Todos los capítulos de Pucked On Ice : Capítulo 161 - Capítulo 170

NicoThe past few days had blurred together in a way that was becoming uncomfortably familiar.I took my medication like clockwork, timing each dose carefully around Dex’s schedule. I slipped away to hospital appointments whenever he was at practice or team meetings, manufacturing small excuses that I had gotten disturbingly good at producing without any visible hesitation. The fatigue I managed by going to bed slightly earlier than usual and blaming it on a busy week. The pain I managed by staying very still and very quiet whenever it spiked, and breathing through it until it settled back into something manageable.I was getting scarily good at hiding all of it.Dex knew something was off. I could see it in the way he watched me sometimes, that particular careful attention he gave things he was trying to work out without pushing. He hadn’t asked directly yet. I wasn’t sure if that was because he trusted me or because some part of him wasn’t ready for the answer either. Either way I k

DexA few days later, I was at Nico’s place. We’d just finished fucking hard — the kind of raw, desperate sex that left us both wrecked in the best way. Nico had fallen asleep almost immediately after, which had been happening more often lately without either of us acknowledging it directly. I had told myself it was because the sex was good. I was starting to suspect it was something else.I lay on my side, propped on one elbow, and watched him sleep.He looked peaceful in a way he didn’t always manage when he was awake. The small tension that lived around his eyes and the corners of his mouth when he thought I wasn’t watching was gone completely. Just his face, relaxed and open, dark lashes against his cheek, breathing slow and even.I was smiling like an absolute idiot, and I was aware of that, and I didn’t particularly care.A sharp knock at the door broke through the quiet.I frowned at the ceiling for a second. Then I slipped carefully out from under the covers, pulled on the swe

NicoI found parking faster than I expected and practically ran from the car to the entrance of the hospital, my feet carrying me before my mind had fully caught up with the urgency driving them. The automatic doors slid open, and I was already moving through them, heading straight to the front desk to ask for the ward.The elevator took too long. It always took too long in hospitals, some cosmic rule about the one place where every second feels weighted. I stood in front of the doors and willed them to open faster, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, and when they finally did, I stepped in and pressed the button and stared at the numbers changing above the door like that would make them move faster.It didn’t.When I finally reached the right floor and stepped out into the corridor, I spotted them immediately.Maria was standing with her back against the wall, head tilted up toward the ceiling, the posture of someone who has been holding themselves upright through sheer st

DexThe chemo session finally ended after what felt like forever. Nico was exhausted but stable, his body having fought through another round of something that took more out of him each time. I helped the nurse get him settled back into the wheelchair and pushed him slowly down the hallway toward his room. He leaned his head back against the seat with his eyes half closed, the knitted beanie sitting slightly askew on his head.Back in the quiet of the room, I helped him into bed and pulled the blankets up around him. Once the nurse had finished her checks and left us alone, I sat on the edge of the mattress and took his hand.“I’m sorry,” I said. “For snapping at the staff earlier. I probably scared you. But I was scared too. Seeing you like that…” I exhaled slowly. “It terrifies me every time.”Nico smiled tiredly and squeezed my fingers. “I know. I’m fine, Dex. Really. You don’t have to apologize for caring.”I let out a long breath and climbed carefully onto the narrow hospital bed

NicoI hadn’t expected it.That was the thing. Even when Dex walked into my room that evening with a briefcase in one hand and a suit bag over his shoulder and that particular expression on his face that meant he had been planning something and was very pleased about it, I genuinely had not seen it coming.“We’re going on a date,” he said, setting everything down like it was the most reasonable thing in the world.I stared at him. “What?”“Tonight. You and me.” He laid the suit bag across the foot of my bed with the careful precision of someone who had thought about this moment. “Get up.”“Dex. I’m in a hospital.”“You’ve been cleared for a few hours out. I already spoke to the doctor.”I opened my mouth to find another reason, and he unzipped the suit bag before I could.Deep navy. Simple and clean and exactly what I would have chosen for myself if I had been the kind of person who still thought about choosing things for myself. I looked at it for a long moment.“That’s my size,” I s