Page 21 of Just a Football Star

Sophie reaches out to shake my hand as Oliver continues. “And Oakley, this is Sophie, my girlfriend.”

He steals a glance at her and they lock gazes. Suddenly I’m cursing the unwelcome feeling flicking my chest.

I better get rid of that feeling quick.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Sophie says. “I’ve heard about you. Thanks for helping Alec. He needed someone to motivate him.”

“It’s my pleasure,” I say, wondering why everyone seems to know about the small, harmless work we’ve been doing.

“I’ll let you guys get back to it.” Sophie leans up and places a light kiss on Oliver’s cheek. Their fingertips linger on one another’s outstretched hands before she breaks apart and leaves, Oliver watching her with a crooked smile.

I have to look away.

I address the Chase Stokes lookalike. “I remember you from before, Sebastian. And you must be Oliver?” I extend a hand to shake theirs. Working with the Wolves required a level of professionalism and decorum that I find easy to slip back into. With a sprinkling of a sting, I make a quick wish—one that involves being able to get back to doing what I love as soon as possible. Working for a team that doesn’t have the Bordys in upper management.

Sebastian asks me to have a seat on the other side of the table, and Oliver jumps right in, his boyish smile and relaxed posture putting me at ease. “I’m sure it was a little strange for you to get a request to meet with us.” He glances at Sebastian, whose slight nod is barely perceptible.

“Yes—” I say, hesitating.

“Sometimes, I feel like we don’t know what we’re doing around here, am I right Sebastian?” He chuckles and spins the black and gold Montblanc pen sitting on the table so that it rotates around like a top. He doesn’t wait for Sebastian to answer. “We know you’ve been helping Alec with his knee, and we wanted to thank you for that.”

“It’s not a problem. I’m on sort of a hiatus from work anyway and when I saw the limp, I couldn’tnotoffer to help, you know?” I suddenly realize what the problem may be and I rush to apologize. “Except, it did occur to me the other day that I might not be allowed to perform sports training on the premises. If that’s the case, I apologize. I—”

“No, that’s not the case,” Oliver says. His brown eyes are warm. “What you’ve done to help Alec has been nothing short of…amazing.”

“Really?” I’m surprised. I glance at Sebastian, who gives a slight nod.

Oliver continues. “His limp is much better. I mean, I didn’t mind him looking all gangsta with the one hand in his pocket and the broke-down limp look, you know.” He tosses his head back in a laugh. “But in all seriousness, we’re grateful for the help. He was doing his quote-unquote homework last night. Some stretches and calf raises you told him to do. As you can probably tell, when he came here last fall, he’d kind of given up on feeling normal.”

I chew my bottom lip. I feel for Alec’s situation and all he’s been through. And I don’t want to disparage him in front of his brothers, but they are sort of right. “I’m not sure how improved his frame of mind is now, but his knee is making progress,” I offer.

Oliver continues. “When we found out a little more about you, that you’re a trainer and have experience in sports injuries, we started thinking about offering you something more long term.”

Sebastian gives him a look and sighs. “What Oliver is trying to say is, we’re focusing on developing our recreation programs here at the resort and one aspect of that is the fitness side. We were wondering if we could hire you to teach fitness classes and do personal training for our guests?”

My mouth drops open, but I think I recover quickly. That doesn’t mean I can think of anything to say at the moment except for, “I don’t know what to say.” My stomach churns. It’s an odd request.

“We were afraid you wouldn’t say yes,” Oliver says, but at a groan from Sebastian, he puts up a palm. “We have no idea if you’re even looking for a job. But Longdale is a great place to live. We’ll offer you competitive wages, a room here to stay in, and free food at the eatery on the main floor. You can basically run the fitness programs however you’d like.” He pauses, searching my face. “The schedule will be fairly flexible, but we’d like if you could offer our guests a couple of varying fitness classes a day to start, and then have office hours where you’re available to do some personal training.” His smile is fixed, and he swallows as he glances at Sebastian and back at me.

I surprise myself with my first thought, that it sort of sounds amazing. Getting to run the program here, with the wild, stark beauty of Longdale Lake and the pines and aspens surrounding it. I’m anxious about going home, dreading the skeletons in the closet that I’ll have to face and the decisions I don’t want to make. And there’s Alec to think about, since he seems to be taking up most of the space in my head these days.

But I’m a professional. I worked with elite athletes—up until very recently. This kind of job seems more suited for someone younger and less experienced.

It would be an obvious demotion in my career path.

“I don’t know if Alec has told you what I do for a living, but I train and rehabilitate professional football players. I worked for the San Antonio Wolves.”

Neither of them seems particularly surprised by my revelation, which feels suspicious. Did Alec tell them about me?

“We were aware of that, which is why we felt funny asking you, since this would be a big change for you,” Oliver says. “Still, we felt it was worth a try. We really take pride in hiring the best people and offering our guests a stay unlike any other.”

Sebastian leans forward, his serious, nearly black eyes taking me in with a casual, unaffected mask. “One of the demographics we’d like to serve is people like Alec.” He hesitates. “We’d like to provide, eventually, a rehabilitation environment for athletes. Not an actual medical rehab, of course. But we’d like to offer services and amenities that will draw in people who’ve suffered injuries. And having you on staff would be an asset. Longdale Lake is…” Sebastian trails off, his gaze going to the desk.

“Longdale Lake is special,” Oliver supplies. “We think the environment here can help a lot of people. To heal, not just physically, but emotionally, as well.”

I pause, forcing slow, deep breaths without being too obvious about it. “That certainly is a great idea.” I open and close my mouth, at war with my competing thoughts. “I can think about it.”

Both men’s eyes grow large.

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