Page 4 of Necessary Roughness

Chapter Two

TANNER STARED AT the physical therapist who looked like a Disney princess with a day job. She wore a logo-stamped polo shirt and a pair of warm-up pants. The top of her head wouldn’t brush his shoulder. She stood on tiptoes to look into his eyes, and he could have sworn she was bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. Her sunlight-streaked auburn hair was secured in a high ponytail. Delicately shaped eyebrows and long, dark lashes framed big forget-me-not blue eyes, and a few light brown freckles dusted the bridge of her perfectly proportioned nose. They were the only imperfection he could see on her flawless skin. Her perfect teeth flashed white when she smiled. There was a dimple in her determined little chin too. Dammit. If all that wasn’t enough to get his heart rate up, her mouth could bring any guy to his knees, and it had nothing to do with the words emerging from it.

He could imagine many things he’d like to do to and with her mouth, none of which involved G-rated movies. He wished he could be on another planet right now, though—preferably one she wasn’t also inhabiting. He wasn’t sure why, but her innocent facial expression and sweet little voice were already under his skin. He realized he was having a bad day and maybe he should cut her some slack, but she was so goddamn perky. She smiled at him like she meant it.

Not today. He’d like to think he could handle this, but he’d already (seemingly) scared the hell out of the receptionist. It wasn’t looking good for him, and he’d better make more of an effort to act like an adult instead of an angry bear with a sticker in its paw.

Jordan looked like she should be wearing some gauzy, filmy ball gown or something in blue that matched her eyes while sitting on a blanket in the sun-drenched woods somewhere. She would talk to the birds while they sang for her. Maybe a fawn or two could be drinking out of a stream nearby. There would be wildflowers. And she’d laugh while puppies gamboled in the grass next to her: yellow Labs, who didn’t chew a damn thing in her cottage in the forest, gave licks with abandon, and knew what sit and stay meant.

Maybe the pain meds were eroding his powers of reasoning. He was obviously hallucinating.

He wanted to work with a guy. Someone who would give him shit so he wouldn’t cry like a little bitch over how painful things were going to get when he did the exercises he’d been assigned and the physical therapist dreamed up some more. He could pretend like he cared about discussing anything else but the pain he was about to encounter five mornings a week. He wanted a guy who didn’t want to make small talk about kitty videos or whatever it was women like Jordan chatted with their clients about while they put them through hell for an hour a day. A guy who would talk to him about the game and how he was buying a new and bigger backyard grill for summertime no matter what his wife thought about that decision. After that, they could talk about beer and cars. He needed a distraction, and that distraction had to be anything but the woman who stood in front of him right now. The ability to explain all of this to her was beyond his abilities today, so he dug deep and went for his typical fallback: cranky.

He took a deep breath and recognized the scent of pears and some flower. He arranged his facial features into the fearsome scowl he’d employed to great advantage on many football fields over the years, but it didn’t seem to faze her at all.

“I have the same education and clinical experience as Marco does. My clients recover and move on with their lives,” she said. “I know what I’m doing.”

He was betting there wasn’t a man alive who could resist her, but he would. He had to. He didn’t want to spend his PT time grinding his teeth into dust while she enchanted a herd of mice or something.

“I was supposed to work with Marco. I want Marco. Not you,” he said.

“Marco was in a car accident the other day and will be out for a while. Your therapy can’t wait until he’s better.”

He’d already heard that from the receptionist, who was probably still curled in the fetal position under her desk. He’d better tell her he was sorry for being such a dick too. This day just kept getting better and better for him.

The woodland nymph cleverly disguised as a physical therapist said, “I’m with a client right now. If you’d be willing to wait, I can see you in half an hour.”

He’d rather stick a blowtorch up his ass. “I’ll hit the road and see you some other time.”

“This is her appointment—”

“Tanner,” Harrison said in a low voice. “Let’s get a coffee or something and come back in a few minutes.”

“I don’t want coffee. I’m getting another physical therapist.” He redoubled his frown. “Bye,” he told her.

“Maybe we could talk about your concerns when you come back,” she said in that sweet voice. She was doing her best to be cheerful and friendly to him, and he was not in the mood for that at all. He’d bite his tongue until it bled before he discussed his “concerns” with her. He was willing to bet that she was one of those women who would let one perfect tear shimmer on her lower lashes as she fixed her doe-shaped eyes on him again.

Harrison was looking at her like she held his heart in her small hand. She probably did.

“Not going to happen,” Tanner ground out.

“Come on, man,” Harrison said. He reached out to shake Jordan’s hand again and held it a bit too long. “It’s really great to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Her eyes sparkled as she glanced shyly up at Harrison. Harrison had obviously fallen in love with her on the spot. Just Tanner’s luck. “Sorry my friend is being an asshole today,” Harrison said.

Her lips curved into a soft smile, which matched the elation in her eyes. “He’s having a tough day,” she chirped.

Tanner hauled ass out of the business as fast as humanly possible. He dragged in a huge breath of pine-scented, rain-washed air when they stood on the sidewalk outside. Maybe his heart rate might go back to normal soon. “What the fuck was that?” he said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harrison said. “What’s your problem, bro?”

“I didn’t want to come here in the first place. You insisted. Then I get to deal with a physical therapist that’s one-third my size and looks like she just walked out of a fairy tale or something—”

“You’re into her, huh?”

“No,” Tanner burst out. “She bugs the crap out of me. She’s so—happy. Yeah. She doesn’t talk; she chirps.” He let go of the walker and waved his arms around for emphasis. “I don’t want happy. I want a guy. He’s not going to have a bouncy ponytail and try to get me to turn that frown upside down—”

He heard her voice behind him seconds later. “Here’s your upcoming appointments printout, Tanner. I’ll see you at eleven AM tomorrow.” She took another step forward and pressed the sheets of printer paper into his hands, smiled at him, and went back inside.

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