Touchdown Desires

by Jenna Payne

  “Where is she going?” she wondered out aloud. Sonny answered.

  “It is barbecue time. You missed it up on the bridge last night. Now you get a front row seat,” Sonny said. He was sitting on one side of her, and Brock was on a stool in front of her. She could not help sighing, but then smiling. Despite what had happened she realized she had two gorgeous men waiting on her with her best friend riding shotgun. She could not be in better hands. She eyed them both with a slight smile and they watched her with concern and care. It felt wonderful.

  “Well guys, I don’t know where this thing we have is going to lead, but I am more determined than ever to get there, how about you two? Not scared off from me?” she asked hesitantly. They both leaned in and kissed her, one after the other.

  “No chance Captain Sage. You are stuck with us for the next two weeks at sea and much longer in Miami. Think you can handle us?” was Brock’s response. Right then Katy chose to come back singing.

  “I like mine with lettuce and tomatoes!”

  Eve sighed again.

  THE END

  Bonus Story 15 of 40

  Game Plan

  “Where does it hurt?”

  The patient gave Rebecca a sly smile before pointing to his chest, where his heart was.

  Rebecca’s eyes rolled into the back of her head at the corny gesture. It wasn’t the first time she’s seen it and unfortunately she knew it wouldn’t be the last.

  “Please Mr. Coste be serious,” she said with a sigh as she approached the man sitting on the patient’s table.

  “It’s a small knee injury, nothing serious,” he said as his eyes rolled to the side clearly uninterested in his own health. That was the problem with these athletes. They thought they were invincible.

  Rebecca sighed as she wheeled over to the patient and placed gentle hands on his right knee. She looked up at him in attempt to give him one more chance to tell her properly what was ailing him before she found out for herself.

  “Alright then,” she said after enough silence had passed between them. Rebecca’s hands went and placed themselves on Mr. Coste’s knee area and applied a light pressure with her fingers. Immediately the 6’5” athlete let out a painful yell and retracted his knee from her grasp.

  “That’s what I thought,” Rebecca said as she wheeled away and went to grab his chart to jot down a few notes.

  “It’s not as bad I thought, you just need to stay off of it for a few weeks and I mean it. Any more damage and I can’t promise it won’t be more permanent.”

  Rebecca stood up and gave a comforting pat on the athlete’s shoulder. She could see he was pained by the news, and she figured it was because it meant he would have to sit out the next few games.

  “The nurse will be in shortly to let you know what you’ll need to do the next few weeks.”

  Rebecca felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and excused herself from her patient’s presence. She fished the vibrating device from her white coat and looked at the caller. Immediately a smile came to her face as she pressed the answer button.

  “Hi honey,” Rebecca said as she ducked quickly into her office and shut the door.

  “Hi baby, are we still up for tonight?”

  On the other line was Brian, a man whom she had been dating for six months now. They were still in their honeymoon phase and Rebecca was grateful for that, considering the string of bad luck she’d been having with men prior to Brian. Brian was a bank manager that she had met by pure chance. Her car had a flat tire in front of the bank he worked at, and he just so happen to come out. It was funny, she thought at the time. She knew the human body and everything about it like the back of her hand but she knew nothing about replacing a flat. In any case he had helped her with the flat and then the rest was history.

  “Yes of course, we’re going to that Italian place right?”

  “Anywhere you want, and can I say how happy I am to have met a woman that is not indecisive about where she wants to eat?”

  Rebecca laughed; in truth she was very indecisive especially when it came to places to eat. However, she was given enough notice in advance to research a place that they both might like.

  “Anyway honey, I’ll meet you at the restaurant,” Rebecca said as she took a peep at her schedule. “Looks like I have a late patient so I won’t make it home first.”

  “No worries, I’ll meet you there.”

  The couple said their goodbyes and ended the call. Rebecca couldn’t help but feel excited about their dinner date. That was the nice thing about Brian, she was always excited to see him. He was such a great guy, not to mention his sex game was phenomenal.

  Rebecca grinned at the thought but was quickly interrupted by a call to her office phone. She whined internally at the interruption to her lustful thoughts and picked up the phone.

  “Yes Joy?”

  Joy was the very skillful and young nurse working in Rebecca’s practice. They had known each other for quite some time and one could say they were good friends.

  “Your very attractive patient is here for his appointment, he’s by far the hottest I’ve seen.”

  Unfortunately, like most of the women Rebecca knew, they were only interested in the fact that she worked with high profile athletes. To them, Rebecca was lucky to be surrounded by such rich and usually handsome men. It didn’t matter at all that she was more interested in healing them and not trying to get them into her bed.

  “Thank you Joy and please be more professional about it. No more hitting on the patients; I don’t think I can get you out of another potential sexual harassment lawsuit.”

  “I’m just trying to spread the love. I don’t know why I should be punished for it,” Joy whined.

  “I mean it Joy,” Rebecca said sternly as she put her white doctor’s coat back on.

  “Yes I understand,” Joy said with a sigh before the line went dead. Joy should thank her lucky stars she was such a great nurse. Frankly Rebecca was tired of prying her off the patients.

