“Give me a sec.” Aiden had a clipboard in hand. He waved her out to the front. “I’ll drive you home after I finish this.”

Lex stood by the receptionist’s counter. The tiny Filipino lady, who looked like she could spit nails, nodded at her. “How’s it coming along?”

“I’m getting better.”

“Good.” The receptionist went back to her computer.

The front door opened, and the Jude Law hottie strolled in. Perfect. Here was her chance. Lex smiled at him. Be charming, not scary.

He smiled back. Good sign.

She stepped forward. “Hi, I’m Leeeee -!”

Her leg, locked straight in the metal brace, didn’t plant far enough to the side. She had no lateral balance. She started tipping.

“Aaack!” Lex grabbed at the receptionist’s counter, but her wild arm movement sent her toppling backward instead.

“Ooomph!” She sat down hard. Pain jolted up from her tailbone.

She stared up at the cutie. At least he wasn’t laughing. Heat radiated from her shoulders to the top of her head. Yup, she could feel the embarrassment prickling at her crown. She scratched at it.

“You okay? Are you hurt?” He bent down to help her up.

“Oh, Lex!” The receptionist’s head appeared over the edge of the counter.

An Asian woman – maybe her aunts’ age – entered the gym at that moment and saw the hunk helping Lex to her feet. “Oh, goodness. Are you all right?”

“Lex!” Aiden rushed from the patient area.

Lex sighed. Why bother trying to be cool anymore? “I have completely lost any dignity I might have had.” She got to her feet.

“Thanks.”

“You okay?” the hunk asked her.

“I’m fine, the knee is fine, everything’s fine.” Although her tailbone might never be the same again. Yowsers, that hurt. She stopped herself before she rubbed it in public.

“Glad you’re okay.” Jude Law flashed a megawatt grin. “I’m Ike.”

“I’m Lex. Nice to meet you. Thanks for helping me.”

“No problem. See you around.” The dreamboat headed back into the gym area.

The Asian woman who’d entered touched her elbow. “Are you sure you’re all right? Looks like you’ve had surgery and all.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re Lex? Well, I’m Mary – ”

“Oh! You’re Mary. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

The woman’s eyes crinkled with joy. “Has he been talking about me?”

“Oh, all the time.” A dull ache started in her hip, and Lex flexed her leg.

Mary looked down at her knee. “I’m glad you’re okay. Don’t worry, these things take time.”

Time. After so much of her life raced along, she hadn’t really considered that her recovery would pace itself slower.

“Hey, Lex, Mary, sorry to rush you two, but I have to take Lex home.” Aiden flashed Mary a familiar smile.

“Oh certainly, take her home. It was nice to meet you, Lex.” Mary headed back for her workout.

Lex staggered out with her braced leg. “She’s really nice.”

“Isn’t she? She just started dating again.”

“That’s great.”

“She’s been widowed a long time.” Aiden held the elevator door for her. “I just hope her new boyfriend is treating her well.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Come on! Faster! Keep up the pace.” Lex clapped her hands at the junior high girls running blocking drills.

She had stood up rather than sit in the chair Vince had gotten for her, but it made her lower back ache. The CPM machine had screwed it up even more than before. She arched her back while she watched the girls sprint, block, sprint, block, but the ball of knotted muscle only seemed to twist itself tighter.

“Okay, that’s it! Wrap it up!”

“Already?” Her assistant coach leaned in a little too close to murmur to her. She stepped away.

“I’m… in too much pain.” Lex couldn’t look at him as she admitted it. She dug her fingers into the rough plastic of the chair and damped down a wave of frustration. She had nothing to throw, nothing to hit, nothing to break. She never expected the surgery to impact her ability to coach.

“Lex?”

“Yes?” Lex turned to two of her girls, sisters only thirteen months apart.

“We can’t make it to playoffs this summer.” The older girl sniffled. “We would if we could.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Our grandpa’s sick, and Mom doesn’t want us away from home.” The younger sister bit her lip.

Oh, man. What a summer these girls will have. “That’s okay. You guys should be with your grandpa. That’s the right thing to do.”

After they’d gone to take off their gear, Lex sank into the hated chair. If girls kept dropping out of playoffs, she wouldn’t have a team. She wouldn’t even need Grandma to sponsor them for the summer. She wouldn’t need to find a boyfriend. Lex didn’t feel very loverlike.

She leaned over, trying to stretch her back. She was falling apart. Her team was falling apart.

I’m failing them already.

No, she couldn’t think that way. She had to shake this defeatist attitude. It would turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. She still had six weeks before the wedding.

She’d stretch her back more. She’d go to PT and work to strengthen her knee. She’d make her girls’ team even stronger so they didn’t need the lost players for playoffs. She could do it.

She could do it.

Oh, boy. She needed another ibuprofen.

Lex’s stomach roiled as she waited by the curb in front of her apartment building for Aiden to arrive. She’d taken her ibuprofen on an empty stomach. Stupidity at its finest. Now she couldn’t even contemplate food. Even worse, it had only blunted the edge off her back pain.

Aiden’s car pulled up and she got in. As he drove off, he frowned at her. “What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”

How’d he know that? “My back.”

“You look kind of sick too.”

“I took ibuprofen on an empty stomach.”

“Left your brains in bed this morning, I see.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Here, have some bread.” He reached for the backseat and threw a new loaf into her lap. “I went shopping this morning.”

Lex downed a couple slices, and the desire to hang her head out the open window started to ease.

“So, your back…” Aiden pulled into the PT parking lot. “New injury?”

“Old. Lower back.” Lex climbed out of the car awkwardly. The combination of her brace and her back problems made her as graceful as a waddling duck.

“What’s it from?”

“Bad chair at my old workplace.”

Aiden winced as he punched the elevator button. “The ibuprofen isn’t helping?”

Lex entered the elevator and leaned against the handrail. “Not really.”

He grew very still. He studied her, eyes searching… for what?

Finally he seemed to come to a decision. “I can help you, if you want.”

“How? Painkillers in an IV drip?”

The elevator doors creaked open. “I could give you a massage.”

Lex halted mid-step. Her muscles clenched, making the pain throb in her lower back. She stared at Aiden as he waited for her to exit. The elevator doors started to slide shut again, and he thrust a hand to trigger them open.

She walked out. “I don’t know, Aiden.”

“Look, I don’t need to know why you don’t like it when men touch you, but you’ve gotten used to me handling your leg.”

They entered the gym doors, and Lex signed in at the receptionist’s counter. As she signed the credit card slip to pay for her session, she tried to make her back muscles relax. Her skin had become hypersensitive, feeling the rasp of her T-shirt.

“Oh, Aiden, your friend Spenser called.” The receptionist handed him a message slip. “He said he’d be here in an hour.”

“Thanks.” He frowned at the piece of paper.

Lex tried to peek. “Problems?”

He crumpled the message. “No. Well, what do you think?”

She looked into his eyes, and the calm pooling there made the fluttering in her chest ease. This was Aiden. Her therapist. She had to fight this phobia.