I forgot how good a hot shower at home can feel. The warm water flowing over my skin feels like heaven. It’s a million times better than the ice-cold showers with the non-existent water pressure at the hospital.

I let out a moan as I close my eyes and turn my face up to the huge rain shower shower head that’s pouring down on me. The only thing that would make this better was if a very naked Madison was here beside me.

She’ll be here soon enough. I made her promise to come see me the second she finished work.

I’m still shocked at how taken I am with her. I was stuck in the hospital for two weeks, and the first thing I did when I got out was head to a jewelry store to look at engagement rings. That is not like me at all. I’ve been seriously wondering if Madison transplanted some ovaries into my body during the surgery.

Thoughts of marriage and a future with Madison are rolling through my head as I turn the water off, wrap a towel around my body, and step onto my fluffy bath matt. I never even considered marriage before I met her, but now I can’t stop thinking about it.

“Ah,” I grunt through clenched teeth as I bend over too quickly to dry off my legs. My back is still aching, and I have to remember to take it slow.

There’s a bottle of painkillers on the bathroom vanity tempting me to let them take the pain away, but I can’t. Not with Madison coming over. I want to be awake and alert with her.

I take a deep breath, grab the tiny plastic bottle, and toss it in the drawer where I can’t see it anymore. Instead, I do some of the exercises that one of the nurses showed me, and the pain in my back starts to dissipate to a bearable level.

I still have a long way to go before I’ll be back on a bike, but I’m still hoping that I’ll make it to The Moxie Energy Drink Championships, which is just over three months away. I have to pay my huge hospital bill somehow.

With the towel wrapped around my waist, I head into my office and smile as I look at the trophies and pictures on the wall. There are framed magazines with my handsome face on the cover, and newspaper articles that go all the way back to my first appearance in my hometown’s local paper that featured me as a fourteen-year-old boy after I built my own ten-foot ramp. The following issue had over ten letters to the editor pleading with my parents to not let me use it. I remember reading them while I was in the hospital.

The hospital bill is sitting on my desk, taunting me. My stomach hardens as I slowly walk over and pick it up. The final damage was $417,326. I’m not sure who got it worse in the accident: my spine or my bank account.

Or it might just be my house. I may have to sell it in order to pay off the debt.

I stuff the bill into a drawer and close it. Out of sight, out of mind.

I’m not going to magically come up with the money to pay the bill tonight, and I don’t want the stress of it to ruin my first night out of the hospital with Madison.

An hour later, I have a fire going in the fireplace, candles strategically lit around the house, my finest bottle of wine open with two empty glasses, soft music playing, and a back that’s now killing me. But I can live with the pain. As long as Madison has a good night and I leave her wanting to come back tomorrow, it’s all good with me.

At 10:17 there’s a vicious pounding on my door. What the hell?

I glance out the window and see Madison standing on my front porch, fuming. Her legs are planted wide, her sleeves are rolled up her arms, and there’s a fierce tightness in her eyes that makes me want to turn all the lights out and hide under my bed.

My mind races as I think back over the past forty-eight hours to see if there was anything I did that would bring out this level of rage. I slowly open the door when I come up blank.

Her look of anger turns to hurt when she sees me. Her eyes are red and puffy like she’s been crying on the way over here. My heart breaks for her even though I don’t know the reason.

“Are you okay?” I ask, reaching for her.

She flinches away from me, staring at me with a look of betrayal. “How could you?” she asks. Accusation is thick in her voice.

“Madison,” I say, reaching for her again. I’m so confused. I don’t know what to say and no words are coming out.

“Don’t,” she says as she backs away from me. Her chin quivers and then the tears start coming. “I did the best I could. I’m not perfect, but I gave you everything I had.”

I feel nauseous. “Madison, what are yo—”

“I knew I shouldn’t have gotten involved with a patient,” she says, shaking her head as she presses her fist to her lips. “I’m so stupid. I had rules in place for a reason, and I shouldn’t have let you talk me out of them.”

She looks up at me with tear-filled eyes and a furrowed brow. There’s a coldness gripping my core that makes me shiver as I stare back at her, trying to understand what she’s saying.

“Madison,” I say, starting to panic. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She pulls out a crumpled paper from her pocket and shoves it into my chest. Before I can even look at it, she’s running back to her car.

“No,” I mutter when I read the name of the legal company on the letterhead, and it all falls into place. I’m going to fucking kill Christopher.

I crumple the paper in my fist as I look up at the only woman I’ve ever loved as she tries to get the hell away from me as quickly as possible.

“Madison!” I yell as I try to race after her. My back picks the perfect time to start hitting me with stabbing pains, and I have to grab onto the railing to steady myself before I pass out and fall down the stairs.

She jumps into her car and slams the door closed as I sink to the ground, grimacing in pain.

I can’t move because of the pain in my back, but it’s the pain in my chest that’s the real killer as I have to watch her drive away.