by Croix, Ada
20
Allie was feeling physically better by Monday, but it was hard to go down to the garage where she’d have to face the guys. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the wheel and waited for the boys to come pouring into the car.
“Allie,” Adam greeted her brightly as he bounded into his seat. “Made it out from under the pile of whipped cream?”
“Just barely,” she said weakly. “Did you have a good Sunday?”
Troy deflated whatever story Adam was puffing up to give. “He went and saw his mom.”
“She makes this amazing carrot cake,” Adam went along with it with little resistance.
“Yeah, she has a way with the long and crispy,” said one of the NorCal guys on his entry.
“That doesn’t even fucking make sense.” Adam smacked backhanded at the other guy’s shoulder.
Allie held onto her smile even when Marc’s hulking form entered the car. He had to bend halfway over to climb his way into the back seat with his gym bag. Their eyes met for a moment in the rearview mirror. Her gaze snapped back to her liferaft hold on the wheel before she could read his expression. She could imagine plenty of possibilities for what Marc thought of her after the other night, but none of them were very flattering.
“Everyone’s belts on?” The checking glance she made over her shoulder was fake since she didn’t want to risk further eye contact with Marc. After the chorus of assent and the slam of the door, she could devote her focus to the road. Allie eased the big car out of the garage and into the early morning streets to drive the now-familiar way to the aquatic complex.
She may have been worried about how the guys would treat her after she showed up at their party, but it turned out to be a non-issue aside from the odd joke tossed her way in those first few days. Everyone was too busy to waste time worrying about what happened the previous weekend. What was ahead loomed so large that there was no room to fuss the present details. It wasn’t even that weird when she ended up wrapping Blake’s shoulder with ice after his turn in the weight room.
“So it appears you got home okay,” he observed while she secured the crinkling wrap around his torso.
“Yeah.” In focusing on her work, Allie only had to give him the briefest of sheepish smiles. “I was so hungover. Kelsey and I just lived on the couch the entire day after.”
Blake chuckled. “We’ll have to hide the liquor from you next time.”
“Sure.” Allie laughed, too, rather than argue. She didn’t intend for there to be a next time. Not with Blake.
Maybe not with anyone. Allie didn’t know what to think about Marc after seeing him with Natalie and hearing Kelsey’s off-hand comments about his apparently extensive history with women. She didn’t exactly seek him out, but he was the one who had disappeared while she was sleeping on the bathroom floor. Certainly she didn’t want to seem like she was chasing him when her drunken tongue had probably said too much. So they never ended up talking, not until Allie was alone with Marc at their next sampling session for the research trial.
“I don’t think I’ve thanked you, for walking me home,” Allie said as she busied herself with readying her kit.
“Don’t mention it.” Marc was watching her hands instead of her eyes.
“Kelsey told me that you stayed with me until she got home.”
“I fell asleep on the couch,” Marc said indifferently. He shaped a smile once she had taken her sample. “I thought you might puke and rally,” he added with a careless shrug.
“Oh.” Allie focused on getting her sample put away. They were both watching how her fingers circled his wrist. Her forehead tightened with the start of a frown. He thought she would rally … to do what?
“I guess I was wrong.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Perhaps it came out a little more crisp than Allie intended. Sure enough, she had made a starry-eyed fool of herself when he was just looking to score. She forced herself away from him.
“It doesn’t really matter.” Marc was quicker than usual to get up. “Guess you had your fill of blow jobs.”
Allie froze. Her downcast smile was fake. She jangled, embarrassed and crestfallen at how easily Marc could dismiss her. While he made his way out she could barely make herself go through the motions of putting away her kit.
Allie actively tried to avoid him after that. It proved dishearteningly easy. Marc was a wall. It didn’t seem like he let anything in. Whether or not she was saying hello to him in the morning didn’t seem to affect him in the slightest.
