Page 60 of Love You Already

I hear the door slam, then Donnie's truck starts up. When I move to pass the main house, we cross, and he gives me a firm nod as he speeds down towards Rose. “I've got her, Lachlan. It's all going to be ok. You'll see.”

I can only hope so. Because if it comes down to the team or Rose, I'm picking my wife every single time.

CHAPTER 29

DO WE HAVE A HOCKEY FAN IN OUR MIDST NOW?

Rose

When I was fourteen, I broke my left arm during a competition. It wasn't even from riding a bull or anything. It was because one of the boys was jealous of my ride score. The jerk pushed me off the edge of the metal gate I'd been sitting on watching the competition.

He was immediately banned from competing that year in the circuit, and I wound up with a pretty cast while the fracture healed.

The thing I learned back then was that pain could either hinder you or help you. If you could find a way to focus around the hurt you felt, and for that instance it was in my arm, then you could get up and get the help you needed to get better. You could power through, train around the injury, and come back better than ever.

I feel like the pain of heartache is the same. Every day I wake up without Lachlan's arms around me, I feel a bit like I did the moment I hit the dirt in that arena. The impact is instantaneous, stealing my breath and searing through me quicker than I can react.

But then I put on my best face. I pick up my bootstraps and forge ahead despite the hole in my chest.

I power through my days without him on autopilot. Task after task, I work until I can't physically move. Whether it's the bar or the ranch, I don't let up enough to do much else. My family circles around me, the four of them eager to see me smile, to hear me laugh.

They'll be waiting for a while. I save all my joy for the moments with my husband. For when he calls or video chats me, for the text conversations that sometimes go on for hours as he describes all the things he saw that made him think of me.

As if he knows I'm thinking of him now, my phone chimes with a text. I'm doing dishes, which means I have to wipe my hands dry before grabbing it. In that time, two more chimes go off.

I laugh softly at the eagerness.

Lachlan

I miss you, wife.

Can't wait to see you soon.

Had to buy your bodywash so I could smell you.

Rose

That's not a bad idea. I need to get some of yours to help. I can't smell you on my pillow anymore.

I don't mention how I burst into tears yesterday when I realized the scent was gone. I don't tell him how I laid in bed for hours as I sobbed and sobbed at his absence.

Dating wasn't a concern of mine on the circuit. Men were a dime a dozen, and anything that lasted more than a weekend was too much work in my opinion. The idea of doing something long distance didn't feel worth it to me. No one caught my attention enough to even try.

With Lachlan, it's not a question of if he's worth it or not. He one thousand percent is.

Doesn't make the separation any easier.

Lachlan

I'll send you some today. It'll be to you in a few hours.

Do you need anything else? Anything I can do to help?

He doesn't say what he's helping with. He doesn't have to.

Rose

I don't think there is anything. How does your schedule look? How's the team?