Ice Cold Hearts: A Single Mom, Hockey, Reverse Harem Romance (Forbidden Fantasies)

31. Emily

“Emily, your eleven o’clock is here,” squawks the walkie-talkie.

“I’ll be right up,” I radio back.

I practically skip to the front to collect my patient. Most of the patients on my caseload are adults, so the few pediatric patients I have are often the highlight of my day. It’s a nice way to get my baby fix without having to have a second child.

“Oh, look at you!” I coo. “You’re getting so big.”

Ryder squeals and flaps his hands at me.

Lindsey laughs. “I think you might be his favorite person here.”

“We love to hear that, don’t we?” I say, tickling his belly. “Are you ready to get big and strong?”

Ryder grunts at me. I decide to interpret it as enthusiastic consent.

Lindsey follows me down the hall, bouncing him in her arms, to the main treatment room. It’s busy today. Nearly every station is occupied. I claim the first treatment table I see and settle us in there. Lindsey and I chit chat about how the family is doing, Ryder’s general health, and swap parenting war stories while I take his baseline vitals.

It’s so nice to get to talk to another mom about day to day stuff that I”m practically giddy over the normalcy of it all. Talking about feedings and burpings and sleep schedules with Lindsey distracts me from worrying about all the other shit going on in my life. When I’m present in the moment and solely focused on working with my patients, I can tune out all the other worries and be Emily again instead of an anxious prey animal.

“I’m afraid the vitals confirm my suspicion.” I nod gravely. “He is, in fact, the cutest baby at the practice.”

Lindsey smiles. “So he’s looking all right, then?”

“He looks great. You’re doing an awesome job with him. Any new concerns or things that have come up?” I ask.

“Just the usual stuff. Nothing new.”

“And how are we doing with our homework?” I ask.

She sighs. “I try to do a little bit of work with him every day, but with two other kids at home, it’s really more like every other day. Ryder hates doing them and screams like he’s dying, but James and I are giving him a lot of breaks and encouragement, so we’re chugging along. They are getting easier for him, though. We’re seeing some progress at home. I’ve even started seeing him attempt to crawl on his own.”

“That is an excellent sign.” I smile approvingly.

“He’s not very successful,” Lindsey worries. “He keeps tipping over onto his face and getting upset.”

“Ryder will get there. That’s why we’re here.” I shift my focus to him. “Isn’t that right, my handsome little man?”

“Ba!” he shouts, slapping his hand to his chest.

“Is that your battle cry today, little warrior?” I ask, lifting him up onto the treatment table. “Are you going to be so brave today?”

I help Ryder through some stretches and practice some positioning to build up his trunk and back muscles and some seated play to encourage him to put weight on his hips.

“We still have a ways to go,” I say once we’re back in my office after treatment, “but Ryder is making excellent progress. I still want you here three times a week, but if he continues the way he’s going, we’ll be able to drop down to twice a week fairly soon.”

Lindsey’s eyes brighten. “I’m so happy I could cry. Thank you.”

I shake my head. “Ryder’s the one doing all the heavy lifting here. I’m just the support.”

“Well, I’m glad to have you supporting him even with all the nonsense going on lately. You’re more than worth any pesky reporters.” She smiles encouragingly.

I freeze in place. The gnawing dread I’ve been successfully distracting myself from comes flooding back in.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

Lindsey tilts her head to one side. “You didn’t know?”

“Know what?” I ask. “What should I know? Has something happened? Is everything okay?”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” she backpedals. “I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s just that some of the reporters have been trying to get sound bites about you from your patients. I’m not sure how they figured it out. I guess they’ve been watching or something. I don’t know, but they’ve managed to identify a few of us and were harassing us in the parking lot until security rolled up. It’s happened a couple of times. We even started a group chat about it.” She must see the horrified look on my face because she hurriedly adds, “It’s just a nice way to vent. We’ve all talked about it, and you’re just the absolute best physical therapist any of us has ever had, so we’ve all decided we weren’t going to give them any comment other than ‘Emily is an excellent physical therapist. You need to back off and leave her alone.’ Charles came up with it, and now it’s all we say if they get close enough to bother us.” She chuckles. “I think they’re starting to get tired of us.”

I am overwhelmed by all the different feelings her little speech evoked. I feel so loved and cared for that they all got together to protect me. I didn’t even know Mr. Charles knew how to text. One of his great grandchildren must have taught him recently, and here he is using it to help me. Yet at the same time, I’m horrified and disgusted that they’ve had to do something like this. These people, these patients under my care, are being harassed because some assholes with cameras are desperate to pry into my private life.

