RUNNING GAME (A SECOND CHANCE SPORTS ROMANCE) (3 page)

I
n my quiet
nights alone during the last ten years, I’d imagined this moment happening a million times. I’d wished for it to happen and prayed for it not to, all at the same time. I’d thought about what I might say. The things I wouldn’t say. Questions I would ask. Answers I might receive.

And yet nothing had truly prepared me for the way I was feeling right now. I reminded myself that I was a professional. I reminded myself that I had no choice but to open the door in front of me, and that no amount of unexplained begging to Larry was going to get me out of it. I’d tried. Twice.

I had no choice but to face the demons of my past. Today. Right now. In patient room number three, the most luxurious physical therapy suite of the Steadman Hawkins clinic, my worst nightmare was waiting for me like a monster in a closet.

I’d taken this job a year ago, knowing in the back of my mind that if fate intervened, I might find myself in this predicament. And yet, I wanted the job so badly, that by the time of my second interview, I’d somehow disillusioned myself into thinking that the odds were in my favor.

Denver’s a big city,
I’d told myself. Hell, the United States is a big country.

If Jesse Colorado needed sports rehabilitation, he would have his pick of the best facilities in the entire world, right? The chances of him walking into the Steadman Hawkins clinic were slim

I’d been so wrong. So naive, so stupid, so disillusioned.

And now I was stuck.

Once again, I reminded myself I was a professional. I could do this. The past didn’t matter, that was all over. I wasn’t the timid little girl in a small town anymore.

I was a grown-ass woman, with talent, skills and a rigid backbone that had never let me down.

Jesse Colorado was just a dumb jock.

That’s all. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Nothing I couldn’t handle.

That’s what I kept repeating to myself, over and over, as I finally turned that door knob.

Dumb jock, dumb jock, dumb jock…

I
didn’t recognize
her at first. She walked in full of confidence and throwing clipped clinical terms at me while refusing to look me in the eye. I knew right away something about her was familiar, though…

The hair.

Those unruly black curls that stuck out every which way from her head, despite her best efforts to pull it back into a tight bun.

Maybe it was the stubborn set of her jaw.

Or her profile - the same profile I’d sat staring at for months while she’d tutored me so many years ago.

These things were all nagging at me far in the back of my mind as I tried to figure out where I knew her from. I tried to listen to whatever she was saying about my knee, something about a long treatment plan, but I was distracted right away.

When she finally met my gaze, it all clicked.

Those eyes! I’d never forget eyes like that, because nobody in the entire world had eyes like hers.

Grass green with golden, sparkling flecks.

“Dr. Green is the best in the city. He and I have created an extensive treatment plan for you, and if we follow it very strictly, you should be back on your feet in no time,” she nodded firmly as she finished her sentence, and that’s when she first looked at me.

I turned away and turned to Grady, who’d accompanied me to the clinic. Coach Fox had left him with strict instructions not to leave my side.

“Grady, can you excuse us, please?” He’d been standing stoically silent in the corner the entire time.

“Sure, boss. I’ll be right outside the door.” He walked out, closing the door softly behind me.

I turned back to the woman in front of me and smiled.

“Damn, it
is
you,” I said, shaking my head.

“Excuse me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Maisey, don’t be coy. We went to Highland High together.”

“Oh, we did, didn’t we? That was a long time ago,” she said curtly, tearing her eyes away and looking back at my chart. “I see here that you were hit on your left side —.”

“Oh, come on!” I said, laughing.

“What?” she asked, still refusing to look at me, her eyes glued to the clipboard in her hand.

“Maisey,” I whispered. “Don’t act like you don’t know me.”

Slowly, she raised her eyes and I was blessed with those golden flecks again.

“Sorry,” she said, her voice even shorter than earlier. “Hello, Jesse. Yes, we went to school together. I just didn’t think you’d remember me,” she shrugged. “We hardly knew each other.”

“What!” I scoffed. “That’s not true!”

“Well, that’s how I remember it. Didn’t I do some tutoring for you or something briefly?” she dragged her eyes away again, turning her back to me completely this time as she sat my file on a cabinet in the corner and studied it.

“Well, yes,” I replied, smiling at her back as I remembered those times so very long ago. “I think we did a little
more
than tutoring, though.”

“Did we?” she murmured dismissively, her voice cool and calm. “I don’t recall.”

Wow.
Well, that hurts
, I thought. How could she not remember? I remembered every last second… I took a second to look away from her, my mind drifting back.

“
J
esse
, you really need to pull these grades up if you want that scholarship.”

The recruiter from Colorado State had taken me and my parents out to dinner and while he was being honest, I hated what he was saying. If I could spend the rest of my life playing on the field, then I’d be happy. Instead, I had to learn about shit that didn’t interest me to do what I loved.

