Page 20 of Fractured Grief (Hope’s Ridge #2)

Indy

M y whole body buzzed with adrenaline and desire as my lips touched Seb’s.

I clutched his Henley in my fist as I pressed my mouth to his.

Overwhelmed and encased in Seb’s scent, his presence surrounded me as he responded.

His hand caressed my cheek before shifting to the back of my neck and gripping me tight.

I moaned as his tongue parted my lips, and he deepened the kiss.

My first real kiss!

I was on cloud nine as my body came alive and our tongues tangled. His hand tightened, pulling me closer like he never wanted to let me go. He was going to possess me, take me apart, and keep me safe.

We parted for air. Our foreheads pressed together as we took in the moment.

I could’ve lost him today.

When I saw Seb walking down the street, my heart skipped a beat, and I wanted to run to him. But I hadn’t. I was a professional, a dad. Then that taxi had come out of nowhere, and Seb had crumpled to the ground.

My heart stopped.

All the reasons why we couldn’t be together didn’t matter. I knew better than most that there was no rhyme or reason to life. You could lose someone in an instant. I could no longer deny my feelings, and I didn’t want to.

“What’s happening?” Seb whispered, a little dazed.

I didn’t have an answer.

“I was so scared, Seb.”

“I’m fine.” He lifted my chin to gaze into my eyes. “What do you want, Indy?”

“I know what I want, but I’m scared. I’d really like to see what this is between us. I’m still worried about my job, but that doesn’t matter as much anymore. Let me check your leg, then we can talk.” Extricating myself from his hold, I turned away, giving myself a moment.

There had been a fair bit of blood when I’d wrapped my jacket around his calf, so I readied some gauze and saline. Once I cleaned up the wound, I’d know what I was dealing with.

“Shit, I forgot about Lyric.” Seb fished his phone out of his pocket.

“You can let him know where we are and have him meet us. We might need to go to the hospital.”

Seb froze. “D-do you really think I need t-the hospital?”

“Let’s see.” I carefully undid the tie on my jacket and peeled away the fabric. Blood seeped from the long gash, which was worrying with how tightly I’d tied the makeshift tourniquet. I quickly applied pressure with the gauze. “You need stitches.”

“Really? No, no, no. This can’t be happening, not again.

I can’t feel it. What does it mean that I still can’t feel a gash that needs stitches?

I should be able to feel something.” Seb’s speech deteriorated and his stutter became more pronounced as he kept rambling.

“Even looking at it and seeing the blood, shouldn’t my brain respond and know I’m injured, so there should be pain? ”

“Hey, look at me.” Placing my hand on his bearded cheek, I turned his head. “You’ve come so far, don’t let this take away all your progress.” I kissed his lips. “I’ll get you taken care of. You’ll be okay.”

Huffing out a big breath, he visibly calmed.

“Thank you,” he whispered before his mouth closed over mine again. His hand brushed my cheek, ever so softly, before moving down and around my back to pull me closer. Our kiss intensified as he wrapped his arms around me. I was trapped in the best way possible.

Next to him, I felt delicate.

In his arms, I felt cherished.

He held me close with one arm while the other slid lower, grazing the top of my jeans.

“Wait,” I gasped, breaking the mind-melting kiss. “Your leg. My work.” I was flustered and overcome. Desire soared through me, needing an outlet. I longed to be touched, desired, treasured, but it wasn’t the time or place.

I willed my cock to get on board. Nothing could happen here .

“We need to see to your leg.” The loose gauze was not doing anything to stop the bleeding. “Stay here, and I’ll see if one of the nurses can help. You’ll need to let me go for that.” I pushed softly against his hold.

“What if I don’t want to?” Seb’s arms were still locked around me, hand teasing over my ass.

“We’ll talk, I promise. We need to get you sorted first.”

Begrudgingly, Seb released me. “I’ll call Lyric.”

“I’ll go get a nurse.” With that, I left the room.

I rounded the corner to reception and almost collided with Eve. “Sorry,” I exclaimed, stepping aside. “I’m so glad to run into you. Are you in the middle of something?”

“No, just on a restock and coffee run. What do you need? Isn’t it your day off?” she asked, tucking a strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear.

“Yes, it is, but I just saw one of my clients get clipped by a taxi, and he’s got a deep gash on his leg that might need stitches.”

“Fucking taxis. Let’s go take a look.”

“Thanks so much. I owe you.” Eve knew Seb, so that should put Seb at ease.

