Understanding dawned in Seth’s eyes. “I knew you two had something underhanded going on.”
Grace turned and walked away, hoping Seth would follow and end this ridiculous conversation. She stood next to a table and waited impatiently for Seth to join her. Maybe if she kept things strictly professional from here on out, she would be able to get through this session.
As he approached, she patted the table with her palm. “Take a seat and lie down on your back.”
Seth did as she asked, but his lips twitched as though he had to fight back additional laughter. Ignoring it, Grace removed the brace from around his knee and set it aside, trying not to wince when she saw his leg. No matter how many times she worked with patients post surgery, she never got used to seeing the damage surgery caused. Seth’s leg was swollen and covered in varying hues of bruises—everything from sickly yellows to murky blues. Clear tape covered the dark red incision sites, making it look even worse.
Still, Grace couldn’t help but notice that the unaffected muscles in his leg were toned and strong, bulging at the calves. Apparently he worked out a lot and probably spent some serious time on a bike as well. Grace tried to convince herself she only cared because it meant a quicker recovery time, but really, it made her curious about her newest patient.
She moved to his foot and lifted it. “Okay, so let’s see how much mobility you’ve got.” She pushed his knee forward slowly until she met with resistance then made a mental note of the approximate angle and slowly lowered it back down.
Seth brought his hands under his head, lifting it so he could study her. “I still can’t believe you’re the same girl from the auction. I honestly didn’t recognize you.”
“I believe you.” Grace placed her palm on his patella, out of the way of the incision sites, and pushed his knee down to straighten his leg.
“I mean your hair was curly and in that bun thing, and you were wearing that amazing dress, and now you’re . . . well—”
“I’d stop right there if I were you.”
Seth’s forehead crinkled into a wince. “Yeah, figured that out on my own, thanks,” he said through clenched teeth.
Oops. Grace quickly eased off on his knee, realizing she’d pushed down a little harder than normal. But in her defense, it was provoked. And it wasn’t as if increased pressure would hurt his ACL—it would just be a little more painful for him.
Grace lifted his leg once again, pushing it slowly toward Seth, making sure to not push too hard this time. “You need to do this every half hour while you’re awake for the next few days,” Grace said. “Bend and straighten, bend and straighten. If you lie on your stomach on your bed, the added force of gravity will help straighten your leg down as well.”
“Got it,” he said. “And listen, I’m sorry for not recognizing you, and for being such a—” He stopped as though unsure of which word to use.
“Such a what?” Grace said. “Egotistical jerk?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
Of course he wouldn’t, because a self-appointed god of chaos would never think of himself as egotistical. It wasn’t in his chemical makeup. “What would you call it then? You told me to outbid you then went ahead and outbid me, only to add insult to injury by forcing a kiss on me. Personally, I thought egotistical jerk was putting it nicely.”
“You didn’t exactly pull away,” Seth said. “At least not at first.”
“Because I was in shock.” Grace couldn’t believe she had to explain this. “Seriously, who kisses a complete stranger?”
“You said I needed to prove that I wasn’t gay.”
Unbelievable. He wasn’t even remotely sorry. “You couldn’t think of another way to do that?”
A cheeky smile appeared. “Another way wouldn’t have been nearly as fun.”
Grace’s jaw clenched, and Seth’s hands flew from behind his head to his knee. He groaned. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Just stop with the torture already.”
Woops, she’d done it again. Grace backed off and cleared her throat. “It’s called therapy.”
“Yeah, well something tells me that you’re being a little harder on me than normal.”
Grace thought it best not to respond. Instead, she lowered his leg again, pressing down on his knee with a little less pressure. “There. Better?”
“Much, thanks.” His hands went back to lifting his head, and he studied her. “For what it’s worth, I really am sorry.”
He had a disarming smile, the kind that could make a girl forgive and forget way too easily. Grace forced herself to look away. Don’t be charmed by this guy. Chaos. Ego. Kisses complete strangers without remorse. Remember?
After several more bending and straightening repetitions, Grace lathered up her hands with some oil then began to massage the muscles and tissue around his knee. Normally, she didn’t think twice about massaging a patient’s leg, shoulder, or arm. But with Seth, the way her fingers tingled at the touch, it felt personal—almost intimate. What was wrong with her? “This will help break up the scar tissue and reduce the swelling.”
“Aren’t massages supposed to feel good?” Seth said with another grimace.
“No pain, no gain.”
“Says the woman inflicting the pain.”
Grace bit back a smile. At least Seth wasn’t squirming like some of her other ACL patients did. He was actually pretty tough. “Tell me how you tore your ACL,” she said, more than ready to be done with all topics of conversation involving bachelor auctions and kissing.
He let out a breath and relaxed his head against the cushioned table top. “I went heli-skiing, took a jump, and pulled a 360—which was pretty sweet, by the way—only to land in some deep powder and torque my knee.”
“Ouch.”
“You can say that again, although it was more painful to realize that I was out of commission on day one of a fourteen-day trip.”
Grace’s eyes widened. First Seth plunked down twenty grand like it was pocket change, and now a two-week heli-skiing trip? Who was this guy? “What, exactly, do you do for a living?”
