Page 40 of Off Limits PUCK

The siblings stop arguing right away. Kenzie looks relieved, but Jake looks cautiously at me. Kenzie comes over to give me a hug.

“You tell him, Allie. He won’t listen to me.” She crosses her arms, then goes to the kitchen, calling out that she’s getting wine.

I’m left alone with Jake.

“You came back,” he says, that guarded look still on his face.

“Yeah. I’m not going to leave anyone stranded and in pain. Lay down, face down, on the couch. And take your shirt off. I want to see that shoulder.” I hold up my go-bag. “I brought tools. This is purely professional.”

The fact that I added that last part means that the option to be anything but professional is still on the table, so to speak. I press my lips together. Jake gives me a grateful look that melts me.

I reach out to help him pull his shirt off and the severity of his grimace in moving his shoulder isn’t lost on me.

“You’re still suffering every day, aren’t you?” I ask softly.

When his shirt is off, I can see visible swelling along his shoulder blade. I cluck my tongue as he lays down. I open my bag and pull out my tools of my trade. An ointment that gets cold and then hot is my first application. I work it into his skin gently, using techniques I’d been trained on in the past and also some new techniques I learned from working on Caitlin’s shoulder. She was very verbose in her feedback, unlike Jake’s stoic silence. So I picked up a few new ways to manipulate the tissue to relieve pain.

“I’m going to Daniel’s house for the night,” Kenzie announces brightly.

Things between her and Daniel haven’t been too terribly hot, but he’s stable and has ended up treating her very well. She’s not in love, but she does enjoy the way he pampers her. I frown a little bit.

“I’m sorry, Kenz. This whole night has not at all been the way we planned.” I keep my hand on Jake’s naked back, putting pressure on the inflammation, feeling his muscles relax under my hand.

She looks between Jake and me and says one of her rare but profound statements that reveals she’s not all shallowness and immaturity—two things I love about her. “I think this is exactly how tonight was supposed to play out. My two favorite people in the world have been hating each other for months, not talking and not working anything out together. But now, you sort of have to.” She shrugs. “I think this is fate. I’m leaving and I won’t be back until tomorrow late morning.”

She points to Jake and then to me. “I don’t want either one of you leaving this place until you make up. Even if you never date each other for real, you have to be friends. And Jake, forget about that yoga retreat you have planned for Christmas. I think you should spend the holiday with our family. Enough of all of us just running away and doing whatever we want.” She raises her eyebrows as if she’s pleased with herself for being a sage.

Jake just grunts and turns his face away. But I smile at her. She turns on her heel and leaves.

“I hate when she gets preachy,” Jake grumbles.

I dig my finger into his shoulder on purpose, making him yelp.

“That’s for dismissing my bestie’s wise words. And what is this I hear—a yoga retreat?” I laugh.

He tells me about how he’s been doing hot yoga for his shoulder and the pain has been manageable. Then he tells me about Maria—about all of them that he can think of. I listen as he givesme the highlights and why that lifestyle isn’t what he wants. It almost seems too good to be true. Almost.

Before I know it, he’s sitting up and I’m facing him, one of my legs on the outside of each of his thighs. I’m not in his lap, but I’m close to it. I confess about my eavesdropping and exactly what I heard. And I tell him how my life as the PT for the basketball team has been.

If ever info dumping could feel good, this was it. I want to know everything. I want to know Jake. I realize that while I have gotten to know his body; I have never really gotten to knowhim. I am starving for all the missing pieces of who he is. And I feel he is starving to know the same about me, too.

His fingers caress my arm, lightly running up and down the skin there. I smile at him, more comfortable in his presence than I’ve ever been.

“I’m glad we are clearing the air, but that doesn’t really change anything for us in reality, does it?” I say with a tinge of sadness in my voice.

He quirks a grin at me, using his good arm to reach out to cup my face. “You mean…there could still be an ‘us’?”

I take my time answering him, thinking of all the explanations he just gave me. Then, I make up my mind. “Yes. I think there could be.” I look at him seriously. “In the future.”

His face falls. “I don’t get it. Coach sent you away so that you could have a career far away from me. You love the job. And now that you’re not working for the Eagles, we can date, right?”

I shake my head. “No. The media asked you about me specifically. That means that they are aware of the team’s PTs. If we start to date now, it’ll look like we did it secretly before, then I left, and now we’re doing it publicly. It’ll feel slimy to me.”

“Do we care what the media thinks?” He has his hands on my hips now, pulling me onto his lap.

I give in to my desires and let my body press against his, his muscled torso solid and strong. His hands run up and down my back, then inch up my shirt. The feel of his fingers against my skin sets my heart on fire. We never lost the sizzle of attraction, despite the months apart.

I am barely aware that my hips have started moving against his. It’s natural, instinctive, perfect. He leans in to kiss me, his lips warm and soft and full.

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