Hard & Deep: A Football Romance

With that, Ollie relaxed his head back and let himself drift into a deep sleep.

Chapter 5

Elsie

Elsie stared at her computer screen. She had a search window up and Oliver Lance's name already typed out. Her finger hesitated over the “go” button. Did she really want to find out about him?

She chewed her lip for a moment before finally giving into temptation.

Apparently, he was just as famous as he said he was. There were thousands of pictures of him and tons of websites devoted to not only his football prowess, but his life as well. She clicked on the “images” tab first. In all his pictures, his hair was a rich black that made the blue of his eyes pop. She definitely preferred it to the bleach blond hairstyle he currently wore.

She glanced through all his football pictures. Some were action shots from various games, many were of him lifting the championship trophy over his head, and then the obviously staged photos made to put on TV with his stats underneath. Mixed in with all of these were him around the city. The most prevalent were pictures of him at various clubs around his city- always with a different gorgeous girl hanging off his arm. He sure knew how to pick attractive women.

Elsie shook her head and marked him as a player in her head. He was attractive and funny, but obviously a womanizer. If he wasn't her patient, he would be the exact opposite of her type. She wanted a family and loved being at home on Friday nights cuddled up in front of the TV with a movie and popcorn. From the pictures, that was the last thing Oliver Lance would enjoy.

Elsie moved her mouse back to the results tab and clicked on the top link to his Wikipedia page and started to read. She only got through the first sentence before stopping. It felt like snooping.

“This isn't against my contract,” she whispered to herself, but it didn't matter. Her eyes wouldn't go past the words “Oliver Lance was born December 28th...” She had her medical file on him, so she knew that already, but it didn't feel right to read all the details of his personal life.

Elsie chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, unsure of what to do next. There was so much information on Lance right in front of her. The headings tempted her with his football games, his money, his history... but she didn't click on any of them.

She thought of what it would feel like if there were a Wikipedia page about her that Oliver could read about. Where he could find out all about her sisters, her uncle, how she left a promising sports training career to come run her uncle's PT clinic, even her past romantic history...

“I don't want to know,” she said out loud to the computer and shut the window. “I'll let him tell me what he wants.”

Her heart felt lighter after closing the window. It felt like she was doing the right thing. She was excited to have him tell her all the information instead of the emotionless website page. She would ask him if he preferred her to look at it, but she suspected he didn't. Besides, she liked the way his eyes widened and the shocked look on his face when she told him she didn't know who he was. It was rather fun to surprise him with that.

Elsie smiled and closed her laptop. She'd had a busy day and should be heading to bed and not messing around on her computer anyway. With a deep breath, she stood up from her office desk, turned off the lights and went home.

“Okay, Ollie. That's it for today. You did a good job.” Elsie finished massaging his knee like she did after all their sessions. She wanted to get as much blood flow to the injury as possible. In addition to the massage, she'd spent the last hour putting Ollie through simple, yet important, leg exercises.

Oliver wiped his brow and sagged back onto the treatment table. Sweat soaked through his shirt and he seemed very relieved that the punishment was over. “You sure, Doc? I think I can handle some more torture.”

“You're done for the day. We don't want to push you too far, or you'll just re-injure yourself. It's a delicate line we need to walk, between challenging you and letting you heal.” Elsie patted his shoulder. “Plus, your check hasn't cleared yet, so I need to keep you liking me for at least a few more hours.”

She watched as Oliver cocked his head to the side and froze. It was like she had said something wrong.

“I'm only teasing you,” she said, with a smirk. “Your check is just fine.”

Ollie released his breath and relaxed once again. Elsie grabbed a bottled water from the mini fridge in the corner of the room and handed it to him.

“You need to stay hydrated now,” she said. “The more water, the better.”

Oliver nodded as he took down a big gulp. When he finished, he set the bottle next to him. “I've been working out

for most of my life and I think this might have been one of the hardest workouts I've gone through. I'm not joking either. Even the drills that coach made me do as a rookie didn't kick my butt like you just did.”

“The worst isn't over.” Elsie took a step back from the table to make room for Ollie to get up. “Just wait until I make you stand up again.”

Oliver groaned and wiped his face. “Don't remind me. Do you think there's any way you can just let me lay here the rest of the day?”

“Would you like me to throw the ball for you at your next game too?” she teased, glancing down at his knee. He gave her a good-natured glare as he wiped sweat from his brow again.

The swelling had gone down significantly and the incisions were nearly healed. Still, though, they had a whole lot of work to do before Ollie could consider himself recovered.

“I feel like I should be all better by now,” he said, gently touching his knee. “It still freaking hurts, though. But, it's been a whole week!”

“Ollie, you had three men attack you with knives and dig around in your knee for several hours.” Elsie gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder. “They were just nice enough to sedate you first.”