But then Maisey had shown up to my house, hand picked by my biology teacher to tutor me. She’d been so quiet, so studious, so shy - and for some reason that made me like her more. I wanted to draw her out, see what she was all about.

Her hair stuck out from her head, forming a lush halo around her head. Her green eyes flashed with excitement when she spoke, even if her words were quiet and measured. I hated biology, and somehow she’d made it interesting. She’d use football analogies and funny little anecdotes to help me remember things. After a few sessions with her, I was excited to spend time with her.

We spent more time laughing together than we did working, but with her help, I’d managed to bring my grades up and pass all my finals - which eventually meant I got that scholarship. I couldn't have done any of it without her.

One day we were alone in my room, and one thing led to another. I kissed her like I’d been fantasizing doing for days, and then we’d melted into each other and made love. It was the first time I’d had sex where I hadn’t felt like I didn’t really know what I was doing. It was so natural, so easy, so right.

When I found out she didn’t have a date to the prom, I asked her to go with me. I was falling for her hard.

I didn’t care what any of my friends thought about it.

Maisey wasn’t one of the cool kids.

But to me, she was better than all of them.

I’d looked forward to that night so much.

“
D
o
you remember standing me up for prom?” I asked, staring at her back. It was a nice view. Where she was all angles and sharp turns before, she’d become curvy and feminine. Her shoulders stiffened at my mention of prom, but she still didn’t turn around.

“Standing you up? I don’t think we ever really set anything in stone, did we?” she asked, finally turning around and looking at me again.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m not. Seriously, Mr. Collins, I don’t remember much from high school. It was a long time ago.”

“Not
that
long. For fuck’s sake…” I muttered. “Call me Jesse.”

“Right. Jesse,” she nodded. “Now, about your treatment plan…”

She rattled on and on about torn ligaments and the importance of keeping my knee active by exercising it, but I wasn’t really listening.

I was thinking back to that night so long ago. I’d never been so humiliated in my life when she’d stood me up. My friends never let me live it down. The jock of all jocks being stood up by the nerdy girl from biology class… Some of those bastards
still
liked to bring it up every now and then when they were particularly hell-bent on ribbing me and running low on material.

“
D
on’t look
like she’s showing up,” Tom, the manager of the gas station said. I’d been sitting on the hood of my cherry red Ford Mustang waiting for Maisey to show up for half an hour already. The sweltering heat was punctuated by the bow tie that was practically strangling me while I waited.

Maisey had insisted I meet her at the gas station instead of picking her up at home. I’d protested, we’d argued about it, and she won. I checked my watch again before jumping back in my car and heading to her house anyway.

When I’d gotten there, I found the front door wide open and Clyde passed out on the couch. I was dying of thirst because of the heat, and after calling Maisey’s name, I went to the fridge and opened it, hoping for a bottle of water or something.

Instead, I found Maisey’s note saying she’d left. I walked into her room and saw that everything had been cleared out, except that one white dress hanging in the empty closet like a scene from a bad movie.

I’d gone to the prom alone, been crowned King and at the last minute, in Maisey’s absence, the Student Council had finally decided to make Barbara Simmons, the head cheerleader, into Prom Queen. I’d endured countless questions that I didn’t have the answers to, so I told everyone the joke was on them, that I never meant to take Maisey Jayne, of all people, to the prom.

I told them I wanted to go alone, that it was a joke all along, just to save face.

But inside? I was dying of embarrassment. The goddamned King doesn’t go to prom alone…

I
’d never heard
another word from Maisey, but after thinking about it for years, I’d come to the conclusion that she left for reasons that had nothing to do with me. Hell, if I lived in that shitty trailer, I’d have left too.

“Rehabilitation will be extensive and frankly, exhausting. In addition to traditional methodologies, we’ll be doing acupuncture, aquatic therapy, cold-laser therapy —,” she was still rattling on, and now I was staring back at her, studying her to see how she’d changed.

As far as I could tell, the years had been good to her.

Real good.

“Are you married?” I interrupted.

“What?” she asked, her eyes widening.

“I was just wondering what happened to you. You disappeared off the face of the Earth, embarrassed the hell out of ol’ teenaged me, and I never heard from you again. What have you been doing with yourself?”

“Oh. Well, this is it,” she replied. “Been going to school, trying to become the best PT I can be.”

“You must be great if you’re working here.”

“I try.”

“So, you’ll be working with me? The whole time?” I asked.

“Yes, Mr. Collins,” she nodded.

“Maisey, stop calling me Mr. Collins, for fuck’s sake.” I wanted to remind her that my cock had been inside of her, but I refrained, because she was so uptight that she’d probably explode.

“Right. Sorry. Jesse,” she replied.

