Page 21 of Wingmen

Chuckling, he shook his head and went back.

He was halfway up the steps to his building when his phone rang in the pocket of his shorts. The name on the screen was Dr. Lisa Wu.

Frowning, he picked up. “Doc?”

“Dustin. How are you?”

“Just getting back from a walk. What’s up?”

“We had a check-in scheduled. Is this still a good time? I have you down at six AM Pacific.”

“Oh, right.” He jogged a step to open the door for a woman with a coffee in one hand and keys in the other.

“I can call back later if you want.”

“No, yeah, now’s fine.” He held the door with his back and smiled as the woman mouthed,Thanks, with her phone between her ear and shoulder. Dustin let the door close and went to the elevator.

“How’s the knee?” said Dr. Wu.

“Fine.”

“Mobility, swelling, any pain?”

He looked down at it as he pushed the button. “A little stiff today. Nothing new.”

“And you’re checking in with the local physician there? I’ve been getting the dailies from Tom – seems like the team at Force is on top of everything?”

“Yep.”

“How’s the sleep?”

“Sleep is fine. I’m getting eight.” Just about. He and Rodriguez had wrapped up early after the girls ditched them last night. Rodriguez never seemed to come back from that – he was a sulky little shit all night.

“Any concerns?” said Lisa.

“Nope.”

A pause while she rattled something into a keyboard on her end, then she came back. “Good. Sounds like you haven’t been trying to push it, which is what I was afraid you’d start doing at this point. But Tom said everything’s been smooth sailing. Said he has you doing ladders?”

Did he now. Tom must have glossed over the specifics of that. Not surprising: Dr. Wu was four-foot-nothing, but she had mad tiger mom energy, and Dustin was pretty sure she was one of the only people Tom was afraid of.

“Keep being careful,” she said. “You’re going to start feeling like you can do more than you can.Don’t.You’ve come this far. It would be a real shame to tweak something and have to backtrack.”

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. “Yep.”

She typed something else, then paused, and Dustin sensed she’d run out of things to say faster than she’d expected to. “Okay,” she said, “well…”

“Sounds like we’re good,” said Dustin.

“Sounds like we are. Great. I’ll check in in two weeks. Call if anything changes.”

His apartmentin the Pearl District was a loft on the fifth floor of a converted warehouse. Part of some expansion project the city was doing. He’d had it three years and made zero attempt to decorate. His dad said decoration was distraction, and anyway, the place didn’t need it. It was light and open, with enough space to train and massive window on the south wall with a view of the hills. Dustin liked to think of it as ‘quiet elegance’. He wasn’t sure where he’d heard that phrase, but he liked the sound of it.

He dropped his bag by the door and got a glass of water at the sink, then stood at the marble kitchen island and stared through the window while he drank it. His ibuprofen sat at the end of the counter. He picked it up and put it away in the cupboard over the stove and checked his watch. Jordan would be up soon

He went back to the sink for another glass of water, andchecked in with Tom to make sure they were still on for eight. Jordan’s text came in a few minutes later. He swiped it open.

Checking in.And the bucktooth emoji with the glasses.