“Something like that,” Reid responded. “Companies send me all kinds of things in the hopes that I’ll recommend them to patients.”
“Cool. I only get company-branded pens, and I have to steal those.” Gabriel rolled his shoulders back, sighing happily as the muscles in them finally relaxed under Reid’s hands. He was holding himself tightly, which wasn’t helping his pain levels at all.
Reid didn’t like to use pain-relieving creams or gels on patients who were on their own and on improvement programs, because it was important that they could feel what their body was telling them, but apparently Gabriel wasn’t the kind of guy who paid attention to that kind of thing.
Right now, it seemed more important to get Gabriel away from the point where he wanted to cry. Reid was starting to suspect that they’d been tears of frustration rather than tears of pain, the kind of crying that happened when everything had gone wrong, all day, and you hadn’t gotten a chance to take a break from it.
He was honored that Gabriel felt he could cry in front of him. He hadn’t done that when he first came in. He obviously wasn’t the kind of person who did it a lot.
“You got a trip to space. That’s a helluva job perk,” Reid pointed out.
“I guess,” Gabriel said, chewing thoughtfully. “I don’t know what you’re putting on me, but I think it’s my soulmate.”
Reid chuckled. “Wait until I really massage it in. I’ve gotten proposals based on that alone.”
“You say that, but don’t be so sureIwon’t propose.” Gabriel leaned forward as Reid started digging the heels of his hands into his back, long strokes up and down, adding to the warming action of the gel and working the sore, overused muscles of Gabriel’s back.
He seemed to have most trouble with his back, though his legs didn’t look as though they were in great shape, either. Reid had been trying to spare him unnecessary discomfort the first time by letting him keep his pants on, but he could see now that Gabriel probably needed just a tiny bit more attention than he’d first realized.
Gabriel gave off the air of being a grown-up, competent man. Reid suspected that he generally was—grown up beyond his twenty-six years, even—but only in things that he understood and cared about.
His body seemed to be something he neither understood, nor cared about. Reid would have to fix both of those things for him.
“I’ll give you a little tube of this stuff to take home, but you can buy it over the counter if you need more,” he explained, adding more to the palm of his hands so he could work on Gabriel’s arms. “I didn’t want you to use it in the first place because I wanted you to know when you were in pain so you wouldn’t push your limits.”
Gabriel barked a laugh, shifting in place as Reid took his arm.
“Yeah, that didn’t go exactly the way I imagined,” Reid admitted. “You’re a special case.”
“I get that a lot,” Gabriel said. “But you’re the first person who hasn’t sounded mad when they said it.”
“It’s not your fault that you’re a special case,” Reid said. “I should have anticipated that you’d try to push yourself. All the signs were kinda right in front of me.”
Gabriel laughed again, but it was starting to seem like a sad sound. “I definitely push myself. I’m used to being able to do things faster and better than most people.”
“Unfortunately, your body has its own timeframe. I know it’s frustrating. Believe me, Iknow. But you have to give yourself time.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from personal experience,” Gabriel said.
Reid wet his lips. “I am.”
It wasn’t a secret, but it also wasn’t something he told everyone.
He could tell Gabriel. Gabriel would appreciate knowing that Reiddidknow what this was like.
“Two days before I was supposed to start college, I got hit by a car,” Reid began. “I’m okay now, obviously, but I wasn’t okay then. Broke a few bones, ruptured my spleen—which you do actually need, by the way—and I was stuck in a hospital bed for weeks. I was like you when they finally let me start walking around by myself. And it hurt. And it was frustrating. So I get it.”
Gabriel nodded slowly, flexing his fingers as Reid rubbed gel into his forearm.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” he said after a moment, his voice tight.
“I’m not,” Reid said. “I mean, at the time I wasn’t thrilled, but it made me who I am today. Who needs law school when you can actually help people, right?”
“You were going to law school?” Gabriel asked, surprise in his tone this time.
“Yeah, I was. Well, pre-law to start, but that was the plan. And then I changed my mind, and I’m glad I did. This is way less stressful than law.”
“And based on my co-pay, equally lucrative,” Gabriel said.
