“I didn’t mean it like that,” Troy quietly stated. “Yeah, you’re short but you have a great figure, you know that you do. And there’s nothing wrong with your chest.”
“Like you’d know,” Rory muttered.
“I know that you desperately need some masculine hands on your boobs and on other more exciting parts of your body. It’s been a year, eighteen months, since you’ve had some action?”
Actually it was closer to two years, but she’d rather die than admit that to Mr. Cool. “Can we concentrate on my McCaskill problem please?”
“He’s a problem?”
“You’ve forgotten that Shay was dating him during the open-mic disaster.”
Troy’s mouth dropped open. “I did forget that. He said he was bored with her, that monogamy was for the birds.”
“Yep. Obviously that’s a position he still holds.”
Troy leaned back so the waitress could put their food down. He frowned at Rory’s sarcastic comment. “Honey, that was a long time ago and he was young. Shay’s moved on...what’s the problem?”
“He’s a man-slut. It annoys me.”
“It shouldn’t. He didn’t cheat on you,” Troy pointed out, and Rory stared down at her plate.
No, he’d almost cheated on her sister with her. The intention had been there. He would’ve cheated if Rory hadn’t stopped him. He was just like her father and exactly the last person in the world she should be attracted to.
It made absolutely no sense at all.
She’d never told Troy—or anyone—what had happened between her and Mac and she still couldn’t. Hurting her sister hadn’t been her finest moment.
“Okay, admittedly, Mac is not the poster boy for love and commitment so I kind of get your antipathy to him since you have such a huge issue with infidelity,” Troy said after taking a sip of his coffee.
“Doesn’t everyone?” Rory demanded. “Have issues with it?”
“No. And if they do, they don’t take it to the nth degree like you do. Hell, Rorks, I recall you not accepting a date from a perfectly nice guy because you said he had a ‘cheating face.’”
Rory ignored his air quotes and lifted her nose in the air. “Okay, maybe that was wrong of me.”
“Wrong of you? It was properly ridiculous.”
Troy tapped the folder before he attacked his eggs. “Tell me how this came about.”
Rory filled him in and Troy listened, fascinated.
“So, they want you, widely regarded as the best sports rehab physio in the area, to work on Mac. Why didn’t they just approach the clinic directly and hire you that way?”
She’d asked Kade the same question. “They are going to keep the extent of Mac’s injury a secret from the public and the fans. They’ll admit that he’s pulled a muscle or something minor but they don’t want it getting out that his injury is as bad as it is.”
“Why the secrecy?”
“Sorry, I can’t tell you that.” Troy, to his credit, didn’t push. “Kade asked me to take a leave of absence from the clinic to treat Mac.”
Troy’s eyebrows lifted. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“And you said yes, no, hell, no?”
“Thanks to the fact that I am a workaholic, I have nearly two and a half months of vacation due to me that I have to either use or lose.”
Troy just looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
“Kade offered me twenty grand for six weeks and another thirty if I get Mac back into condition by the time the season starts in two months.”
“Fifty K?” Troy’s mouth fell open. After a moment of amazed silence he spoke again. “With that sort of money you could open your own practice like you’ve been dreaming of doing.”
And, more important, she could employ him. Rory nodded. “Yeah. I want to set up a clinic that isn’t a conveyor belt of only treating the patient’s pain—”
“No need to go on, I’ve been listening to you ramble on about your clinic for years.” Troy’s smile was full of love. “And Kade’s offer will allow you to establish this clinic without having to take a loan or use the money you were saving for a house.”
“Essentially.”
“It sounds like a no-brainer, Rorks,” Troy said quietly.
Rory sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. It did, didn’t it? “Except for two rather major points.”
“Which are?”
“First, I am stupidly, crazily attracted to Mac. Nobody makes my blood move like he does.” She glared at Troy. “Don’t you dare laugh! How am I supposed to treat him when all I want to do is crawl all over him?”