What the hell just happened? Luke watched the sassy little therapist walk away from him. He’d been turned down twice. Once, as a patient and now as a man. She didn’t even try to work out the personal angle with him. That was new and pissed him off.
Work with another PT? His head hurt from dealing with the continued changes he’d been through in the three short days since his dreams had been altered. First Manny couldn’t work with him, now Lara. What next? He’d be damned if he’d be pawned off onto someone else just because she couldn’t handle a little flirting. Well, more than flirting, although he didn’t feel out of line considering their recent past.
Damn. He texted the driver he’d hired after the accident to let him know he was done sooner than expected. He’d call Blake from the car and see what could be done about hiring Lara on directly instead of contracting through the clinic.
He made his way down the hallway. When he passed the front desk Lara was nowhere in sight. He thought he heard yelling coming from one of the offices in the opposite direction. The receptionist was so flustered by the commotion in back that she didn’t see him approach the foyer. His driver came inside so he pushed the raised voices out of his mind and left.
Once he got into the back of his SUV a curtain of exhaustion came down and the thought of calling Blake became less urgent. Damn, he hated not being able to move about the world like he did before the collision. He couldn’t drive his cars or his now demolished motorcycle for who-knew-how-long, and now he had to deal with the bouts of weakness that overcame him at odd times of the day.
He was on the brink of nodding off on the drive home when his cell buzzed. It was Blake. His manager had just received a call from the rehab clinic informing him that Luke’s therapist would now be someone named Ted and he’d see him tomorrow at nine a.m.
Hell no. He wasn’t going to be pawned off on some second-string therapist and told Blake in no uncertain terms it wasn’t okay. If Lara couldn’t be his therapist then he wasn’t interested in using that clinic. He felt no guilt in acting like a three-year-old not getting his way, but dammit, his career was on the line and if Lara was the best they had, then that’s who he’d have.
Twenty minutes later he received another call from Blake. Lara had now cited she wouldn’t work with him for personal reasons. The clinic couldn’t change her mind. Would he reconsider his request? No, no, he wouldn’t. Damn. He’d never met a woman who was so damn headstrong.
His driver dropped him off and helped him to the door before he left. Prick probably had a hot date. Today was not turning out so well. He limped over to his liquor cabinet and paused. He couldn’t drink with the pain meds he’d been given. Yet another reason to be pissed off.
Well, he wasn’t going to sit here and deal with this alone. He’d call Maverick and tell him he’d take Kelsey’s offer of dinner tonight after all. Misery loved company.
Luke had managed to get himself showered and was pulling on a pair of sweat shorts when he heard Maverick bang on his front door. “Use your key, Mav!” Luke was getting better at using his crutches, but it still took him a while to make it to the front of the house where he found his friends carrying in takeout. Chinese, by the aroma hitting his senses, making his mouth water and stomach rumble.
“Hey, asshole. Why were you pounding when I gave you a key?”
“Forgot until Kelsey reminded me. Sue me. We’re feeding you. You’d think you’d be a little more grateful.”
Luke regretted his complaint and stood still while Mav and Kelsey carried the food into the dining room and set up the table for dinner. “Thanks, you two. I appreciate this. I really do. Sorry for the attitude. Had a rough day.”
“Yeah, so I hear,” Kelsey replied. She’d taken off her sandals and sat down and was piling his plate with egg foo yong and kung pao chicken. He tuned her out as soon as the food appeared. He couldn’t get to the table fast enough.
“I said, I hear you had a bad day, Luke. You want to talk about it?” she asked.
He managed to sit down and spoon a mouthful of food all in one motion without falling out of his chair or spilling his favorite dish on his shirt. Damn that’s good. “What? Sorry, Kelsey. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled this food. Thanks for bringing it.”
“You’re welcome. I’m not going to repeat myself for a third time, so I’m just going to say what I have to say and then we can enjoy dinner.”
Kelsey wasn’t eating. Neither was Maverick. He’d already taken another three bites before it sunk in that something was going on, and he had a sinking feeling it had to do with his interaction with Lara this morning. He put his fork down and took a drink of the bottled water Maverick had tossed to him.
“So, what’s up, Kelsey?”
“Lara was fired today, thanks to you.” She spoke calmly, yet he heard dangerous undercurrents in her tone.
“Whoa, hold on there. She turned down working with me. How does that get her fired? It was her choice.” Luke slammed his hand on his bad leg and winced.
“Serves you right, jerk face.”
“Jerk face? How am I a jerk face? I didn’t do anything that would get her fired, Kelsey. She walked out on our session and told me she would get another therapist to work with me because I made a pass at her.”
“Exactly.”
“Exactly, what?”
“She told me that Blake relayed to her boss that you refused to work with any other therapist and you would only work with Lara.”
“Yeah, so how does that make me the bad guy?”
