Sav leaned her head on my shoulder and held Nick’s hand.
“This is nice, guys,” she said. “Thankyou.”
22. Sav - August 31st
On the boys’ last night in Northfield, I laid in my room wide awake, hoping and praying to God that Nick would come get me to privately say goodbye; to have one last night together.
Just like clockwork, around midnight, I heard Nick tapping on my window, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
He peeked his smiling head through and whispered, “Griff let me borrow his truck. Let’s go.”
I moved toward my window as fast as I could, but it was still pretty slow compared to my normal pace. I could finally limp around unassisted by crutches. Griff had been showing me rehab exercises all week to get me moving and back on the ice faster, and I think they were really helping. Nick on the other hand, didn’t slow or baby me at all. He thought that would only delay my progress.
I didn’t ask where we were going because I didn’t care. I just loved holding his hand over the truck’s center counsel, and I never wanted to let go.
As we turned down a gravel road, I knew exactly where we were though– Nick was taking me back to thelake.
When we pulled up to the beach, I felt my heart squeeze with disappointment noticing that a little blue tent had been set up on the shore.
“Want to find a different spot?” I asked, trying to stay positive.
His eyebrows pinched together as he put the truck in park. “Why?”
“Someone’s already here,” I pointed out.
“Someonewasalready here,” he grinned. “Me. I thought ahead. Only the best last night for my baby,” he said while bringing my hand to his lips.
In the tent, we cuddled together against the cold night for warmth. He really had thought ahead– he prepped the tent with a blowup mattress and an insulated sleeping bag.The only thing off was that I was a little scared. Yes, Nick was right beside me… but there was only a thin layer of nylon blocking us from the utter darkness outside.
Nick shifted to sit up then, and I grabbed his arm.
I tried to keep the panic out of my voice as I asked, “Where are you going?”
He chuckled. “I’m not goin anywhere, babe. I’m just looking for…” I heard him rummaging in his backpack. “Ah-ha!” He clicked on a mini flashlight and handed it to me.
My heart happily flopped around in my chest. “Thank you, Nick.”
“No problem, babe. Whyareyou afraid of the dark by the way?” he asked, laying back down next to me.
“I don’t know,” I said before thinking. I turned to face him and racked my nails lazily through his hair. His eyes closed, showing me he enjoyed it. “Well… want me to really tell you?”
His eyes flashed open and he grabbed my waist to pull me closer, making me giggle “Yes, babe,” he said with asmile.
“When it’s dark it just feels like everything’s closing in on you and you’re all alone. I’m actually not sure if it’s the dark or if it’s a form of claustrophobia… or if it’s more so the fear of being alone… you know? I just don’t like it,” I shuddered.
A worried crease formed between his eyebrows. “I don’t want you to ever feel alone.” He interlaced his fingers with mine and brought our hands to his chest like he’d done hundreds of times. “I guess I don’t know much about feeling alone, but I know Griff does. When his dad would go on a bender he would wander over to our house on his little bike and climb in my window. Good thing I lived in a ranch house, or else I’m not sure what a little kid would’ve done.”
Poor Griff. When Nick told stories like that, I just wanted to give him a hug. Talking to Griff, you’d never know that he ever felt weakness. Of the four of us, he was the steady one. The strong one. He seemed unshakeable. When he was on the ice, I never ever worried about him. When he got hit, he was always okay. When he went to backcheck, I had complete confidence he would stop his man. When he had the puck, I knew he’d do something smart with it. With Nick, it was a little different. Nick was more human. Nick flubbed up sometimes and shrugged it off. He’d rather skate all the way up on his own and get rubbed off the puck than pass it to anyone besides Griff. Don’t get me wrong, Nick was extremely talented, and I think scouts liked him better. If you watched one game, you’d think Nick was the better player, but if you watched a whole season like Duke and I had, you’d know that Griff was just as good, if not slightly better. Nick just didn’t have the hockey IQ that Griff seemed to have. He didn’t play the puck both ways or set up plays for his teammates the way Griff did. Nick’s thing was that he was flashy and he could put the puck in the net.
“I’m gonna miss you guys. Who’s going to wash your home jerseys?” I asked him. He’d wear his white jersey as many times as he could before I forced him to hand it over for me to wash. It would get embarrassingly yellow from sweat compared to the other guy’s white jerseys.
“Maybe I just won’t,” he laughed.
“Better not let some other girl wash ‘em,” I joked. But there was an underlying worry in those words, and I think he could sense it.
He laid his hand on my stomach and kissed me slowly.
When he pulled back, I tried to inconspicuously move his hand away.
