Know Me, Keep Me

by Barbara Gee

  The two couples said their good nights, leaving him alone with Jolene once again.

  “You okay to take your golf cart back to the cabin?”

  “Sure,” he said, accepting the keys she handed him. “Do you stay in one of the cabins, too?”

  “No, I actually rent a little house in Barlow, which is about seven minutes away. I was planning to live on campus, but the others thought it would be best for me to live farther away so I’m not tempted to work all the time. And they were right. I’ve found I do enjoy having some peace and quiet off campus at the end of the day.”

  Boone folded his arms across his chest, realizing he was hoping to be invited to her house at some point. He changed the subject before he could go any further with that thought. “So how do you want to handle my workouts? Do you want to put me on a schedule, or just fit me in when you can?”

  “Definitely a schedule, so you can plan the rest of your day out. I was thinking seven o’clock and five o’clock. We should be able to keep the workouts to an hour, or ninety minutes, max. I’m going to scrutinize everything you do for the first few days, and you’re going to get sick of me checking your pulse and asking how you’re feeling, but since we haven’t worked together before, that’s the only way I can get an idea of what you can handle.” She looked up at him, her eyes a little worried. “So don’t get mad at me for hovering, okay?”

  Looking into those eyes, Boone decided that getting mad at her was pretty much the last thing he could imagine doing. “Promise,” he said, his voice a little gruff. This girl did things to him he hadn’t expected and wasn’t quite sure how to handle. He stood up and she followed suit, walking with him toward the exit to the parking lot, where they’d left the golf cart.

  “I guess I’ll see you in the PT room tomorrow at seven,” he said, pausing at the door.

  “Sounds good. I hope you sleep well. There’s a staff directory listing on the table in your cabin, and my cell number is on it. Call me if you need anything.”

  “I’ll do that.” He looked down at her, thinking he’d never found a woman so alluring—and unlike most women he met, she wasn’t even trying. “Good night, Jolene. Thanks for your time today. I really appreciate everyone making me feel so welcome.”

  “Hey, I’m the one who should be grateful,” she said, her smile genuine and lovely. “After all, I got to meet my absolute favorite hockey player today. What could be better than that?”

  He smiled and left, realizing as he got in the cart that although he was weary, his head felt surprisingly good. Not entirely free of pain, but definitely on the low end of the scale. Was it due to Jolene’s incredible massage before dinner, or the fact that he hadn’t spent another frustrating day in the team gym and locker room, wishing he could get back out on the ice?

  Whatever it was, he’d gladly take it. Maybe he wouldn’t need that sleeping pill tonight after all.

  CHAPTER 6

  Jolene woke up at five the next morning and instantly knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. She’d dreamed about Boone most of the night, and now she found herself uncharacteristically nervous about their first session. No matter how often she tried to tell herself he was just another client, it wasn’t working. He was Boone Kendall, an incredibly gifted athlete and, as it turned out, a man whose company she thoroughly enjoyed.

  It was difficult for her to reconcile the larger than life player persona with the surprisingly down to earth man. Part of her was completely awestruck, while the other part was comfortable, put at ease by his unassuming, laid back personality.

  Yesterday she’d found herself asking questions about his fame that were probably way too personal for a man she’d literally just met, and yet the conversation hadn’t felt awkward, and he hadn’t shied away from it. Although he had admitted afterward that he wasn’t usually that forthcoming. Jolene wasn’t sure what to make of that, but she couldn’t help feeling just a tiny bit happy about him trusting her with some off the record information. A man in his position had to guard that part of his life from people who would exploit it for their own selfish purposes, and she was glad he seemed to trust her already. It boded well for their working relationship, and she was determined to never do anything to betray that trust.

  In an effort to focus on something other than Boone for a while, Jolene turned to her trusty fallback—physical activity. She dressed in shorts and a tank top and ran a quick four miles, then spent another twenty minutes on her yoga mat. After a shower, she brewed a pot of coffee and ate yogurt and granola while reading the devotional book she’d been enjoying for the past few weeks. Libby had given it to her when she’d finished it, and Maddy wanted it next. Jolene knew how fortunate she was to have strong Christian friends in her life, and she thanked God for them daily.

