Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
B efore therapy, Ava managed to work on her four accounts for most of the morning and then cut thirty squares of fabric for her mother’s bags. With another one hundred seventy squares to go and then the interior batting, she’d work more on them after her appointment.
She got ready for the day and went into the kitchen. The counter was covered in flour and baking supplies, and the kitchen smelled of nutmeg and cloves.
“What are you up to?”
“I thought I’d make us a pumpkin pie like I do on Christmas,” her mother said when Ava emerged from the office. “I woke up refreshed. When you’re here, every day feels like the holidays.”
“I love you, Mom.”
Martha’s eyes glistened. “I love you too.”
“Need any help?”
“You’ve got your therapy appointment. I’ll have it in the oven before you’ve even made it to Nashville.”
“You sure? ”
Her mom fluttered a floured hand in the air. “Yes, yes. I’m sure. How about you? Are you okay to drive my car?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
“I thought maybe you could invite Lucas over to have a piece of pie after work. It might be good to spend some time as friends, now you’ve both cleared the air.”
“I’m hoping to run into him at therapy today,” Ava said honestly. “If I do, I’ll ask.”
She hadn’t spoken to Lucas since they’d shared their secrets yesterday, and she couldn’t wait to see him again. Running into him was her driving force for going to therapy. Otherwise, she probably would’ve tried to cancel the appointment altogether.
Her mom took the car keys from the hook by the door and tossed them to Ava. “Be careful, and call me if you need anything.”
Ava slipped her new pink handbag onto her shoulder. “I will.”
A half hour later, she was walking into the therapy building at Vanderbilt.
Once she’d checked in and been called back, she kept her eyes open for Lucas, but didn’t see him. Her therapist, who’d introduced herself as Kim, took her into a spacious room with a padded floor. Along one wall were resistance bands and weights, exercise balls, and foam rollers.
“You can take your shoes off over there.” Kim pointed to the edge of the mat near a couple of stretching tables. “Then, come to the center and we’ll work on your shoulders.”
Ava complied, sitting on the tiled area of the floor and slipping off her sneakers before placing them neatly under one of the tables.
As she stood up, a doctor passed by the window that looked on to the hallway.
It wasn’t Lucas, but she figured it wouldn’t be, seeing as she was on a different floor this time.
But the new location hadn’t stopped her from checking, though.
“Let’s test your range of motion,” the therapist said. “Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and very gently tilt your head as if you could touch your ear to your shoulder.”
Ava did as she was told. She grimaced, unable to tilt her head as much as she usually would. The pain is still there . She tried the other side. Same.
“How does that feel?”
“A little sore,” Ava replied.
Kim held out Ava’s arms and then gripped her shoulder, moving the muscle around.
“That’s normal. It looks like you do have some range of motion, but we’ll want to work on those muscles to be sure they’re nimble.
Let’s try another exercise and see how you do.
” Kim bent over at the waist and dangled one arm toward the floor, spinning it in circles.
Ava followed her lead, the motion incredibly painful. “That’s tough,” she said, still trying.
“Yeah, it probably is.”
They continued, and as Ava did her stretches and exercises, contorting herself into unnatural positions, the tightness in her muscles and the low range of motion were surprisingly evident. By the end of the session, Ava was pretty sore and tired.
She didn’t let her fatigue deter her, however, from finding Lucas. When she’d made it back to the waiting room, she texted him to let him know she was there.
Seconds after the notification came through that he’d checked the message, he was standing in the doorway of the waiting room.
She walked over to him. “Hey.”
He smiled down at her. “You following me to my place of work?” he teased.
“I had therapy. ”
“How was it?”
“Grueling. I’m tired and want to relax by the lake for the rest of the day. Wanna join me? There’ll be pumpkin pie …”
“I get off at six.”
“That’s a long time to make me wait for Mom’s pumpkin pie, but I’ll do it for you.”
“I’ll come straight there then.”
A doting sparkle glimmered in his eye, making her stomach do a flip. Gosh, she loved that look. She pushed away the feeling. It was due to the pie and not her, she told herself.
“Great. See you this evening,” she said, trying to hide her elation.
“See ya.”
Ava nearly floated back to her car. Lucas had always been able to do that to her.
They had an undefined bond that was different from what she had with anyone else in her life.
The feeling had been there as long as she could remember.
There were lots of kids around her and in her school—what had made her gravitate to him?
Whatever it was hadn’t diminished in all these years.
She’d just forgotten for a while how great he’d made her feel.
But she needed to get her thoughts in check. They were in the friend zone only.
That evening, after cutting the rest of the fabric squares for her mother, Ava lay on the sofa across from a fire, trying to rest her sore muscles, when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Martha called. Her mother answered the door and, in the distance, said, “She’s in the living room.”
Lucas walked in and sat on the edge of the sofa as Ava tried to push her tender body into a sitting position.
“You don’t have to get up,” he said .
“I probably should. My muscles are getting stiff from resting too long.”
He offered her a hand, and she used his strength to pull herself to a sitting position, her torso aching.
