Isn't It Bromantic (Bromance Book Club #4) by Lyssa Kay Adams

            “And you have to promise to tell me if this becomes too much work.”

            “I will. But it won’t.” Beaming confidently again, she nodded in the general direction of the door. “I’m going to bring the rest of your stuff in from the car. Do you need anything else for the next few minutes?”

            “No, I’m—I’m fine.”

            He didn’t exhale until he heard her open the front door. He’d either made the biggest mistake of his life or . . . there wasn’t an or. He’d just made the biggest mistake of his life.

            The ice was quickly numbing his hip, so he leaned forward to open up his brace and rest the baggie on top of the incision. The movement was just enough to remind him that he’d gone way too long without a shower, and there was no way he was going to ask her to help him with that. He was putting his foot down—the good one—on that.

            His phone was on the nightstand, and though he dreaded making this call, it had to be done. Colton answered on the first ring. “Holy fuck, dude. The guys and I are going nuts. You send us one text, and that’s it?”

            “I am sorry, but—”

            “We’ve had to get all our information from ESPN, for fuck’s sake. I was just on the phone with Mack. We were about to storm the damn hospital.”

            “I am not there anymore.”

            “Where the hell are you?”

            “Home.”

            “Who took you home? Someone from the team? Jesus, man. We would’ve done that.”

            “It was not someone from the team.”

            “Why the hell do you keep cutting us out like this?”

            “Colton, please—”

            “You can’t just ghost us like this anymore, man. We’re your family, and we know you need us, so why are you—”

            “Because Elena is here!”

            Silence. The deafening kind.

            Colton made a dramatic play of clearing his throat. “I— What did you say?”

            Vlad puffed out his cheeks and let the air seep out. “Elena is here. She came to help. She is the one who drove me home.”

            “Like, she’s here for the day, or . . . ?”

            “She is going to stay for a while and take care of me.”

            This time, in the silence that followed, Vlad could almost hear the gears turning in Colton’s brain and his lips curling into a grin that meant he was already reading way too much into it. “Well, well, well.”

            “It is only temporary.”

            “If you say so.”

            “I do. But I still need your help with something.”

            Downstairs, the front door opened and closed again. He didn’t have much time before she came back upstairs.

            “Anything, man,” Colton said. “Just name it.”

            “Can you give me a bath?”

            Colton laughed and then sobered. “I’m sorry, but it sounded like you said you need help taking a bath.”

            Vlad groaned and leaned back against his pillows. “That is what I said, yes.”

            “But I thought your wife was there.”

            She was, and from the sound of it, she was in the kitchen now. “I cannot ask Elena to do it.”

            “Why not?”

            “You know why!”

            “Because of the divorce? I hardly think she’s going to mind, given the circumstances.”

            And for the second time that night, Vlad blurted out something he wished he could take back. “Because she has never seen me naked!”