“I’m a consultant.”
Oh, well that explained it. Not. “For who? Donald Trump and Bill Gates?”
Seth chuckled. “No, just your average start-up internet companies. Basically, people hire me to help them set up their websites and market whatever products or services they’re selling.”
Grace searched his face, not buying it. Web consultants—especially for startup companies—didn’t make that kind of money. Maybe he was one of those trust-fund kids who’d had everything handed to him on a golden platter his entire life, and marketing was something he did for fun. “I had no idea there was that kind of money in web marketing.”
Seth shrugged. “Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t. I work on commission. If they make money, so do I. If they don’t, I get nada. My clients prefer it that way, because most of them don’t have a lot of ready cash to invest.”
“I see.” But really, she didn’t see at all, especially considering most start-up companies went under within the first year. Maybe he had a ton of clients or something—ones who didn’t mind if he took two weeks off to go heli-skiing.
A knowing smile stretched across Seth’s face. “You’re wondering how I could drop twenty grand at an auction then turn around and go skiing for two weeks, aren’t you?”
Awesome, now he was a mind reader, too. The list kept adding up. But did Grace really want to know more about this guy? With him, the whole “curiosity killed the cat” thing could easily hold true.
“No,” Grace said.
“Liar.”
The fact that he’d seen right through her only made her that much more determined not to know. She shot him a stop-acting-like-you-know-me-because-you-don’t look. “Believe it or not, I’d rather not know. I make it a point not to get too personal with my patients.”
Seth’s eyes took on a teasing quality. “Too late for that, isn’t it? I mean, we’ve already kissed.”
<
br /> Grace wanted nothing more than to tell him he was right and should start shopping around for a new therapist. But she kept her mouth shut and focused on massaging his knee with a bit more gusto.
“You weren’t my patient at the time,” she finally said. “But now that you are, I’m only interested in knowing the information that’s pertinent to your recovery.”
“You mean like what I do for a living?” he said, calling her bluff.
Ugh. There was no stopping him, was there? She cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Was this your first time heli-skiing?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Is that pertinent to my recovery?”
“Yes, especially if you’re planning to go again next season. I need to know what kind of activities you want to resume so we can get your knee strong enough for them.”
Seth’s gaze moved to the ceiling with his hands still cradling his head. “In that case, no, it wasn’t my first time and definitely won’t be my last. I started six years ago with a friend of mine and liked it so much that I figured why not make it an annual thing?”
“Because it’s dangerous.” The words came out like an automated response. Grace clamped her mouth shut and bit down on her lower lip.
Seth gave her a half smile. “Ah, but I laugh in the face of danger. It’s the only way to live.”
The statement registered in Grace’s mind like a horrible memory. Alec used to say pretty much the same thing, and there was a time when Grace adhered to the notion as well. But now things were different, and she didn’t appreciate the reminder or the slew of bad memories that came with them—especially not from someone like Seth, who seemed to have no worries or cares at all.
The wince on Seth’s face forced Grace back to the present. Realizing she’d increased the pressure of the massage a little too much, she quickly let go. Why was she letting him get to her so easily? This was ridiculous. She was a professional.
“Sorry,” she said.
“No pain no gain, right?” he mustered.
“Right.” From that point on, Grace purposefully kept the conversation to neutral, impersonal topics as she worked him through the rest of his session. By the time she’d finished, it felt like hours had passed.
With swift movements, she strapped his brace back on and handed him his crutches. “Keep at those exercises, and we’ll see you back here on Thursday.” She paused. “Unless, of course, you’d rather work with a different therapist?” The question hung there, and Grace hoped against hope that he’d take her up on the suggestion. She wasn’t sure she could endure another session like this one.
But Seth only chuckled, not looking at all embarrassed or uncomfortable. “No, I like your ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy. It works for me. See you Thursday.”
With that, he turned and hobbled away, leaving Grace not looking forward to Thursday at all.
SETH FLOPPED AGAINST the back of his black leather couch and stared at his 80-inch flat-screen TV. He and his friends had just spent the last hour playing some Xbox Kinect game, and Seth had never been so bored. “That was nothing like actual kayaking. It didn’t even come close.”
Garrett lifted his feet to the coffee table and dropped his head to the back of the couch. “What else is there to do? You can’t play basketball, ski, rock climb, or mountain bike. You can’t even do something lame like bowl.”
“We can go to a movie,” Owen said with zero enthusiasm. Unless a new action flick had come out, movies landed at the bottom of their Fun Things To Do list. Owen raised his arms over his head and yawned. “I can’t believe I turned down a date for this.”
“You turned down a date?” Seth shot him a look of surprise. Owen never turned down an opportunity to hang out with a woman. “Why?”
Owen shrugged. “She wears high heels with jeans, can’t leave her house without an umbrella just in case it might rain, and thinks paintballing is dipping balls in paint.”
Seth sniggered, wondering what type of girl Owen would eventually end up with. Over the years, he’d dated all types and found issues with every single one of them. For a guy who didn’t bother doing his hair most days, he was incredibly picky.
