Page 5

Sharon spins her head to look at me, and seeing my thunderous expression, she realizes her limbs actually work and scurries across the floor. “Yes. Yes, I’m busy.”
Making her way around the desk, she places her packages down and begins shuffling off her coat. From the corner of my eye, I can see her looking from me to Steele and back again. The silence continues; a thick tension fills the office, and I’m struggling to hold the discomfort.
“I’m afraid I can’t help you, Mr. Steele,” I say eventually. “I’m fully booked for the foreseeable future. If I were you, I would look elsewhere.”
“You don’t have any available appointments?” he presses.
“No,” I reply firmly.
He tilts his head and narrows his eyes. “Right.”
He doesn’t believe me, but I couldn’t care less. This is my clinic, and I don’t want him here.
“If you leave your number, we can let you know if we have a cancellation,” Sharon pipes up.
I drop my gaze and stare at her. Realizing she’s messed up, she flounders, and then the words come tumbling out of hermouth. “Though we don’t get many people who cancel. Emma’s too good. She has a really strong client list, and—”
“What Sharon is trying to say is that we’re fully booked,” I say, cutting over her babbling.
“Yes,” Sharon confirms. “That’s more or less what I meant to…” She trails off, her voice getting quieter until she’s making no sound at all.
“Fine,” Ryan says, jutting out his chin and pinning on a false smile. “Thanks anyway.”
I don’t feel the need to reply as he turns on his heels. He’s moving far more slowly than he’d like, I’m sure. One cannot storm out when one is limping. But he leaves the clinic without looking back.
For a long moment, neither Sharon nor I say anything. I think I’m partly shocked and partly relieved. Not to mention that my stomach is doing somersaults. Yes, admittedly, it does have something to do with the fact that I’ve just sent Ryan Steele away, but also, I have never once, in my whole time as a physio, turned anyone away from my door.
A minute later, Sharon says, “You do know he’s single again, right?”
I can tell by her tone that she’s confused by my decision.
“There’s probably a reason for that. The man’s a pig,” I snarl back.
“I’m going to be honest here, Emma,” Sharon says, her tone betraying astonishment. “I can’t believe you just turned Ryan Steele down. He’s an ice hockey superstar. Imagine the clientele you could bring in if you had a recommendation from him.”
“I don’t need his recommendation,” I retort, a little shortly. “We already have a strong client base. But do you know what’s even stronger than that?”
I lower myself into a chair beside her, unwrapping my sandwich while Sharon looks at me a little cluelessly.
“My pride,” I offer.
For a long moment, my colleague looks at me. I can see she’s trying to work out what on Earth is going on in my head.
Then she says, “High school was a long time ago, you know? What happened between you two is history.”
“It’s not just what happened. It’s the fact that the man has never changed. He’s as arrogant now as he was back then. People are supposed to grow up. Ryan Steele never did. He’s used to getting everything he wants. He always has, and no doubt always will.”
“You don’t care that he’s made such a success of his career?” Sharon pressed.
“Not one bit. Famous or not, I want nothing to do with him.”
The day passes with my concentration waning, but I do my best to stay as present as possible. Now, though, as I sit on my sofa with a glass of white wine in my hand, my mind wanders.
It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about Ryan. Sure, I see Thomas sometimes in the town, but he doesn’t grace us with his presence very often. Completely opposite from his brother, he’s grown up to be quite the businessman. He’s also kind, considerate, and quietly confident.
But it’s not Thomas in my thoughts right now. In fact, as I gaze into the flickering flames of my fire, my mind wanders back to that day when I knew I would never look at Ryan Steele the same way again.
The Bulls had just won their football game against the Lions, an opposing team from a school ten miles away. The park was buzzing with excitement, and whooping and hollering were still going on when the team came thundering off the pitch.