Semi edited
I guess with the combination of my pillow being perfectly cold and my cloud like mattress, as soon as my head hit my pillow I was out like a light.
I reach over to shut my alarm off and check to see if I have any notifications.
After a giving myself a few minutes to wake up I put my phone down and sit up, stretching my arms above my head.
I haven't gotten that good of sleep in awhile.
I stand up and make my way into the hall only to be stopped by the bathroom door opening.
Ryot walks out of the bathroom in just a towel and I can't help but stare.
He's too busy drying his hair with a small towel to even notice I'm here.
Water droplets fall off his hair and roll down his muscular chest, going right down his defined 6 pack and disappearing into the knot at the top of his towel and not far from the knot is a good size bulge
Damn.
Back in highschool, Ryot was always muscular, but with him being in the NHL he's ripped now.
He lifts his head up while drying his hair and sends me a smile. "Morning roomie" He walked down the hall to his bedroom.
I swallow hard. "It is definitely a good morning" I mutter to myself.
After I use the bathroom and take a shower I head to the kitchen to eat some breakfast.
When I walk into the room Ryot is sitting on the couch eating what looks like a bowl of oatmeal and Leo sitting next to him begging.
"Good morning" I said as i walked through the doorway.
"Good morning. Sorry about the run in. I wanted to try and shower before you woke up so I didn't ruin your routine or anything. If it doesn't work out I can shower at a different time" He said.
I'm definitely not sorry about the run in.
I go into the cabinet to see if he has any cereal and luckily he does.
I shut the cabinet and turn to him. "It's ok, and it works fine. Usually when I wake up I take a shower so if you wanna take one before I do or after that's fine."
"Ok, I just wanted to make sure" He said.
He gets up off the couch and comes into the kitchen, putting his empty bowl in the sink.
I grab some milk in the fridge and can't help but notice he barely has anything in the fridge.
"As you can see I need to go grocery shopping, so after work we can go over a grocery list and I'll get it delivered tomorrow" He said.
I grab a spoon for my cereal. "You get it delivered?"
He leans against the counter. "Yeah, it's easier because if I actually go grocery shopping I'll get recognized and I just want to get my shopping done and go home, and that won't be a possibility so delivering my groceries is the best option" He said.
"Wow, that sucks that you can't have a normal life anymore."
He nodded. "Yeah it does, but you get used to it after awhile, and since we live together you'll probably be photographed with me just to give you a warning" He said.
Shit I forgot about that.
"That doesn't really bother me, I mean I'll recognized now that I'm the team PT anyway."
"Yeah, but if you're seen with me there will be talk about if we're together or not so get ready for it" He said.
I mean it's not the worst thing to put in the tabloids.
"That's true, but you have a good PR team so they'll handle it."
"Yeah. So since we're living together do you wanna carpool to work together?" He asked.
"Maybe, but how late do you normally stay?"
"Depends on what's going on" He said.
"Yeah, maybe it's best if we take separate cars then since we'll have different times we start and finish."
"Ok" He said.
I finish up with breakfast when Ryot tells me he's gonna head to practice.
After I wash my bowl I change into my work clothes which are just some scrubs and a jacket with the Lightning logo on it.
I say good morning to my coworkers and get to work on some treatment plans that Jessica wants me to type up.
We have a few players that had prior injuries so they need a treatment plan.
All of them are older so their age is playing a factor for their injury.
I type up a treatment plan for the teams right defensiveman Owen Reynolds.
He's 35 and getting close to retirement since his knee is really getting to him the past few years.
He had a MCL tear when he was in his 20's and even though it wasn't major at the time, now that he's getting older it's really getting to him.
The best thing for him is ice, keeping it taped, wearing a brace, and cross friction massages.
After I'm done typing it up I call for Jessica to check it out.
"This is perfect Everly. When the guys are done with practice I want you to treat Owen" She said.
I try to tamper down my excitement. "Ok, thank you Jessica."
"No problem" She said.
For the next few hours I type up treatment plans and research some new ones.
At one point Jessica comes in to see how I'm doing and if I want anything since her and Nolan are ordering lunch.
I order a Chicken Caesar salad wrap with some fries and get back to work.
After I finish my lunch the guys are just getting out of the showers so I take the opportunity to grab Owen for his treatment.
I set everything up when there's a knock at the door. "I heard you wanted to see me?" Owen asked from the doorway.
"Hey Owen come on in. I'm going to be treating you today."
He walks into the treatment room and sits on the cushioned table.
I grab the iPad and go over the treatment plan I have for him.
"Everything sounds good Miss Andrews" He said.
"Great, and please call me Everly."
He pulls the leg of his joggers up and I take off the tape he has to keep everything in place to help alleviate the pain.
