Latin Lovers: Passionate Spaniards. Cathy Williams

than a crushing, devastating blow.

      He really hoped to hell she didn’t.

      “I shouldn’t have said what I did. Yesterday. About you being pathetic. You were the last person I expected to see and I lashed out.”

      “You were being honest,” he reminded her.

      “I was angry. But I know what you’re asking and I think it depends,” she said. “Do you think you can do this? Do you really think you can throw again in The Show?”

      Honesty. It’s what he promised. “I don’t know. Lanie—sorry, Lane. Help me.”

      Her arms closed around her body more tightly. “I already agreed to do your physical therapy. That’s all I’m offering.”

      “No,” he said, reaching for her upper arm, circling it with his left hand. It was strange to touch her again. Like suddenly she was even more tangible to him now than she had been standing in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest. “I need to find me again. Because right now I’m so lost I have no sense of what’s up or down. And as crazy as it seems, you were one of the people who knew me best back then.”

      “You’re asking me? For that kind of help? You don’t think it was enough to ask for my skills, now you want more? That’s a lot of nerve, Roy.”

      “I know it is. But I also know you were the most generous person around.”

      “Yeah, well, I’m not that person anymore,” she said. “I don’t give anymore, because I don’t trust anymore. You did that to me. You and Danny.”

      To be lumped in with Danny Worthless felt like someone had shoved a knife through Roy’s stomach and twisted it all around. But was she wrong? They had both betrayed her.

      Roy dropped his hand and could feel that some heavy clouds had blocked out the sun. Cool air had rolled into the stadium and his arm felt all of it. Definitely the start of spring, where one minute it could be balmy and beautiful and the next minute a person could be shivering and cold.

      His shoulder started to stiffen and he knew he needed to get to a hot shower fast if he was going keep it loose enough to take another session tomorrow.

      “I gotta...” He pointed to his arm and Lane nodded, totally familiar with what was happening to his body in the cool air. That shared knowledge created a sense of intimacy between them. Just like it had back then when she used to work on him. There had been times when he believed she understood his body more than he did. It had always been an unsettling thought.

      “Yeah. Right. Take your shower and then meet me in the therapy room. We’ll get to work.”

      Therapy. That was more than he should have asked for. To ask for even more from her probably had been a dick move.

      “Okay.”

      She walked away from him but then stopped a few feet away and turned back. “I don’t know if it helps or not, but the Roy I knew back then had a lot of nerve, too.”

      Roy smiled at that. “Yes, he did.”

      Lane shrugged. “Maybe that’s where you start looking for yourself again. See you in a few.”