Page 78 of Revive Me

I’m more worried that I can’t take care ofyou.

Not that I’ll have the chance.

Lily seems to want to say something else, but her gaze cuts to her family, then back to me.

“Okay, well, we’ve clearly interruptedandoverstayed our welcome, so we’ll get out of your hair,” Lily’s dad says, looking between the two of us. “I appreciate you giving us a few minutes. Hopefully, she goes easy on you after this.”

Despite myself, I snort and look at Lily. “I don’t think she even knows the meaning of that word, Mr. Davis.”

“Apparently, Lily is quite the ball buster,” Sean excitedly explains to his dad. “I believe the exact word used was ‘terrorist.’”

Lily’s jaw drops as her head snaps to me. “Youdidn’t.” When I only hold my hands up in a gesture of surrender, she plants her hands on her hips and orders, “Take it back.”

I quirk an eyebrow at her and say dryly, “Liliana, I’ve had Philly boxing coaches that didn’t push me as hard as you do.”

She rolls her eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry, were you expecting me to grab some pom-poms and make up cheers?”

“Honestly, it might be nice to feel supported for a change.”

At that, her eyes narrow.

And then she slaps me across my shoulder.

“You’re a dick,” she grumbles. Which just makes me chuckle.

It takes us both a second to remember that it’s not just us in the clinic, that her family is quite literally standing beside us, watching this entire exchange. When I turn my attention toward them, her dad’s eyes are wide, and her brother is blatantly gawking.

“Oh, umm…as you can see, Roman is one of my tough love patients,” says Lily, stumbling over her words.

Her brother is still staring, but her dad gives us a polite smile and says, “Well, some of us need that, don’t we? Whatever helps the recovery.” Then he gestures toward his son. “We’ll let you two get back to your session. I’m sorry again for interrupting. It was nice to meet you.”

I nod at him and reply, “It was nice to meet you too, sir.”

“I’ll walk you guys out,” Lily says hurriedly. Then she looks at me. “Light weights until I get back, yeah?”

I roll my eyes and make a scene about putting the machine’s pin in a lighter weight. “Yes, Doc.”

It earns me a smile, even as she’s already ushering her family toward the exit.

And all my worries about Lily and I living vastly different lives outside of the clinic are forgotten.

For now.

25

LILIANA

Finding out a previous elderly patient passed away shouldn’t hit me as hard as it does. It’s been months since I’ve seen Mr. Allen, and even then, he was only my patient for a few weeks. He also passed away in his sleep, in the natural way that older people do. No pain or reason. I shouldn’t be fighting back tears when Fran pulls me aside to tell me.

I feel silly about it, so I assure her that I’m fine. And I go back to my day, trying not to let the sadness creep in, trying not to feel as much as I do.

I think I manage because no one says anything. Not even Fran or any of my other coworkers.

When it’s time for Roman’s session, it becomes apparent that I’m not the only one having a hard day.

He’s off, both mentally and physically. It’s clear to me that he’s having a bad day with nerve pain. I’ve seen him wince and flinch away from contact a few times, and with the dark circles under his eyes, I can tell he probably hasn’t been sleeping well.

Once we finish our warmup and a very light strength training session, I’m prepared to suggest switching our session to more of a stretching one, instead of the gait training we had originally planned. But Roman surprises me by gritting his teeth and moving over to the parallel bars.

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