Page 70 of Love Me Gently

“Well, that’s lovely to hear, sweetheart. And there’s no rush, you know. Your physical health comes first, but of course it’d be good for you to talk to someone who can help when you’re ready. Or when you think you might be getting there. I’ll get the list to you as soon as we’re off the phone. I assume you’re calling from a cell?”

“Yes. I am. Cole got it for me.”

“Good. I’ll text it right over, but while I have you, how about we talk about the rest of your injuries. Are you doing your therapy? For your knee?”

We spoke for a while. She went back over the exercises, movement, and pain I should be experiencing and reminded me to wear the brace as much as I felt comfortable, but not to rely on it. She skipped over the reason for my call so smoothly, I almost forgot I’d even asked for it until we hung up, and a few minutes later my phone dinged with a text.

I jumped at the sound, and then laughed at myself as I pulled it up.

There it was.

Lists of doctors as close as the first neighboring town, and then more in Boone, and some even further away who could do virtual.

A step.

I’d taken a step, and somehow, it felt like a leap.

The day crawled by,but it wasn’t the same kind of crawl it’d been for the last couple of weeks. Or the last few years, really. There wasn’t dread in the waiting, and somehow, there’d been a lightness to it. Once I got off the phone with the doctor, I did my exercises like she’d suggested. I spent the rest of the day in front of the television. My days with Jonathan hadn’t been extremely busy, but I’d always had certain things to do that were expected of me. Long since retired from modeling at his demand, he’d insisted the house was spotless and that I managed everything else. There were days I’d spend with Valerie, and time I’d spend attending events for him. Exercising was always planned into my day, and without all the structure and the fear of him jumping out of every dark corner, I wandered around Cole’s house lost.

He clearly cleaned, so there wasn’t much to do. I did a load of my own laundry, and though his mom offered to come back and spend time with me, I declined. Surely, she had things to do other than babysit me.

Which was fine.

But it left me alone all day, and without a whole lot else to do, I helped myself to a canned soup for lunch, and then scoured his fridge and pantry for something I could make for dinner. Last night’s heavy lasagna dinner meant I had to take it easy the next few days, but he had spinach and chicken, so at least there was something.

I prepared that to thaw and then turned on his television. I flipped through his streaming services, thankful I could figure everything out on my own, and was in the middle of an episode ofBridgerton, when my phone rang.

Cole’s name popped up, and I grabbed the phone.

“Hello?”

“How’s it going? Having a good day?” he asked, as if it was impossible for anyone to have a bad day.

I shook off the weirdness, the fact I hadn’t had a good day in a decade. “It’s okay. I...um… I called the doctor earlier?—”

“What? What’s wrong? Did you get hurt?”

Of course he’d assume the worst. “No. It’s that I um, I threw away the therapist list a while ago, so I had her resend it to me.”

“Oh.” At first, I swore there was disappointment, but when he spoke again, his voice was deeper. Softer. “Good, Trina. That’s really good. Proud of you.”

“Thanks.” A lump swelled in my throat, and I bit down on the inside of my cheek. “How, um…how’s your day?”

“Not bad. Things will pick up soon with tourists and snow. Listen.” He cleared his throat in a way I knew he wasn’t gearing up to share good news, and my chest tightened. “I forgot about this, but Robbie called me today. He and I were supposed to go hang out tonight.”

Robbie. I could picture the man…at least the eighteen-year-old version of him. Probably dressed in work boots, tight jeans, and a thick flannel, he’d been close to Cole’s size, but had a more boyish, rounded face when we were kids.

“Oh. Well, okay.” Because he could hang out with Robbie whenever he wanted.

“I was wondering how you’d feel if they came over. I haven’t said anything,” he said quickly. “But I thought, dinner with my parents went well, and one of their parents can watch their kids. It’d be chill. Pizza or something, and there’s a football game on, so…”

I let him trail off and clung to the silence through the phone. He wanted this. It was obvious. And yet if I said no, he’d meet Robbie at a bar, probably Max’s Tavern or somewhere newer. Maybe at a place I didn’t know existed and held no memories for me, but a lifetime for both of them.

“I almost called her today,” I admitted to Cole. “Stared at her number for the longest time, and then I couldn’t…”

I’d thought of her though, so many times over the years. She was furious with me when I broke up with Cole and didn’t understand why. She was only one in a hundred people who would never know my darkest secrets.

“She’d be happy to see you,” Cole said. There was that soft tone again. Coaxing.

---