At least Lindsey and Everett made it easy not to dwell. The team would be leaving the country in six weeks for the qualifying tournament, and there was a whole checklist of tasks to make sure the travel and event went off without a hitch. They asked Allie to coordinate with the national committee’s office to make arrangements. Her contact was Violet, so it was a welcomed opportunity to work with her friend. Still unclear was whether or not Allie would be attending the tournament with the team, so they worked off of a rough headcount to book with the tournament’s hotel.
With Lindsey, Allie started to devise the on-site training plan. Violet was trying to find an arrival schedule that would allow the team to adjust to the new time zone, but they would still have to account for jet lag. There was also the issue of fitting so many men over six feet tall into the cramped leg room of economy class airlines. It was both a blessing and an additional complication of financial paperwork when Blake’s family offered one of their jets at cost for the flight.
And yet she couldn’t get away from Marc entirely. Doctor Kaitech was starting to forward study data to Allie so that she could help format it into charts for publications. She had Marc’s samples to send to the processing lab, and she’d started to exchange emails with the professor in LA in order to book his last appointment for the study.
It was the last week of February and Allie was working on the trial’s files when Lindsey poked her head into the office. “I could use a hand,” she said in a clipped tone.
“Yeah.” Allie saved her work and jumped out of her chair, trotting to catch up with the physical trainer as Lindsey headed back to the weight room where the guys were having their early afternoon session.
Marc’s jaw tensed when he saw Allie. His right hand was stuffed into a cup of ice water. He looked up into Lindsey’s face. “I swear, it’s fine,” he insisted.
“Well let’s be sure, all right?” Lindsey was not to be deterred. “Allie, can you finish the ice on his right hand and then get it immobilized? He has six minutes and …” She turned her wrist to check her watch, “twenty seconds left with that on.” She thumbed loose her watch’s band to hand it over to Allie. “I’m going to call into my clinic and see if we can get him booked for a scan this afternoon.”
“Yes ma’am,” Allie said as she took up guard beside Marc.
“I need to be in the pool,” Marc was saying after Lindsey’s retreating back. He shifted like he was going to get up and chase her down.
Allie set a palm firmly on his shoulder without even thinking. “Stay,” she told him with an authority that surprised even herself. She sniffed and shook herself into a straighter posture, glancing at the watch. “Five more minutes,” she told him.
With a sigh, Marc settled back. His chin tipped up and his eyes rolled closed.
A few of the other guys were still doing their sets in the room and looked over with curiosity. Allie gave them tight smiles which told them to mind their own business.
It was a long time to watch the clock tick down. When she proved insistent on keeping him, Marc fished his earbuds from where he’d tossed them into his lap and clicked his music back on. His jaw ticked while he gazed off towards where the rest of his team continued on with their rotations through the weight equipment.
Allie didn’t find them as interesting as Marc himself. She feigned watching the clock, and then the captioned news as it scrolled across one of the flatscreens mounted high in the corner, but mostly she observed him out of the corner of her
eye. Though she took her hand from his shoulder she could still feel the radiant heat of his skin. Sweat tracked along his firmly muscled lines and liberated the faint scent of soap along with a trace of chlorine from his morning in the pool. There was defiance in the tightness of his shoulders, but his resistant resolve leaked away as the minutes ticked onward.
Lindsey’s watch beeped before Allie could think of anything encouraging to say. She stuffed it away into a pocket. Dropping the ice pack at their feet she shuffled nearer so that she could reach the supplies the PT had left on the weight bench. Marc’s flesh was chill beneath the run of her fingers as she felt along the bones of his hand. She watched his face for any flinching, but he was steadily watching her. There was extra thickness in his ring finger’s knuckle.
“What happened?”
“Nothing. Just …” Marc pressed his mouth and looked down to where she paired his ring and middle fingers together. His free hand lifted to tug his earbuds from his ears. “I can’t give them a reason to drop me from the team,” he said in a quieter rumble.
