Chapter 4 #2
Paige had to repeatedly grab a hold of the edge to regain her balance, but she was surprised at how many of the exercises she was able to do with relatively little pain. Eventually, she sagged against the side.
"Wait." She gasped for air. "I need a break."
"That's fine. Take a minute to catch your breath." Gabe nodded as he stopped moving. "You're doing great."
"You covered everything they did with me at rehab in the first five minutes."
"With an injury like yours, it's important to break back into the exercise slowly." He gave a mischievous grin. "But you're almost healed now, so it's time to get your life back."
"I wish it was that easy." Paige lowered her gaze as her thoughts turned to the eight months she'd wasted on Phillip. She'd never get those back.
She felt a little lighter after telling Riley the truth about Phillip the other night.
The tears had been cathartic, but now that she'd opened the gates on her heartbreak, she couldn’t seem to close them again.
Phillip kept creeping into her thoughts, bringing a myriad of emotions from sorrow to anger and everything in between.
She couldn't believe he'd had the audacity to visit her at the hospital after her accident.
Fortunately, her mother had been getting lunch, so Paige was able to tell Phillip exactly what she thought of him, but that hadn't kept him from trying to make her empty promises, including leaving a pregnant Avery for her.
Like I'd want a man who would do that.
He hadn't said as much, but from the way he talked, it didn’t sound like Phillip planned to tell her on Valentine's Day that he was marrying another woman.
Gabe ducked his head to meet her gaze. "Hey, we agreed to take things one day at a time, remember? Your only focus right now is getting stronger. You work on building yourself up physically, the rest will come."
"Maybe.” Paige forced a smile. “If my physical therapist doesn't kill me first."
"Speaking of that, are you ready for a core exercise that will leave your abs burning?" The teasing glint was back in his eyes as he rubbed his hands together.
She groaned. "Now I know why Gladys called you a tyrant."
He winked. "I'm only a tyrant with my favorite patients."
Did he mean Gladys was one of his favorite patients? Surely, he didn't mean her. This was only their second session together. So why did he wink?
A brief grimace crossed Gabe's face before he cleared his throat. "Shall we get back to work? Put both hands on the edge of the pool a little more than shoulder width apart. Like this." She followed his instructions, and he continued. "Let your body float out behind you like you're Superman."
She let her legs rise to the surface.
"How does your right shoulder feel?"
"It's okay as long as I don’t have to push or pull with my arms."
"Nope, just hold on. If at any time this hurts your shoulder, tell me and we'll stop." He waited for her to nod before demonstrating the exercise. "Now, engage your core and pull your knees into your chest."
After only a handful of repetitions, Paige's stomach muscles protested. "I see what you mean about burning abs. I'll definitely feel this tomorrow."
"Four more of these then we'll shift to a harder variation." He grinned at her over his muscular shoulder.
"Harder?" Paige huffed, exaggerating her breaths.
"Yes, harder." Gabe's grin turned devilish, making her heart skip a beat. "Doesn't it feel so good to move?"
Paige couldn't resist any longer; she splashed water in his face.
"Hey!" He splashed her back, but she'd anticipated retaliation and turned her back to him.
She made her way to the shallow end of the pool.
"Where are you going, Miss Young? We're not done."
"The water is too active, I don't feel very stable."
In more ways than one.
His long lashes and charming smile were disarming. Not only was he built like a Greek god, but he was also empathetic and easy to talk to. A deadly combination that made her want to rethink her resolve to stay single.
"Besides, it's time for lap swim." She pointed at the clock as two women walked out of the dressing room.
Gabe walked up beside her. "Time sure flies when you're having fun."
Paige scowled. "You have a twisted view of fun." She resisted the urge to splash him again. He was too close to avoid retaliation.
"My mom would agree with you."
"That means you either lead a very boring life, or you’re demented."
He grinned again. "Probably a little of both." He handed her the crutches.
"Thank you." She made her way out of the pool with him hovering close by. The higher she climbed, the heavier she felt. No wonder she liked aqua therapy so much.
Gabe swiped his hands over his chest then down his muscular arms, wiping off the water. "Change your clothes and meet me in the first aid room. The manager said I could use the table in there to help you stretch and roll you out."
