Chapter 3
three
Jeremy
Are they even looking for the douchebag?” Zeke drops onto the chair next to my bed. “The accident happened a few miles away from our training facility, and they don’t have this guy on camera anywhere?”
The guys have stopped by every single day since I started allowing visitors. Part of me regrets it, at least when I’d get my fill of the guys at home, I could escape to the ice.
Now I can’t escape anywhere.
I’m just stuck here.
And with all of the flowers filling the room, plus the guys, the whole space feels suffocating.
I’ve been lucky, though. In many ways, things feel normal. They don’t ask me about hockey, they don’t bring up the wheelchair in the corner of my room just waiting for me to use it, and they don’t draw attention to when I stare at my feet for a little too long.
Declan told me yesterday about Brinley nearly killing herself while helping him move some furniture. I zoned out at some point during the story, but when he showed me the picture of the nasty bruise on her side, I almost forgot I was stuck in a hospital bed, not knowing if I’ll ever walk again.
It felt normal.
Fletcher videochatted with Tate on his first day down here, and she told me all about the tour. She’s supposed to be out here in July, and I’m just hoping I’m out of here by then so I can see her perform.
She wanted to come back here.
My parents told me she was ready to get on the next flight here when they told her what happened, but they told her to stay put.
I’m happy they did.
I wouldn’t want both of us to lose our dreams this summer.
She deserves to be on the tour. It’s everything she’s ever wanted. Plus, it’s not like there’s much she can do here.
It’s a lot of sitting and waiting.
Literally.
I watch their mouths move, but I don’t think I’ve heard any of their conversation since Zeke mentioned the accident.
“Jere?” I look up, finding Brooks’ eyes already on me. “What do you think, man?”
“Hmm?”
“About me proposing to Liv?”
I place a hand over my mouth, as if I’m thinking over this idea, when in reality I’m trying to hide my jaw hitting the floor.
I know I was in a coma for three weeks, but a proposal?
“See, we told you.” Zeke grabs a magazine off my side table and flips through it.
“He didn’t say anything!” Brooks argues, jumping off the table across from me.
“Exactly. I wouldn’t say that expression on his face reads as the good kind of speechless.” Declan pats Brooks on the back.
“Is that even a thing?” Fletcher raises an eyebrow. “I don’t hear of many people being speechless for a positive reason.”
“Oh, it’s a thing.” Zeke flips to a new page. “Avalon’s definitely been left—”
“Please, don’t finish that sentence.” My nose wrinkles as I hold up my hand.
“So, you think it’s a bad idea?” Brooks shoves his hands into his front pockets, his shoulders scrunching up to his ears.
“I don’t know.”
I know he loves Liv. They’ve been together since before we even started our freshman year at Rockford. Still, I honestly feel like, in a lot of ways, he’s lost himself in this relationship.
Like when he’s around us, he’s the same Brooks I grew up with, but add her to the equation, and it’s like a part of him is gone.
I mean, she calls him Carter, for Christ's sake. The only people who still call him by his first name are his parents, and even his dad sometimes gets stuck calling him by his last name.
I think we called him Carter for all of five minutes when we met him, but it quickly changed to Brooks.
“Obviously, if you’re thinking about it, my opinion isn’t going to get you to change your mind.” I shrug. “If you really think Liv is the one and you two will be happy together, then—”
“Nope.” Zeke shuts his magazine and jumps to his feet. “Look, dude, we love you. If we didn’t, we would’ve said this a long time ago, but Liv is only after one thing. She’s after the money you’re going to get once you go pro.”
“She knows there’s a chance I won’t,” Brooks defends. “We’ve talked about how being in the free agency works and how it’s more complicated than just—”
“Have you ever asked Liv how she’d feel if you didn’t go pro?”
“But I want to go pro.”
“I know, man.” Zeke steps forward, places a hand on Brooks’ shoulder, and takes a breath. “But have you ever made her think that maybe you no longer want to?”
“I guess not, but—”
“Again, I’m not saying this to be mean. I could be completely wrong about Liv, but she never really sticks around long enough for us to get a good grasp on her.
” Zeke’s hand falls off Brooks’ shoulder.
“All I’m saying is, I don’t know if you guys would still be together if you weren’t a big hockey star. That’s all.”
“Ouch, Zeke.” Jaxon crosses his arms and rests against the wall. “Could’ve phrased it a little nicer.”
“So, all of you are against me proposing?”
“Like Jere said,” Fletcher begins, “whether you propose or not is up to you. If you’re bringing it up, you probably already know what you want to do; you don’t need our permission.”
“Alright.” Brooks scratches the back of his head. “I, um, I plan to do it sometime this year.”
“Alright.”
The room falls silent.
Even though the awkward silence is overwhelming, I find some comfort in it.
I like how nobody’s world stopped spinning when mine did. I like that my friends have things going on in their lives and haven’t dropped everything because of my problems.
