“Couldn’t you have stayed on with the ballet company as a consultant or other role? I know it wouldn’t be the same—”
“I wasn’t going to get stuck behind a desk planning events and schedules.” Teddy cut him off, having known this would come up eventually—it always did. “Watching others train and dance when I can’t.”
“You know,” Finn said with an awful look of pity, “even if it could never be the same—”
“Because of my age, recovery time, possible complications? I know the spiel, that I can overcome it all and make the most of what I have, but I don’t do anything halfway. If I can’t be all in, then I’m out. And when you’re out, you’re out. Time to move on.”
Teddy expected a fight, a harder push or pep talk, but Finn nodded.
“I understand. Just keep me up to date, okay?”
“Will do.”
“Should we get those exercise alerts on your phone?”
“Knock yourself out.” Teddy dug out his cell, swiped to unlock it, and handed it to Finn, who explained an app as he downloaded it that would better track Teddy’s progress than just adding calendar reminders.
When he finished and handed the phone back to Teddy, he said, “You’re welcome to use the spa facilities at no charge given you have standing appointments, and since this is your first day, you can enjoy a complimentary massage with any of our available masseuses.”
Complimentary. Maybe Teddy would indulge.
“And only because I have to mention this, all our physical therapists are also licensed masseuses.” He gestured to the bed—table. Teddy really needed to think of it as a table. “Just not yoga instructors,” Finn added with a smirk.
Oh, he made this hard.
Really hard.
“I think I better use someone else, if it’s all the same,” Teddy said.
“Of course.” Finn glanced away with that brief flash of shyness and disappointment that Teddy found so irresistible. “It was good to see you, Teddy. Remember to do your exercises, and I’ll see you again on Wednesday.”
Teddy was an asshole. He knew that. He didn’t try very hard not to be, and he’d been told as much many times over the years. Still, he could have been less of an asshole to Finn, who knew Teddy was interested and was interested right back, pushing only slightly, most of the time accidentally, but always backing off when Teddy made it clear he just couldn’t.
Even though he wanted to.
That didn’t change that now wasn’t the right time, and everything was already too complicated with Finn being hisneighbor and now his physical therapist. He’d see him several days a week for months. They couldn’t start sleeping together. There were probably rules against that sort of thing, and Finn would get fired if Teddy gave in.
He also did not want to switch to someone else. Having Finn know intimate details about him and his injury was bad enough. He didn’t need more people infringing on his life.
Teddy just needed to get through a few weeks of routine and he’d stop thinking of Finn all the—
“Hey, Teddy!”
—time.
Was he literally following him now? It was the same day!
No, Teddy was in the supermarket in their neighborhood. Naturally, Finn shopped there too. He also wasn’t alone. A gorgeous dark-skinned young woman was with him. Teddy would have felt a stir of jealousy if he wasn’t certain Finn was gay.
He looked his own level of gorgeous out of the scrubs, but then Finn always looked good, with his scruff and his perfectly coifed hair and his long, lean body.
“Finn. Always a pleasure,” Teddy said, tucking his basket closer to him, suddenly self-conscious of the bottle of Kraft Easy Cheese inside.
He’d been a dancer for over twenty years, rarely allowing a cheat day, but spray cheese had always been a weakness. No reason not to cheat now, though he still felt the need to hide it from thesekids, who both could have graced a magazine cover.
“Teddy, this is my sister, Rose. Rose, this is Teddy Scofield,” Finn introduced them, and she immediately smiled as she stretched out a hand.
Thiswas Rose? Teddy didn’t see the family resemblance, but then he knew better than to assume.
