She sighed. “I don’t have an attitude. You’re the one who felt the need to reference shit and cereal in one sentence. I haven’t spoken yet.”
“All right. Good morning, Eloise. Should I call you Eloise?”
She gaped at me. “What else would you call me?”
“I don’t know. Aren’t you a doctor? I thought maybe you’d want to be called Dr. Eloise.” I smirked as I rinsed my blender cup in the sink and dried off my hands.
“Well, technically, if I were a medical doctor, I’d be Dr. Gable, not Dr. Eloise.” She rolled her eyes. “But no, I’m not a physician. I have my Doctorate of Physical Therapy. So you can call me Eloise. No fancy title necessary.”
“All right. Let’s go to the gym, and we can get started.” I reached for her duffle bag, and she slapped my hand away.
Literally, the woman slapped my hand.
“I’ve got it, Hotshot,” she grunted, yanking the strap from my hand and making no attempt to hide her irritation.
For fuck’s sake. What was her deal?
I moved in front of her down the hallway, pushing the door open to the gym. I invested a lot of money in my home gym, and it was one of my favorite rooms in the house, only second to the backyard that sat on the river, where I go for swims after my workouts when the weather permits.
She dropped her bag and turned in a slow circle, taking in all the equipment.
“This will do.” She bent down to pull a few things out of her bag.
“This will do?” I said, not hiding my irritation now. This gym rivaled most professional gyms. Hockey was my livelihood, and keeping myself in shape was my job. So throw me a goddamn bone when it comes to my home gym. “Listen, I’m not sure what I’ve done to piss you off, but I’d like to just hash it out so we can get to work.”
“I’m here to work.” She pushed to stand, dropping a few straps and bands onto the floor and setting a stack of notebooks on the countertop beside her. “That’s the reason I’ve relocated toyour hometown,to focus solely on you.”
There it is.
“That wasn’t my choice. I am capable of training myself. I’ve done it my entire life.”
“Oh, that’s right. You’re a hockey star, a physical therapist, and an athletic trainer,” she said, arching a brow.
“I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth.” I stepped forward, shoulders back, meeting her glare head-on. “I’m saying that I’ve always trained myself.”
“So you don’t need me here?”
I looked away for a few beats before turning back to meet her gaze. “Listen, it’s obvious that you don’t want to be here, andI get it. I know I need your help, and I didn’t mean to imply anything differently. I came back home because it’s where I train best. It’s where my family is. It’s quiet here, and I can focus. I did not know that your father was going to insist on you coming here. I figured I could just meet with a local PT and do the work here. I found out you were coming here a few days ago. I didn’t ask him to uproot your life.”
Her gaze softened. “I get it. This is home. But things are different for you now. You just scored the winning goal to win the Stanley Cup and you had the season of your life—so the game has changed, Chadwick. The stakes are higher, and everyone on the Lions team wants to make sure you heal correctly.”
“And my goal is to recover and get into the best shape of my life for the upcoming season. This has always been the place where I do that best.”
She nodded. “That’s fair.”
“So we can start fresh? And maybe it’ll be another day before you hate me again?” I said, my voice all tease.
“Hate is a strong word. I’d go with despise or dislike.” She chuckled as she reached for a few bands on the floor and pointed at the massage table on the left side of the gym as she walked in that direction. “Hop up. I want to check out your knee before we do anything.”
I did as I was told and lay flat on my back as she removed the brace from my knee.
“So if you didn’t hate me, what was the hostility about after the game?”
Her fingers moved along the outside of my knee, and she was quiet for several beats.
“The swelling has gone down, which is a good thing. Are you wearing the brace at night, as well?”
“No. I take it off when I sleep,” I said.