  She left for the ranch in plenty of time and was at her desk reviewing Boone’s medical records one more time when she heard a tap on the open office door. She looked up to see the man she’d been reading about standing in the doorway. Her breath caught and she quickly cleared her throat in an effort to hide the involuntary reaction to him. Dressed in athletic shorts and a sleeveless tee, with sleek skin and muscles everywhere, the man was just plain stunning.

  “Morning,” he said, his smile making her heart jump.

  “Morning,” she echoed, standing and pointing to the small table in the room, where she’d laid out some breakfast foods. “I realized when I was eating breakfast at home that the dining hall doesn’t open until seven, and you haven’t had a chance to get any groceries, so I brought you a few things to tide you over until after our session.”

  “Thanks.” He rubbed his flat stomach and immediately went for the bacon, egg and cheese bagel she’d fixed after eating her own breakfast. “I’m pretty much always hungry, so I’m not going to turn this down.”

  She grinned as he finished the sandwich in record time and reached for a granola bar. His brows rose when he took a bite. “Is this homemade?”

  “Yep. I’m not a total health food junkie, but I have a few standbys I like to keep on hand. I won’t go through the list of all the grains and seeds in that little bar, because it might scare you off. It tastes like peanut butter, that’s all that matters.”

  “It’s delicious,” he said, taking another bite and grabbing the banana. “So what do you have planned for our first session?”

  She motioned for him to follow her into the PT area. “I’m afraid today will be boring for you. It’s the dreaded baseline session.”

  He made short work of the banana and disposed of the peel in a nearby trashcan. Jolene went to a cooler and took out a bottle of water, tossing it to him. “We’ll start on the bike.”

  He grimaced. “Okay, but I’ve grown to hate the bike. It’s usually what I do when I’m stuck in the locker room watching the games on TV, so now it’s what I associate with injury.”

  “I promise we won’t use it much after today. Maybe we can ride real bikes sometime, though. I’d have to clear that with your team doc first, because I suppose there’s a chance of you crashing, and I don’t want to take that risk without permission.”

  “I’ve never crashed on a bike,” he said, taking a seat on the stationary one she indicated.

  “Well, I don’t want to be responsible for the first time.” She adjusted some settings on the machine and picked up her clipboard. “Go ahead and start out. Don’t go above that level until I tell you to.”

  The next forty minutes were spent with him going from the bike to the elliptical, with Jolene taking his pulse and his blood pressure frequently and reminding him to let her know if he felt the slightest increase in his headache, which was at a very bearable level three when he started, and stayed that way until she increased the resistance on the elliptical up to a seven. After five minutes of that he noticed a slight throbbing in his head, and told her so.

  Jolene immediately reduced the level back to one and had him cool down while she took his pulse and wrote things on her sheet. “Okay
, enough of the cardio stuff. I have what I need to know. We’ll finish up with some yoga. Have you done it before?”

  His brows rose. “Yoga?”

  She laughed. “Don’t scoff, Mr. Big Tough NHL Player. Yoga increases muscle tone and flexibility in ways other exercising can’t. I predict that by the time you leave here, you’ll be hooked.”

  He gave her a wary glance. “Even if I am, I don’t think I’ll be telling my teammates.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on that. They’re going to be begging for your secret.” She gave him a big smile and rolled a mat out on the floor. “Okay, big guy, give me a downward dog.”

  “I’ve heard the term, but I have no idea what it is,” he admitted.

  Jolene laughed and rolled out her own mat. “Just do what I do.”

  He watched as she dropped her torso and placed her palms flat on the floor, her body forming an upside down vee. “This yoga thing might not be so bad,” he said appreciatively, earning himself an upside down eye roll.

