Page 3 of Made For Me

“I will put you through a fucking wall,” he says between clenched teeth, and I just laugh at him.

“I’m a good forty pounds heavier than you.” I turn around, walking backward. “And it’s all muscle.”

He just shakes his head as we walk up the steps to the plane. Most of the guys are sitting in their seat quietly, just waiting for us to leave. The time after the games on the road hit differently, especially games when we know we are going home. After day one, everyone is itching to get home. “I’m starving,” Michael states when he sits behind me on the plane.

“The question is, when aren’t you starving?” I ask him, taking off my suit jacket.

“Is there food?” Michael looks at Cooper and asks him. “On the plane.”

“There should be.” He shrugs off his own suit jacket. I undo the buttons on my button-down shirt and roll up the sleeves.

“I’m going to go ask them.” Michael gets up from his chair.

“Why don’t you just press the button?” Dylan suggests, sitting down next to me. “Nora will come see what you need.”

“Oh, good call,” Michael says, pressing the button. A ping sounds, and the light goes on. Everyone gets comfortable. Most of the men have their suit jackets off, and none are wearing a tie.

Nora comes over, and when she sees it’s Michael, she laughs. “Let me guess, you want to know what I have to eat?” The four of us can’t help but chuckle. “We have chicken breast, steak, and salmon.”

“I’ll have the steak,” Michael states and then looks at me. “Are you eating yours?”

“It’s eleven o’clock,” I look at my watch and inform him.

“Well, we all didn’t stand around looking like Thor.” He scoffs at me. “Some of us actually worked.”

“I’ll remember that when you come crying to me because you have a boo-boo on your finger.” I sit down, facing forward, and he pushes my chair.

“I thought he broke my finger. He slashed me so hard,” Michael defends, and I snicker at him. Then he looks at Nora. “I’ll take one of each.”

“I’ll get that to you as soon as I can,” Nora says. She walks back to the front, and they start to prepare the plane for takeoff.

I close my eyes for the one-hour flight, and when we land, I’m one of the first ones off. “See you guys tomorrow,” I mumble over my shoulder as I head to my Range Rover.

Michael and Dylan get in the same car since they live two seconds away from each other, and Cooper gets into his alone.

The drive is a quick twelve minutes from the airport to the parking garage. By the time I’m unlocking my door, it’s just a touch after one in the morning. I toss my keys on the glass table at the front door, kick off my shoes, and walk down the white marble hallway to the open-concept living space.

The white U-shaped couch faces the fireplace and ninety-inch big screen. The only light on is the lamp on the side table. The moon provides the rest of the light through the wall of windows. There is a reason they call this the penthouse.

Walking to the kitchen, I pull open the fridge and grab a bottle of water before heading over to the big island and seeing my mail left by the fruit platter. In the past week, I’ve only been home two days before turning around and getting back on the road again. Let me tell you, this is not how I thought my life would be.

When I turned eighteen, I didn’t think I would ever end up here. Fuck, I thought I would follow in the footsteps of my grandfather and father and be playing in the NHL. But the summer before I was scheduled to attend Michigan State University, my aunt Denise asked me to spend the summer volunteering at the children’s oncology department. It took me less than a week to know what I was meant to do, and all my plans changed. I attended Michigan State getting my undergraduate before I applied to Harvard Medical School. I was happy I kept up my four point zero GPA average because getting in was easy. I should also thank my father for pushing me to take advance science courses so I already had the prerequisites.

Telling my father I was not going to play hockey was another story, but he wasn’t upset. He supported me during the four years of med school. When I sat down with him and broke the news, he wasn’t surprised, but he was less than thrilled when I told him I wanted to join Doctors Without Borders. Being so far away from home, and with him not able to control what happened, had him pulling out his hair. I mean, I would come home every six months, more or less, until things were a little bit crazy. It was a rush, that is for sure, going into a situation and being the only one who can either save them or not.

Going to work every day now was less stressful than before. I’m lucky I’m able to pick up four shifts a month to work in the ER when I’m not traveling, and the team is off. Then, I’ll head back to New York and work with Denise during the summer.

Picking up my bag at the front door and walking back into the bedroom, I press the button to close the shades at the same time as I turn on the lights. The room is exactly like it was when I moved in last year. Actually, everything in the apartment is the same. Before I lived here, my cousin Michael lived here for a bit. It belongs to Erika, who keeps it for visiting family members after she moved out. The only things in this house that show I live here are my clothes hanging in the closet and the family picture in the living room. Dumping my bag in the walk-in closet, I pull off my shirt and pants and head straight to the shower. I shower in the dark, and when I slide into bed, it takes me two seconds to fall asleep.

The ringing of my phone wakes me from my dream, and I lean over to grab it, only to come up empty. I get up on my elbows and look around the room to see where the sound is coming from. It’s coming from the closet, which makes sense since I just dumped my pants in there. I throw the covers off me and get up, following the sound of the ringing when it stops. I’m about to go back to bed when there’s a knock on the front door right before it opens. “Chase?” I hear him call my name.

“Dad?” I say, not sure if I’m dreaming or not. When I walk out of my bedroom, I see him standing in the entryway, looking toward the kitchen. He turns his head when he hears me. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Jesus Christ, Chase.” He puts his hands on his hips. “Why are you always naked?”

“I’m not always naked.” I laugh, turning to walk back into my bedroom and grab a pair of shorts. “I’m in my house!” I shout and hear him walking to the kitchen. I go to the bathroom before walking out to the kitchen, where I smell coffee. “Morning,” I mumble and walk over to him.

He puts his hand around my neck and brings me in for a hug. He’s been hugging me the same way since I was a little boy even though I’m a touch taller than him now. “Hi.” He walks over to one of the stools and sits down.

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