He and Lucas’d had a long talk about what his goals were as far as his recovery. He had discussed how he was retired now, and he wanted to stay in good enough shape to be able to snowboard for pleasure. Plus he was an athlete and heprobably always would be, so staying physically fit was going to be important to him his whole life.
In that vein, Lucas had eased him back into working out but the last ten reps of the chest press he’d been doing with the free weights had kicked his butt.
“Want me to bag you up so you can hit the showers? There’s a really nice one with a seat in it where you can just sit and do a handheld.”
“That would be great.” He was feeling swampy.
Still his recovery was right on progress, his foot was healing well according to the checkup he’d had yesterday, and things were…
Well, to be perfectly honest, his life was kind of shredding it right now.
Hawk’s little break was over, and he’d been back at work for about a week but apparently in another two days the team was going on an extended road trip, and they were going to go to Hawk’s place in Idaho Springs.
Caleb couldn’t wait. He’d been bouncing with excitement for two days. Hawk kept looking at him as if he’d lost his mind, but it didn’t matter.
He waited for Lucas to tape his foot into a bag before using his walker to maneuver into the shower, hopping along on his good foot, still in his sneaker. Once he got there, he stripped down, then sat on the shower seat and let Lucas take off his shoe and sock.
Lucas handed him the hand-held showerhead and then got the water adjusted for him. “Holler at me when you’re done. I’ll just be outside.”
“Thanks man. I really appreciate it.” Caleb liked Lucas a lot as a trainer and a physical therapist. He’d been referred by the US Olympic team, and they worked well together. They gelled great over Caleb’s goals. Also Lucas had worked withpeople with RA before so Caleb figured he would keep the guy on call after he was healed for when he was flaring.
The best thing was that Lucas was willing to come to Idaho Springs to work with him while he was there for a couple of weeks. That meant he and Hawk didn’t have to make the drive back into Denver or over to Vail for Caleb to get his physio.
He rinsed off the sour sweat from working out when he was feeling the pain of his injury, then soaped up his hair. Thankfully Hawk’s big rain bath shower had a seat in it, but it didn’t have grab bars so he tried to really get a scrub in while he was sitting here and maneuver himself around.
Once he was out, all fresh and clean, Caleb gave Lucas a man hug before heading out to meet Hawk in the lobby of the physio building. Hawk had been running errands, getting some stuff ready for them to leave, and they would head out tomorrow morning after rush hour.
“Hey! How’d it go?” Hawk was right there waiting for him, wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a Colorado ThunderSnow sweatshirt.
“Good, good.” He was relieved to see Hawk had his knee scooter though. “My arms are shaking really bad, but it went well.”
He traded the walker for the knee scooter, and Hawk carried the walker for him as they headed out to the big SUV. He was grateful it hadn’t snowed so much as that way the sidewalks and roads were not all clogged with ice. It was tough to get around on crutches or a knee scooter or something when it was gross.
Hawk got them headed back to the condo before glancing over at him. “Did you want to stop and get something to eat or do you want to just go home?”
“Can we just go through a drive-through? I know you’reway healthier than that, but—” He winked when Hawk glanced at him. “But fast-food sounds really yummy today.” Hawk was still sort of disgustingly healthy, which Caleb got. He had to look good in front of cameras, and he got a lot of his food delivered from a service who did nutritional meals for athletes.
Not that they didn’t indulge. Hawk really liked Mexican food, pizza, and Thai green curry. So he had lots of favorite places they ordered from.
Every once in a while though, Caleb craved something from his less healthy youth, something like fried chicken or a big fast-food burger.
“Absolutely. We’ll celebrate the win of you doing physio, huh?” Hawk’s grin was wide and unrestrained and that made him feel less like a dick for wanting McDonald’s or Burger King or Popeyes or something. “Tell me what you want, and I’ll get you there.”
Caleb pondered that I’m torn. “I could go to Burger King, or I could go to Taco Bell.”
Hawk shook his head. “Taco Bell. You really are a cretin.”
“Hey, now. I know you love your Mexican food but I’m the one who was born in Colorado not you. I mean your last name is French. You should want poutine or something.”
Hawk made a long, mournful sound. “Oh poutine. I mean they have it here in Denver, but it doesn’t taste the same. I could go for that right now, but it would kind of be a long flight to Canada.”
Caleb hooted. “See? I have your number. I think I would like to go to Burger King please.”
“You got it. I actually know where the closest one is to the condo.” Hawk turned down a side road, avoiding the interstate.
They hit the drive-through at the Burger King and collected a couple of bags of fast food before heading back to the condo. It smelled so good it made his mouth water becausehe was starving, his belly grinding. Caleb didn’t eat fast food often, but sometimes it hit the spot.
And if it made him feel like crap tomorrow, well, he didn’t have to get up and compete then, did he?