Allie watched him carefully as she leaned for the tape, using a wipe-down towel first to dab moisture from his skin. “That’s why you want us to treat this fast. You don’t want to push and make it worse. If it is nothing, Lindsey will have you cleared well before the tournament.”
Marc just bunched his jaw again in answer. “Does this mess up your studies?” he asked after a minute.
Allie blinked, startled. “I don’t think so.” Her mouth started to skew sideways into a grateful smile but she caught it with a bite of her lip. Lindsey was returning.
“Okay,” the physical trainer said with a short exhale of breath. “Marc, I was able to get you in this evening for a look at the state of the soft tissue and to make sure there’s no fracture of bone. With traffic, you might as well get going now to make sure you’re not late. I can give you the address, Allie. Will you be all right taking him?”
“I can do that,” Allie answered with prompt efficiency.
“All right with you, Marc? I’ll speak to your coaching staff.”
That mention didn’t make him look happy, but Marc nodded grudging agreement.
21
The car ride made Allie remember the first time she’d picked up Marc from the airport in Colorado.
It seemed so long ago. She’d thought he seemed like an asshole then. Now, she wondered if he didn’t look a little worried.
“What?” Marc swiveled an aggressive look towards her when she let her gaze linger too long. Like an injured animal baring its teeth.
Allie shook her head and tried to focus on driving.
He let her lead the way into the clinic at which Lindsey was a partner. It was probably for the best—she did make a better vanguard. Allie smiled and spoke to the receptionist while he glowered behind her. When they handed her a clipboard she glanced at Marc, but the search of his eyes and surly flick of his chin encouraged her to fill out the entries. He sat beside her with his arms crossed in the waiting room, a looming presence while her pen scratched out the details for his chart.
“They want emergency contact information?” Allie paused to look up at him.
Marc seemed to sink more stubbornly back into his chair. “Put down Everett’s info.”
Allie frowned, her lifted pen wavering as she looked quizzically at him. It didn’t take long for the strength of his stare to chase her back into writing what he’d asked her to.
“Marc Belmont?”
They both stood to face the woman in scrubs who held open the door which led from the lobby.
“Miss, if I could have you wait out here? It will be a while. If you prefer, we can call you when we’re done.”
Marc and Allie exchanged a look.
“I’ll stay,” she said while their eyes were still locked.
Marc didn’t react beyond easing his bag off his shoulder and handing it to her. His warmup jacket, the same one from that first picture, was folded over the top. It started to slip as she transferred the strap to her shoulder. She gathered it up into her arms as she watched Marc turn and walk through the doors to the imaging suites.
Allie sat down with a flop. The weight of Marc’s belongings were heavy in her lap. She sat still for a minute, blinking blindly at the peaceful seascape watercolor that hung in its frame on the far wall. They weren’t far from the ocean, but outside the front door was a jungle of cement and glass. She dropped a hand to flip listlessly through the waiting room’s magazines. Eventually, she pulled out her phone to check for texts from Violet.
I’ve found the perfect bar for you to check out
When you go to the qual tourney
If I go
Allie still wasn’t sure that the team was going to bother to bring her along. There wasn’t much for her to do relative to the expense of putting up another staffer in the hotel. Perhaps it was for the best. As awkward as things had been since Blake’s party, the thought of being in close quarters with the team outside of work hours made her anxious. Whatever had earned Marc his reputation, she feared witnessing it in a foreign hotel’s lobby.
At an imaging clinic now
With my lab rat
Violet must have been busy, because she wasn’t messaging back. Allie sighed and resorted to flipping through an old edition of a magazine, learning how to best choose a lipstick to coordinate with her summer toenail polish.
She hoped it just looked like boredom when she popped so fast out of her chair once Marc came back through the doors. Allie gave him a bright smile which he did not return.