“He’s in here,” I gestured to the shared office. I knocked before we entered to give Seb a warning. “Hey, Seb, you remember Eve?”

“Of course. Hi, Eve, I hope we’re not taking you away from anything.”

“You’re not. Just a coffee run,” She smiled gently at Seb. “Let’s take a look, shall we? ”

She lifted the bloody gauze. “This will definitely need stitches.” She grimaced, “You’re going to have a nasty bruise, too. There must’ve been some jagged metal on the car’s bumper. Good thing you’re all up to date with your shots. I’m sure you wouldn’t want another tetanus.”

She applied more gauze before turning to me. “I’ll need to get supplies and let Carol and Julian know what I’m doing. You keep the pressure on until I get back.” She patted my shoulder and left.

I quickly grabbed more gauze and added it to the wound.

“I guess we’ll be here a little while longer.” I smiled at Seb, taking in his stunning emerald eyes. They twinkled in the light shining through the blinds. So many conflicting emotions flickered across his face as he gazed back at me.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered reverently.

His words hung in the air between us. My face heated, and I was sure I was blushing. I didn’t know how to respond, so I changed the subject.

“Is Lyric on his way?” I asked.

“Shit! I forgot again.” Seb fiddled with his phone a few times before bringing it to his ear.

“Seb! Thank goodness! Where the hell are you?” I could hear Lyric’s shout as if he were in the room with us. Seb flinched and moved the phone away from his ear.

“Lyric, it’s okay,” Seb tried reassuring Lyric.

“I was at the café for over half an hour, and you weren’t answering your phone.

I thought you’d gone over on your appointment, so I checked in, and they said you left ages ago.

Why didn’t you answer your phone? Where have you been?

I can’t believe you just wandered off and didn’t tell me.

” The more he spoke, the angrier he got.

Seb seemed too stunned by Lyric’s outburst to speak, so I took the phone from him. “Lyric, stop talking!”

Silence quickly greeted me. “You’re not Seb. Where’s my brother?” Lyric’s words were slow and measured. “Who are you?”

“It’s Indy, Seb’s physical therapist,” I paused to let that sink in.

“Why do you have Seb’s phone? Where’s Seb?”

“I need you to calm down, and I can tell you.”

One heartbeat. Two. “Okay.”

“There was an accident. Seb’s with me at my office in the Outpatient Care Building. He’s fine, but he needs some stitches. Can you come meet us here?”

“Stitches,” he screeched. “That doesn’t sound fine,” he muttered that last part before the line went dead.

“I guess he’s on his way.” I was a little flustered at the abrupt end to our conversation. Passing Seb back his phone just as Eve, Carol, and Julian, the head nurse, came into the room.

“Hi, Indiana. Mr. Papadakis,” Julian greeted Seb. “We haven’t formally met, but I’m Julian Chen, and I manage the nurses here. Eve mentioned your injuries, and I thought I’d take a look and see if I could fix you up. Is that okay?”

“Hi, ah, yeah, sure?” Seb muttered, his gaze flicking between all four of us. “No one’s in trouble, are they? Indy was just helping me off the street. It’s okay. I can go to the hospital,” he stuttered as he shifted in an attempt to get up .

Julian quickly moved forward to place a hand on Seb’s shoulder.

“No one’s in trouble. I was just doing paperwork and thought I’d help out.

” He aimed his dashing smile at Seb. His smooth complexion, high cheekbones, and rich brown eyes highlighted his model-handsome good looks.

My stomach churned with jealousy. My jaw hurt from how hard I was clenching my teeth.

I didn’t like Julian looking at Seb like that.

I was about to move forward, to put myself between Seb and Julian, when Carol spoke.

“Why don’t we leave Julian to work on Seb? You and I can talk, and Eve can get back to work,” Carol motioned to the door.

I hesitated.

Eve noticed, and angel that she was, linked elbows with me and guided me to the door before I did something stupid and risked my job more than I already had today.

“Come on, Indy,” Eve gave me a nudge. “Jules will take great care of Seb.”

“I know,” I whispered. “I’ll be back soon,” I met Seb’s eyes and sent him a secret smile before letting Eve lead me away.

Once outside, Eve said her goodbyes, and I followed Carol into her office down the hall. Stepping inside, Carol closed the door before moving around to her desk and taking a seat.

Nerves twisted my gut . Does she know I like Seb? Did someone see us? Am I about to lose my job? I felt nauseous as I sat in the seat she’d indicated.

