Page 65 of Ace My Heart

“Stink, why would we be together? She lives in Melbourne. Ikind of like to see the woman I’m dating on a regular basis.” He grinned, but his eyes looked serious.

“The only girl you see on a regular basis lately is me,” I muttered, shifting uncomfortably. It was just my back making me feel uncomfortable. It wasn’t the way Joel was staring at me.

“Yeah, but Stinky you hardly count, do you?”

I felt a pang in my chest at his words. “Well, gee thanks, Joel, for making a girl feel special!”

Joel put his hand on my knee, his fingers gently tickling at the inside of my thigh. “I can make you feel special if you like, Stinky,” he suggested, staring bedroom eyes at me.

I brushed his hand away. “Don’t be gross!”

Joel laughed. “Hey, at least I stopped you thinking about your back for a minute,” he said, and I sighed.

Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction. If I heard those three words again in my life, I thought I would scream.

“I picked it when I saw the MRIs!” Joel had crowed a week ago when we’d gotten the official diagnosis from the physiotherapist.

“Hope you got good odds on that on Sportsbet,” I’d muttered.

I’d been poked, prodded, zapped with electrodes and strapped with enough tape to keep a BDSM club in business for a month. I’d been ordered to rest for forty-eight hours and had spent the following week working on stretches and strengthening.

I was well and truly over it, and ready to get back into training. I had to be match fit in time for Madrid at the end of April.

Joel was stretching my hamstring. This was his favourite – me on my back, one leg straight in the air, him leaning his body against it. He looked down at me with such wicked delight that I flushed.

“How’s that hammy, Stink? Nice and loose? Let me check.” He placed his hand at the back of my knee, running it slowly towards my butt. There was no need for him to check as thoroughly as he was.

I dug my nails into my palms; I had to distract myself from the way his touch made me clench … everywhere.

“I think it’s plenty loose, thanks Joel,” I managed. He smirked and released me. I sat up, rotating my shoulders to loosen them.

“Now, Stinky, we’ve got a date with a sick little girl today.”

“Oh? That Natalie kid?”

Joel nodded, holding his hand out to me. I looked at it for a second, then took it and he pulled me to my feet, caressing my fingers before letting me go. I flexed my fingers surreptitiously by my side and followed him upstairs.

Joel’s BMW pulled up into the car park at Frankwright Children’s Hospital, and he cut the engine. He reached into the back seat and grabbed one of my tennis racquets. I looked at him curiously.

“This is the one you used in the final at Indian Wells. I thought it might be nice if you gave it to Natalie.”

I smiled at Joel. “Wow, that’s actually a very sweet idea – I’m surprised!”

Joel winked. “I have my moments.”

We found Natalie in the garden. There were a lot of kids there, many with bald heads, their eyes looking like they’d seen too much of the world for their age. Some of them were playing, but most of them were sitting quietly.

I felt my eyes misting up at the thought of the things these kids were missing out on because they were too sick. Like Natalie. By the time I was twelve I was already competing in junior tournaments around Australia. While I hated to think it, she was probably never going to have a chance to compete professionally. She’d lost that chance to cancer.

But it wasn’t like I was about to say that to her. Who was I to bust the dream of a sick little girl?

God, why do you pick on children? Why do these tiny kids deserve a fate like this?

I recognised the man from the plane, sitting with a frail little girl in a wheelchair. She looked much younger then twelve. I swallowed my tears as we made our way towards her.

I was about five steps away when she turned and saw me, her little face lighting up with excitement.

“Daddy, it’s Mel Black!” she cried, tugging on her father’s sleeve.

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