Page 244 of Saving Forever with the Hockey Captain

No one reminding me to slow down.

I work through every exercise exactly the way Annette wrote them.

Stretch.

Pause.

Ice.

Repeat.

Without realizing when it happened, somewhere between the stretches and the ice packs, following her instructions became the closest thing I had to hearing her voice.

***

Coach calls every evening.

Not to talk.

Just to ask one question.

"You eat?"

Every night I give him the same answer.

"Yeah."

Sometimes it's even true.

The guys have started dropping by.

Liam pretends he forgot his truck keys. Twice.

Toby arrives carrying takeout that could feed six people. He doesn't mention Annette.

Neither do I.

We watch a baseball game. Neither of us can tell you who won.

When he leaves, he quietly carries my overflowing garbage bag out to the curb without asking.

I notice. I don't thank him.

Somehow...

I think he knows I mean to.

One week later...

Sleeping still isn't easy.

But at least I can manage more than an hour or two at a time.

The physical pain has long ago loosened its grip.

The other kind...

Hasn't moved an inch.