Need You for Always (Heroes of St. Helena)(35)

“She’d probably tell me it’s about time,” she said and found herself laughing, because she could almost hear her mom saying those exact words. “Then she would tell me that if I was a real chef, I would find a way to get a grown-ass man to eat his vegetables.”

And there went the double-barreled dimples that excited and confused her all at the same time. Because when Dax smiled like that, real and from the heart, she wasn’t sure how to react. Dismissing him when he was being a flirt was easy. Ignoring the way her heart fluttered when he engaged fully was impossible.

“So tell me, Ranger. Are there any vegetables that don’t scare you?”

He thought about it for a long minute and, smile dialed to dangerous, said, “I like corn.”

She didn’t have the heart to tell him that corn was a grain, so she grabbed a couple of ears and tossed in an avocado just to throw him. “We’ll start with the eggplant and work up to kale.”



“You don’t look so good. How bad is it?”

Dax wasn’t sure how to answer that. His chest burned, most of his organs felt like they were shutting down, and he was pretty sure he was two seconds from losing his lunch.

“I can handle it,” he said, gritting through the pain.

“Sure you can,” Kyle said, taking the weights from his legs and setting them on the floor. “That’s what all the G.I. Joes say right before they pass out. So why don’t you lie down on the mat and we’ll cool down.”

“I can do one more rep,” he said but realized that he was already on the floor, his back pressed hard into the mat. “Why is it I feel fine until I come here?”

“That pain you’re feeling is a good sign,” Kyle said, putting a death grip on his kneecap and leaning into him like he was a man sled and this was the NFL.

“And here I thought dying was a bad thing,” Dax joked, but no matter how hard he tried to laugh, he couldn’t.

“That pain right there”—Kyle pressed farther just in case Dax didn’t know exactly what pain he was talking about—“that’s the nerve endings coming back to life. It means you took well to the surgery and now your body’s healing.”

Kyle released a fraction, then pressed in an inch farther. Dax sucked in a breath. “You want me to stop there?”

“No way.” Dax pressed through the next thirty seconds, ignoring the dots of light piercing his vision, and when he felt his leg finally hit the mat, he allowed himself to breathe. And that’s when a new wave of pain rolled through him like a tsunami.

“Your flexibility is improving too. All signs that—”

“You’re an *?”

“I was going to say that things are on track.” Kyle squeezed out the knot that had formed in Dax’s thigh from the strain. “But you need to do more stretching at home and less pounding the pavement.”

“Okay,” Dax said like he did every session, knowing he wouldn’t stop. Running was the only outlet he had left, and unless the doctor wanted him to officially lose it, he couldn’t give it up. But he’d try more stretching.

Maybe get his crazy cutie of a chef to assist him.

“Take some of those pills the doctor prescribed tonight or in about two hours you might embarrass yourself.”

Dax opened his eyes, and it took a moment for Kyle’s two bodies to merge back into one. “Not happening.”

“It will make the recovery more manageable.” Dax remained silent and Kyle shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, I didn’t take them either.”

A silent understanding passed between them, and every reason Dax had for coming home, for entrusting his recovery to Kyle instead of some physical therapist in San Diego, was confirmed. Only someone who had marched in his shoes before could understand his need for the pain, because with pain came clarity, and right now Dax needed something in his life to make sense.

“Just know that in order to heal, your body actually needs rest.” Kyle held up a hand. “Which I know for guys like us feels like crawling our way out of our own skin. Slowly. But your injury is like a woman, it makes its own set of rules that change hourly and gets pissy when you don’t listen.”

Dax knew a woman who got pissy whether he listened or not. In fact, she got pissy whenever he was around. There was one time she hadn’t been pissy at all, but he knew that thinking about San Francisco made her pissy all the same.

“Are you telling me how to handle my women?”

Kyle laughed. “I’m telling you that if you don’t take it easy and let this heal in its own time, you’ll be riding a desk for the rest of your life.” Dax ignored the first part, since that was a nonoption, and focused on the second part, about him being stuck in St. Helena for longer than planned. Also a nonoption. Because in a few weeks the elite team position would need to be filled, so that was when he needed to be ready to go. “I have a new job starting and I need to be in peak shape.”

“You’re looking a little green to be talking about peak shape. If I were you, I’d skip shaking it for the ladies this weekend and rest,” Kyle said, then burst out laughing.

“What are you talking about?”

Kyle jerked a thumb to the newspaper clipping on the community board next to the water cooler. Dax looked at the heading and that gnawing itch moved from his thigh to behind his right eye. “‘St. Helena’s own beefcake bodyguard to work ladies’ night at Cork’d N Dipped.’”