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“Like running the bases?” Mason sat up straighter, and his face brightened.
I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. I’d stay out of this argument.
An exasperated huff left the doctor’s mouth. “No. No impact. Walking only. To get your heart rate up. Like a stroll around the harbor.”
Unsurprisingly, Mason’s mouth instantly turned down into a frown.
“You gotta start somewhere, Mason,” I reminded him. “We’ll go together.”
Bowing his head, he laced his fingers in front of him. “I just miss having the outlet. Not playing makes me antsy.”
My heart ached at his admission. I had to remind myself that his surly attitude was justified. He lived his life for the game, and now we were telling him he had to wait longer to get back to it.
“It’s common for athletes to miss the adrenaline rush.” Dr. Anderson looked up from his notes. “What do you do in the offseason to deal with it?”
Mason put his hands on the bench on either side of him and shifted, keeping his chin tucked. “Pickup basketball, trivia night…sex.”
The doctor chuckled. “No basketball yet, but either of the other two would be fine.” Then he turned to look at me. “It would be okay for you to head home for the night if he’s got a date. Just come back in the morning.”
This was all relatively routine. Athletes usually asked about sex pretty quickly after an injury. Typically, I didn’t think much of it. But in this moment? Though it wasn’t fair or reasonable, my heart raged at the idea of Mason going on a date. He and I were nothing more than athlete and trainer, so I had no right to be upset.
“Sure.” I nodded at the doctor. “No problem. I’ll make sure I’m out of the way.”
In my periphery, Mason gritted his teeth, but I kept my attention averted, hoping he couldn’t see the way this conversation had affected me.
“Great.” Dr. Anderson snapped the chart shut. “Then I’ll see you in two days.” He shook Mason’s hand. “Call me if you need anything, Rory.”
I nodded again, and then he was gone.
Mason crossed his arms over his navy T-shirt, finally garnering my attention. “Do you really think I’d send you home so I could hook up with some random girl?”
I took a deep breath, ignoring the lancing pain in my chest. “Athletes tend to have higher-than-average sex drives. To help deal with the frustration of injury, it’s common to use sex as a release.”
He pushed off the examination bench and stood only inches from me, forcing me to look up at him. The scent of his pine cologne hit my nose just as the heat of his body wrapped around me and made my core clench. He wasn’t touching me, but he might as well have been.
“That’s all true. But you’re forgetting one important detail, Aurora.”
I fought the shiver that threatened to run down my spine at the sound of my name on his lips, but there was no stopping the goose bumps that broke out on my arms.
He noticed the reaction. Of course he did. And he ran a finger along my pebbled skin from my wrist to my elbow, making my heart rate pick up speed.
“There is only one woman stuck in my head.” His jade green eyes burned into my own, and the air between us thrummed. “So there is no way I could touch anyone else.”
I sucked in a quick breath. No matter how much physical and figurative space I’d tried to put between us over the last few days, this heavy level attraction had continued to hover like a fog. I was locked in his sights, helpless to escape this ensnarement.
But with a blink, he stepped back and cleared his throat, and the tether between us slackened.
“So let’s go for a fucking walk.” Mason yanked his Boston Bolts hat off the exam table and pulled it low over his eyes. Then he headed toward the exam room door and held it open for me.
It was a gorgeous June day. The air wasn’t too hot or muggy, but it was warm enough to spend the day outside in short sleeves.
We’d been walking in silence for a solid ten minutes before I worked up the nerve to speak. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.” He roughed a hand over his jaw and tugged his hat down low again. “I’m just frustrated. Usually, I take all this out on the field, so not being out there only makes it that much harder.” He shook his head. “And as much as I say my head is good. I’m not in a place where I could win at bar trivia yet either, so that would just annoy me.”
That I understood, he didn’t even lose at cards well. I had thrown the last few games in an effort to keep him chill.
“Want to check out the zoo?” He nodded at the sign for the Boston Zoo ahead.