"Ok, just lay back and relax and tell me if you start getting any intense pain and we'll stop."
He lays down on the table. "Ok" He said.
I start the cross friction massage on his knee, making sure I don't press too deep.
When an athlete has a MCL tear you can't do this massage until it gets healed or else you can really injury the person, but since this is an old injury we don't have to worry about that with Owen.
"How long have you had this injury Owen?"
He blew out a breath. "A long time, since I was 26" He said.
I press my fingers into the ligament, using a backwards and forwards motion. "Have you looked into surgery?"
He let out a sigh. "Unfortunately I was a stupid kid when it happened and didn't want to even bother with surgery, and now I'm a happily married father of 3 and I'm regretting not getting the surgery" He said.
I continue the motion. "Oh you have kids? How old?"
He smiles. "My youngest daughter is 3, my son is 5, and my oldest daughter is 8" He said, I could hear the pride in his voice.
"Oh wow, you got your hands full with the 2 girls" I laugh.
He chuckles. "Yeah, especially when my son is out numbered" He said.
"I bet."
He tells me more about his family and wife, saying they met when she came to a game and it was love at first sight.
I finish the massage and go wash my hands. "Ok Owen you're all done, now go put some ice on it and you're good to go."
He smiled. "Thank you Everly. I don't want to jinx anything but it's feeling pretty good and I've never had a massage for it before" He said.
I smile at him. "My pleasure, and the massage should help with the pain since it activates the healing process and realigns the scar tissue."
(I'm no doctor or anything so I got all my information about this stuff on google so if I'm wrong blame Google not me lol)
His eyes widened. "Wow. Well I hope it works because I'm running out of options. You can only take so much pain for so long" He blew out a breath and walked out of the room.
I help Jessica with a few of the players and once we're done I help clean up the treatment room.
After I'm done Jessica and Nolan come in to tell me goodnight an they'll see me tomorrow even though it's only early afternoon.
I grab my stuff and lock up the treatment room when I hear someone still on the ice.
I thought all the players left?
I walk out into the arena to see Ryot skating around the rink.
I should've known it was him.
Growing up he was always the first and the last one on the ice.
I walk over to the opening in the rink. "What are you doing try heard?" I cup my hands and yell at him.
His head moves in the direction of my voice and when he sees me he smiles and skates my way.
He skids up close to me, making sure he sprays me with some ice.
I hate it when he does that.
He takes off his helmet and grins at me, his hair plastered against his forehead from sweat. "Ah you know me baby doll, gotta get a little bit more practice before I can leave" He said.
Ohh god not the nicknames.
When we were teenagers, mainly in highschool he'd call me all different nicknames to get my attention mainly because he knew it pissed me off.
His favorite past time.
I let out a groan. "Do you really have to start with the nicknames again?"
He smirked. "You bet your cute ass I do" He said.
Ok... I'm going to try and ignore he called me cute.
"Besides now that we're friends again it would feel like a disservice not to give you nicknames" He smirked.
I playfully rolled my eyes and pushed him making his grin widen.
"If only you had skates, we could've played PUCK" He said.
PUCK is a game that Ryot came up with when we were younger, it's basically horse but with hockey.
When your best friend plays hockey you learn yo play too.
Sometimes we'd play at the local rink or we'd play indoors with a foam hockey ball.
"Yeah, but I haven't skated since we were 14 so I don't know if I could anymore."
He shrugged. "Maybe, but with how many times we've skated I don't think you'd forget" He said.
I shrugged. "Yeah maybe."
He scratches the back of his neck. "Are you doing anything right now?" He asked.
"Nope. I was getting ready to head home when I heard someone on the ice and came to investigate."
"Well... Would you wanna hangout for a little bit and watch me shoot?" He asked kinda nervously.
This is something else we'd always do, I'd stay any hangout and watch Ryot shoot, but he'd ask me how I wanted him to shoot.
I smiled feeling a surge of nostalgia. "Sure."
He grins. "Great, go sit behind the glass just in case the puck goes in your direction" He said.
Always trying to keep me safe.
I walk around to where I can see the goal, but still be safe behind the glass.
He skates on the ice so effortlessly. "How do you want me to shoot?" He asked.
"Show me a wrist shot!" I yell to him.
He moves to center ice and sets up like he would for a shoot out.
He starts off skating, transferring the puck back and forth on his stick and when he gets close to the net and moves his stick and launches the puck into the upper right corner of the goal.
And being here right now with him feels like no time has passed.
_________________________________________
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Those annoying nicknames are just gonna get worse and worse so I hope you're ready.
I love writing these scenes of nostalgia between them, so if you do too there's more to come.
What do you think will happen next?
Feel free to comment, see you in the next update!👋