“What good is therapy if it’s going to make me feel so sore?” she asked, flinching with every movement. “I didn’t even feel this bad climbing a tree.”
“I made us cider,” her mother said from the doorway. “I’ll get us all a mugful, and then I probably need to check my email. That lady from the craft show has a question. I should get back to her today to see what it is.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Ava said. When her mother had left the room, Ava addressed Lucas. She pinched her shoulder in an attempt to ease her discomfort. “I swear, the therapy made me worse.”
“Turn your back toward me,” Lucas said. “Let me see if there’s anything wrong.”
Ava twisted around as he’d directed, and he moved her hair over the front of her shoulder.
“Have you noticed any swelling anywhere?” He laid his hands on the tops of her shoulders.
She swallowed. “No.”
He moved his hands softly along her outer arms in almost a caress and then down her spine and up her neck, causing goose bumps to rise on her skin. His touch had a magical way of releasing the pain.
“Your joints haven’t been used extensively in this way. The soreness should only last a day or two, but if it continues after that, call me, and I’ll get you set up with the orthopedist.”
He put his hands on her neck and began to massage her muscles, offering instant relief to her pinched nerve. While he was only doing a doctorly thing, the massage felt quite different under his touch than it had under Kim’s.
Ava closed her eyes. “Oh, my gosh, that feels amazing. ”
His thumbs moved down to her shoulders, hitting all her pressure points. “I’m a neurologist by trade, but I can manage a good shoulder rub.”
She turned around to face him. “Wait, you don’t even specialize in muscles,” she pointed out.
Lucas grinned. “I did take one semester of kinesiology in college. I figured I was the most qualified of the two of us to give you a good once-over.”
She willed the pattering of her heart to slow at the sight of the humor in his eyes.
She pushed away what had come to mind: You can check me any time .
“Here we are.” Martha came into the room with three mugs balancing in her grip. She handed one to Lucas and then toAva. “I have pie for later as well.”
“That sounds wonderful, Mrs. Barnes,” Lucas said.
Ava took a drink of her apple cider, savoring the hints of oranges, cloves, brown sugar, and maple syrup to get her mind off Lucas’s touch. Her mother usually kept the recipe for Christmas, but with the three of them there and the fire going, it did kind of feel like a holiday.
“So, Lucas,” Martha said. “Ava told me about your job change. What brought you to Nashville, specifically?”
He settled in, draping one arm along the back of the sofa. “Well, I knew Tennessee would be a great place to invest in property, and with Vanderbilt also here, it was an easy transition.”
“So there’s no way you’ll go back to New York?” Ava asked.
He shook his head. “It just doesn’t fit me.”
Would Elise move for him?
Looking back on her childhood, Ava had been robbed of the only youthful conversation she enjoyed when Lucas moved, and she’d chased it all the way to college and then to jobs in New York. Could she find happiness if she had Lucas to talk to every night? Why was she even considering her answer?
“Well, I’m going to have my cider in the office,” her mom announced. “You two have fun and call me when you’re ready for pie.”
When her mom left the room, Ava resumed their conversation. “So you’re planning on investing in property out here?”
“If I find the right piece of land … For years, I sat on my savings, not knowing what to do. I wasn’t any better when I’d first moved to Nashville. But then you walked into my office.”
“I made you better?”
“More confused. But better.” The corners of his mouth turned up, that all-too-familiar fondness in his eyes.
“What are you confused about?” she asked, trying to stifle her affection for him.
“The life you and I had as kids outweighs all the things I’ve done during my adult years. Being out here makes me want to give up my job, move onto a big piece of land, and live out the rest of my days caring for a family.”
She had to admit he was right. “Have you mentioned any of this to Elise?”
“No, I?—”
“Oh, my goodness,” Martha said, rushing into the room, interrupting their conversation. “You’re never going to believe this.”
“What?” Ava asked.
“The woman from the craft show? Well, her question was about how quickly I could make thirty bags. She put a photo on her website of the one she’d bought from me, and she’s had thirty orders so far.
But that’s not all. I’ve also got eight more on that craft website I signed up for.
” Her mother gaped a them, panic on her face .
Ava mentally shifted from the last conversation to the new one. “What are you going to do?”
Her mother shook her head and plopped down next to Ava. “I guess I should get them made. Could you help me?”
“I’ll get on the phone later and call sewing shops to see if I can’t at least find someone who can cut the squares for us. My fingers can’t manage that many.” Ava set down her mug on the table. “We might have to train some people on how to construct them so you don’t have to do them all yourself.”
“What are you two talking about? Is it something I could help with?” Lucas asked.
Ava explained.
“I definitely have a steady hand if you need help cutting, and I don’t mind helping to call sewing shops too.”
“Oh my goodness, that would be wonderful,” Martha said.
Lucas leaned forward. “You know, we could also ask Dorothy at church on Sunday. She said she did all that cross-stitch, remember?”
“Oh, yeah, I’d forgotten!” Ava said. “We’ll make a little assembly line.”
“What would we do without each other?” Martha asked.
Ava wondered the same thing.