Try - The Complete Romance Series by Nella Tyler

was the same as ever: focused on
Landon, talking to me about his son’s progress.
    I was looking forward to my next date with
Patrick so much more than I thought. When he’d first asked me out, I had been
nervous—that I’d say something stupid, or that he’d turn out to be a jerk, or
that things would get awkward—but when he’d kissed me I’d really felt it. I wonder how many dates before we can sleep together? It wasn’t just up to me; it was up to him as
well. With a child, Patrick would have to be careful about how quickly he got
serious with someone. He couldn’t risk bringing someone into Landon’s life who
wouldn’t be a good influence. Even though I was Landon’s physical therapist, I
understood that Patrick would have to be sure about how I would interact with
Landon in a different part of his life.
    “Girl, you have been distracted for days,”
Amie commented. “Can’t you hear Charlotte paging you?” I blushed and answered
the phone. It was a call from another patient’s mother, to ask if I thought
that her daughter would be ready to go back to ballet in three weeks when the
new program started. I told her that we’d have to see at her daughter’s next
appointment if her recovery had been enough to allow for it, and that all on
its own reminded me of Landon and all his progress—which reminded me of
Patrick.
    I went back to my work, throwing myself
into a session with a seven-year-old girl who had broken both arms in a
tree-climbing accident and needed to regain muscle mass after the long period
waiting for the bones to heal. As long as I was working with an actual patient,
I was able to focus on my work; I would hate myself if I ever let anyone
distract me from the sessions themselves. I took her through the exercises,
cheering her on and encouraging her about how far she had come, and talked to
her Mom and Dad who were both watching her work with me. “She’s doing really,
really well.”
    “Do you think she’s going to make a full
recovery?”
    “She’s going to need time,” I cautioned
them, “but she’s young, and the breaks themselves didn’t do very much damage at
all to her muscles. If we work hard then Annie will absolutely make a full
recovery and fingers crossed, it’ll be like it never happened.” I did a quick
evaluation of her strength and coordination—at such a young age, long periods
of time where the muscles are immobile can slow down normal development—and
sent her on her way with her parents, a little sweaty but grinning from ear to
ear.
    After Annie, there was a lull between
sessions; I’d had a patient cancel on me while I was in the session. It
irritated me whenever parents would call at the last minute to cancel, but I
know that things come up, and they can’t always be predicted. I went back to my
desk and pulled up the endless paperwork that I never quite seemed to get done
and decided to work on that. Amie had made a run to the café a block away from
the office, so I had a hot drink waiting for me, and I sipped it while I called
up the files that needed updating.
    There wasn’t much of anything out of the
ordinary going on with any of my patients; that of course meant that their
files were starting to get more than a little bit boring to update. I started
typing in my notes, based on the papers I’d filled out during their sessions,
and my mind began to wander while I worked. I knew I shouldn’t give into the
impulse to daydream, but I couldn’t help myself.
    I thought about my date with Patrick,
remembering every little detail of our conversation, the way the coffee had
tasted, the way he’d looked. I had to think that it wouldn’t be all that normal
for someone like Patrick—good-looking, pretty wealthy, and working in such a
prized field—to even notice someone like me, much less want to go on a real
date with me. I wonder where he’s going
to take me next, I thought, remembering that I’d agreed to a second date. I
bit my bottom lip and