Working It Out (7 page)

For outbidding her? That was it? What about the kiss? “Really?
That’s all you’re sorry about?” she asked.

A flirtatious twinkle appeared in his eyes. “Should I be
sorry about something else?”

Grace rolled her eyes. She should have expected that.

“Oh, wait.” Seth’s brow furrowed as he gestured from
Grace to Cameron. “Are you two . . .? I mean, I did outbid you for him, right?”
He left the question hanging as if it was an actual possibility that Grace
would ever date someone like Cameron.

Ugh.

“No,” said Grace. “We’re not.”

“My girlfriend couldn’t make it,” Cameron explained. “So
I asked Grace to come bid on me instead.”

Understanding dawned in Seth’s eyes. “I knew you two had
something underhanded going on.”

Grace turned and walked away, hoping Seth would follow
and end this ridiculous conversation. She stood next to a table and waited
impatiently for Seth to join her. Maybe if she kept things strictly
professional from here on out, she would be able to get through this session.

As he approached, she patted the table with her palm. “Take
a seat and lie down on your back.”

Seth did as she asked, but his lips twitched as though he
had to fight back additional laughter. Ignoring it, Grace removed the brace
from around his knee and set it aside, trying not to wince when she saw his leg.
No matter how many times she worked with patients post surgery, she never got
used to seeing the damage surgery caused. Seth’s leg was swollen and covered in
varying hues of bruises—everything from sickly yellows to murky blues. Clear
tape covered the dark red incision sites, making it look even worse.

Still, Grace couldn’t help but notice that the unaffected
muscles in his leg were toned and strong, bulging at the calves. Apparently he
worked out a lot and probably spent some serious time on a bike as well. Grace
tried to convince herself she only cared because it meant a quicker recovery
time, but really, it made her curious about her newest patient.

She moved to his foot and lifted it. “Okay, so let’s see
how much mobility you’ve got.” She pushed his knee forward slowly until she met
with resistance then made a mental note of the approximate angle and slowly
lowered it back down.

Seth brought his hands under his head, lifting it so he
could study her. “I still can’t believe you’re the same girl from the auction. I
honestly didn’t recognize you.”

“I believe you.” Grace placed her palm on his patella,
out of the way of the incision sites, and pushed his knee down to straighten
his leg.

 “I mean your hair was curly and in that bun thing, and
you were wearing that amazing dress, and now you’re . . . well—”

“I’d stop right there if I were you.”

Seth’s forehead crinkled into a wince. “Yeah, figured
that out on my own, thanks,” he said through clenched teeth.

Oops. Grace quickly eased off on his knee, realizing she’d
pushed down a little harder than normal. But in her defense, it was provoked.
And it wasn’t as if increased pressure would hurt his ACL—it would just be a
little more painful for him.

Grace lifted his leg once again, pushing it slowly toward
Seth, making sure to not push too hard this time. “You need to do this every
half hour while you’re awake for the next few days,” Grace said. “Bend and
straighten, bend and straighten. If you lie on your stomach on your bed, the
added force of gravity will help straighten your leg down as well.”

“Got it,” he said. “And listen, I’m sorry for not
recognizing you, and for being such a—” He stopped as though unsure of which
word to use.

“Such a what?” Grace said. “Egotistical jerk?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

Of course he wouldn’t, because a self-appointed god of
chaos would never think of himself as egotistical. It wasn’t in his chemical
makeup. “What would you call it then? You told me to outbid you then went ahead
and outbid
me,
only to add insult to injury by forcing a kiss on me.
Personally, I thought
egotistical jerk
was putting it nicely.”

“You didn’t exactly pull away,” Seth said. “At least not
at first.”

“Because I was in shock.” Grace couldn’t believe she had
to explain this. “Seriously, who kisses a complete stranger?”

“You said I needed to prove that I wasn’t gay.”

Unbelievable. He wasn’t even remotely sorry. “You
couldn’t think of another way to do that?”

A cheeky smile appeared. “Another way wouldn’t have been
nearly as fun.”

 Grace’s jaw clenched, and Seth’s hands flew from behind his
head to his knee. He groaned. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Just stop with the
torture already.”

Woops, she’d done it again. Grace backed off and cleared
her throat. “It’s called therapy.”

“Yeah, well something tells me that you’re being a little
harder on me than normal.”

Grace thought it best not to respond. Instead, she lowered
his leg again, pressing down on his knee with a little less pressure. “There. Better?”

“Much, thanks.” His hands went back to lifting his head,
and he studied her. “For what it’s worth, I really am sorry.”

He had a disarming smile, the kind that could make a girl
forgive and forget way too easily. Grace forced herself to look away.
Don’t
be charmed by this guy. Chaos. Ego. Kisses complete strangers without remorse.
Remember?

After several more bending and straightening repetitions,
Grace lathered up her hands with some oil then began to massage the muscles and
tissue around his knee. Normally, she didn’t think twice about massaging a
patient’s leg, shoulder, or arm. But with Seth, the way her fingers tingled at
the touch, it felt personal—almost intimate. What was wrong with her? “This
will help break up the scar tissue and reduce the swelling.”

“Aren’t massages supposed to feel good?” Seth said with
another grimace.

“No pain, no gain.”

“Says the woman inflicting the pain.”

Grace bit back a smile. At least Seth wasn’t squirming
like some of her other ACL patients did. He was actually pretty tough. “Tell me
how you tore your ACL,” she said, more than ready to be done with all topics of
conversation involving bachelor auctions and kissing.

He let out a breath and relaxed his head against the
cushioned table top. “I went heli-skiing, took a jump, and pulled a 360—which
was pretty sweet, by the way—only to land in some deep powder and torque my
knee.”

