Playing With Fire. Kayla Perrin
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is why you’re here.” Zienna smiled pleasantly. “I’m very glad you contacted our clinic. Even though you had disappointing results with other doctors, you’re going to be quite happy with your decision to put off having surgery.”
“You sound really sure about that.”
“There’s a saying—he who treats the site of pain is lost. So let me ask you, have you ever had any problems with your left knee?”
Ed’s chubby cheeks puckered with his frown. “My left knee?”
“Kinesiologists believe in holistic treatment, which is based on the interconnectedness of the entire body. What I see time and again is that the area where a person suffers pain is often not the source of the pain. It’s something called interlimb neural coupling, which is a fancy way of saying that the limbs are connected in terms of functionality. So hearing your symptoms with your right elbow, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that you’ve had issues with your left knee.”
Zienna regarded Ed, and saw in his eyes when his brain connected the dots. “I did. I injured my left knee years ago when cycling. I still feel pain there from time to time.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “Excellent.”
“Excellent?” he echoed, looking confused.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just...well, I love my job, and I especially love when I’m able to help someone who feels all hope is lost. Just last month I had a patient come here with a torn ligament in his shoulder, and he, too, believed he would have to have surgery. Once I was able to diagnose the true source of his shoulder problems—which were actually connected to problems in his opposite ankle—within a couple of sessions he was pain-free.”
Ed looked skeptical.
“It’s the magic of kinesiology.” Zienna had treated patients whose issues were emotional, with their stress manifested as pain in their body. In her practice, she dealt with a person’s physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being as a way to effectively care for their problems.
“I won’t begin treatment until you’ve had all the tests we require here at the clinic, but I feel very confident that I can successfully eliminate the pain in your elbow.”
Now Ed smiled. “If you can save me from surgery, I’ll be forever in your debt.”
At that moment, the wall phone rang. Zienna turned to look at it, knowing that for the receptionist to have put a call through to her in the examining room, it had to be important.
“Excuse me a moment, Ed.”
She crossed the room to the phone and lifted the receiver. “Hello?”
“Hey, babe.”
At the sound of Nicholas’s voice, Zienna frowned slightly. Why was he calling her on this line?
“Hey,” she said in a lowered voice. “What’s up?”
“Just concerned about you. The way you left this morning...it didn’t feel right. I called your cell, but you didn’t answer.”
“Right.”
“You okay?”
“Um-hmm. Yep. But, um, can I call you back in a little bit? I’m with a client right now.”
“Oh, okay. No problem. I just wanted to hear your voice. Make sure you’re all right.”
“Excellent,” she said, hoping for Ed’s sake to sound professional.
“I get it. You can’t talk. But let’s do something tonight.”
“Sure. You’ll give me the details in a bit?”
“Yeah, I’ll call you later.”
Zienna was inwardly beaming as she replaced the receiver. It was a nice feeling, knowing that Nicholas was worried about her. He was a great guy, and for the first time in a long time she was in a happy relationship. She still got butterflies when she talked to him, something that hadn’t lasted with the men she’d dated in the more recent past.
“If you go out to reception, Jamie will take care of booking the tests we require, which are all done in-house. You should be able to see me again by next week.”
“Great. Thanks so much.”
Zienna saw Ed out of the examining room, but her mind was on Nicholas and what she’d discussed with Alexis that morning. Hearing Nicholas’s voice, she felt better about her decision not to tell him of her past with Wendell. Doing so might hurt him, and she didn’t want to jeopardize what they had.
“Um, hey.”
Zienna turned, and was surprised to see Ed standing in the doorway. “Yes?”
“I just wanted to say that not only are you beautiful, you’re incredibly smart. I’m glad my friend referred me to this clinic.”
“Oh.” Zienna hadn’t expected that. “Why, thank you.”
Ed offered a bashful smile, then a little wave.
As he disappeared again, Zienna made a face, confused by what had just happened. Was Ed simply being nice, or was he a little bit smitten?
It wouldn’t be the first time a client had become enamored with her. She was attractive and liked to smile, something that won over many men. The way she saw it, having male clientele develop a crush on her was a bit of an occupational hazard.
As she sat at the desk, her mind ventured back to when she’d met Wendell five years ago. And the crush that had turned into something more.
As one of the four athletic therapists for the Chicago Bears, she had seen him during practices, and then when the NFL season had started. He’d been thirty-two at the time, almost considered a senior when it came to professional sports, but he still had the kind of skill that put some of the younger players to shame. His talent as a wide receiver kept him in the starting position on the team’s roster.
Zienna hadn’t personally engaged with him until the tackle that had injured his left shoulder. And pretty much instantly, the professional demeanor between them had changed.
He had torn the rotator cuff, and weeks of physiotherapy with the team’s head athletic therapist followed. Once his shoulder had stabilized, he’d begun work with Zienna to further help with his healing and regain optimum strength.
The spark between them had been immediate that first day she’d met with him one on one. Perhaps it was the way he’d looked at her with those beautiful hazel eyes...a heated look that had melted her professional resolve almost instantly.
Zienna knew it was about more than the look he’d given her, because right from the start she had noticed him. Of all the players on the team, Wendell was the one who stood out to her. Of course, she never would have approached him in a personal way. She’d valued her fairly new position with the Chicago Bears too much to do that.
Wendell, on the other hand, had no such qualms. He’d asked her out the day of their second session.
Everything about him had made Zienna want to forget all about being professional, but she knew better than to accept his offer, and had politely turned him down. Undeterred, Wendell had proudly told her, when they got together for his third exercise session, that he’d made reservations for the two of them to have dinner the following Saturday night at Michael Jordan’s Steak House. It hadn’t been a question.
He had known her answer without having to ask.
And Zienna, turned on by his confidence, had been unable to deny him.
The dinner had been wonderful, enhanced by a personal exchange with Michael Jordan, who’d been in that night. Zienna wasn’t surprised to learn that Wendell and Michael knew each other, but she did feel extraspecial when the basketball legend sat at their table and chatted with them for a few minutes.
It