Page 23 of Revive Me

“I’m not unfamiliar with failure,” he says, almost as if he couldn’t stop himself from engaging. He seems caught off guard by it.

I push a little harder. “But I’m assuming you followed that failure with pushing yourself until you achieved the victory, right?”

He doesn’t respond, but the look on his face tells me I guessed correctly. This is a man who’s not used to hard work not being the answer.

“You know, you could do that here, too,” I suggest carefully. “It’s just going to be different levels for success, and probably more failures than normal. But maybe if you look at PT the same way?—”

“I’ve already talked to a dozen shrinks, Liliana, I don’t need another one,” he snaps.

My eyes widen. I introduce myself as Lily to all my patients, in the hopes of making things more casual. My dad is the only one who calls me Liliana. My dad and?—

“Oh my God, youdoremember me!”

His cheeks pinken. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Suddenly overwhelmed—by emotions and familiarity—I lean forward and smack his arm. “Why onearthdidn’t you say something?”

He frowns down at the place I hit before turning his pointed gaze back to mine. “Clearly, I was worried it would ruin our professional relationship.”

Now it’s my turn to blush. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Roman glances toward the office I first met him in. “If you knew who Iwas, why didn’t you tell your boss? Isn’t this a conflict of interest or something?”

I also look toward the office, chewing on my bottom lip with indecision. “I thought about it,” I say after a moment. “But I figured…it was two years ago, and nothing really happened.”

When I bring my attention back to Roman, I’m surprised to find an odd look in his eyes.

Even more surprisingly, I feel my body warm at the sight of it.

“Notnothing,” he says in deep voice.

The same deep voice that had me following a total stranger up the steps to a roof deck.

The voice that now has a shiver running through my body at hearing it again.

“Do you want me to have her switch you to someone else?” I ask in an almost-whisper. I’m not sure if I’m more scared that he’s going to say yes, or no.

He thinks about it, never once looking away from me. When his answer finally comes, relief flows through me.

“No, I don’t want to work with someone else.”

I swallow thickly, then paste a smile on my face and nod. “Okay then. But we agree that this needs to be professional from here on out. Which means we probably shouldn’t talk about that night.”

At that, a hardness enters Roman’s eyes that cools every bit of heat from our conversation.

“I’m not too fond of talking about before, anyway. So that won’t be a problem.”

AndGod. His answer breaks my heart all over again.

But it also solidifies my desire to help him, so I tell myself the end decision is correct, no matter how we reached it.

I gesture toward the resistance band in his hand.

“Good. Then give me one more set on the right foot with this.”

9

ROMAN

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