“Looks like we’re going to get a lot of time to get reacquainted, huh?” I asked, my eyes raking over her curves.

“Look, Jesse. I’m here to help you get better,” she snapped. “That’s all. We don’t need to waste time talking about the past.”

“Wow, you’ve become quite serious, haven’t you?” I mused. I could have sworn I saw a slight blush creep into her cheeks, and it surprised me how much it pleased me that I’d gotten to her, even if it was a small victory.

“I take my job very seriously. Let’s just get started, shall we?” she said, clipping her words.

“Sure, baby, whatever you want.”

“Don’t call me baby. Please.” She turned around and put her hand on the door handle, before turning back to me. “Actually, Mr. Coll —
Jesse
— I’m going to need to do an exam. Please take off your clothes and put on the gown lying there on the chair. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

She was gone before I could comment, which was too bad because I really wanted to make a joke about her asking me to get naked. Instead, my laughter echoed behind her in the empty room.

Maybe this rehab thing wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

“
I
don’t understand
the problem, Maisey,” Larry said, his voice growing increasingly full of annoyance. This was the third time I’d asked him to take me off Jesse’s case.

“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I have. I don’t think I’ll be able to do the best job for him.”

“That’s nonsense. You’re the best in your field. You’ve brought athletes back from worse injuries, you’ll be just fine. I don’t know why you’re so upset about this,” he said, shaking his head, “any other woman would be jumping at the chance to work on Jesse Colorado’s body.”

“Larry, that’s so unprofessional,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

“We’ve already established I’m not the most professional guy in the building, haven’t we?”

I sighed, completely defeated. There’s no way in hell I was going to tell Creepy Larry why I didn’t want to spend another minute in the room with Jesse.

“Alright, fine, then I don’t want to be alone in the room with him.”

“What? Why not? Are you afraid he’s going to assault you or something? That seems out of character. Maisey, is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“No! No I’m not afraid of him, I just - just - oh god, never mind, Larry.”

“Well, you know we’re short-handed. I don’t really have anyone I can spare for the long sessions he’s going to require, and there isn’t a damn person in the building better suited to making Jessie ready for the next football season. In fact, I’m taking you off all your other cases, so you can focus on him. You’re going to have to just buck up and handle this, Maisey. Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” I relented, sighing again.

“Maisey, when I hired you last year, I had the utmost confidence you were the right person for this job,” he said, peering into my eyes. “I hope you don’t make me regret that decision.”

Fuck!
Maddy’s face flashed in my head, reminding me that I couldn’t afford to lose this job.

“No, Larry, it’s fine. I’ll deal with it. Forget I said anything, okay?”

“Good,” he nodded, “make sure you do the best job you can, Maisey,” his voice growing serious. “A lot is riding on this. Not to pressure you, but bringing the golden boy of Colorado back to full form could bring us a lot of great press.”

“I understand,” I nodded, standing to leave as I hid my shaking hands from his view. I had to figure this one out by myself. I had no choice.

And I knew, after my brief visit with him earlier, that Jesse wasn’t going to make it easy on me.

I walked back to his room, determined to keep my guard up, no matter how much he tried to penetrate it.

I knew how he worked. He’d worked his charms on me once before, but I wasn’t going to let it happen again.

I nodded to the big guy he’d called Grady who was still standing outside of his door like a pit-bull on guard duty and knocked quietly on Jesse’s door and walked in. He was standing by the window leaning on his crutches with his back to me, looking out the window.

The hospital gown opened in the back, giving me a perfect view of his bare ass.

“Oh!” I said, turning around quickly and covering my eyes. “You should have left your underwear on! I’m sorry, I guess I should have said that.”

“I don’t wear underwear,” he said, “unless I’m on the field.”

“Please turn around,” I asked, shaking my head as I stared at the wall and feeling a wave of heat rise to my cheeks.

“Already did,” he replied.

Slowly, I looked over my shoulder, just to make sure he wasn’t lying. He’d sat down on the treatment table, his long bare legs hanging over the side.

“Okay,” I said, turning to face him. “Next time, you should wear comfortable clothes, work out clothes, or something you can move around in, and um…underwear.”

“I came here straight from the hospital,” he shrugged, flashing those blue eyes at me. It was so hard to look right into them.

They were so blue, so familiar. Too familiar.

“Okay, so today I’m going to do an exam and we’ll go over your treatment plan,” I said, getting right to business and picking up the clipboard I’d left lying on the counter earlier. I buried my nose in it and kept going, full steam ahead. The faster I finished this, the faster I could get out of here. “I’ll have some questions for you. Let me know if you have any for me.”

