34. Ari
thirty-four
Ari
After filling up my bucket at the ice machine, I hobble back to my room and collapse onto my bed. I find a bag, throw some ice in, and relax with that on my thigh as I prepare to settle in for an easy night.
I grab my Kindle and open up the hockey romance I started last night. I might not know much about the sport, but the books are fun as hell.
I barely make it to the part where the golden retriever goalie’s PR team has him set up a fake dating arrangement with the black cat sports reporter who can’t stand him when there’s a knock at my door.
I sigh, set my Kindle down, move the ice off my leg, and cautiously stand up, limping over to the door.
When I swing it open, I expect to find one of the guys, so imagine my surprise when it’s a frustrated Lucia on the other side.
“What’s up, Spitfire?”
“Today sucked,” she says, and I step aside to let her into my room.
“What happened?” I ask, leaning back against the wall to keep some weight off my leg.
“Logan was more of a nightmare than usual, and Rivas is going on the IL because the injury prevention plan I created wasn’t enough.” She sighs and leans against the wall opposite me. “Maybe my plan wasn’t actually that good.”
“Lucia,” I say firmly. “You know damn well your plan wasn’t the issue. Arturo is a great player, but he’s as thick-headed as they come. Was he actually following your plan?”
She’s quiet for a moment, fidgeting with the hem of her white tank top. “No.”
I cross my arms. “That’s what I thought. Don’t stress over how good you are at your job when your mission was to help the most stubborn and injury-prone player on the team.”
Lucia lets out a breath. “I somehow knew you’d make me feel better about it.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
She shakes her head and softly smiles. “I actually talked to Dr. Coltrain about a new idea this morning. I was talking to the girls when they were all down here, and they suggested I do some outreach. Try to talk to women and help them gain an interest in what I do. There aren’t a lot of female athletic trainers. ”
“That’s a pretty awesome idea,” I state. “What does Dr. Coltrain think?”
She can’t hide her grin. “He loved it. Says it’s a great idea and that I would be a great example to young women about how we all belong in the world of sports.”
“That’s fucking amazing,” I say, and Lucia lights up.
“Thank you.”
I can’t help but smile. “Why don’t you come in and relax, Luc? I’m not really doing anything tonight.”
“I’m not really in the mood for sex, Ari.”
I huff out a laugh. “Believe it or not, neither am I. But we’re friends now. Friends can hang out, Lucia.”
“Put on some Modern Family, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“Deal,” I smile. “Come on.”
Lucia walks ahead of me into the room and looks over my bed.
Shit.
I still have my ice bag lying there.
“Ari,” she says, whipping her head toward me. “Why is there a bag of ice on your bed?”
“No reason,” I shrug, trying to drag my leg over to the bed so she can’t see me limping.
“Ari Morgan.” She stands in front of me with her hands on her hips. “Did you get injured today?”
“It’s nothing,” I wave my hand dismissively and crawl onto the bed.
“You’re icing it, so it’s not nothing.”
I sigh. “I tweaked my quad at practice today. Moved too quickly to chase the ball. It’s fine; just need to ice it a bit.”
Lucia narrows her eyes at me. “The woman you’re fucking is your athletic trainer, dipshit. You have to tell me when you get hurt.”
“I’m fine. Seriously. It’s a little sore, but I’ll be fine tomorrow.”
She crawls over me on the bed and sits beside me. “Oh, you’re not playing tomorrow, Ari.”
“The fuck I’m not,” I chide. “I’m getting on the field.”
“No, you aren’t,” she says sternly, and it’s honestly unfair that she can look so hot when she’s pissed at me. “You’re injured, and you need to take it easy. You don’t need the IL for a strained quad, but you do need a couple of days of rest.”
I groan because I know she’s right.
Goddammit.
“Fine,” I breathe.
“I’ll tell Dr. Coltrain tomorrow. We’ll tell Skip to leave you out for a couple of days. If you actually take my advice, you should be back on the field by Thursday.”
“I guess it’ll give me time to catch up on my reading.”
Lucia looks over at me in surprise. “You read?”
“I read,” I laugh.
“What do you read?”
I sigh and grab my Kindle from beside me. “Take a look.”
She brings the screen back to life and swipes to see what book I’m reading.
Now, she looks even more confused.
“This is… a romance book.” Her voice is full of disbelief.
“Yeah, it’s a romance book.”
“I’ve read this one, Ari.”
“What do you think about it?”
Lucia smiles. “I love this one. The woman is such a badass that doesn’t put up with anything.”
“She reminds me of you,” I snicker, and she playfully pushes my side.
“I’m taking that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t meant as anything else, sweetheart.”
Our eyes meet now, and I swear my heart skips a beat.
That’s weird.
“Why did you never tell me you read romance books?” Lucia asks. “They’re my favorite. I could’ve been giving you suggestions since we met.”
I laugh lightly. “Men don’t really read them, so I kept it more to myself. The guys know, but that’s it.”
“Well, now that I know, you’re kinda fucked, Morgan. The Ari they want a place to rest their dick when no one else is available. ”
“You’ve said that before,” she whispers. “The night we met, you told me you’d seen men like him and that you knew he would cheat on me. How did you know?”
I scrub a hand down my face and let out a breath. “My dad.”
“Your dad?”
“You already know that I don’t have a close relationship with my dad, and a lot of that is because I’m absolutely nothing like him.
When I was nine, my mom found out he was cheating on her.
They divorced when I was ten, and he brought me to the US with him.
Since then, he’s been married four more times, each ending in divorce after he cheated.
Bastard is honestly lucky he still has a military career after all that.
I knew what Matt would do because I’d seen my own damn dad do it time and time again. ”
“That’s why you cared so much.” Her voice is so soft as she lets all the pieces fall into place.
“Yeah. I went about it all wrong, but that’s why I was so adamant that night. I’m tired of cheaters thinking they’re free to do whatever they want, not caring who they hurt in the process. I had Matt pegged from the moment he sat down at our table.”
“Is that why you always say you aren’t going to settle down?” Lucia asks gently.
“I don’t want to turn out like my dad,” I admit. “I refuse to let myself become what he is.”
Lucia rests her palm against my cheek. “I know we spent a lot of time disliking each other, but the couple of months I’ve been getting to know you have shown me a lot. You’re nothing like your dad, Ari.”
“I want to believe that, but I can’t take the risk of hurting someone just to prove it.”
“Maybe you’ll believe it one day, then.”
As hard as it is to believe what she’s saying, Lucia’s words pull at my heart, and the organ that I once considered to be frozen seems to feel a little bit lighter.
When she moved in, I never imagined that Lucia would become someone I actually wanted to spend time with.
But she’s actually really fucking incredible, and she’s quickly become one of my favorite people.
Things feel a little bit brighter whenever I’m with her.
I don’t know if it’s weird that none of my other friends have made me feel that way, but I like that she does.
And I really like having her around.