“The doctors seem to think you should avoid things that put undue stress on it from now on, yes.”
Damn. He shook his head. “Okay.”
Her expression crumpled. “Oh,mon fils…”
“Nope. No crying.” He grabbed her hand when she rolled over and reached for him.
“I can cry if I want to.” She sniffled.
“Okay.” His head felt a little clearer when he squeezed her hand, his adrenaline amping up, maybe.
“Your coach came,” she told him. “But you were asleep.”
“I’m sure he’ll come by again, huh?”
“Yes. He brought you something. Someone sent a gift basket to the team offices for you.”
“Yeah?” Listless, he turned his head to stare at the big gift basket that looked as if it came from a fancy gift place. His eyebrows pulled down, because it looked somehow familiar.
“Would you like to see the card?”
“Sure.” He had a ton of stuff from the guys on the team, who had dropped in while he waited for surgery. Flowers. Stuffed mascot items from the team. Snacks and drinks for when he needed them. But this looked different.
His mom handed him the little gift card.
Returning the favor. Get better.
Caleb
A grin actually curved his mouth, and he rubbed the card between his fingers. This was Caleb’s way of paying him back for sending that basket to him during the Olympics.
It was good to have someone completely removed from hockey in his corner.
“Who’s Caleb?” his mom asked. “You don’t have a teammate by that name, do you?”
“No. No, he’s a snowboarder I met in Korea.”
Her eyes widened. “Caleb Lancaster? Son! You didn’t tell me you knew him!”
His cheeks heated. “We haven’t seen each other. We text.” He shrugged, because it seemed stupid now that they hadn’t tried to get together with him in Denver and Caleb in Vail. “But I sent him a thing when he got hurt in Beijing, so I guess he’s doing turnabout.”
“That’s sweet.” She studied his face. “If you ever get the chance to get his autograph…”
“Whose?” Dad’s voice held the gravel of sleep.
“Caleb Lancaster!”
“The snowboarder?”
“Can you believe it?” They went on to talk about him as if he wasn’t there, so Hawk checked out a little, thinking about Caleb and wondering how he was doing leading up to his next Olympic push in just under a year…
Maybe he’d spend some quality time texting with Caleb tonight when his folks went back to the hotel.
Nine
Milan-Cortina 2026
Caleb fucking loved Italy.