“After I’m done with my calls, I’m going to join you. I’ll have Harrison bring us some Advil and broth for you to try. Once you think your pain levels are tolerable and you’ve eaten something, we’re going to get dressed and go to my therapist’s office.”
Quinn paused to make sure August had no objections, but none came.
“I know it’s late, but she works from home, and she’ll answer for me,” said Quinn. “She’s amazing, and she’s discreet. I promise you she won’t tell anyone about your visit, so don’t worry about being benched.”
August nodded, and he looked so exhausted that all Quinn wanted to do was hold him and never let him leave the house, but that wasn’t possible. If August was going to continue playing the game that he loved, then he needed professional help, not just love and support.
He was going to do for August what dozens of adults had failed to do in his life. He was going to protect him.
“You’ll take a week off,” Quinn said sternly. “Give me a week of cooperation, and I’ll have you back on the ice by the end of it. Shit is going to get hard over the next few days, but you’re so fucking strong that I know you can handle it, and I’ll be right beside you the whole time.”
August was biting his bottom lip, so Quinn tugged on it with his thumb to move it out of harm’s way.
“You promise?” August asked.
Quinn touched a hand to his heart. “I swear on my life.”
He knew he had said the right thing when August sighed and scowled at the tub. “Alright…turn on the damn water, I guess.”
Quinn smiled and kissed him one more time—then he got to work.
Chapter 32
August
All movements felt mechanical as August got into the tub after Quinn turned the water off. Thoughts, worries, and pain had suddenly drifted far outside the edges of his mind now that he wasn’t in control of his actions.
Quinn told him to wash his body, and he washed it.
Quinn told him to rinse the shampoo from his hair, and he rinsed it.
Quinn told him to brush his teeth, and he brushed them.
Quinn told him to tilt his head back for a kiss, and he kissed him.
It was the first time he had been at peace inside his own head for nearly twenty-four hours. August hadn’t realized how loose his body could feel until Quinn ordered him to relax while he stepped out of the bathroom. He lay limply in the tub, feeling slightly dizzy from the high while he took his time to breathe in deep hauls of oxygen that he desperately needed.
Even when he could hear a female voice talking frantically through Quinn’s phone from the bedroom, he felt nothing. It wasn’t that he didn’t care that she was in distress, but rather that he couldn’t care. Quinn had told him to relax, so that’s what he did.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
“Why are you calling?”
August dragged his eyes open to stare at the dancing shadows on the ceiling. Quinn sounded much more irritated than he had minutes before, which meant he was talking to someone new.
“It’s Quinn Harlow. You knew my parents,” said Quinn. “And whatever your expectations are for this conversation, you might want to lower them.”
August blinked as another female voice began shouting, and he recognized the shrill pitch of his mother’s furious ranting.
The thought of Quinn talking to his mother any other day would have sent him into full-blown panic mode, but he was too tired to do that now.
Besides, Quinn could handle himself.
Quinn let his mother get her point across for several minutes, and then he cleared his throat to silence her.
“Mrs. Snow, I wanted to tell you that I’m recording this conversation, so you understand the gravity of what I’m about to say next. August willneverspeak to you again. Not only have you failed him as a mother in the past, but you are also failing him as a mother by harassing him now. I know about the recordings and the pictures your husband’s friend took of him as a child. I know that you knew, and you did nothing to protect him from a predator. I also know that you stood by and watched your husband beat August until he left scars on his back.”