Not that Seth was much different. He’d dated his fair share of girls and still hadn’t found one he cared to settle down with either, which was fine with him. He wasn’t ready to be tied down when there was still so much to experience. Now, if there was a woman out there with a sense of adventure—someone who preferred experiencing sports to watching them on TV—well, maybe he’d reconsider.
An image of Grace came to mind, and Seth found himself wondering what type of person she was. Would she care if he went paintballing and mountain biking with his friends? Would she be the type to want to come along or hold him back? Did she even like to mountain bike?
“Maybe we should give online dating a try,” Garrett suggested. “Having a few cute girls around might make video games and movies more interesting.”
Owen shook his head. “They’d probably make us play Just Dance and make us watch chick flicks. Who wants that?”
Garrett grunted in agreement. Seth, on the other hand, wouldn’t mind watching Grace play Just Dance. With her slim build and natural grace, she’d probably dance circles around everyone else.
Seth shook his head, trying to clear his mind of all thoughts of Grace. Why was he going there anyway? He frowned at the TV. “There’s got to be something fun I can still do. C’mon, guys, think.”
“We could still go paintballing,” Owen said. “You’d just be an easier target.”
Garrett laughed.
Seth rolled his eyes—although paintballing sounded much more appealing than video games at the moment.
“I say we just follow Brandon and Ethan’s lead and ditch Seth until he gets his knee back,” joked Garrett. “He’s going to be zero fun for the next several months anyway.”
“Gee thanks,” said Seth. But they were right. Seth was zero fun to hang out with right now. He was actually incredibly grateful that Owen and Garrett were the type of friends to stick around.
“Nah, we just need to rethink our way of doing things a little,” said Owen, tapping his index finger against his lips. “Hey, my sister’s the forward for her high-school basketball team. Maybe we could go to a game sometime.”
Seth and Garrett groaned in unison. Okay, so maybe movies weren’t last on the list anymore. Seth would take a movie over a girls’ high-school basketball game any day.
“Give me a few days,” Seth said. “And I’ll come up with something better than that.”
“Like that’s going to be hard to do,” muttered Garrett.
“Shut up. ” Owen chucked a pillow at Garrett, who snatched it up and threw it right back. Within seconds, a pillow fight ensued, making Seth roll his eyes once again. His friends were great and all, but Seth suddenly wanted more than this. He wanted something deeper. Something with soft curves, warm lips, and deep, sea green eyes.
Seth shook his head to clear it. What was he thinking? Grace reminded him of Lanna—the girl who wouldn’t speak to him because he’d given her twenty grand. The last thing Seth should want was to get into a relationship with another woman like that, no matter how beautiful or interesting she was. It was just the medicine and boredom talking.
From here on out, the only thing Seth wanted from Grace was for her to get his leg back in shape.
Ten minutes into his appointment, Seth had all but forgotten about his promise. From the moment he’d struggled to get through the self-closing door, Grace had welcomed him with rigid professionalism. Like before, her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She wore black yoga pants, along with a fitted white polo that had been appliquéd with the name of the practice. Even in bland clothing, she looked good—a dressed-down version of the beautiful woman in blue from the night of the auction. Seth still couldn’t believe he hadn’t recognized her right away. She had the same piercing green eyes, high cheekbones, toned body, and impassive expression.
Was she happy to see him again? Annoyed? Seth couldn’t tell.
“Looks like you’ve made some progress,” Grace said as she checked how far he could bend and straighten his knee. Even though the movement pained him, her cool fingers on his leg felt good. Really good.
“I take my physical therapist’s orders very seriously.” Seth grinned, hoping for an answering smile that didn’t come.
“Good,” she said. “That means we can start working on strength. How’s your pain level?”
“Fine right now. But then again, I haven’t ticked you off yet,” Seth teased, attempting to coerce a smile from her. But all he got was a raised eyebrow.
“Are you planning to tick me off?” she said, releasing his knee.
“Not on purpose.”
“Oh. It just comes naturally then.”
“Something like that.”
Grace seemed more on guard and careful today, as though a simple smile would somehow breach that professional/personal line she didn’t like to cross. Come to think of it, Seth had never seen what her smile looked like.
That would have to change.
Grace studied the paper on her clipboard, tapping it lightly with a pencil. “Since your mobility is improving, I’d like you to start with some leg lifts—both on your back and stomach. Then we’ll do some heel pushes, calf raises, and end with the bike. Sound okay?”
“Bike?” Seth perked up. “So soon?” He loved to bike. In fact, the sooner he could strap his mountain bike to his SUV and hit the trails, the better. Maybe this recovery wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.
“The revolutions on the bike will get your legs bending and straightening, which is the best thing for your knee,” Grace explained.
“So mountain biking’s okay?”
She shot him a confused look, as though she didn’t know if he was joking or not. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.” Seth’s knee was feeling much better, and if riding a stationary bike wouldn’t hurt it, why would a mountain bike?
She shook her head. “No, you can’t go mountain biking. It will jar your knee and very possibly torque it as well, which would land you right back in the operating room. For now, stationary bikes only. Please.”
Working It Out (A Romantic Comedy) Page 5