“Lindsey, I am so sorry this is happening to you. What they’re doing to all of you is shameful. If you want to see someone else at the practice, I will completely understand,” I tell her.

“Are you kidding me?” She snorts. “Ryder has made so much progress. When he was born, the doctors told me he might not ever be able to sit up without help, and here we are now, working on crawling. He sits like a champion, and so much of that is down to you and your care. Charles said he’d have been stuck in a wheelchair without your work on his hip, and now he’s using a walker more than half the time. And don’t even get me started on the Douglas family. They could write an entire opus for what you’re doing for Nina. You are beyond brilliant. Do you really think I’m going to give that up because some jerk reporter is trying to get their fifteen minutes of fame?”

“I…” My voice catches and I clear my throat. “I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone say something so kind.” I dab at my eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re more than worth the hassle,” Lindsey says.

“But really, if you ever want to switch PTs, I promise I won’t be offended,” I reiterate.

“The hospital’s got us covered. We’re fine,” she says. “We told Jenna about it, and then she put security all over it. They can’t even set a toe in the parking lot without security staring them down or shadowing them anymore.”

“I’m glad they’re taking your safety so seriously,” I say, relieved.

“Me too.” She nods. “So, any change in his at home exercises I need to implement?”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe we’ll add more next week, but I want to see how he handles this level of PT activity before we add in anything else at home.”

“Sounds good,” she says, standing to leave. “We’re all rooting for you. I hope you know that.”

“Thank you.” I smile gratefully at her. “See you next time.” Then to Ryder, “Bye-bye, handsome man!”

He blows a raspberry at me before his mother whisks him away.

I don’t know what I did to deserve patients like these, but I am beyond grateful for them, and for Jenna too. It’s just like her to go and protect me and my patients without uttering a word or expecting a thank you.

She’s got a whole other thing coming if she thinks I’m going to let her get away with this without my sending her a gift basket or getting her a spa day or something like that now that I know about it. I should surprise her with it so she can’t be all noble about it and refuse.

Almost like I conjured her by magic, Jenna appears in my doorway. My smile falters when I see the pinched lines around her pursed lips.

Something has happened and it’s not good.

“Jenna, are you okay?” I say, jumping to my feet.

“I was at reception when they called, and since you were with a patient, I said I’d take the message for you,” she says quickly.

My stomach drops.

“What is it?” I demand.

“Audrey’s preschool called. Apparently, there’s been an incident. That’s all they would tell Jimmy over the phone. They said to call them as soon as you were free,” Jenna says. “I’m already prepared to divvy up your cases for the rest of your shift in case you need to leave. So if you have to go, just go. Don’t worry about anything other than that sweet baby.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you want me to stay with you while you call them back?” she asks.

Part of me wants to say yes and have her hold my hand like she did when Audrey was in the hospital, but the other part of me knows that we’ve got patients waiting and I don’t want to take Jenna away from them.

“I’ll be alright.”

“But if you need me,” Jenna starts.

“I won’t hesitate to get you.”

“Okay.” She nods, then closes my door.

My hands shake as I punch in the number for Audrey’s school on my office phone.

“Helping Hearts Montessori Academy. This is Lilly,” a cheery voice answers.

“Hello, I’m calling about Audrey,” I say.

Her voice turns cold. “Now you listen here. I don’t know who you think you are calling here, but you”ve got a lot of nerve trying to call here. I’m not telling you anything, you venomous piece of trash. And another thing?—”

“Lilly, it’s me,” I say quickly. “Emily. Emily Hayes. Obviously, something has happened, but all I know is I got a call from you guys a few minutes ago. Is my baby okay? What happened?”

“What was in Audrey’s coat pocket this morning?” Lilly asks warily.

“Not again,” I groan, momentarily distracted. “Please tell me she didn’t smuggle in another snail.”

“Okay, it is you.” Lilly sighs, relieved. “It was actually two snails and a worm this time, but that’s not why we’re calling. Before I say anything else, I want you to know Audrey is safe and we handled things right away.”

A knot loosens in my chest. “Okay, so what happened?”

“At recess, Audrey was playing in the garden by the fence with some of her friends, and a reporter rushed up to the fence and started shouting questions at her. Mrs. Clark noticed right away and went over, got the kids inside, and called our school resource officer. The reporter took a ton of photos once she realized she’d been made, but the officer was able to detain her. Like I said, Audrey is safe, but she is very upset and scared. Her teacher and our counselor talked to her, but she is inconsolable. Are you able to come get her?” she asks.

“I’m leaving work now. I will be there as soon as I possibly can.”

I don’t wait for her to say anything else. I don’t even think I say goodbye. I just slam the phone down and race out of the office.

This time, they’ve gone too fucking far.