“You were right. Come on, then.” She led him down the hall to one of the treatment rooms. “First thing I want to do is get a baseline on you. I’m going to lead you through a series of motions. All you have to do is move your arm and tell me what hurts.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“You might not say that by the time we’re through.” It sent a little pang to her heart. Despite his behavior that first day, she didn’t relish the thought of causing him any pain, but Penny knew from experience that what followed likely wouldn’t be pleasant.
They spent the next twenty minutes going through a range of movement. She had him hold his arm out as high as he could, lift it and rotate his thumb up and down. She noted where he grimaced and where he physically couldn’t move his arm anymore. By the time they were done, Matt had a fine sheen of sweat on his brow and his eyes were pinched with pain.
“You can rest back against the wall now. You must be exhausted.”
Matt let out a disgusted sound and leaned back. “I shouldn’t be this tired from doing nothing.”
“You weren’t doing nothing. Every motion requires the use of not only the active muscles but also the rest of your body. I suspect you’ve been compensating for the injured areas so long, you don’t even realize how much of a strain it’s putting on your other muscles.”
“That’s why I need to get this figured out. I should have been healed long before now.”
Penny glanced up from her notes. “I know it’s really important to you that you stay in shape. I’m curious how you’ve managed to do that while compensating for your injury. You’re in near-perfect physical condition.”
“You think so?” He turned to look at her, his dark eyes holding hers. The tips of her ears felt like they were on fire, so she knew her face was probably red, too.
“The musculature on the uninjured shoulder doesn’t seem to have been impacted in any way.” She ignored his smirk when she didn’t respond to his innuendo. “How long did you wait after your surgery before you resumed working out?”
Suddenly he didn’t look so smug. Matt glanced at her and then down at the floor. “A few weeks, I guess. I’m not exactly sure. I didn’t do anything with that arm for a long time, though.”
Exactly as she’d suspected. He’d probably been working out all along. That would explain why he’d never healed properly after the first surgery and also why he was still experiencing pain almost a year later. He could have easily caused new injuries to himself in the months since without even realizing it.
Penny picked up one of the stress balls on the table and wrapped his right hand around it. “Lift this. Higher.”
He complied and she put her hand on his injured arm. “See that, right there? Even though you’re using your uninjured hand, you can feel it in your injured shoulder, right?”
“Yes. It’s tensing when I move.”
“Exactly. I don’t want you doing any other upper-body work right now. It might feel like you’re losing ground, but it’s worth it so you can heal overall.”
She took the ball back and placed it on the table next to him. “Now you can just lie back and relax because we’re going to do some heat therapy. The hard part is over.”
Matt reclined on the table and let out a heavy sigh. “You promise?”
There was something inexplicably vulnerable about the way he looked up at her just then. For the first time, he looked like a shadow of his old self, the playful and mischievous boy who’d lived to play tricks on his sister and cause trouble, but who’d looked as innocent as an angel when it was bedtime. It made Penny feel good to see that part of him hadn’t been buried completely.
Penny couldn’t resist stroking her hand over his brow. “I promise. Now close your eyes.”
Although he looked surprised at the gesture, he closed his eyes obediently and let out another heavy sigh. The stress lines on his forehead flattened out after a few moments.
“The hard part is over,” he whispered.
Penny wished she could make the same promise to herself.
* * * * *
AFTER HER LAST patient of the day left on Monday evening, Penny leaned her head on the reception desk where Georgia was sorting a stack of patient files.
“Are you okay?” Georgia poked at her arm. “You’ve been mopey like this all day.”
“Can you blame me? First, there’s the situation with Matt. I really want to help him, but what if I can’t? Then there’s Scott. I told him I’d meet him at the bar after work. I know we need to talk, but part of me wishes I could avoid it for a while.”
Honestly, it was probably a mistake to meet at a place where so many of her coworkers liked to hang out, but Penny would have agreed to just about anything to get him off the phone before Matt’s appointment. It shouldn’t be weird talking to him in front of Matt. He was her boyfriend, even if they were fighting.
“You need to just put that man out of his misery. I know the proposal was not exactly ideal, but this is bordering on cruel and unusual punishment,” Georgia said.