“I know the feeling,” she said, coming into the room and stopping at my bed. “I’ve been working with him these last few days and it hasn’t been great.”
“This first victory of his has already gone to his head. He was in here talking all this shit about how he’s never giving me back my starting job.”
Charlotte nodded, reaching out and touching me on the shoulder. I closed my eyes, enjoying her touch. “He told me the same thing.”
“I can’t let that happen, Charlotte. I gotta get better fast and get back on the field.”
“I know, Lance, I know. Your injury is healing up, but it’s still gonna be a few weeks.”
“I…I need help, Charlotte, I need help to get back where I need to be. I need you in my life.”
She looked for a second like she couldn’t believe what I had just said, but that passed as quickly as it appeared. “But what about your rule? What about waiting till the season was over?”
I looked down. “I know about the rule. Trust me on that. I know that it’s gotten me this far, but I also know that I don’t want to stick to it for a minute longer if it means I’m hurting you, if it means I’m keeping you away.”
She looked at me warily for a second, before smiling. “I’m here for you, Lance. I’ll help you in any way I can.”
I put my hand on hers, and saw her close her eyes at my touch. I marveled at how much we affected each other, how strong each of our hold over the other was.
We held each other like that. And everything already felt better.
CHAPTER 14 - CHARLOTTE
Even though I had only known Lance Parker for a few weeks, I still felt like I had a good handle on what kind of man he was. So when he asked me, of all people, for help in getting back on the field so he could chase his dream, I was shocked.
It was only a few weeks ago that Lance had told me he could heal up by himself, that he didn’t need my help, that he could go it alone. Of course, that hadn’t been true from the start, but I had kept my distance from him all the time.
Aside from, you know, when he kissed me a couple times. And that one time we had sex in this very room. But let’s move on and not pay as much attention to those, OK?
Still, I was floored. Lance was the last guy I expected to turn to someone else for help, but here he was, asking me as sincerely as he knew how. My heart immediately went out to him, and I wanted to jump into his arms and have him hold me all night.
I would have settled for the other way around, but that might have looked and felt way more awkward for the both of us.
“Anything I can do, Lance, really,” I started, breaking the silence we both had let linger for what felt like forever, but was probably closer to 30 seconds. Big difference, there.
I sat down on the bed next to Lance, and he pulled me in quickly, kissing me hard on the lips. I opened my mouth slightly and let him in, thrilled beyond belief that we were kissing again. It felt so good to have his arms wrapped around me like this. I didn’t even care in that moment if someone wandered by or even into the room and interrupted us.
All that mattered was that Lance Parker was kissing me. And I was kissing him back.
Finally, though, we had to separate. I sat back and adjusted my clothes to make sure everything was in order. Lance kept looking at me.
“I know, Charlotte, I know. You’ve been wonderful these last few weeks and I’ve been a dick. I’m really sorry about that.”
I wanted to agree with him, to acknowledge that yes, Lance Parker, you had been a dick a few times. But at the same time, after weeks of watching him basically stuck in this room, I couldn’t bring myself to come down hard on him.
It was as if I had just realized that these last few weeks were even harder on him than they were on me. That seemed like an obvious notion, but for some reason it just hadn’t occurred to me.
“Thank you for that,” I said, trying to find the best way to accept his apology without really turning the screws. “I know you’ve been hurting these last few weeks and it’s been tough to watch you go through it. I know when you’ve lashed out that that was the reason.”
He looked at me wearily, like he was just getting ready for a long sleep. “I’ll do better, I promise. From now on.”
It warmed my heart to hear him say that. I could already feel my spirits lifting. “You look like you could use a nap.”
“I think that sounds pretty good.” He looked out the window and saw that it was still bright out. “I would invite you to join me, but someone else might see.”
I gave him a polite smack across the shoulder, smiling. “Jerk. You know I shouldn’t be fraternizing with my patients like that.”
He reached around and cupped my ass with his giant hand. “No, of course you shouldn’t. But we both want you to anyway.”
“Save it for when you’re better, Mister…”