Page 23 of Fools in Love

“Hi.” Kate’s face flushed slightly.

Reece Crawford was a few years younger than Tom. The guy was easily as built as him, if not more so. He was well over six foot three inches, whereas Tom was just shy of six feet.

“Hannah told me you were back in town,” Reece said, pulling on his own gloves. Reece glanced between Tom and Kate. “I hadn’t heard you two were…” Tom cleared his throat, and Reece’s smile grew. “Well, it was good seeing you again.” Reece started hitting the bag.

Tom motioned towards the locker rooms. “Shall we hit the beach for a walk to cool off?”

Kate nodded and followed him towards the back door.

They walked in silence until they hit the sand. Then Tom took Kate’s arm as she switched her crutches to her bad side.

“Maybe I should—” he started, but she gave him a look, and he stopped. He held in a chuckle. Clearly she wanted to do it on her own.

Chapter Eight

By the time they made it to the water’s edge, Kate had a bead of sweat rolling down her back. How had she gone from being a super healthy athlete in top form to breaking into a sweat and panting when she walked ten feet across sand?

“Are you okay?” Tom asked her.

“I swear I’m in better shape than this.” She sat down in the sand.

Tom chuckled as he sat in the sand next to her. “Of that, there is no doubt. I would wager you could dance circles around me. Before…” He motioned to her leg.

She had reached down and was rubbing it, without realizing.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

“No, the incision itches. I get my stitches out in a few days. I’ve pulled most of them out myself.”

“Dr. Stevens?”

She nodded. “It will be good to go back to him. He’s been my doctor since I was born.”

“He’s been almost everyone’s doctor here in town, at least those under the age of thirty.” He laughed. “Before him, everyone had his grandfather, or so I’ve heard like a million times,” Tom said as she pulled her good knee up to her chest and looked out over the water.

He leaned back on his hands and watched her.

“Did you like growing up here?” he asked.

She rested her chin on her good knee and sighed. “It was possibly the best place to grow up. Everyone knew you, supported you in what you wanted, watched out for you. If I’d had that in the city…” She shook her head, remembering the betrayal from Dmitri and Isabella. Whose idea had it been to take her out of the equation, she wondered. She’d believed that her friendship with Dmitri had been solid after all the hours they had trained together.

Tom nudged her shoulder with his. “Are you okay?”

“I was just thinking… wondering, really, why Dmitri would do something like this?” She motioned to her knee.

“There was some sort of investigation, right?” Tom asked.

Kate shrugged. “I was immediately taken away in an ambulance. So far, my parents haven’t really told me what they were told. And to be honest, I’m too… deep in my own thoughts to look at any news about it.”

He shifted and pulled out his cell phone. She held her breath until he finally pulled up an article. “Want to?” He held his phone between them. She could have pushed it away and continued being swallowed by her self-pity. But the look in his eyes somehow gave her strength.

She scanned the article while Tom looked over her shoulder, reading along.

“There really isn’t anything here,” she said after reading the short article about her fall, about how Dmitri claimed that he’d slipped on the stage, and she’d ended up at the bottom of the orchestra pit.

It went on to describe her injury and then how Isabella, Kate’s understudy, would be filling in for her during the entire tour.

Tom took her phone and scanned for more articles.