Page 35 of Shoot Your Shot

She looks more comfortable. And I like that.

A lot.

“All right, get in touch if you need me. If not, see you in ten days, and don’t do anything too stupid.” The doctor heads toward the door, pulls it open, and glances back at Paige. “I’ll review those exercises as soon as they hit my inbox. Have a nice day.”

“You too.” She smiles before he walks out. Looking at me, she sighs, widening her eyes and smiling. “Well, it might not have been the news you wanted to hear, but it was good news nonetheless. Right?”

“Yeah, he said we can fuck,” I say, straight-faced. “You must be excited about that.”

She rolls her eyes and huffs. “Don’t even start with me, dumbass.” She shakes her head. “I’m serious, Kolt. I know you wanted him to say something crazy, like,Go join practice today and play in the next game. But the thing is, he said everything looks good. Better than good. He saidgreat. So, just celebrate that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble before stepping down from the raised table. “I know I’m a dick, but thank you for being here with me. I know you have your practice back in Boothbay and your three-legged cat—”

“You can just saycat, Kolt,” she deadpans. “The missing-a-leg thing seems a little unnecessary.”

“Builds character though.” I step toward her.

An idea comes to mind, and I hold my hand out to her. “Can I take you somewhere? Would that be okay?”

I wait for her to reject me or to come up with some reason why we shouldn’t go anywhere together, but instead, she looks at my hand with her eyebrows pulled together, deep in thought.

Slowly, she takes my hand and stands. “Sure,” she whispers. “I’d actually really like that.”

Phase one of getting my wife back: initiated.

Even if she doesn’t realize there’s a mission underway.

The captain, who is an older man with a white beard, steers the charming sightseeing boat, with its twenty or so passengers, across Casco Bay. I stare in awe at the water and then lift my gaze to where the coastline meats the trees. Trees that are almost all bare now. Had I done this two to three weeks prior, I would have had the full experience of the foliage, but since it’s November, there’s hardly any left, besides a few stragglers holding on, not ready to let go.

Despite most of the trees being practically bare, I can say without a single shadow of a doubt that there really is nothing like a New England autumn. The air is crisp and cool yet pleasant, the colors are out of this world, and even the scent in the air is always my favorite.

Kolt and I always said, one day, we’d go on this boat, but something always came up, and we never did. When he brought me here today, I was honestly shocked, but also really happy that we were finally going to do it.

“From the ocean, the leaves are still beautiful. What’s left of them anyway,” I say to Kolt, continuing to stare out at the land from the boat we stand on as it pushes through the water. “Ididn’t expect there to beanyleft this late in the season. This is beautiful. Thank you.”

When I glance at him, I find him leaning lazily against the side of the boat, grinning out at the water. I used to love when he leaned like that. Dammit … he’s so hot when he does. I mean, Kolt is hot all day, every day. But him leaning? It does something to me.

“Yeah, well, I know how much you love you some leaf peeping. As much of an ass as I’ve been, figured the least I could do was bring you to see your favorite thing of the season, even though it’s basically gone.” He leans closer, nudging his elbow against my side and making me blush. “Oh, and I’m the one who should be saying thank you, Buttercup. You dropped everything to be here for me, even after the way I—” He stops, looking ashamed. “Even after I treated you like absolute shit for all that time before you left.”

As soon as the words leave his lips, my body tenses. He’s never really mentioned that before. Even though I know we need to talk about it at some point, it was such a dark time in my life, and I’ve avoided talking about it at all costs. But right now, it’s like I’m seeing a glimpse of the man I fell in love with. And the man I married when I was just a kid.

“It’s okay,” I whisper, feeling a stabbing sensation in my chest. “All I’ve ever wanted, Kolt, is for you to be happy. And before your injury, it seemed like you’d found that.” I force myself to smile through the pain. “Just because we’re separated doesn’t mean I stopped watching your highlights onSportsCenter. You’re thriving. You are a hero to so many kids. And that’s pretty incredible, if you ask me.”

The softness in his expression shifts to something more pained and heavy. Standing up straight, he takes hold of my wrist, and instantly, my heart skips a beat.

“None of that matters when I don’t have you, Paige. You can’t possibly think that I’ve been happy.” His words come out raspier than usual. “I’ve been the opposite of a happy man since I lost you.” He moves closer, dipping his head down toward mine. “Fucking miserable—that’s all I’ve been.”

“Why did you let me leave then?” I croak, lip trembling. “And why did you push me to leave in the first place?”

His brow furrows, and his lips part on a sigh. “Because I thought I was doing the right thing.”

His answer makes no sense, but before I can dig in further and demand more from him, I see movement out of the corner of my eye.

“The girls behind you,” my voice squeaks, “are filming us with their phones right now.”

He glances out of the corner of his eye. “Fuck,” he hisses. “I can’t fucking go anywhere anymore without this bullshit.”

He’s suddenly irritated. We were having a deep discussion—without raising our voices for a change. Our expressions spoke volumes about how we were both feeling, and they likely captured the entire thing with their phones. The media will have a field day with this, I’m sure.

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