  Thankfully this would be the last patient of the day and she would be free to get ready in her office for her dinner date.

  Rebecca made her way to the room where the patient sat in wait for her. Meanwhile naughty text messages from Brian vibrated her phone, causing her nether regions to grow wet.

  “Not now Brian,” Rebecca said silently to her phone, before slipping it back into her pocket and reaching for the door knob. As she opened the door, ice blue eyes took a moment before moving to meet her form.

  Those eyes took the doctor by surprise. The color of them popped in the presence of his jet black hair and olive skin. His face, although emotionless, was sculpted by sharp features. It was very rare for Rebecca to be taken aback by a face, and here she was at a loss for words.

  “Hello my name is Doctor Scott and I will be overseeing your treatment,” Rebecca said, as she took the patient’s chart and looked at its content.

  “Asher Conner,” she read the name slowly as she wheeled towards him. This whole time the tall male remained silent, Rebecca could feel his eyes watching her every move. Despite this, his watchful eyes didn’t make her feel uncomfortable. Anyway his name was ringing a bell but she couldn’t pinpoint it.

  “Wow, you’ve had a lot of injuries,” Rebecca said astonished, whoever his previous doctor was did a great job of getting him up and running each time. “So what sport are you currently involved in?”

  The dark-haired male stared at her and the awkward silence began to settle. Could he not speak? Rebecca looked down at his chart and searched for any diagnosis of mutism, but could not find evidence of it.

  “Basketball.”

  The deep voice suddenly brought her attention back to him.

  “Okay, so what happened? I see here you were complaining of neck pain.” Rebecca found herself trying to figure this character out, usually her other patients would be cracking jokes, hitting on her, trying to ask for a date but him, nothing. Maybe he was the shy type?

  “I was at p
ractice couple days ago and one of the guys slipped and crashed into me, fell kind of hard,” he said, putting one hand to his neck. The whole time he spoke, his eyes never left hers.

  “Well, let’s have a feel,” Rebecca said as she went to sanitize her hands. As she did, she instructed the patient to remove his shirt and lie on his back. Asher stood up and removed his shirt and went to sit back on the patient’s table. Rebecca’s eyes widened as she caught glimpse of the painful looking scars on his back.

  As Rebecca began to do her own examination of the patient’s neck injury, she began to recall why the male was so familiar to her. He was the newbie everyone was talking about and all over television. His scores were excellent and he was gaining recognition pretty fast, not to mention the million-dollar sponsorship deals he was receiving.

  Asher winced in pain as she pressed her fingers against the back of his neck.

  “Well you haven’t reported any difficulty walking or balance issues to that’s already a good sign, you can sit up,” Rebecca said as she took her seat. “It’s a simple neck sprain that can be managed. You can get dressed again.”

  Asher his shirt back on. Rebecca picked up his chart and added some notes.

  “How did you get those scars on your back?” said Rebecca.

  “You could say I had a rough past,” Asher said as his eyes went back to hers. “They never bother me anymore. Healed up long ago.”

  “That’s good,” said Rebecca. She was hoping he would say some more, about them, but he abruptly changed the subject back to the reason he had come in.

  “So about my neck. What’s the game plan doc?”

  “Heat pack.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah, doesn’t seem that the pain is that severe, try the heat pack for a week and take it easy, should do the trick.”

  Rebecca couldn’t quite pin it but she could have sworn she saw disappointment flash before his eyes.

  “Thanks doc,” Asher said as he watched her prepare to leave.

  “Call if the neck pain gets worse or you have any other symptoms, okay?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Rebecca went to leave the room and caught one more glimpse at the blue-eyed athlete; a small smile crept onto his face before she closed the door.

  *****

  Rebecca sat in her office squinting at her portable vanity mirror as she attempted to do her make up. She was going to be meeting Brian soon for their dinner date and she had to hurry. Luckily she had a stash of sexy dresses in her office for times when she couldn’t go home to change first.

  “Rebecca!”

  Joy burst into Rebecca’s office almost startling her out of her chair.

  “Joy, for heaven’s sake I thought you went home,” Rebecca said as she went back to fixing her face.

  “That was him right? That was Asher Conner,” Joy said with excitement in her eyes as she leaned over Rebecca’s desk.

  “Yes it was him.”

  “Can you do me a favor?”

  “No Joy I will not set you up with him,” Rebecca said as she stood up, gathering all her things and leading Joy out of her office.

  “But I think we would make an excellent pair, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know Joy. You say that about a lot of the patients.”

  Rebecca didn’t understand why Joy was so adamant on finding an athlete husband; she made good money, was intelligent, and was a great looking brunette to boot. Money or men should not have been an issue for Joy Black.

  Rebecca locked up and said her goodbyes to a disappointed Joy before heading to her car. As she did, she thought about Asher Conner and the mischievous smile that she may or may not have seen when she left the room. She couldn’t figure him out, and she wasn’t used to that.

  “Guess it doesn’t matter,” Rebecca said to herself as she stepped into her car. She suspected she wouldn’t be seeing Asher Conner for a while, as it was a relatively minor neck injury.

