“Hush, you.”He crawled into bed, snuggling right into JP’s side.“God, my head hurts.”
“Did you take something for it?Because I have a whole pharmacy of shit for pain.”
“Shh.I just need to close my eyes a second, love.With you.”He didn’t want to move.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere, so you can do that.I’m going to close my eyes with you, too.”
“Mmhmm.”He nodded and sighed, sinking into his lover without another thought.
ChapterEighteen
JP was getting better every day.Less pain, more mobility.He was surprised by what a difference the chair lift on the stairs made.He’d thought it would make him feel weak, not good enough, like an invalid.
Instead it gave him freedom.
He could spend the nights upstairs with everyone else and the days on the main floor, again with everyone.Sitting on the couch with his leg up, being useful even if he couldn’t do everything.Hell if he needed a nap he could zip – okay not zip, the chair was not exactly fast, but still – upstairs and take that nap in bed.
It gave him freedom.
Now the speed of his recovery was annoyingly slow.He wanted to be able to do anything he wanted.Even if that wasn’t skating there were so many other things he couldn’t do yet, and that chafed.He knew he needed to look on the bright side; he knew it.Because there was so much good.
He was even coming to terms with not being able to play professionally anymore; there was so much he was gaining by being home.
And they were that close to a settlement with the team.If they paid him out the last three years of his contract, that would be just over ten million dollars, and between that and what there was in savings, they could live well with neither of them working.His agent was just ironing out the last kinks in the contract.He’d promised he’d have an offer soon.
“Dad.”Tori stood before him, her hands on her hips.“It’s raining outside.Make it stop.”
Well, he appreciated her faith in his ability to do anything, but that one wasn’t going to happen.“Can’t do that.The farmers need the rain for their crops.”
“What’s crops?”
She was so intense.
“You know all the fruits and vegetables that you eat?Where they grow those – that’s called crops.And the grains that make flour and everything good that we eat.It all needs rain and sunshine to grow.”He was going to need to get good with google as she got older to make sure he was giving her correct information.
She frowned.“Those are not farms?Daddy says veggies grow on farms.”
“Yes, farmers grow crops on their farms.Well, some farmers do.Other farmers have cows and pigs and sheep and goats.”Oh, God, did they know where meat came from yet?Had he just put his foot in it?
“Cows go moo and pigs go oink, and sheeps go baa, right?”She started dancing and singing loud.
“That’s right.Like on Old MacDonald’s Farm.Hey, Petey, you know this one, don’t you?Sing along with us.”
Peter glanced up at him from where he’d been playing with his little ‘workbench’.“E-I-E-I-O!”
Ian came in from the dining room where he’d been supervising the removal of the hospital bed.“Are we all okay?”
“We’re singing about cows and pigs and sheep.”
“E-I-E-I-O,” both kids shouted at the top of their lungs.
“Ah.Yes.”Ian shook his head and chuckled.“We’re almost done in here, and then we’ll make lunch, okay?”
“What is lunch?”
“I was thinking grilled cheese.”
“I haven’t had grilled cheese since I was a kid.”And it sounded delicious.
