and stepped inside.
He was sitting up in his bed and looked even better than yesterday. His complexion was returning to normal, and his stubble was even darker today. I swallowed hard and pushed forward.
“Tara,” he said, sounding surprised to see me.
“How are you feeling today?” I asked.
“Fine,” he said with a nod. “Pain is better.”
“That’s great.” I nodded and pulled up a chair. “It looks like you’ll be discharged soon, which means you can start physical therapy.”
Caleb nodded. “What do you have in store for me?”
“Well,” I began, glancing down at my chart. “As I said before, we’ll start you on some mild stretches a few times a week. Nothing too strenuous because we don’t want to risk re-injuring that leg. The scar tissue can be substantial and extremely problematic. If we don’t do things the right way, you may never get your full range of motion back.”
“I’ll do whatever you say,” Caleb said, his voice serious. “I want to get back on the job as soon as possible.”
The determination in his voice softened my resolve to remain professional. Caleb’s strength had always been his most attractive quality. It drew me to him and turned me on. Our eyes met, and I felt like that same young girl who was laying eyes on this boy for the first time.
“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.