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After a few more team sessions that I wanted to attend to support the guys and help the coaches, I decided to beg off dinner and find Tamryn.
Me: Hey. Do you have anything that’s required at dinnertime or after? I’d really like to talk.
Tamryn: I’ll be free in an hour. We definitely need to talk. I’ll come to you. Where?
Me: I actually got my own room. I wasn’t required to stay in the team block. 505.
Tamryn: TTYL.
Talk to you later? That was all? Ooh, boy. Somebody was not happy with me.
An hour and five minutes later, a knock sounded on the door. I opened it to a stunning yet clearly pissed-off doctor. She ripped off her hoodie as she stormed past me into the room, and I couldn’t ignore the heat of her emotions.
I adored how utterly sexy she looked when she was mad.
She whirled around; her arms crossed over that delectable chest. “The hell, Holden?”
So that’s how this was going to go. I tried to hold back my smile. I failed.
“This isn’t funny, you dickhead.”
Damn, she was cute. “I know you’re mad. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, clearly exasperated with me. “You’re sorry? You’re sorry that you totally went against medical advice and put your life at risk to fly to sunny Florida.”
“Well, yes, sort of. But I’m actually sorrier that I didn’t talk it over with you first.”
I saw her soften a fraction. “Yeah, that was a dick move, too. I talked to Merrick. Since I’m part of your medical team, he told me about your discussion. He said he strongly suggested you not take the risk. Said he basically begged you to have the surgery and stay the hell home.”
I tipped a corner of my mouth. “I don’t know about begged. He tried to be very convincing. I’ll give him that.”
She shook her head again. “And yet, here you are.” When I started to say something, she held up a hand. “I get it, Holden. You’ve invested a lot. This is basically your last hoorah. And even if you can’t be in the thick of it, you want to be involved. But…” She took a deep breath, the movement doing astonishing things to her chest in the tank she wore before I saw the glisten of moisture in her eyes and she turned away abruptly. I almost missed her next words, and even when she said them, I still wasn’t sure I’d heard.
“You have people who love you,” she mumbled.
I limped across the room as fast as I could in my boot and got in front of her. “What did you say?”
“Nothing, I—”
“No, no. I want to know what you said.”
She let out an exasperated breath. “I said, people love you, you asshole.”
I grinned. “Would those people include you?”
She shook her head, and shoved her hands through her hair, letting out a little growl as she turned from me once more. “You honestly don’t deserve the answer to that. I’m so pissed at you right now. Even while I get it.”
I limped to get in front of her again and cupped her cheeks gently with my hands. She raised hers to grab my wrists and we searched each other’s eyes.
“Okay, then. Maybe I should go first.”
“What do you mean, go first?” she asked.
“Can we sit? Please?” I motioned to the bed. She took a seat on the edge, and I awkwardly tugged the chair from the little table over so I could sit and face her, placing my hands on her knees.
“Tamryn, you came into my life during the most awful of times. Yet these last weeks with you have probably been the best of my life. I seriously thought that I had lost everything. That I had nothing left. But these circumstances brought me you.”
“Warts and all?” she asked.