  As Jolene moved through a few basic poses, he gamely followed. She was surprised to see that he was actually quite flexible already, which helped to explain his fluidity on the ice. When she thought he’d had enough, she dropped and sat cross legged on her mat, taking a drink from her ever-present water bottle.

  “How do you feel?” she asked as he laid flat on his back, relaxing the muscles he’d been straining in the poses.

  “Not bad. My head feels about the same as when we started. But then again, you didn’t work me very hard.”

  “Your heart rate was 135 when you felt the increased pressure. So we don’t want to get that high again for a while. I also want to keep you as stress free and relaxed as possible. Stress manifests itself in a thousand different ways, and it surely doesn’t help your headaches.”

  He turned his head sideways on the mat and gave her a wry smile. “It’s not like I can snap my fingers and make it disappear.”

  “No, but the yoga will help. And trying not to worry about the team will help. And—” she held out her hands and wiggled her fingers. “My magic hands will help. Take your shirt off and lay on your stomach.”

  Determined to treat him as she would any other client, Jolene got up and retrieved a bottle of eucalyptus scented oil. “I should put you on the massage table, but I forgot to set it up. This will do for today.” She squirted some oil into her palms and rubbed them together. “Tell me when I hit a sore spot.”

  “Why, so you can push on it extra hard?” he asked, sitting up and tugging his shirt over his head.

  “Exactly,” Jolene managed to say, even though her mouth had gone suddenly dry. Boone was used to his body being treated as a commodity, poked and prodded and put through paces on a daily basis, so he was completely unfazed by taking off his shirt in her presence. Jolene herself was used to doing a lot of poking and prodding, but she’d never had a body quite as magnificent as Boone’s to work on. She swallowed hard as he rolled onto his stomach, awaiting her touch.

  She worked her way up the smooth skin of his back, closing her eyes and picturing each muscle and bone as her fingers crossed over them, just as she always did when using massage.

  “There,” Boone murmured, tensing under her fingers.

  Jolene worked on the knot and he took it like a man, allowing her to smooth it out before moving on to the next one. Once again she finished with his head, running her fingers over his scalp and kneading with her thumbs. When she heard voices out in the hallway, she sat back on her heels.

  “Feeling relaxed?” she asked.

  “I don’t want to move,” he mumbled.

  “Hmm, you might want to, actually. I hear my staff out at their lockers in the hall, which means they’ll be barging in here soon, and poor Izzy will have a heart attack if her first glimpse of you is shirtless. We need to ease her into it.”

  Boone pushed himself reluctantly to his knees and pulled his shirt on. “Who’s Izzy?”

  Jolene gave him an apologetic look. “One of my assistants, and she’s almost as big a fan as I am. And much less discreet. We may be in for some squeals.”

  He winced. “It’s too early for squeals. Can you sneak me out?”

  She laughed. “Since we’re finished, I can do that. Just this once. But in case it makes a difference, Izzy is also really cute.”

  His jade green eyes caught hers. “I think I might already be on cuteness overload,” he said softly.

  Jolene dropped her eyes and wished her cheeks didn’t feel so warm. “Um, the dining hall is open now so feel free to go have a real breakfast. I’ll be done here by noon, so if you want I can find you after that and take you into Barlow to get some food to have on hand in your cabin, and anything else you might need. It’s a really small town, but it’ll have all your basic necessities.”

  “How about we eat lunch while we’re there. I’d like to get to know the area a little bit.”

  “You might be recognized,” Jolene warned. “I doubt there are a lot of hockey fans in Barlow, but you never know.”

  “I’ll wear my cap and sunglasses. That’s usually pretty effective when no one is expecting me.”

  She nodded. “Okay. I’ll text you when I’m done and we can meet at my car. It’s right out front. The red one.”

  “All right. Thanks for your time this morning. I’ll be sure to report back to Ian and tell him I’m in good hands.”

