Page 23 of Slapshot Baby

"I'm so sorry to call you like this," Laura continues, her voice tight. "I saw your message come through on Kai's phone. He's been in the hospital. There was an accident on the ice."

I inhale sharply. "Is he okay?"

"He's stable. He's awake." A pause. "Your message sounded urgent. I didn't want to leave it unanswered. Can I help with anything?”

My blood goes cold.

"Can I come see him?" I ask.

"Of course. I'll text you the address."

The call ends. I stare at the phone in my hand.

He didn't ghost me. He was hurt. He's been hurt this entire time.

"What happened?" Lucy asks.

I tell her.

"I’m going to the hospital tomorrow, but I don't even know what happened. And I don’t know what to tell him—"

"You're going tonight," she cuts in. “Better to go before Laura changes her mind.”

Lucy’s right even though she’s bossy.

I'm in my car an hour later, heading back to LA with Biscuit, my hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel and my brain doing a loop of panic.

The hospital parking garage is a maze of concrete and fluorescent lighting. I take the elevator up with my heart in my throat and my phone clenched in my fist.

The hospital smells of antiseptic.

My skin prickles the second the automatic doors slide open. I've barely been inside a hospital since Lucy broke her arm falling off the Parkers’ fence in middle school.

A woman who can only be Laura Donovan is waiting near the elevator bank, light brown hair pinned neatly back.

It’s obvious Kai inherited his warm brown eyes and strong jaw from her.

"Ava?" she says.

"Yes."

"I'm Kai's mother." She doesn't offer her hand, instead pulling me into a hug that I'm too shocked to reciprocate. "Thank you for coming. We weren't sure you'd come."

"What happened?" I ask, following her down a hallway.

"Kai was hit during the game a few weeks back." She pulls back, keeping her hands on my arms. "He's been in the hospital for nearly five weeks."

The world tilts.

Five weeks.

While I was convincing myself he was a playboy, he was in the hospital.

"Is he okay?"

"He's…stable."

A man who looks like an older, gruffer version of Kai stands in front of a door at the end of the corridor. There's intensity in his dark eyes.