44. Noah
Chapter forty-four
Noah
To family.
~ Ten Days Later ~
Ten days.
That’s how long I stayed in the hospital.
Ten.
Freaking.
Days.
God, am I glad to be heading home.
“Now remember, six more weeks before you can do anything. No heavy lifting, no baths, no sex! And I mean it, Noah, we don’t want you back here in a few weeks because you ripped yourself open.
” Nurse Wendy narrows her eyes at me with the point of her wrinkly finger. She’s my favorite out of all of them.
I laugh, holding Veronica closer to my side with my arm draped around her shoulder. “I can promise the first two, the last might be hard to follow.” I wink.
“Noah…” She gives me a stern look.
“Don’t worry, Wendy. I won’t let him get near the goods.” Veronica giggles when I frown at her.
“And don’t forget to take your painkillers. I know you athletes think you’re all high-and-mighty, but you need them. So stop being a big baby and take your damn pills when you’re in pain.”
“I’m not a big baby.” This time it’s my turn to furrow my brows at her.
Wendy rolls her eyes. “Not a big baby, my ass,” she murmurs. “The guy was in so much pain, couldn’t even get out of bed. Yet he refused to take his pills.” She shakes her head.
“I’ll make sure he takes them. Simple, if he doesn’t take them, then no sex.” Veronica shrugs with a smile, and Wendy’s mouth drops as she flaps her arms at her side. Veronica bursts with laughter. “I’m kidding! No sex, take your meds. That’s my motto for the next six weeks.”
“You kids drive me insane,” Wendy mutters as she heads for the door, with us following suit.
She sighs once we stand outside my latest housing and reaches a frail hand up to pat my cheek in a grandmotherly way. “We’re going to miss seeing your pretty face around here, but I’m glad you finally get to go home.”
I crouch down slightly and wrap my arms around her. “I’ll miss you, too, Wendy girl.”
She pushes against my chest. “Now go on, before I get emotional and ruin my makeup.”
She waves a hand at her face, because yes, she’s the oldest nurse here and still wears makeup. She might be close to her seventies, but that woman is as sharp as they come. “I know you have some friends at home who are excited to see you back on your feet.”
“That he does.” Veronica beams at me seconds before she goes in for a hug of her own. “Bye, Wendy. Thank you for taking such good care of my man.”
“It was all my pleasure.”
We wave goodbye to everyone on our way out of the hospital and over to my car.
And of course, Veronica is driving and I’m in the passenger seat.
I lower myself, getting seated into the bench with a groan.
Even though I can now walk around and move pretty fine with ease, certain movements still cause a pull inside my gut that’s pretty damn uncomfortable.
“Are you okay?” Veronica searches my face with worry.
“Yeah.” I drop my head against the headrest and close my eyes, letting out a breath. “Just the car is pretty low.”
“Shit, I should have thought about that and taken a bigger car.” She frowns at herself.
I reach out and cradle the back of her head. “It’s okay, Kitten. I’m just happy to be with you and finally get home and back to our normal life.”
Despite my annoyance with having to stay in the hospital for so long, I was lucky to have Veronica by my side the whole time.
The only time she left was to get us spare clothes and see Blubber for a few hours.
The rest she did here; shower, eat, sleep, although the nurses weren’t too thrilled about her sleeping in the bed with me.
But she needed comfort, and I needed her.
I haven’t seen Gabe since my first two days here, except for when he videocalls during his free time.
He’s been gone with the team for their series of away games and came home early this morning.
He wanted to drop by, but since we knew I was being discharged today, we told him not to bother and rest instead.
We made the news again. Word spread really fast about what happened, and everyone wanted to know if I was okay, what this meant for my career, and if I would ever play again.
They’ve been harassing Gabe at every game to get as much information as they can out of him.
But he’s kept his mouth shut about it all, only telling them that I’m out of the woods and recovering.
Even Coach and our GM haven’t said much about it to the press.
Only that they were waiting to see how things went before making any major decisions.
That’s another thing that’s been rough on my spirit. No hockey. I miss my morning runs with Veronica, I miss working out with my brother, I fucking miss playing hockey with my friends. And knowing that I’ll most definitely be out for the whole season sucks.
Despite our management team not saying anything to the reporters just yet, Coach and our team doctor don’t think I’ll be ready to hit the ice until the playoffs, if I’ve completely recovered by then and my physical therapy goes well. And that’s a big if.