“I already did,” he said, a crooked smile spreading across his handsome face. He was so much more handsome than I remembered. And even better looking than he was on television. He’d filled out, turned into a man. He wasn’t that same cocky lanky teen that he’d been back then. Now, he was a cocky, ripped, muscled masterpiece.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“I asked you a question. I asked if you were married. You didn’t answer. I don’t see a ring, so I’m guessing not.”

“Oh!” I replied. “Right. No, not married.”

“A girl like you? I can’t believe you’re single.”

“So,” I said, completely ignoring his comment. “You were hit by a car going how fast?”

“I was told the asshole was going about 35 miles per hour around the corner.”

“And the impact was completely on your left side?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Boyfriend?”

“What?” I asked, looking up from my clipboard.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” he said. His hair fell over his forehead and I couldn’t help but stare at it, wonder how soft it would be if I reached out to touch it.

“Mr. Collins, I —,” I began.

“—Jesse! Come on, Maisey, you act like we barely know each other!”

“Jesse. I’m not here to answer personal questions. I meant, you can ask me anything about the treatment plan, or the services we provide here. I’m not at liberty to discuss my personal life.”

“
At liberty?
God, Maisey, when did you become so uptight?” he asked.

“I’m not uptight!” I demanded.

“Sure, whatever,” he replied. “So you aren’t going to tell me if you have a boyfriend? Maybe you have a girlfriend?” he winked.

“No!” I replied, doing my damnedest not get flustered. “I don’t think those questions are appropriate.”

“Okay, I get it, you’re at work. You’re obviously very driven. You don’t want to fuck up your good job, I get it. I can respect that. How about we get a drink later tonight? Catch up on old times?” he flashed that grin at me again and I averted my eyes as fast as I could. If I didn’t see it, I couldn’t be affected by it, right? Wrong. My knees were quivering at this point and my hands were shaking even more than they had been in Larry’s office earlier.

“No, that won’t be - no, thank you, Jesse.” I shook my head vigorously.

“Wow, you’re a tough sell, aren’t you?” he murmured.

“Back to you,” I said, my voice annoyingly high-pitched and squeaky. I cleared my throat and started again, flipping through his chart so I could keep avoiding those eyes. “Your injuries are listed here. Torn ACL in the left knee, severe contusion of the upper thigh, hip and lower back, and - um - and —,” I stuttered, blinking at the words in front of me. This couldn’t be right.

“And a groin sprain,” he finished for me, opening his thighs wide on the table and pointing between his legs at his very naked genitalia. My heart skipped a beat and I swallowed hard and nodded, looking away as fast as I could.

“Right. A severe groin sprain.”

“Does it say it’s severe?” he asked. “It feels severe. It’s all swollen and bruised. You should take a closer look,” he said, spreading his legs wider and laying back on the bed, completely exposing his entire package.

I couldn’t believe him.
Did I want to take a closer look?
I never wanted to look away…

“I’m being serious here Maisey. If we’re going to have a doctor patient relationship I need you to look at this groin sprain.”

“No, that’s fine, you can um…you know what?” I asked. “I think we’re done here for the day. I’ve got a list of all your issues, I’ll take a look and tomorrow we’ll start fresh after I develop a more extensive treatment plan for you.”

His laughter was mocking, but I ignored it, saying a little silent prayer that he’d closed his legs and sat up before I looked at him again.

“You sure? You didn’t really exam me.”

“That’s okay. I can get everything I need from your hospital records for now.”

“If you say so…” he said. “You’re the expert.”

“Yes, I do,” I nodded, forcing myself to look back at him, making sure to only look him in the eye this time.

“I have complete confidence we can restore your knee to its full potential. Tonight, I want you to stay off of it and keep it elevated as much as possible. Tomorrow, we’ll start some gentle stretching and electrical stimulation.”

“Sounds kinky,” he joked, winking at me suggestively.

“No, actually electrical stimulation is a type of electric current therapy that has proven to be eff—,” I began.

“I know what electric stim is, Maisey,” he replied. “It was a joke.”

“Oh, right,” I replied. “A joke.”

I tore my gaze away from his again. This was all too much to take in all at once.

Jesse Colorado was a man best experienced in small doses. For me, even the most minuscule exposure was threatening to take me down. I had my job cut out for me, that’s for sure.

“Jesse,” I continued, turning away and heading for the door, “thank you for choosing Steadman Hawkins for your rehabilitation needs.”

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, right?” he asked.

His question caught me off guard. Indeed we were. I spent so much time with my patients, that sometimes we got to know each other very well. It was one of the aspects that I enjoyed about my job.

This time, it just might be the death of me.

“Yes,” I replied, stopping to face him.

“Then you’d better stop being so goddamned formal with me, Maisey Jayne. I’m just messing with you. Lighten up. We come from the same place. That makes us friends, at the very least.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jesse,” I replied, opening the door and walking out, my heart beating so loudly, I was sure he could hear it.