Isn't It Bromantic (Bromance Book Club #4) - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,25

most part, you need to stay off your feet and keep the leg elevated above your heart.”

Patella mobility drills. Multi-plane open kinetic chain straight leg raising. Week two, begin proprioception drill emphasizing neuromuscular control.

“Is he supposed to know what any of this means?” Elena asked, not even trying to hide the rising alarm in her voice.

“That’s what we’re for.” Madison smiled.

Vlad absently scratched his jaw, the scrape of his fingertips against his thick whiskers drawing Elena’s attention. Transfixed, she studied the pop of a vein atop his hand that wound all the way up his forearm. As if feeling the weight of her stare, Vlad suddenly looked up. Their eyes collided, and she felt a kick in her chest. The reality of the close quarters they were about to share became its own presence in the air between them.

Elena tore her eyes away to find Madison watching them with a curious, amused glint in her eye.

Elena’s cheeks grew hot. “What about nutrition? Will you put him on a special diet to help him heal, or can I make him anything he wants?”

“Lots of fruits, vegetables, and protein,” Madison said. “And, of course, gluten-free.”

“Why gluten-free?”

“I was diagnosed with a gluten allergy late last year,” Vlad answered quietly in Russian.

“You never told me that.”

“I planned to, but . . .”

But she broke his heart instead.

Madison cleared her throat. “Well, we’re going to leave you alone now so you can get ready to go home. We’ll be in touch tomorrow, but call tonight if you need us, okay?” She spoke with the quick cadence of someone anxious to leave. She all but pushed the two grad students toward the door.

“I have no idea how to cook gluten-free,” Elena said, nibbling her lip. “I’ll have to do some research on how to adapt recipes.”

“I don’t need anything fancy.”

“But I want to make all your favorites from home.”

Vlad shifted against his pillows to sit up straighter. “You’re sure you don’t mind doing this?”

“I’m sure.” She swallowed and hugged her chest. “But can I ask you something?”

He nodded tentatively, as if he feared the question.

“Why did you change your mind?”

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “You were right. It will be nice to not have a stranger in my house.”

It was an ironic answer, since she felt like a stranger around him. But maybe this time together was exactly what they needed to correct that, so that when the time finally came for her to leave, they would part, at last, as friends again. It was the best she could hope for, and more than she deserved, but she wasn’t going to waste this opportunity to start making things right between them.

CHAPTER FIVE

Several hours later, Elena kept a steady beat of nervous chatter all the way home, but Vlad was too shell-shocked to respond with much more than single-word answers.

The hospital had sent him home with a pair of crutches, some painkillers, and a stern warning to take it easy for the next few days. They gave him nothing, however, to deal with the reality of his rash decision to let Elena stay. What the hell had he been thinking?

He hadn’t been thinking. That was the problem. He’d simply been reacting. The crushed look on her face when she told Madison she was going back to Chicago had awakened a side of him he’d long thought dead. It was the same side that had convinced him to propose to her. The side that believed his mother when she assured him that Elena would eventually find her way back to him. The side that once read every romance novel he could get his hands on to learn how to make it happen.

Vlad must have made a noise, because Elena quickly glanced over at him. “What’s wrong? Does it hurt? Do I need to pull over?”

“No. I’m fine.” Which was the biggest lie he’d ever told. He was anything but fine. The car was too small with her in it, and he was too keenly aware of how desperately he needed a bath. Something he was not going to be able to do alone.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

“Not right now.”

“I could make dinner when we get home, or we could order something. Do you know if you’re supposed to take your pill with food?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I’ll find out. I did a bunch of cleaning yesterday so the house would be ready for you. I mean, it was already really clean. I just made your bed and removed all the