The only upside to this whole shit show is that I get Veronica.
I’ll have her at my side every step of the way.
Day and night. And after a scare like that—where I thought that I would never get to see her beautiful face again, never get to hear her voice, to hold her and kiss her—the only thing that matters to me at this moment is her.
We drive through the city and past the penthouse. My brows furrow as I notice we aren’t taking the right route home. “Where are we going?”
Veronica swallows as her eyes gloss over. “I can’t go back there, Noah… I tried, but I can still see it all… it’s still too fresh in my mind…”
A tear spills out, and I quickly catch it before taking her hand in mine. “Hey, it’s okay, Kitten. We don’t have to go back to the penthouse. If anything, I’m kind of glad.”
“You are?” She peeks at me quickly before refocusing on the road.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m fine. But stairs are still a little rough on me.” I chuckle, a bit embarrassed that I have a hard time going up and down stairs at my age. Although getting stabbed is a pretty good excuse for it.
“Then you’ll be happy about where we’re going, because there are no stairs.” She smiles and heads down roads I know too well.
I laugh. “Who got roped into hosting us for the time being?”
She looks over with a twinkle in her eyes.
She’s been doing that a lot, just stares at me like she can’t believe I’m really here.
I know this hasn’t been easy on her, and she’s still shaken up by the whole thing.
I wish I could take all her pain away, make her see that I’m not going anywhere. That I never will. Not just yet.
“No one,” she finally says as we pull up at Burkley’s place. “Morgan and Clay offered us their pool house for as long as we need.”
“The one they turned into an apartment for Cecilia back in the day?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was told. I know it’s not big, certainly not for three people and a cat.
But we’re already used to being all together, so I thought we could stay here until we find a house.
” She smiles at the thought of buying our first home.
We have been looking during my time in the hospital and have found a few potential ones.
“Plus, there’s no stairs.” She giggles as she climbs out of the car.
She rushes around to my side while I’m opening the door and helps me climb out. That’s the worst part, getting up. Sitting down sucks, or walking up and down stairs, as I’ve mentioned, but standing up from a seating position? Holy fuck, does that shit pull on my abdomen.
“Are you okay? Do you need a minute?” Veronica asks me once I’m standing by the car with my hand on the roof.
“Nah, I’m good.” I wrap my arms around her neck and kiss her. “The only thing I need is you.”
She smiles against my lips. “Well, that’s going to have to wait another six weeks. Doctor’s orders.”
I groan, pressing my forehead against hers. “Don’t remind me.”
She dips out of my hold and stretches a hand out. “Come on, everyone is waiting inside to see you. But we don’t have to stay long. If you get tired or in too much pain, we’ll head out back to our place.”
“Okay.” I take her hand and walk up to the front door that has three. Fucking. Steps.
I can’t wait for this shit to clear up. From what Dr. Willensteed said, it should be better in a couple of days. At least I’m eating normally again. Well, not as normally as I used to, but it doesn’t hurt my stomach when I eat normal portions now.
“Just take them slowly, there’s no rush,” Veronica says, to which I say fuck it, and get it over with as quickly as possible.
When I hit the landing with a satisfied sigh, she looks at me with a disapproving frown. “I’m starting to see what Wendy was talking about.”
I laugh and push the door open, excited to see my friends again.
“Oh my God! He’s here!” Emma shouts as she throws herself into my arms, crying.
“Careful!” Veronica rushes out with worry.
“It’s fine,” I huff out.
“Right, right. I’m sorry.” Emma lets go and wipes her tears, taking a step back beside Morgan, Aubrey, and Cecilia, who are all in tears as well.
“We just missed you so much,” Morgan says with a sob. Jesus, these two are really emotional with these pregnancy hormones.
“Ladies, you all saw me two days ago,” I remind them with a smirk. They all came by to see me at the hospital, and I was really grateful for that. It was a nice change in scenery compared to the usual staff.
“Yeah, but that’s not the same. You were in the hospital, now you’re home for good,” Cecilia says, coming in slowly for a hug as she sniffles.
Once she lets go, Aubrey steps up next. “Hi, beautiful,” I say with a grin as she flushes her usual blush.
“Hi,” she says softly as she lays her head against my chest.
When the girls finally back off, the boys come in next, starting with Silas. “Hey man, it’s good to see you standing.” He hugs me a bit tighter than necessary, but when I groan, he quickly lets go. “Shit, I’m sorry.”