“Ouch.”

“You can say that again, although it was more painful to
realize that I was out of commission on day one of a fourteen-day trip.”

Grace’s eyes widened. First Seth plunked down twenty
grand like it was pocket change, and now a two-week heli-skiing trip? Who was
this guy? “What, exactly, do you do for a living?”

“I’m a consultant.”

Oh, well that explained it. Not. “For who? Donald Trump
and Bill Gates?”

Seth chuckled. “No, just your average start-up internet companies.
Basically, people hire me to help them set up their websites and market
whatever products or services they’re selling.”

Grace searched his face, not buying it. Web
consultants—especially for startup companies—didn’t make
that
kind of
money. Maybe he was one of those trust-fund kids who’d had everything handed to
him on a golden platter his entire life, and marketing was something he did for
fun. “I had no idea there was that kind of money in web marketing.”

Seth shrugged. “Sometimes there is, sometimes there
isn’t. I work on commission. If they make money, so do I. If they don’t, I get
nada. My clients prefer it that way, because most of them don’t have a lot of
ready cash to invest.”

“I see.” But really, she didn’t see at all, especially considering
most start-up companies went under within the first year. Maybe he had a ton of
clients or something—ones who didn’t mind if he took two weeks off to go
heli-skiing.

A knowing smile stretched across Seth’s face. “You’re
wondering how I could drop twenty grand at an auction then turn around and go
skiing for two weeks, aren’t you?”

Awesome, now he was a mind reader, too. The list kept
adding up. But did Grace really want to know more about this guy? With him, the
whole “curiosity killed the cat” thing could easily hold true.

“No,” Grace said.

“Liar.”

The fact that he’d seen right through her only made her
that much more determined not to know. She shot him a
stop-acting-like-you-know-me-because-you-don’t look. “Believe it or not, I’d
rather not know. I make it a point not to get too personal with my patients.”

Seth’s eyes took on a teasing quality. “Too late for
that, isn’t it? I mean, we’ve already kissed.”

Grace wanted nothing more than to tell him he was right
and should start shopping around for a new therapist. But she kept her mouth
shut and focused on massaging his knee with a bit more gusto.

“You weren’t my patient at the time,” she finally said. “But
now that you are, I’m only interested in knowing the information that’s
pertinent to your recovery.”

“You mean like what I do for a living?” he said, calling
her bluff.

Ugh. There was no stopping him, was there? She cleared
her throat and changed the subject. “Was this your first time heli-skiing?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Is that pertinent to
my recovery?”

“Yes, especially if you’re planning to go again next
season. I need to know what kind of activities you want to resume so we can get
your knee strong enough for them.”

Seth’s gaze moved to the ceiling with his hands still
cradling his head. “In that case, no, it wasn’t my first time and definitely
won’t be my last. I started six years ago with a friend of mine and liked it so
much that I figured why not make it an annual thing?”

“Because it’s dangerous.” The words came out like an
automated response. Grace clamped her mouth shut and bit down on her lower lip.

Seth gave her a half smile. “Ah, but I laugh in the face
of danger. It’s the only way to live.”

The statement registered in Grace’s mind like a horrible memory.
Alec used to say pretty much the same thing, and there was a time when Grace
adhered to the notion as well. But now things were different, and she didn’t
appreciate the reminder or the slew of bad memories that came with them—especially
not from someone like Seth, who seemed to have no worries or cares at all.

The wince on Seth’s face forced Grace back to the
present. Realizing she’d increased the pressure of the massage a little too
much, she quickly let go. Why was she letting him get to her so easily? This was
ridiculous. She was a professional.

“Sorry,” she said.

“No pain no gain, right?” he mustered.

 “Right.” From that point on, Grace purposefully kept the
conversation to neutral, impersonal topics as she worked him through the rest
of his session. By the time she’d finished, it felt like hours had passed.

With swift movements, she strapped his brace back on and
handed him his crutches. “Keep at those exercises, and we’ll see you back here
on Thursday.” She paused. “Unless, of course, you’d rather work with a
different therapist?” The question hung there, and Grace hoped against hope
that he’d take her up on the suggestion. She wasn’t sure she could endure
another session like this one.

But Seth only chuckled, not looking at all embarrassed or
uncomfortable. “No, I like your ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy. It works for me.
See you Thursday.”

With that, he turned and hobbled away, leaving Grace not
looking forward to Thursday at all.

S
eth flopped
against
the back of his black leather couch and stared at his 80-inch
flat-screen TV. He and his friends had just spent the last hour playing some
Xbox Kinect game, and Seth had never been so bored. “That was nothing like
actual kayaking. It didn’t even come close.”

Garrett lifted his feet to the coffee table and dropped
his head to the back of the couch. “What else is there to do? You can’t play
basketball, ski, rock climb, or mountain bike. You can’t even do something lame
like bowl.”

“We can go to a movie,” Owen said with zero enthusiasm.
Unless a new action flick had come out, movies landed at the bottom of their Fun
Things To Do list. Owen raised his arms over his head and yawned. “I can’t
believe I turned down a date for this.”

“You turned down a date?” Seth shot him a look of
surprise. Owen never turned down an opportunity to hang out with a woman. “Why?”

Owen shrugged. “She wears high heels with jeans, can’t
leave her house without an umbrella just in case it might rain, and thinks paintballing
is dipping balls in paint.”

Seth sniggered, wondering what type of girl Owen would
eventually end up with. Over the years, he’d dated all types and found issues
with every single one of them. For a guy who didn’t bother doing his hair most days,
he was incredibly picky.