Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Inside, I was treading water in a sea of doubt and fear.
But on the outside, I was the same Holden Moore — level-headed and sure, calm, encouraging.
I had to be.
And it was being captain that kept me going, that gave me the life raft to stop myself from drowning.
The wins lit a fire in me, just like they did the rest of the team. Whereas they worked harder on the practice field, readying themselves for our next home game that weekend, I pushed myself to the edge every day in rehab. The steroid shot had me feeling good, along with the exercises we’d been doing and the anti-inflammatories. I’d rested, and then I’d stretched, and then I’d introduced movement, and then I’d strengthened that movement. We were already introducing the passing motion, and it felt good.
I felt good.
Now, I was anxious to get back on the field.
I knew better than to push, than to ask Julep or JB or any of the other training staff to put me in before they recommended it. I was almost afraid to ask, like if I pushed too soon, it’d raise their warning flags and they’d hold me back even longer.
So, I showed them I was ready through physical therapy, through ignoring any little grimace of pain I might have felt and proving I could perform despite it. No, I wasn’t in perfect condition yet, but that would come with time. With practice.
With being back out there with my team.
If I was in the NFL, I’d already have been on the starting line-up. When money was involved, everything was different. But as it was now, the university was responsible for my well-being and health, and as much as I hated it, I was a liability.
They weren’t going to rush it.
The Thursday before our home game, I stretched out on the table after a grueling session of PT with Julep, sweat sluicing over my skin as I did. My chest heaved for a while as I lay there, as she carefully stretched my shoulder while it was warm.
She’d been all business since the party at the Pit more than two weeks ago.
I didn’t push her, not that night when every inhibition I had told me not to let her go, not to release her without kissing her first, when everything inside me yearned to claim her and show that I could have her — would have her.
And certainly not once I woke the next morning, sober enough to realize that she had been right.
Thank fuck she’d been the smart one, the strong one, to realize that line we toed was one we could never pass over. I understood that fact just as much as she did, but that night, with my judgment impaired…
I hadn’t cared.
I’d been willing to risk it all.
It had been hard for her to meet my eyes that next day in training, but once she did, it was as if nothing had happened at all. I cracked a joke, and she shot a one-liner back at me. And that was it.
Business as usual.
It’d been that way ever since.
“You’ve really progressed,” she said as she maneuvered my elbow and wrist this way and that, testing my shoulder’s limits. “Your recovery is going better than even I speculated.”
Hope ballooned in my chest, but I didn’t dare ask what that meant, and Julep dropped it just as quickly as she’d brought it up, instructing me to roll over onto my stomach for deep tissue work.
We were both quiet as she massaged my neck and shoulder, my upper back, all the little muscles and tendons that needed to be worked out. Those quiet minutes lulled me into a stupor, my heavy heart and mind begging me to sink into oblivion. I was so exhausted from training, from the mental and physical aspect of it all, that I succumbed, a long exhale bringing me the last bit of relaxation I needed to release.
In my half-dream state, Julep’s hands felt even warmer, firmer where they squeezed and rubbed. I inhaled deep, soaking in each touch, groaning a little when she dug her thumb into a sore spot that brought on as much pain as it did pleasure.
I knew without being able to see her that she was grinning. The little sadist loved bringing me pain.
It made me wonder if she’d dig those nails into my flesh if I ever had the chance to lay her back, if she’d bite my lip enough to draw blood if I dared to steal a kiss.
I’d wanted to so badly that night in the garden.
It had made me dizzy, made me sick when she’d told me to stop, when she’d said goodnight and pulled away just enough for me to let her go. I’d been intoxicated by her, drawn into her web and willing to lay my entire life on the line for just one taste.