“We’ve iced and re-wrapped,” the tech told Allie as she passed her clipboard to the woman behind the counter. “And Mr. Belmont knows that he’s supposed to ice for twenty minutes, every two hours.” The phrase had the cadence of frequent repetition, and this time the attendant nodded it along with Marc’s grudging acknowledgement. “We’ll have results in to Lindsey by the morning. She’s indicated that you’ll be able to oversee bandaging in the meantime, Ms. Hillsten?”
“Yes,” Allie agreed without wavering. “Is there anything else?”
“Not for us. I hope you have a nice evening,” the woman said to Allie. “Good luck,” she added with a shoulder squeeze for Marc. Allie wondered if the touch didn’t linger a little long. Then again, she could hardly blame the clinic worker.
“Should we get something to eat?” Allie twisted back to ask as they made their way to the car. “Might be better not to hop on the roads just now.”
“It’ll be hours before the traffic gets any better.”
Allie couldn’t tell if he were being cynical or suggestive. She looked over her shoulder and up at him as she went around to the passenger side. She didn’t think twice about opening the door for him and putting in his bag.
“Probably be best to avoid anything with chopsticks,” Marc said dryly as he slid into the seat, gesturing with his bandaged hand.
“I’ll just do a search for what’s good around here?” Allie suggested.
“Sure.”
Allie went around to hop into the driver’s side. She left the keys in her lap a minute to get out her phone and tap up reviews for restaurants in the area.
Marc got comfortable in his seat but he didn’t put his earbuds in. He entertained himself by watching her.
“Let’s see …” Allie scrolled through, looking for something close and … “Brazilian?” She found with a grin, turning the screen towards him.
Her phone buzzed just then. She blinked, clutching it back quick.
Hook it up with some XxxRay vision
Allie pressed her eyes closed.
Later, Violet D:
“Sounds delicious.” Marc might have actually been smirking.
“Have you ever been here before?” Allie asked once they were seated and waiting for their meal.
Marc shook his head, finding a more comfortable sprawl in his chair. It involved the length of his legs bumping against her ankles.
Allie trie
d not to think about it too much. “You must have favorite places,” she insisted. “You have lived here before.”
“Years ago,” Marc said around slurping at his water. “Do you have favorite places here?”
“I’ve been so busy …” Allie started to answer with a shake of her head. She caught onto his implication and started to smile. “You made friends at least.” She shook out her hair, going for careless as her lashes flicked and she reached for her own drink.
Marc snorted.
“The girls’ water polo team seems to like you,” Allie noted around a dainty sip at her straw.
“Yeah,” Marc answered slowly, setting his drink down and wriggling his shoulders back into his chair. He crossed his arms and scanned Allie from across the table. “Are you going to bring up the countess again?”
“No.” Allie blushed at the reminder of their walk home from Blake’s. “I know you said you didn’t date … Except people seem to think …” She couldn’t quite bring the thoughts to their conclusions. Chips of ice chimed in her glass as she chased them with her straw. “It’s just that on the beach, you looked so close. You and Natalie.”
Marc’s mouth flattened into an uneven line. “That’s Natalie. All about how things look.”
“So how are things really?”
Somehow Marc seemed less surprised than Allie by the abruptness of her question. “The thing is, Natalie is on the hunt for anything interesting enough to get her into the news cycle. She must be desperate to come barking up my tree with some idea of getting back together. I know she doesn’t give a shit about me. There’s no way I’m buying her lies. I told her as much.” His gaze didn’t waver throughout his calm answer. “She doesn’t like being told no.”
It sounded so much like he didn’t care, but an ache clutched at Allie’s heart and clawed tension into her throat. “Maybe she does still have feelings for you.”
“Not that two-faced sociopath.” It was the most dispassionately certain way that she had ever heard someone called crazy outside of a psychology class. “That was crystal clear when she cheated on me with one of her own kind.” Marc’s mouth tilted towards a smile and left Allie no time to react before he prodded at her with his own questions. “Is this part of your questionnaire, doctor? Is my sexual history relevant to your studies?”