Page 75 of Revive Me

“Feeling okay?” she asks in that sweet tone of hers, eyes dropping over my body. “Anything hurting?”

I shake my head, my gaze never leaving hers. “I feel great, Liliana.”

I watch her shoulders drop the tiniest bit, losing the tension she always carries before she asks me that question.

And that inexplicable feeling in my chest grows.

“Okay good, that’s good,” she muses, her eyes still traveling over my body. She doesn’t see my amused smirk until she asks, “Ready to get started then? Why are you smiling?”

I shrug. “Just happy, I guess.”

Affection floods her expression. “Oh,” she breathes out, trying to hide her own smile. “I…guess that’s acceptable.”

I bark out a laugh. “Well, thank God, it’sacceptable.”

She shoves at my shoulder, but she’s grinning. “Shut up. You know what I mean.” Letting out a mock exasperated breath, she braces her hands on her hips. “Well, since you’re feeling sogreattoday…let’s see if we can hit some PRs with the weights.”

I grin, excited to tackle the challenge. “Sounds good to me, Doc.”

She shakes her head as I make my way over to the treatment table, where we start with our usual exercises. We don’t speak for the next ten minutes, but the silence is a comfortable one. I catch her with a random smile on her face a few times—not that I’m much better today. It isn’t until she hits a sore spot on my calf, and I wince, that we speak.

“That hurt?” she asks, immediately concerned.

Chuckling, I respond, “Relax, Liliana. I’m just sore.”

“That’s because you’re working too hard again,” she grumbles to herself, already starting to knead the sore muscle.

I have to wait until her massage goes from painful to helpful before I can respond. “Well, what about you?” I tease. “What’s your workout regimen? I can’t believe I haven’t asked you that yet with all this torture you put me through.” When she doesn’t answer, just leans even harder into the massage, my eyes narrow. “Oh God. You’re a 5 a.m. workout girlie, aren’t you?”

She shoots me a grin. “Guilty.”

Shaking my head, I ask, “How onearthdo you wake up that early when you’re here until 9 p.m.?” When she merely shrugs in answer, clearly trying to tamp down on her grin, I sigh. “Even as a professional athlete, I was always amazed by you people. Earliest I could ever get up for a workout was 6. And that was just wakeup time.”

“I don’t know, I kinda like being up before the world,” she says thoughtfully. “It’s quiet. Gives me a chance to catch my breath before the chaos of my day seeps in.”

I quirk an eyebrow at her. “You calling me chaotic, Doc?”

When she pinches me, I yelp and jerk away from her. Which only earns me a pleased grin as she straightens.

“Roman Ward, you are the definition of chaos in my life.”

I don’t know if the underlying meaning is good or bad. I can’t read her right now, even though I’m suddenly desperate to. Especially after?—

“Come on, let’s get started,” she says, gesturing over at the weights. “Enough yapping.”

Swallowing roughly, I nod and reach for my wheelchair. It isn’t until I’m seated and making my way over to the leg extension machine that I have myself composed enough to continue our conversation.

“So…what’s the 5 a.m. workout of choice?”

“Spin,” she answers excitedly.

I let out a thoughtful hum. “You like biking?”

Lily nods as she sets the height and weight on the machine. “Yeah. My family’s mountain biking trips are always my favorite. Sometimes on weekends, I’ll bike down Kelly Drive along the river.”

“It’s a nice view down there,” I say absentmindedly as I transfer into the machine’s seat. “I used to like running that path.”

I feel her gaze on me, can feel her hesitating as she mulls over something. I turn my head to look at her curiously.

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