Caleb didn’t need to be asked twice. Pushing off on his good foot, he scooted around so he could climb in between Hawk’s legs and lay back against his chest, head lolling on Hawk’s shoulder. Hawk pulled the blanket down over top of them and put an arm around him, holding him in place. He felt Hawk’s lips against the top of his head, a slow steady presence full of little kisses.
“Why don’t you get some rest? You’ve got to be worn out. It’s okay. I’ll be right here.”
Hawk’s chest felt impossibly wide against his back, cradling him, making him feel safe and supported, and that arm around him was sinewy and warm, holding him so he couldn’t fall. His eyelids immediately drooped, heavy with sleep, exhaustion, and worry.
“All right. Jus’ gonna take a nap.”
“I’m right here baby. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
He knew a promise when he heard one and he let himself relax, muscle by muscle, inch by inch, until he lay lax against Hawk’s body, his mind drifting as he fell asleep.
Twenty-One
Hawk loaded Caleb in the car the day after his meltdown and drove him to Idaho Springs.
His heart ached for Caleb because he did know exactly how it felt to suddenly realize everything you’d worked for in your life was over and you had to make a new plan.
It had cracked him down the middle, opened him up and scooped his insides out. It had left him feeling hollow and completely wrecked, unable to move for a while. He’d gone through the motions of doing healing and rehab and physical therapy and getting his shit together.
The guys from his team had come to visit him in the hospital. They’d brought him food and all sorts of shit for him, but eventually their visits had trickled off and become texts, and then the texts had become fewer and farther between.
Hawk had sunk pretty deep, and it was his mom who’d finally pulled him out of it, coming down from Maine, setting up camp in his guest room. Poking and prodding at him, making him create lists, ensuring he had plenty of food to eat, and just not allowing him to be alone.
So Hawk was going to do that for Caleb. He was going to distract him with a new place to be and new things to do, and with Beau Jo’s pizza to inhale. When Caleb was ready, Hawk would start him making pros and cons lists and get him thinking about what he wanted to do, but they had plenty of time.
He would also talk to Caleb about what his mom had kind of forced him into, which was talking to a sports therapist. Hawk’s was an ex-football player who had ended his career with a terrible separated shoulder, broken arm, and broken collarbone, along with a concussion that had sent him spiraling.
He understood everything Hawk was going through and he’d been the perfect person to talk to.
Caleb had dozed off on the drive, so Hawk reached over and put a hand on his leg, squeezing a little. “Hey, babe, we’re here.”
“Oh, shit, I missed the drive. Was it nice?”
“At least the weather didn’t suck. And we didn’t have to do the tunnel like you would to Vail.” He hated Eisenhower tunnel in the winter. A person could drive in on one side with perfect weather and out the other into a blizzard.
Caleb peered at the white clapboard house that slumped into the side of the foothill, the big slate blue barn looming over it at the back. Hawk knew it looked bizarre.
He adored it.
“Wow,” Caleb told him, “This place is wonky as hell. It is so cool.”
“You don’t think it’s ridiculous?” His heart beat a little too hard, and he held his breath because he wanted Caleb to think it was a good place. A solid place.
“No, I think this is much more like the boy who grew up bouncing between Maine and Montreal, and it suits you way better than the condo.” Caleb grabbed his hand. “Come onlet’s go inside and look at it. Somebody has been shoveling the drive and the walk for you, huh?”
“I have somebody who does it for me anyway, but I called and had them come over because I knew we needed to make sure you could get inside without snow and ice.” He had a couple of teenagers who absolutely loved to make money, and they did a good job. Plus, their moms pretty much kept an iron grip on them and made sure they did their work.
It didn’t hurt that they were both hockey fans.
Hawk got Caleb out of the car and into the house, where the heat had also been turned on, so it felt warm and toasty. One of the first things he’d redone was the front room situation, which included the entry way, the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen. The house had mostly linoleum tiles that looked like wood over top of the old hardwood floors, so he’d pulled that out and refinished the wood. He’d left the whole wall of brick around the fireplace but had stained it a little bit less red and more weathered. He’d replaced the windows, and he’d had to gut the whole kitchen because it had been a 1970s monstrosity with orange cabinets.
Then he put his big bedroom down on the main floor, replacing the family room somebody had sort of tacked on at the back, and slotted in a bathroom. He still had a lot of work to do upstairs. The ground floor was pretty much exactly what he wanted.
He got Caleb in and ensconced on a kitchen stool, with his foot up on the next one over, while he got them both bottles of water and put the kettle on to make some hot chocolate.
“This place has amazing bones, man. It’s kind of stunning.” Caleb looked around. “I can see the work you put into it.”
“Thanks. I really have spent a lot of time here just sort of getting shit done. I had to put out a powder room and abathroom down on this floor and then the upstairs is still kind of a mish-mash.” He shrugged, taking down cups and filling them with powdered drink mix. “But you should be comfortable here because there’s no stairs for you right now. Later when you need to use the home gym, you’ll have to go down to the lower level.”