Paige froze in the process of squeezing the water from her hair. "Um…I didn't bring a change of clothes. Only a cover-up."
Now Gabe froze too. His gaze raked over her wet body, and she was all too aware of the amount of skin her swimsuit left exposed. "Okay…well…we'll make do the best we can." His voice lacked its usual conviction as he scratched his neck.
She recalled how he worked her low back, buttocks, and IT band the other day. Having him touch her like that while she wore only a swimsuit would be a whole new level of awkward.
He's a doctor. Doctors do things like this all the time. It's not a big deal.
So why did it feel like one?
Gabe breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted a stack of white towels on the shelf in the first aid room. He grabbed one to cover Paige with while he worked on her, because her hot-pink cover-up didn’t hide a whole lot.
He motioned to the table. “Lay on your stomach. We’ll work on your back first.”
She slid onto the table and handed him her crutches. As she carefully rolled to her stomach, he caught a glimpse of the scar on her hip. He’d tried to break up the scar tissue on Monday through her yoga pants, but the AISTM tool was more effective on bare skin.
“Actually, I think I should work on your scars before rolling you out.” Instead of covering her with the towel, he tucked it into the edge of her swimsuit so he wouldn’t get massage cream on her clothing.
“We need to break up the scar tissue, surrounding your scars, so it doesn’t hamper your healing.
I’ll try to be gentle, but I’ll have to use a fair amount of pressure to break it up. So this will likely be painful.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d worked on a patient who needed to undress to an extent for him to do AISTM, dry needling, or cupping, but because of his attraction to Paige, it felt different.
Knock it off. She’s just like any other patient.
When Paige winced and sucked in a sharp breath, he searched for something to distract them both. “So, what do you do when you aren’t lounging around in rehab centers?”
“Lounging around?” She gave a short laugh that sounded like a snort. “I guess that’s technically what I did, but it certainly wasn’t by choice.” She looked at him over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Pre-lounge era, I was an elementary school teacher.”
“Was?” Gabe noted her use of the past tense. “Don’t you plan on returning to teaching after you’re healed?”
“Yes.” She drew out the word with a lengthy sigh.
“You don’t sound sure about that.”
“I want to teach again. I’m just not sure I want to do it in Seattle.”
“Seattle?” He vaguely remembered seeing the name of a Seattle hospital in her file but hadn’t given it much thought.
“That’s where I went to college, and I’ve lived there ever since. But I’m not sure I want to go back to the city.”
“You considering getting a teaching job here then?”
“I’m thinking about it, but small towns have fewer students, so there isn’t as big of a demand for teachers.”
“That makes it difficult, doesn’t it?” He shifted the conversation. “You’re looking at six months of PT. If you do end up returning to Seattle, we’ll have to find you a therapist there.” For some ridiculous reason that thought depressed him.
“Six months? I knew I’d have to do therapy for a while, but I didn’t realize it would take so long.”
“You can’t rush rehabilitation without causing further damage.”
“I know. I’m just impatient.” She sucked in another deep breath as he scraped at the knotted muscles.
“Sorry, I know this hurts.”
“It’s okay.” She slowly let out her next breath through her nose. “I’m just being dramatic.”
But Gabe knew that wasn’t the case. AISTM scraping often brought his patients to tears. Paige was tolerating the worst part of PT better than most.
They continued to talk about their jobs and compared city life to small town living as he scraped and massaged the scar on her hip. Then he worked on her shoulder. He enjoyed getting to know his patients while he worked on them, and Paige Young was no exception.
Nine hours later, Gabe scrubbed a hand over his face as he got on the freeway headed home. It had been a long day.
Feeling guilty that he hadn’t spent much time with his mom and sister over the past two weeks while getting the new office set up, he pressed the button for the speaker phone on his steering wheel.
“Call Mom.”
“Hi, Gabe.” His sister’s voice came through his car speakers after three rings.
“Hey, Grace, how was your day?”
“Good. Busy.”
“Isn’t it always?”
“Yes, unless I’m working the night shift. Even then, it can be crazy sometimes.”
