As soon as we were left alone in the locker room, I walked between his legs to stand in front of him. His hand immediately went to my stomach and my heart melted. “You’re in a lot of pain,” I whispered. “I can tell.”
“I’m fine,” he rasped, but he didn’t meet my eyes.
I reached out to hold his cheek. He immediately turned his head to kiss my wrist. “You’re not,” I said gently. “But you will be.” I pressed a kiss to his brow. “C’mon, let’s get moving.”
29. ALI - YOUNGER YOU
“Relation to the patient?” a guy in scrubs asked me.
My mouth dropped open, but no words came out. I didn’t know what to call myself. If I saidgirlfriend, they’d probably send me away, but what else could I say? I craned my neck to spot JP over this guy’s shoulder. He was walking down the hospital hallway while on the phone with his team doctor, wholly unaware that I’d been stopped.
“Um… I’m…” My eyes darted around the hallway, searching for the correct words.
“You can head to the waiting area,” the guy said, pointing to the hall behind us.
Feeling my chest practically cave in, I started to turn, but JP caught my wrist and pulled me back to his side. “She stays.”
The guy did a quick double-take. “The only people allowed back here are—”
“She’s my wife,” JP said, giving him an intimidating glare.
The guy’s eyes dropped to our joined hands, probably noticing there were no rings present. The guy hesitated for a second before shaking his head and stalking off in front of us to lead the way.
My eyes snapped to JP, but he was speaking into his phone again, his gaze trained straight ahead, a slight grimace on his face.
Wife.He called me his wife. I thought that phrase would makeme panic, but it did the opposite.JPusing it did the opposite. A warmth spread through my body, making me want to melt into him.
Over the next hour, I texted Mer and Piper with updates, but there wasn’t much to say. JP was taken back for x-rays to check for fractures, but after that, it’d been a waiting game.
“I swear, if someone doesn’t come back here in the next five minutes, I’m leaving,” JP threatened.
“No, you’re not,” I said calmly. “You have to wait for them to fix it for you.”
His jaw tightened with impatience. “Colt can fix it in two minutes.”
I snorted. “Colt’s under strict instructions to never touch your arm ever again.”
His eyebrows slammed down. “Says who?”
“Says me and Mer.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You never should’ve let him do that.”
He hung his head for a beat, then smirked at me. “Younger you would’ve done the same thing. I needed to keep playing.”
I let out a wry chuckle. “Yeah, well, if you don’t remember, younger me didn’t always make the best decisions.” I paused. “Shouldn’t you tell your dad?”
His throat bobbed with a thick swallow. He looked caught in indecision for a beat, but finally shook his head. “No, I don’t want to worry him. I’ll call him when we leave.”
I was about to argue that his dad would want to know, but a knock finally sounded on the other side of the door, interrupting us.
Dr. Benson, the middle-age orthopedic surgeon with salt-and-pepper hair who handled most cases for the Windy City Whalers, strolled into the room. “Ready to get that shoulder back in?”
“You have no idea,” JP muttered.
Dr. Benson stood behind JP and maneuvered his left arm into place. “All right, this is going to hurt pretty badly, but then you should feel some relief. You ready?”
“Wait,some?” JP blinked at me.
“Ready?” he asked again, ignoring JP’s question.
