Page 76 of Revive Me

“In full transparency, I’m thinking about putting a freeze on my spin class membership,” she blurts out. Which only makes my eyebrows pinch. She pulls in a shaky breath and explains, “I kind of want to switch to kickboxing classes.”

At that, my eyes widen and my stomach flips. I have to clear my throat before I can ask, “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

But with our gazes locked, I don’t even need her to answer. I can see every bit of her heart in her eyes.

And now I’m thinking back to the MMA factoids she dropped when we first started working together, and the day she played my walkout song when I was having a hard day. And I wonder if she goes above and beyond for every patient, or if, maybe, impossibly, I’m just a lucky one.

My chest squeezes at the possibility. I open my mouth to asksomeversion of that question?—

“There she is. Itoldyou she has a client on Saturdays.”

Mine and Lily’s attention snaps to the doorway, where two men are entering the gym. The older man has graying hair and a big smile on his face, while the younger man adopts a casual hands-in-his-pockets stance as he looks curiously around the clinic. It looks like there might be a familial resemblance. And actually…

“Dad,” I hear Lily say from beside me. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

Lily’s dad waves off her concern before walking over and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Everything’s fine. We were in the neighborhood, so we wanted to stop by.”

The guy behind him—who I’m assuming is Lily’s brother—rolls his eyes and says, “I tried to talk him out of it, but you know he loves his pop-ins.” He jerks his head toward me and adds, “She’s with a client. You can ask her later, Dad.”

“Ask me what?” Lily asks with a frown.

“It’s about our trip at the end of the month,” her dad explains. “I figured it’d be easier to ask in person, but you’re right, I shouldn’t be interrupting. I thought you were done at four.”

“No, I’m with Roman until five.”

“Ah, okay. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed. I’ll just call you afterwards, then.”

But Lily still looks thrown off by the visit and confused about its purpose, so I tell her, “I don’t mind if you take a few minutes. I can wait.”

Sure enough, Lily sends me a grateful look before asking her dad, “Can you be quick?” When he nods, she reaches for his arm to pull him aside. “I’ll be right back,” she assures me.

Once they move to the other side of the room, I’m left alone with her brother. Based on the descriptions Lily has given me, I decide to take a guess.

“It’s…Sean, right?”

His eyebrows shoot up in surprise, before a big grin appears on his face. “Yeah. She talks about me, huh?” He chuckles. “Probably because I’m the family’s agent of mayhem.”

I huff a laugh. “She’s never put it like that, but…yeah, that fits the description she’s painted.”

He shakes his head with a smile. “She’s always been the sweet child, that one.”

I think about the hell she’s put me through with PT and murmur, “I don’t know about that.”

Sean catches on to my meaning and lets out a loud laugh. “Okay, I can see how a patient of hers wouldn’t agree with that. I can only imagine how much of a hardass she is in here.”

I snort. “That’s putting it lightly. Your sister’s kind of a terrorist.”

Another booming laugh. “Oh God, I can’t wait to put that in the family group chat. The cousins will love that.”

Eventually, his laughter fades, and his gaze drops to the machine I’m working on. Which makesmymirth dissolve as well. “Hopefully, the terror she’s instilling is working, though,” he comments.

I fidget awkwardly in my seat. “Yeah, she’s been great.”

But then Sean’s brow furrows, his eyes moving over me again.

And then they go wide, and his mouth drops open in shock.

“Holy shit, Iknowyou!” he yells. “You’re Roman Ward!”

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