“You’re leaving?” He spins on his heel to face me.
Graham looks about as good as I feel.
Which is to say, shit.
“I need someone to stay with me in case there’s any relapse.”
“Are they worried about that?”
Graham shoves his hands into his gray sweatpants. The sweatshirt he’s wearing clings to his muscles. I hate how good he looks.
I hate that I know if we didn’t have a game tonight, and I wasn’t in this condition, that we’d probably be planning a fun night together.
I hate that this is what we’ve come to.
“It’s a possibility.”
“You can’t stay here?”
The desperation in his voice is easy to pick up on. And it cracks my heart a little bit more.
“I can’t. You know why.”
“So you’re going home? Were you even going to tell me?” Now there’s bitterness in his voice. Not that I can blame him.
“I was planning on it.”
“Really?” Graham crosses his arms. “Because I have a feeling if I wasn’t here right now, we wouldn’t have crossed paths at all.”
I rub a hand over my forehead. I don’t want to be feeling any worse than I already am, but there’s no denying it at this point.
“Graham—”
“Look.” He holds out his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t react well in the hospital, and I know that’s on me.”
“Is that why you didn’t come see me?”
A few of the guys stopped by, but the one person I wanted to see—but also, didn’t want to see at the same time—never actually came.
A shameful look comes over his face. I hate that I put it there, but really, he didn’t come to see me.
“I didn’t think you’d want to see me, to be honest.”
“I wanted to.” It comes out as a whisper. A wish that I wanted more than anything but also wouldn’t have known how to deal with had he shown up.
“So stay.” Graham takes one step closer but I take a step back. I can’t say what I need to say if he’s too close. Breathing Graham-infused air wouldn’t do me any good right now.
“I think this thing between us has run its course.”
“What?”
I nod, scrubbing a hand through my messy beard—because who has time to shave in the fucking hospital?
“We knew this wouldn’t be a forever kind of thing, and now I have to focus on my recovery. I’ve got a long road ahead of me.”
“That’s it? You just decide that this is over and that’s it?”
I shake my head and immediately regret it. Pushing the heel of my hand into my eyes, I try to stave off the wave of pain that settles there.
