stand.
“Let’s go,” Coen says with a hard shove to my shoulder and I blink out of my thoughts as he swings his legs over the board.
Fuck. It’s my line’s shift and I’m about three seconds too slow getting my ass up and over to follow Coen into the game. My skates bite into the ice as guilt eats me up from the inside out for not paying attention.
For not giving everything to my job and the people who count on me.
New Jersey has possession of the puck, one of their forwards racing into our zone, the puck skidding ahead of him. They’ve just had a line change too, so their legs are as fresh as ours. He fakes left, then goes right, trying to find an angle past Kirill, who’s positioned himself solidly in front of our net.