“So, what happened?” Carol asked, face passive .

“What do you mean?” I hesitated, needing to know what she knew before I spoke.

“With Seb. How was he injured? We need to write up a report.”

My shoulders sagged. Thank goodness. I recounted what I’d seen and everything I’d done. Well, almost everything. Carol wrote as I spoke, interjecting every now and then to clarify, and we had my side of the report written up in less than ten minutes.

“We’ll need to go through Sebastian’s side of things, but we can do that in a minute,” she paused as her gaze locked with mine. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”

I was torn. I wanted to be honest, but I didn’t want to risk losing my job, damaging my reputation, or being taken off Seb’s care. He didn’t have that many appointments left. We could wait. But should we?

Her eyes twinkled as she took in my hesitation, my silence. “How about this? For the next ten minutes, I’m not your boss. I’m a friend asking about a friend and how they’re doing. Nothing you say in the next ten minutes will affect your job or standing here.”

She knew!

“Okay?” I spoke questioningly, unsure if I was really being given a ‘get out of jail free’ card. “So, I can say anything and not get fired,” I joked, testing the waters.

Carol chuckled. “Well, maybe not anything. Don’t go saying how much you hate your boss or whatnot, but yes, in this moment, you can tell me what you need to. ”

She leaned forward in her seat, radiating sincerity. Her smile put me at ease, and I knew her to be a fair, kind, and understanding boss and businesswoman.

“I have feelings for Seb.” My hands flew to cover my mouth. I had not meant to blurt that out. “Shit,” I hissed as I covered my face and let my head fall to the desk, only slightly mortified and admittedly worried about seeing the look on Carol’s face.

Her soft laugh greeted my ears as her hand settled on the back of mine. “It happens to the best of us. It’s how you handle the feelings that would affect your job. Let’s talk more about it.”

“So, I’m not fired?” I said weakly.

“No,” she paused, and my stomach cramped. “No, I promised you could tell me anything and you wouldn’t be fired, but I need to know what the extent of these feelings are, are they reciprocated, and have they been acted on. I need the truth so we can find the best solution moving forward.”

I didn’t know how to articulate any of that, but it looked like my mouth had run away with me again as I blurted, “We kissed.”

What the hell was wrong with me?

“Sorry, let me try this again.” I took a deep breath. “I found Seb attractive from day one, but would never have acted on it. It wasn’t until today, when I saw the taxi hit him, that I realized just how much I like him. And today, in the office, a little while ago was the first time we kissed. ”

“I take it he responded to the kiss and perhaps likes you, too,” Carol clarified.

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s not great that it happened on company grounds, but I can understand. You of all people know better than most how fragile life can be. When two people are clearly attracted to each other like you two, it seems inevitable.”

“What do you mean, clearly attracted to each other? How’d you know?” I was a bit shocked. Had we been that obvious?

“The way you two look at each other when you don’t think anyone’s around. The way Seb watches you when you’re not looking. I sensed there was a connection there, and in a way, I’m glad to see my instincts are still spot on.”

I guess we weren’t as stealthy as I’d hoped. “What does this mean going forward? What about Seb’s care? He’s come so far, and I don’t want this to affect his progress.”

She tilted her head and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.

“There are a few options, but the best one would be to assign Seb a different physical therapist. Do you think he’d be amenable to that?

I know he’s struggled with the many personnel changes he went through early on.

There are notes in his file. The other option is to continue and pledge to end your relationship immediately; in this instance, we would need additional observations, as he’s currently being treated at home.

I’ll be honest with you, the second option will go on your personnel file, so it could affect future employment.

It would also be more noticeable. People will talk, but in option two, there will be no hiding it.

You’re young and a great physical therapist. I’ve loved having you on my team and would hate to see this tarnish your career when you’re just starting.

You need to think seriously about what you want and what you’re willing to sacrifice.

You will need to decide and ensure Seb understands all the implications.

“Since today is your day off and everything happened when you weren’t acting as Seb’s PT, I can turn a blind eye at this point, but please consider your career.

You’re talented, and I can see you going far.

Thank you for being honest with me and trusting me.

Off the record, you’re a wonderful person, and with all you’ve been through, I’m happy if you’ve found someone who makes you smile again.

” She patted my hand before standing. “Now, let’s go and see if Julian’s finished with your man.

” She winked before grabbing the report and leaving me gaping behind her.