Page 24 of Romancing My Grumpy Goalie

“Neither do I, but Chase does, and he knew exactly who Lucas was. Apparently, he used to play for the Atlanta Arsenal. Then he had a career-changing injury that took him out of the game for a year. After extensive physical therapy, he landed a position on the Forge here in Roanoke.”

“That explains the knee brace.”

“Rumor is, he’s only in Roanoke until he can get back to the Arsenal.”

“So, he’s only in Maple Creek temporarily.”

“If his plans work out, then yes.”

This fresh knowledge has me grateful that I didn’t allow myself to develop feelings for Lucas. And I was just starting to like him. But if we’d begun dating, he would have become another guy who planned to leave me.

And I can’t allow another man to abandon me.

EIGHT

LUCAS

I walkinto the waiting room of the Forge’s physical therapy office to see some guy in a Hawaiian shirt wave at me. The man appears to be in his forties, and his blond hair is thinning. He’s lying stomach down on the exercise ball they keep in the waiting area. He rolls off the ball onto the floor with an “oof” before scrambling up to a standing position. “I’m Milo, your contact for Play It Forward. I was in the area visiting my cousin’s ex in-laws and decided to stop by.”

I blink at him and go to sign in.

He follows me. “Anyway, I’m excited to hear all about the mentorship. How are things going?”

How did this guy know to find me here? “It’s going swimmingly.” I go to sit in one of the chairs lining the wall.

“Bravo!” He claps his hands. “Tell me more. Are you able to connect with Nolan? I know he’s had some issues with his dad being out of state.”

I nod. “We’re working on it.”

Not sure how true that is, but it’s better than saying how I really feel, which is that I’m completely terrible at this mentorship.

“That’s okay. You know they always say, ‘you gotta start somewhere.’”

“I’ll probably be heading into my appointment soon.”

“Of course!” Milo says. “I’ll be leaving in a moment.”

I was beginning to think he was going to attend my appointment with me, which I’m not okay with.

“I was talking to the coach about your knee, and I had a thought that might help.”

“Okay?” I grit my teeth to hold back my sarcasm. The last thing I need is to offend this guy.

His eyes are full of hopeful excitement. “Try putting an oatmeal poultice on it with sliced ginger. It worked wonders for my sister when she had runner’s knee.”

I scoff. Since runner’s knee isjustlike an ACL tear.

“Make sure you do it every night and then wash it out in the shower in the morning. The ginger has to be freshly sliced each day. You can’t do a bunch of it in advance and keep it in the fridge. It won’t work as well.”

I’m not putting a breakfast option on my knee while I sleep. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You never know. It could help you turn a corner.” He points at me, a serious expression on his face. “Don’t knock these home remedies. And the other big thing is rest. Make sure you’re taking enough time off.”

Right. Since joining this mentorship has helped with my downtime situation. Anyway, the last thing I want to do is go back to where I was last year. In bed most of the day with my knee propped up. Constantly changing out ice packs. It’s taken a lot of hard work to rebuild my endurance and muscle after taking a full year away from soccer.

My PT comes out, and I make my escape.

“Bye, Lucas. Good luck with your appointment! And good luck with Nolan!”

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