Page 97 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

“They can wait,” she said. “You said you don’t have to go in tomorrow if you win, so you’re off?”

“I am,” he said. “We can sleep in some before you leave.”

She hadn’t set a plan on when she was going to leave. Nothing more than timing it for the ferry, which was turning into a pain in the ass and adding to her travel time.

Stupid traffic had her missing it the last time she was here and she had to wait another hour. Once the tourist season was over, there wouldn’t be as many ferries running and she would have to wait two hours for it to go and return if she missed it again.

For someone who planned little in her life, those things sucked.

“I’d like that,” she said.

They ate their dinner in silence. She never had a problem with it since she spent most of her life only talking to the characters in her head.

When she went to clean up dinner, she noticed a big red mark on Warren’s thigh.

He caught her eyes landing there. “A nasty helmet hit,” he said.

“I thought you had pads on to protect you,” she said, her jaw open.

“I still bruise,” he said. “Just like my body hurts like hell, but I jumped in the ice bath like I always do after home games. I was only in it for ten minutes. I’ll build up to twenty in the coming weeks.”

“Ice bath?” she asked. “Like a tub full of ice? Literally?”

He laughed. “Yes. It speeds up recovery.”

“I think I’ll take a hard pass on that,” she said. “What about massages? Do they help?”

“They do,” he said, picking her up under the arms. She was never going to grow tired of his strength.

“Then I think we need to go to your room so I can give you one.”

“Let me guess,” he said. “Research?”

“You’ll be the first I’ve given one to. I’ve had enough of them and asked a million questions, but never gave one.”

“I’ll gladly be your first,” he said softly.

He did that a lot.

Said things so quietly that she wondered what he was thinking.

Or feeling.

She knew what she was.

After watching him play, the range of emotions from excitement, to fear, anxiety, and happiness.

You couldn’t feel it all at once unless completely invested in someone else.

She fully was.

It was time to say the words and not just write them on paper.

Warren undressed when they were in his room. His body had a lot of marks on it and it made her heart hurt.

“You’ve got to be in pain,” she said.

“I’m used to it,” he said.