Page 75 of The Head Game

His brain hurt and so did the rest of him.

“I know,” Leigh said soothingly as she put info into her little wheeled computer. “You’ve been through a lot.”

And Nico apparently had less of a filter than usual. Whoops. He needed to stop saying the quiet parts aloud.

“When am I going to stop feeling so tired?” Nico asked as he pushed away his food tray. It tasted terrible and he wasn’t that hungry.

Just tired and weak. His hand was shaky and it was hard to grip things well. He’d mostly eaten whatever he could manage without a fork or spoon. He’d glared at Leigh when she’d suggested someone else could help him.

“All done with your meal?”

“Yeah, not that hungry. Just exhausted.”

Leigh helped him settle back against the pillows and he wiggled to get comfortable.

It had been a very boring day so far.

Leigh had given him a wipe down earlier. It felt nice to be clean-ish again and she had been very efficient.

In the past, if Nico had imagined a pretty nurse giving him a sponge bath, it would have sounded a lot sexier.

It definitely would have been better if he’d had August’s hands all over him instead. That sounded a lot nicer, but he couldn’t remember them ever doing that before.

If they were engaged, surely they’d showered together.

Why couldn’t Nico remember anything but making out in an alley and sex in a hotel room? The memories he had were scorching hot but it didn’t even seem like he and August liked each other much.

Weird.

After Nico’s so-called bath, people had come into his room to test him on a bunch of stuff.

He’d tried to watch their expressions to see if he was doing okay but it was difficult when he had to focus all of his attention to do everything they said.

Everything took so much effort. His scalp hurt more and his head still ached and all he wanted to do was sleep.

When he’d asked Leigh about his head, she’d said the pain was normal and that he’d have headaches for a while.

She said she’d give him something for it though. He couldn’t remember if she’d done that yet or not.

“Nico?” Leigh asked now and he realized he’d kind of been … drifting. He did that a lot, his mind wandering off without him.

“Yeah?” He blinked at her. His head felt very heavy.

“I said it’s going to take you weeks before you’re back to your usual energy levels. You’ve been through a lot. And that doesn’t include the two very hard hits you took in that game. It’s all catching up to you now. Your body needs time to rest.”

Nico sighed. He felt heavy all over, his eyes drifting shut even though he was trying to keep them open. “Okay,” he mumbled. “Where’s Auggie?”

“Your fiancé?”

“Yeah.” That word still sounded funny. Nico smiled though he was too tired to laugh about anything right now.

“I think he’s with the rest of your family. They were going to go find something to do for a few hours but they should be back soon.”

“Oh. That’sss nice,” he slurred.

“Do you want him to come in when he gets back?”

“Yeah. Need Auggie,” he managed, and then he was out.