Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
With her.
With them. Together.
She’d made the decision to move back in with Burgess and Lissa as soon as she’d seen him take the ice tonight. He’d stood there during warmups, so mean and forbidding, always adjusting his gloves. And she’d thought . . .
Life doesn’t happen on her timeline.
She’d found her people before she was ready, but if she didn’t seize this moment with them, there might not be another one. Her plan had been to surprise Burgess when he got home from Pittsburgh by coming back to live with him and Lissa. For good.
It’s still going to happen.
She wanted to be there with Burgess more than ever now. If seeing him in pain could rend her heart in two, something huge was there. Running from her feelings for this man wasn’t going to make them any less real.
The plane landed and she exhaled the breath she’d seemingly been holding the entire flight. There was a text from Chloe that contained the name of a hospital and a crying emoji, but Tallulah refused to dwell on emoji choices, ordering an Uber, instead, and throwing herself into the back of it, carry-on bag clutched in her arms.
Thirty minutes later, she walked down a squeaky, disinfectant-scented hallway toward Burgess’s hospital room. She’d been directed to the orthopedic surgery wing, and the word “surgery” pealed like a chorus of broken bells in her head. Okay. Surgery. If she’d stopped to think, she would have known that course had to be taken. It was inevitable. But the road to recovery after any surgery was hard. Painful. Frustrating.
If anyone could get through it, though, Burgess could.
He was strong, powerful, resilient. A giant.
“My giant,” she whispered, pausing at the sight of five men in suits outside of his room, all of them wearing grim expressions, some of them speaking into phones. They were likely from the Bearcats, relaying news to the powers that be, the media. None of that mattered to her, however. She was only there for the man.
Tallulah coughed into her fist as she approached the gathering of suits, gesturing to the door. “Hi, I’m Tallulah . . . Burgess’s . . .”
A couple of them stared at her blankly, waiting for her to continue, but one of the men stepped up and extended his hand. The trainer. She recognized him from the game she’d attended. “Hey. Good to see you again, Tallulah, even if the circumstances aren’t great.”
“Good to see you again, too,” she said, her throat dry as a Saltine. “Is he . . . up?”
Something that could only be described as ominous traveled across his expression. “Yeah, he’s up. They’re prepping him for surgery.”
Even expecting to hear the word “surgery,” the reality winded her. “What happened?”
The trainer sighed heavily. “Slipped disc. He’s having an artificial one put in. I’d like to say he’ll be out for the rest of the season, but given how long he’s been in the league and how tricky recovery can be, not to mention sustaining that recovery . . .” He looked at the door. “I don’t know if we’ll see him out on the ice again.”
Denial raced through her bloodstream, accompanied by fear. But above all, she had confidence. In Burgess. “If he decides to get back out there, he will.”
A quick flash of a smile. “You know him well.”
Damp heat crowded in behind her eyes. “Yes. I do.”
He studied her for a moment. “He’s such a private person, I couldn’t believe it when he asked me to bring his sweatshirt to his girlfriend.” The trainer chuckled. “I asked him where you were sitting and he said, just ‘look for the most beautiful woman in the place.’”
“Oh,” she said, her voice sounding watery. “If you don’t mind, I need to see him.”
“Of course.” The trainer hesitated, looking between Tallulah and the door. “Look, he’s obviously not himself right now. Maybe . . . just be prepared.”
With that dire warning ringing in her head, Tallulah pushed open the hospital room door and closed it behind her, eyes adjusting to the startling lack of light. Normally the cold comforted her, but just then, it only caused goose bumps to streak up her arms, her nerves to multiply. Burgess didn’t even look at her when she stopped beside his bed—and he was wide awake. As large and commanding and extraordinary as usual, only now he was wearing a hospital gown that probably proclaimed the opposite, in his mind.
Ten seconds ticked by and still he didn’t turn his head, a line leaping in his jaw.
This is bad.
This is so much worse than I was expecting.
Fine. She could handle it. He’d just lost the most treasured part of his life. His anger was understandable. She wouldn’t let it beat her. Him. Them.
“Are you just going to pretend I’m not here?”
“You shouldn’t have come,” he snapped, turning hard, glittering eyes on her. Unrecognizable eyes. “There’s nothing you or anyone can do. Go back to Boston.”