Page 61 of Cajuns. Love. Curves.

A Second Chance/ScarredHero/Curvy Girl Romance

Wade

My career as a SEAL is over and I’ve been sent home as a half a man. I might be done with the rehabilitation program offered by the Navy, but I still need physical therapy. How was I supposed to know that the best therapist in my home town is the only girl I've ever wanted?

Kelli is the one that got away, the one I always intended to come home to someday. I’d do anything for a second chance with the curvaceous beauty, but now I’ve got nothing to offer her. She deserves better than a broken warrior like me.

But when I find out she still feels the same way? All bets are off.

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chaptertwenty-eight

Kelli

I knew what I was getting into when I moved home to the tiny town of Saddle Creek to start my own physical therapy clinic. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

I spent part of my childhood in Saddle Creek, every summer until I was thirteen, when my parents went through the nastiest divorce in the history of Houston family law, and full time after that.

Small Texas towns in the Hill Country are known for their good food, their hot summers, their stunning wildflowers, and their gossip.

Saddle Creek is no different. Everyone knows everyone and has an opinion about everything. In any given meeting of two or more people, you will have at least five bits of gossip to discuss and as many as ten opinions about it. Things have only gotten worse since some helpful citizen startedthe Saddle Peek, an online message board devoted to local gossip.

So, yes, I knew what I was getting into when I moved here after graduating from UT Southwestern’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program. I knew that I would know all of my patients. I knew that I’d hear all the gossip. All the time. I even knew that I’d occasionally be the topic of said gossip. After all, I was a key player in one of the most gossiped about events in Saddle Creek High’s history. Every once in a while, I’ll walk into the local HEB and hear someone yell, “Go Wildcats!” at me.

Because people think they are so funny.

Still, I moved back to Saddle Creek for the food and the views and because nowhere else has ever felt like home, despite the fact that my mom sold the house by the lake as soon as I left for college and it’s since been bought by some tech guru out of Austin, who tore it down and built an even bigger mansion on it.

Besides, knowing all of my patients isn’t bad, especially when they are as great as the woman I’m working on now, Callie Crawford.

“Are you even counting?” she asks me.

I give her a tight grin. “Of course I am.”

She laughs. “You are a terrible liar.”

Callie feels less like a patient these days and more like a friend. “Two more,” I say with authority, because while I wasn’t technically counting, I’ve been doing this long enough to know what ten reps of anything feels like through muscle memory alone.

She blows out a breath and shoots me a glare. “These elastic bands are from the pits of Hell,” Callie says.

“No one likes the bands, but they’re making your hip and your leg stronger, so quit your complaining.” I eye her posture as she completes the motion. “And, they would feel less like torture if you were consistently doing your at home exercises.”

“I do them!” she protests.

I grunt in disbelief. “Speaking of being a terrible liar…”

She makes a whimpering noise that I know is fake. “I’ve been busy.”

I snort.

A few months ago, Callie fell hard and fast for Roe Crawford. Or maybe he fell hard and fast for her and dragged her along with him. The point is, she’s newly married and ridiculously in love. I can’t decide if it’s adorable or annoying.

“Yes, boss.” Callie finishes her final exercise and collapses back on the table. “I think you’d be less mean if you got laid,” she murmurs.

Never mind. It’s annoying.

“I liked you better when you were prim and proper and all buttoned up,” I snark.

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