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She removes her earbuds and smiles at this, working to slow her breathing. “It’s good you can joke about it. It’s good you’re even still alive to joke about it.”
“Hey, now,” I warn her, smiling. “It wasn’t that bad.”
But it kind of was. It was irresponsible to stop the physical therapy when I moved to Longdale. There are no excuses for that. And this new tweak from yesterday reminds me of how much I’ve neglected my health.
She turns away from me to grab a water bottle from the mini fridge on the counter by the mirror. “I have a lot of ideas of things that might help with the pain and range of motion.”
At my grunt, she laughs. “I haven’t seen an unhappy triad since I was in school.” She opens the cap and takes a drink, meeting my eyes in the mirror, then returns to me. “I’m fascinated by what happens as time progresses with this type of injury. I always wanted to go to physical therapy school. I used to work with the PTs quite a bit with the team.”
“You’re not employed with them anymore?”
Her lips turn down. “No. I’m not.” She tightens one of her ponytails and points to my knee. “Can you bend it for me?”
I give a scoffing laugh. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be working during your vacation, Oakley.”
“But I’d love to help. It’s like getting a basket of puppies left on my doorstep. I can’t just close the door on it and pretend it doesn’t exist.”
“Puppies?” A laugh springs from me. “My knee is like a basket of puppies?”
“Well.” Her leaf-green eyes rake over me as she smiles, her face shimmering like the sunset on the lake. “What can I say? I love dogs and I love rehabilitating injured, stubborn football players.” She nods and throws her hands in the air. “So the analogy came easily.”
“You calling me stubborn?” I twist the small towel in my hands, trying and failing to bite back a smile.
Her chin tilts up, challenging me. “Yes, I am. Tell me I’m wrong.”
A heat simmers between us, and I find myself wanting to take a step closer to her. “Maybe my stubbornness is a good thing, though.”
She sniffs out a laugh. “It can be a good thing, if you listen to me and do what I tell you to do. I can guarantee you a fifty percent reduction in pain if you follow my regimen of therapeutic exercises.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I can’t accept training services from a guest.” I say it definitively, like there’s some sort of rule against it.
There’s not. But I’ve had plenty of physical therapy to last a lifetime. It didn’t work, and I’m not going to try again.
“I’ll only be here four more days, Alec.” She shakes her head. “There’s no harm in accepting my help for four days.”
“Why do you want to help me?”
“Like I said, it’s a basket of puppies!”
“Nah.” My eyes narrow. “There’s more to it than that.”
She swallows hard. “I quit the Wolves a few days ago. There were some…things going on there that made it impossible for me to stay another minute. I just need to…I just need to do this to feel better about that whole thing. To distract me.” Her eyebrows go up and she begins to smile. “Pretty please?”
“I’ll agree to it if you can do something for me.”
“What?”
“Engage in a little wager.”
Chapter 5
Oakley
I meant what I said about working with Alec for a few days. There’s something about it that feels redeeming in an odd way.
But a wager?
I don’t even want to be playing around with him. He’s everything that Brandt is: injured former player, bitter, impossible.