  “Magic hands,” she corrected playfully. “You’d better get going. Go out the door there at the end and you’ll find yourself in the gym. That’s your Izzy bypass. Feel free to head on over to the rink after you eat. Donovan should be there by now, and he’s expecting you at some point this morning.”

  “Great. I’ll see you around noon.”

  He left the room and Jolene sank back onto her mat, exhaling a long, shaky breath. This wasn’t good. Hard as she was trying, she wasn’t having much success at keeping Boone Kendall in the “client only” zone in her brain. She wasn’t quite sure whether it was the hockey fan in her responding to his elite player status, or the woman in her responding to him as a man. Whatever it was, she needed to get a handle on it. She had a responsibility to be at her professional best, and she couldn’t allow her fascination with him to become a distraction.

  If Boone were a little more arrogant and a little less personable, it would be easier. She certainly hadn’t expected him to be so approachable and normal. He didn’t put on airs or feel the need to impress people with his accomplishments—he was completely comfortable in his own skin. I am who I am, take it or leave it. That was the unspoken message he gave off, and Jolene found it terribly appealing.

  He had also been surprisingly at ease in the company of Tuck and Ryan during dinner the previous evening. Those two were the most initially intimidating men Jolene had ever met. Big, smart, shrewd, gorgeous, and somewhat mysterious due to their federal agent status. And yet the three men had immediately established a rapport that had kept her almost spellbound.

  When Libby had winked at her from across the table, Jolene had realized she wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding how impressed she was. Hopefully Boone hadn’t noticed. She’d promised him she wouldn’t go fan-girl on him, and she intended to keep her word.

  She was rolling up the yoga mats when her four assistants entered the room.

  “Morning, Jolene! Is he here yet?” Izzy asked eagerly.

  “If you’re referring to Boone Kendall, yeah. He just left, actually. We started his session at seven.”

  The pretty girl pouted and put her hands on her hips. “And you didn’t think to give me a heads up?”

  “Sorry, no, I didn’t. But I’m sure you’ll be seeing plenty of him.”

  “When’s his next session?”

  “Five this afternoon. You’re welcome to stay late and observe if you wish.”

  Izzy wrinkled her nose. “But I get off at one today. That’s a long time to hang around.”

  Jolene shrugged. “Your choice. His sessions will be at sev
en and five every day, at least for now.”

  When Izzy started eagerly asking what he was like, Jolene gently cut her off. “You’ll find out for yourself soon enough, Izzy. He’s here for a fairly long time, so you’ll have lots of chances to mingle. Just don’t make a nuisance of yourself, okay? We want him to be able to relax here and not worry about trying to avoid people.”

  “I hardly think he’ll consider me a nuisance,” Izzy said a bit snippily. “Men usually don’t.”

  Greg cut in. “Give it a rest, Iz. Boone’s not like the guys you normally hook up with.”

  “It’s not like I’m a bottom feeder, Greg,” Izzy said, glaring at him. “I’m pretty sure I can hold my own with Boone Kendall, and it’s rude for you to insinuate I’m not good enough for him.”

  “I’m not insinuating that,” Greg argued. “I’m just saying he’s not going to be like the guys you normally meet at the clubs—the ones acting all cool and trolling for girls.”

  “Besides, Jolene’s not saying he’s off limits, she’s just saying don’t bother him if he doesn’t want to be bothered,” Cameron added.

  Izzy tossed her head. “I’m not desperate, guys, and I have no plans to throw myself at Boone Kendall. At this point I’m just curious about him. It’s not every day we get to meet a pro athlete.”

  “You’re right,” Jolene said apologetically. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

  That got a sheepish grin from Izzy. “I guess I can see why you did. I don’t exactly have a history of being shy around men.”

  “So you’ll behave yourself?” Greg pushed.

  Izzy rolled her eyes. “I’ll behave myself. But if the guy wants to be bothered, I’ll be first in line. This little town can be a shock for people used to big cities. If he wants a friend to hang out with, I’ll be happy to oblige.”

  Cameron snickered. “And if he wants more than a friend, you can be that, too.”