  Rebecca made her way to the restaurant where she was to meet Brian. It wasn’t far from her office so she reached the place in no time. She gave her car to the valet and made her way to the front of the restaurant where she was immediately taken to where Brian was seated. A smile came upon her face as the brown-haired male came into her view.

  “Brian!” she called.

  Brian immediately stood up and embraced her before planting a kiss on her lips.

  “Were you waiting long?”

  Brian shook his head and pulled out her chair and waited for her to sit before pushing her chair in closer to the table. He sat across from her and smiled broadly.

  “I missed you,” he said taking her hand into his.

  “Missed you too,” Rebecca responded, giving his hand a squeeze. The waiter approached them, giving them both menus and taking their drink orders before leaving them to their conversation.

  “How was work?”

  Rebecca looked at the menu in front of her not meeting Brian’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if she should tell him about her strange encounter with Asher Conner. Brian was a huge sports fan and now that she thought about it, he had spoken about Asher Conner on many occasions. He would be thrilled to know that she had met him but she also knew that it may be the topic of conversation all night.

  “Work was fine, same old same old,” Rebecca said with a smile.

  “You sure?”

  Rebecca’s eyes widened slightly as she looked at Brian’s skeptical face.

  “Yes, don’t believe me?”

  Rebecca tried to hide the defensiveness in her voice but couldn’t help it. He should just take her word for it and leave it at that.

  “I do, I do,” Brian said waving it off and planting a smile on his face. Their waiter returned with their drinks and proceeded to take their food order.

  “How was your day?” said Rebecca, but just as she said the words and tried to make the air between her and Brian a little more upbeat, her work phone began to ring.

  “Shit,” she said under her breath as she dug her phone out of her purse. She looked at the caller ID and recognized the phone number to be from her office.

  “Sorry honey I’ll be right back, it’s work.”

  Rebecca excused herself and stepped out of the restaurant to pick up the call. As she did, she was notified that one of her patients had sustained an injury and needed her assistance. Rebecca sighed, telling the nurse to forward the information to her cell and to let the patient know she’d be on her way. She hung up and went back to the table.

  “I forgot to ask for the name,” she said to herself. But Rebecca decided she would deal with that later; in the meantime she had to inform Brian she had to skip out on their date before it had even really started. With a heavy sigh she dragged her feet back into the restaurant to where Brian sat and sat slowly into her chair.

  “What is it?”

  Rebecca gave the bank manager a small smile taking his hand into her own.

  “Work, a patient needs me so I have to go,” Rebecca said as she pulled out her wallet to pay him for their order. Brian waved off her gesture instantly.

  “Don’t worry babe. Stop by my place later?”

  Rebecca stood up and went to give Brian a deep kiss followed by a hug.

  “You’re the best,” she said as she threw him a smile before making her way to her car. Rebecca got into her car putting the address into her navigation. On her way she decided she would call the nurse and ask for the name of the patient.

  “Hey can you run that name by me one more time of the patient I’m going to see?”

  “Hold on one moment Dr. Scott.”

  Rebecca began her journey to the patient’s house as she waited for the nurse to retrieve the name of the patient.

  “Dr. Scott?”

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  “The name of the patient is Asher Conner.”

  “Thank you.”

  Rebecca couldn’t help but feel surprised at the name that was given to her. Asher Conner was jus
t fine when he left her office just a few hours ago and now he was suddenly having a medical emergency? Well she supposed things like that happen all the time but still, it was a little suspicious to her.

  *****

  Rebecca reached the grand house where Asher lived. It was night, and the only sound was her car driving through the neighborhood. The doctor pulled up to the gate surrounding the mansion and stepped out of the car to press the intercom button.

  “Hello? My name is Dr. Scott I was told Asher Conner was injured?”

  Rebecca released the intercom button and stepped away. A moment of silence elapsed before a loud beep rang throughout the air and the gate began to ease itself back with a small squeaking sound.

  Rebecca got back into her car and drove up the long driveway to the main house. She decided to park on the side and stepped out of the car, retrieving her travel medical bag from the trunk. The quietness made her uneasy as she looked around the property before slowly making her way to the front door. Rebecca climbed the short flight of steps and rang the doorbell which chimed throughout the house.

  It took a few minutes but someone eventually came to the door. It was an older man wearing a dark grey suit and thick rounded glasses.

  “Hello,” she said.

  Rebecca felt a little awkward as the man stared at her intently as if he wasn’t sure about her presence.

  “You are the doctor?” said the man.

  “Yes women are doctors to now, sorry to shock you,” Rebecca said with a smile. The man at the door was not amused but nevertheless let her inside.

  “He’s right this way.”

  Rebecca looked around the nicely decorated house with awe as the man took her through the hall to the living room area. Athletes really do have it nice, she thought.

  They eventually reached a large room lit up by a basketball game on television. The two individuals stopped short of a couch but Rebecca wasn’t sure why until the man next to her spoke.

  “Mr. Conner?”

  As the older gentleman said the name, a slender hand suddenly rose signaling a presence.