Page 46 of The Head Game

By the end his voice was rough and Nico could see the redness around his eyes.

Nico took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Yeah. Okay,” he croaked. “I’ll do the surgery.”

The relief washing over Dustin’s face made Nico feel guilty for having worried him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t talk to Dr. Strickland before this. I should have,” he admitted.

“Yeah, you should have,” Dustin agreed.

“Okay. If I’m doing this, I might as well get it over with as fast as possible, right?”

Maybe if he’d dealt with it this summer instead of ignoring it, he’d already be back to playing. How could he have been so dumb?

Dustin sighed heavily. “God. You have no idea how much I regret not pushing you to see Dr. Strickland before now.”

“It’s not on you, D,” Nico protested.

“Yeah, cut it out, Dustin,” Kate said, but her tone was gentle. “Beating yourself up isn’t helping Nico.”

“Sorry.” Dustin grimaced.

“Yeah, cut it out,” Nico repeated with a wan smile. “I’m sick. You have to be nice to me.”

“He’s going to be a horrific pain in the ass during his recovery, isn’t he?” Kate asked Dustin with a little laugh.

“Oh yeah. You better believe I’ll milk this for all it’s worth,” Nico teased.

They all laughed but Nico got a little watery at the end and Dustin squeezed his fingers.

“I’m sorry I scared you guys,” Nico said quietly.

“I know.” Dustin cleared his throat. “But promise you won’t ever do that to us again?”

“I promise.”

“Because that was fucking awful. You scared a shitload of people. Including Charlie. He’s sent me so many worried texts. And I don’t take kindly to people stressing out my husband.”

“Well, go call Charlie and tell him I’m okay,” Nico urged. “Tell him once this is all over, I’ll be back better than ever. And the offer to have a threesome still stands. You know, once I’m fully recovered it would be a great way to celebrate …”

Kate covered her ears. “I did not hear that.”

Nico managed a tired smile.

Dustin laughed and smoothed down Nico’s hair. “Sure, I’ll tell Charlie that. But don’t hold your breath. I love you, man, but there’s a limit.”

“Yeah, and I guess I shouldn’t damage any brain cells by holding my breath anyway. I’m already going to be losing a big chunk of them,” he joked. Because if he could make jokes, it wasn’t quite so scary.

He’d keep telling himself that until he believed it.

“Okay, I’ll head out now then,” Dustin said, rising to his feet. “It’ll give me time to call Charlie and get to the airport so I can make it in time for the flight out. You want me to tell the guys exactly what’s going on?”

“Yeah, please. I’d like to tell them myself but …” He gestured around to the hospital room. He could probably do a video chat but he wasn’t sure if he could get through it without breaking down and he didn’t have it in him to deal with that right now.

“Of course. You focus on getting well, okay?”

“Beat Columbus for me?” Nico asked, squeezing his captain’s hand one last time.

“Yeah. Of course we will.” Dustin leaned over and kissed Nico’s hair. “See you soon, Nico.”

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