“O’Connell got you flowers?” My eyes find Zeke, who’s staring down at one of the many bouquets in my room, his face twisted with disgust. “After what that fucker did to you last season, he had the nerve to send flowers and,” he leans closer, reading the letters, then in a mocking tone says, “well wishes.”
“Pretty sure they’re from the team.” I shake my head, holding back a laugh. “Don’t think he has a kind enough bone in his body to take the initiative in sending flowers.”
“Still, can’t believe he had the nerve to sign his name.” Declan crosses his arms. “Whether he wanted to or not.”
“I’ll fix this.” Zeke grabs the card and rips off the corner, where I assume O’Connell had signed. “There, all better.”
I roll my eyes as I grab my water off the tray and take a sip. Even though they can be too much sometimes, I know they only ever mean well.
“Oh, bro, you’ll never guess what happened last week.” Jax pushes off the wall and sits at the edge of my bed. “I can’t believe I forgot to tell you.”
“Don’t you dare,” Declan groans, his hand flying up to cover his ears. “I don’t need to relive this.”
“Declan went back to his childhood home because his mom is selling it.”
“She is?”
I guess there are some things I’ve missed since the accident.
“Yeah. I mean, not yet, my parents are still in a pretty nasty divorce battle, but she’s going to clean him out completely.
I honestly don’t know why he’s even putting the money into fighting it.
” Declan places his hands back over his ears, as if that will actually help him tune out this conversation.
“Anyway, he was going to pack up his room and move everything to their storage unit, so once his mom could put the house on the market, they wouldn’t have to worry about anything,” Jax continues. I can’t help but clock the giddiness he’s feeling over telling this story.
“Okay.”
“So, he didn’t tell his mom that he was coming home because he didn’t think he needed to.” Jax moves over to the chair by my bed, as if it’s a necessity for him to be even closer as he concludes his story. “Guess what he walked in on?”
“I have no clue.”
“Dude, head injury, remember?” Fletcher whispers, but Jax waves him off.
“His mom walking out of her room, fresh out of the shower, in only her robe.”
“That doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.” I cross my arms. “I thought you were going to tell me he saw her naked or something.”
Jaxon raises his finger, the grin growing wider on his face.
“With Jay walking behind her, also freshly showered, wearing only a towel around his waist.”
“Wait, Jay, as in—”
“Avalon’s father figure, Jay. Why yes, that’s exactly who he’s talking about,” Zeke adds.
“No way.”
“I know. Like, we all assumed they were hanging out, but we never thought they were—”
“Fucking?” Zeke concludes, and all of our faces scrunch in disgust.
“Please don’t talk about Mrs. Sanderson fu… I can’t even say it. Honestly, I get why Declan’s disgusted.” Fletcher shakes off the thought.
“It is pretty funny though.” I chuckle. “Can’t wait to hold this over him for the rest of his life.”
“Thank you.” Jaxon jumps up. “It’s fucking hilarious.”
“Are you guys done?” Declan’s voice is a little too loud for the size of the hospital room. I don’t say anything, I nod.
“Isn’t that horrible? I can’t get the image out of my head of him walking out behind her.”
“Could’ve been worse, you could’ve caught them mid-action.” Zeke laughs.
“I’d never be able to look her in the eyes again if that happened. It was bad enough walking in on you having sex,” Declan points to Zeke, “but my mom?”
“So, are they dating?” I raise an eyebrow, and Declan shrugs.
“I don’t know. I think she’s just having fun and seeing what happens. After my dad, I don’t blame her.”
“And you’d be okay with her just having fun?”
“I just want her to be happy. And I’m just never going to think about who she’s with and what she’s doing.” Declan smiles.
“I’d say that’s a good plan.”
“Honestly, I always thought your mom would end up with Coach,” Zeke says, and all of our heads snap in his direction.
“Like the one that currently coaches our team, that Coach?”
“Yeah, I don’t know. Might’ve been the thoughts my mom put into my head.” Zeke chuckles. “My mom hated your dad. So, I think anytime she saw your mom talking to any other guy, she tried to make it happen.”
“Well, on that note, I have to go pick up Ember.” Declan walks over and pats me on the shoulder. “It’s date night, and she’ll kill me if I cancel again.”
My smile fades, and Declan is quick to notice.
“Oh, no, don’t feel bad. It wasn’t because of you.” Declan waves his hands in front of his body. “After what happened with my mom, I had to go skate off the image. Ember and I still hung out that night, but we’re overdue for a proper date night.”
“No problem, man.” My expression lightens. “Tell her I said hi.”
“I will. She’ll probably ask me how you’re doing before she even cares to know how I’m doing.” Declan laughs as he heads out of my hospital room.
“You want to watch a movie?” Fletcher grabs the TV remote from my side table. “There was a Saw movie marathon happening when I left; it might still be on.”
“Sure.” I force a smile as the guys find various spots in my hospital room to get comfortable, as Fletcher searches for the movie.
I don’t watch it, though.
I watch my feet.
The only thing I’ve been watching since I woke up.
Because one day they’re going to move.
And I’m going to make sure I see it when they do.