Grace worked as a lab tech in the radiology department at Eden Medical Center in Richland.
Gabe was grateful that despite being financially stable, she was content to live at home with their mother.
He hated the idea of their mom being alone, and Grace was introverted and slow to trust thanks to a traumatic experience as a teenager.
Knowing she and Mom had each other gave him peace of mind.
“Is Mom busy?”
“She’s asleep on the couch.” Concern filled Grace’s voice.
Gabe’s stomach clenched. “Again?”
“I’m telling you; I think aliens abducted our mom and replaced her with a woman who suddenly likes to sleep. She went to bed at eight o’clock last night.”
Over the past month, Marisol Rivera, the most energetic woman he knew, had started sleeping in on the weekends and taking naps after work. Something she’d never done while Gabe was growing up.
After his dad walked out on them, Mom cried and moped for a month, but then she snapped out of it and started building a new life for herself and her children.
“Has she had any cold or flu symptoms?”
“Not since she had that cold two months ago.”
His gut twisted as he recalled the fatigue his mom experienced twelve years ago while she battled breast cancer.
Was something wrong with her again? Anemia maybe?
Thyroid problems? He considered her age; fifty-three.
Could be hormone changes. All of those were much easier to accept and treat than cancer.
“Is that Gabe?” He heard his mom’s voice in the background.
“Yes,” Grace said. “You’re on speaker now, Gabe.”
“Hi, Mom. How are you?”
“I’m great.” Despite the positive response, her voice lacked its usual liveliness. "How are things at your new clinic, Mijo?"
"Slow but good."
"You expected that. It will take time to build up a clientèle." The clank of dishes and silverware sounded in the background. "Before long, you'll have a reputation as the best physical therapist in town."
Grace snickered in the background.
"I'm the only physical therapist in town."
"So it shouldn't take long for word to spread," Mom's tone was optimistic.
If she knew how truly small Providence was, she'd worry—like he did—that there weren’t enough people who needed rehabilitation. At least he saw a new patient this afternoon and had another scheduled for Friday.
"Do you have any challenging patients?"
"If by challenging, you mean patients who need long-term and specialized therapy? Then yes, I have one at the moment."
The real challenge, however, was keeping his attraction to said patient in check.
He’d never been so drawn to a client before, and it rattled him, making him say and do crazy things.
Calling Paige one of his favorite patients was one thing—he often did that—but he never winked at them, like he did Paige.
Luke had teased him incessantly on Monday after he made that woman after my own heart slip.
Good thing he wasn't there to hear my faux pas this morning.
Gabe was captivated by more than Paige's pretty face. He admired her grit and determination. She persevered even when the exercises were hard, and she was exhausted.
"What makes this patient so challenging?" Mom’s voice pulled him from his thoughts of Paige.
He was careful to never share the name of a patient, but he often told her some of the challenges they faced. "She's recovering from multiple fractures to her pelvis, femur, and shoulder. She can't bear full weight yet."
"Are you doing aqua therapy with her then?"
Gabe smiled. As usual, Mom was spot on.
"We did our first session of aquatic therapy today. I work with her at the office twice a week as well."
Grace broke in. "Do you want to join us for dinner tonight? I have lasagna in the oven."
His stomach growled, reminding him all he had at home were TV dinners and frozen pizza. "Not tonight. I just left Providence, so I wouldn't get there until after nine."
"Why so late?" Mom asked.
Gabe changed lanes to pass a semi. "I had a client who couldn't come in until after he got off work at five-thirty."
"And tomorrow is your early morning at the clinic in Pasco." Mom’s voice was full of sympathy.
"Yes." Gabe already regretted agreeing to the early morning shift in Pasco on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Six a.m. rolled around way too early when he didn't get home from Providence until almost nine.
"We'll save some lasagna for you to take home this weekend," Grace said.
"Thanks, Hermana."
"You're coming over on Saturday, aren't you?" Mom asked.
"Yes, I'll be over around noon."
He always went home on the weekends. Partly to help with the upkeep of the house and yard, but mostly to spend time with his mom and sister. They were the only family he had. He would always be there for them.
"Good, because I need your help."