Bad Seed

“Will you still be the one taking care of my therapy?” Caleb asked.

I blinked. Joan’s offer echoed in my mind, and I paused. It wasn’t such a bad idea to think about someone else handling his treatment. If I couldn’t even sit beside him without feeling a flush of desire grace my cheeks, how the hell was I supposed to deal with weeks of touching him?

“I’ll probably hand your case off to a colleague,” I said, keeping the emotion out of my voice.

“Tara,” Caleb said. “I’m sorry about the other day, okay? What I said. I was an ass.”

“Yeah, you were,” I said bluntly.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t work together,” Caleb said quickly. “You’re great at your job.”

“How would you know?” I scoffed. “You didn’t even know I was a physical therapist until a few days ago.”

“My mom keeps me pretty well informed,” Caleb said.

“You seemed surprised to see me,” I said, confused. “If you knew, why were you so shocked?”

“Are you kidding?” Caleb laughed. “We hadn’t seen each other in ten years, Tara. Of course I was fucking surprised. I thought you hated my guts.”

I chose to ignore that. “Well, I don’t know,” I said. “Joan is a really great therapist.”

“Joan?” Caleb asked. “That flighty little brunette who was in here yesterday? Dear God, don’t leave me with her. She’s an idiot.”

“She’s actually brilliant,” I said.

“Then she should act like it instead of throwing her tits in her patient’s face,” Caleb said.

Anger welled inside my chest, but I fought it back. My eyes found Caleb’s again, and I sighed. He was right. There was no way I could leave all his sessions to Joan, but I also couldn’t take them on entirely by myself.

“I guess I can make room in my schedule,” I said. “You’re so kind,” Caleb said sarcastically.

I glared at him, and he laughed. I smiled weakly, unable to resist. He reached his hand toward me, but I moved away. I wasn’t ready to touch him.

“I’ve missed you,” he said.

His words hit my ears and made me forget how to breathe. I didn’t know how to respond, but thankfully, I didn’t have to. Cathy and my dad walked in the room and saved me from myself. I saw my dad shoot me a dirty look out of the corner of my eye while Cathy moved toward her son.

I filled them in on Caleb’s case and then made my exit, hurrying into the hallway with my father at my heels.

“This isn’t a good idea,” he said, his voice low and stern.

“What are you talking about?”

“You and Caleb,” he snapped. “This little flirtation you two have going on, it’s inappropriate, and there’s no place for it here.”

“I’m an adult, Dad,” I said. “There isn’t much you can say about the way I live my life anymore. And in case you’ve forgotten, I’m a physical therapist. This is my job. Caleb is my patient.”

“He doesn’t have to be,” Dad said. “Hand him off to someone else.”

“He doesn’t want that,” I said. “He asked for me.”

“Of course he did,” Dad said. “This isn’t right, Tara. You’re jeopardizing your career for Caleb.”

“He’s family, isn’t he?” I asked, eyebrows raised. “Aren’t we supposed to take care of family?”

“It’s not appropriate,” Dad hissed again. “And not just because of your job.”

He stared into my eyes, anger boiling beneath the surface. I couldn’t stand his judgment for another second. Without a word, I spun on my heel and marched down the hall.