“It makes you the bad guy, because she refused the second time and when her boss said she had to work with you, she argued with him, cussed him out, and got herself fired. All because of you . . . you fathead.”
“Hey, stop calling me names. Maverick, are you going to let her talk to me like that?”
“Why not? She’s right.”
“Wait, I thought she was planning on quitting that job anyway. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“The big deal is, no one wants to tell their potential or new boss that they were fired from their last job. This could jeopardize her dream job in Seattle, Luke. All because you’re acting like a spoiled, horny brat.”
Luke slowly wiped his mouth. “I thought I was doing her a favor, and I’m sorry to hear she lost her job because of me. But, you two are my friends and . . .” The look on Kelsey’s face stopped him.
She pointed her finger at him and lit into him. “You, at this moment, are not my friend. You are an employee of the organization I work for. And in my capacity I will do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t make any more dumbass decisions.”
“Hell, Luke, didn’t you give any thought to how selfish it is to make demands on someone who has told you—to your face, I might add—that she doesn’t want to work with you?” Mav asked.
Luke noticed Mav had started eating, while his own appetite had vanished. “I only thought she needed to cool down a bit. Maybe she’d feel differently if she knew how much I wanted her to be my therapist.”
“Tell me something, Luke. Why is it so important that Lara is your therapist?” Kelsey asked.
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked from her to Maverick. His best friend gave him a “don’t get me in the middle of this, you’re all on your own” shrug. Some friend.
Luke turned his attention back to Kelsey and answered as honestly as he could. “Because I like her.”
“Because you like her?” Kelsey threw back at him, her voice an octave higher.
“Well, yeah, and . . . I, well, I thought if we spent more time together she would see that I’m not such a player or a bad guy, and maybe . . .” He felt a flush travel up his neck and heat his face. Jeez, he felt like a teenager confessing his crush on a girl to his mother. He took a long drink from his water and finished his explanation before he chickened out. “I . . . ah, thought she’d be more than willing to, you know, date me.”
Maverick began laughing and Kelsey continued to look at him like he had two heads. He felt like an idiot and wanted this conversation over. “Look, let’s just drop it, okay? I’ll call her and apologize for . . . everything. And you both can forget what I just told you.” He rose carefully from the table.
“Sit!” Kelsey ordered.
Damn. Now she had her mom voice in full throttle. He may have deserved some of her anger, but he wasn’t used to being reprimanded for his behavior and it stung to think she thought poorly of him.
“Luke Garibaldi, are you telling me that all of this bravado was because you want to date Lara? As in more than ‘hey, baby, how about you and I hit the sheets’ kind of dating?”
“Maybe. Yeah. I guess so.” He didn’t want to tell Kelsey that all he had on his mind was getting back between Lara’s thighs, so he let her think he may want more. Luke rubbed the back of his neck and eyed his plate. He couldn’t resist the food so he might as well finish his dinner while she grilled him. He picked up his fork and dug into the now cold, but still delicious egg foo yong.
“Hmm . . . interesting.”
Maverick jumped in at that point. He’d already finished his meal. “I could have told you that, Doll Face. Our boy Luke has had the hots for your bestie for quite a while now.”
“Well, I knew he’d tried back at our engagement party, but I thought you’d moved on. I had no idea you were looking for something . . . more.”
Luke spoke under his breath. “Neither did I. And she didn’t turn me down. That night, I mean.”
“What do you mean, ‘that night?’ Are you telling me something’s already happened between you and Lara?”
Uh-oh. Looks like Lara hadn’t kissed and told her best friend about them. He looked at Kelsey in a new light. Maybe he’d been playing this all wrong. Maybe he shouldn’t have been pleading his case to Lara’s best friend all along.
Luke finished off his water and thought it over. He’d blown it with Lara, that was for sure, but if he played it right with Kelsey, perhaps she’d help him figure out how to get Lara to give him a second chance.
“If you’d come to me in the first place, Luke, all this could have been avoided. I happen to know how Lara thinks about you, or I’m pretty sure I know. Anyway, maybe it’s not too late. Although there is the fact that she’s probably moving to Seattle at the end of the summer. You sure you want to start something that’s only going to end in a couple of months?”
Okay, now she was in his head. Kinda scary. Luke didn’t dare interrupt. He could see the wheels spinning in her eyes. She had now switched back to friend mode, thank god.
She tapped her nails on the dining room table and took a sip of her wine. “I think I know what to do. If you’re sincere in wanting to find out if there’s a possibility you and Lara could be together, beyond just a night or a month of great sex, I’m willing to help you out.”
She began to smile in that way women do when given a matchmaking challenge and it made Luke just a little nervous. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything to her.
“Do you trust me, Luke?”
He hesitated just a moment and slid a glance toward Maverick for courage. Sure, why the hell not. Couldn’t be worse than Lara hating him, as he suspected she probably did, after getting fired.
“What do you have in mind?”