Jane Walker was working out and listening to You Me At Six when she got a phone call from her friend Patrick. She stepped off the treadmill, turned the music down and answered her phone. She was supposed to have dinner with Abby the following night, when Patrick was in Nashville. Maybe something had changed.
“Hey Mr Sharp, what can I do for you?” A huge grin spread over her face when she sat down and listened to his response. Jane liked calling Patrick Mr Sharp. Sometimes he got irritated when she did that, but he usually just accepted it. Trying to talk her out of it was pointless.
“Hey. I’ve actually got a job proposal for you.”
Patrick had known about her situation. She’d just lost her job, because the doctor’s office where she’d been working the past two years had to be closed. Actually, she didn’t have to work. Four years ago she’d inherited a lot of money from her grandmother. The woman had adored her and Jane owed her a lot. All the money didn’t go to Jane’s Mom, but to herself. Her grandmother had known that she could use it and would be responsible enough to handle that much money.
Jane had bought an apartment for herself and had decorated it. Apart from that, she hadn’t spent that much money. She’d even kept her old car, because she’d experienced so much with it. She’d probably have to get a new one in a few months, but she’d keep her old one as long as possible.
Thanks to all that money she didn’t have to work. But she needed to in order to be happy. She’d been working as a physiotherapist for years now and she loved, loved, loved her job. It was a part of her. Of course it could be annoying at times, but which job couldn’t? The fact that she’d lost her job, had made her work out more than usual in order to forget about this problem for a bit. Patrick had told her that he’d ask around and could maybe even find her a job in the Blackhawks organization.
“Okay, what is it?” she finally asked. She turned on the loudspeaker on her phone and put it down. She let her brown hair down, which reached below her shoulder blades now, and gathered it to put it up in a ponytail again. Yes, she definitely had to get a haircut sooner or later. Her hair had grown so much in the last months and now she actually had the time to go and get it cut.
“One of my teammates, Viktor Stalberg, got in a car accident this morning. Broken ribs, broken foot, and overstretched ligaments in his knee. He needs someone who’ll do the exercised with him and helps him around the house. You’ll have to drive him around town and whatever else accumulates. Look, I know that this is more than what you usually do, but Viktor needs someone who can hit back at him and make sure that he does what he needs to do, but doesn’t overdo it. He’ll probably get bitchy and whiny, but who wouldn’t? He won’t be able to play for a couple of weeks, so he really needs someone like you.” Someone like her. Someone who wasn’t afraid to speak their mind, who had a big mouth and knew how to deal with difficult people. “The Blackhawks organization will pay for everything and depending on how happy they are with your work, they’ll maybe give you a job permanently. What do you say?”
“Yes?! What a question. You know that I like a challenge and no matter how bitchy he’ll get, I’m pretty sure that I can deal with him.”
“You’re an angel. Could you maybe come to the hospital then? I’d like to introduce you.”
That wasn’t a problem. Jane ended the call and got up from her chair again. Before she could leave the house, she had to take a quick shower. She was covered in sweat and felt gross. There was no way she would leave looking like that. She grabbed a pair of jeans, a simple black shirt and underwear from her bedroom before she entered the bathroom to take a shower. She took her time, because the hot water felt incredibly good on her skin this time. Sometimes her old injuries acted up again, but a hot shower or a hot bath made her relax immediately.
She got out of the shower, dressed and towel dried her hair. Before she blow-dried it, she sat down at her laptop for a few minutes. She’d get to know Viktor Stalberg in about half an hour, but she wanted to know what he looked like before, read a bit about her knew “patient”.
She’d already thought that he was originally from Sweden, and looking up his name only confirmed that. Number 25 for the Blackhawks, just turned 27 years old, which made him a bit more than a year older than her. Her birthday was two months away. He was a good ten inches taller than her. That wasn’t a problem for her, but he probably wouldn’t like taking orders from someone her size. Well, she’d make him do what he had to do anyway. He’d just have to deal with it. Jane had to admit, though, that he was good looking. He had a nice smile.
Okay, time to get going before she started to read even more about him, before she even met him. She blow-dried her hair, put on a bit of mascara, brushed her hair and was ready to go in no time.
The drive to the hospital didn’t take her long, because it wasn’t that far away. She got out of the car, entered the building and rode up to the floor Patrick had told her. Now she only had to find the room number. Of course, she could have asked someone about it, but she wanted to find it all by herself. She’d been in this hospital a few times, so she knew her way around the building at least a bit.
When she finally reached the room, she knocked twice. The all too familiar voice invited her in, so she opened the door and stepped inside. A clean-shaven Patrick stood in front of her and gave her a hug before she could even say a word. She got a glimpse at Viktor in the hospital bed. His left foot was in a cast, the knee bandaged. There were a couple of cuts in his face, but apart from that he looked good. There was no smile on his face like in the photos she’d seen, but it was definitely him. After a car accident, she wouldn’t feel like smiling herself.
“Viktor,” Patrick said as he turned around to his teammate. “This is Jane Walker, your physiotherapist, assistant and whatever we want to call it.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Jane said with a smile and stepped next to the bed to get a closer look at the injuries. She couldn’t see that his ribs were broken, but she knew it.
“Yeah,” Viktor grumbled, looking rather irritated for a moment, but he tried his best to give her a small smile. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“We’ll start as soon as you can leave the hospital, okay? I can pick you up here and then take you home, where we can go over what we’ll have to do. Do you know when you can leave?” That’s what Jane had to find out. There was nothing for her to do at the hospital, but as soon as he could leave, she’d be there for him.
“They didn’t say. But I won’t let them keep me here longer than a day or two.”
“I already talked to the doctor.” Patrick looked at both of them. “He said that they’d like to keep you here for a few days, but I knew that you wouldn’t allow that to happen, so they agreed to letting you go home in two days depending on how you feel tomorrow.”
Just what Jane had expected. His injuries weren’t that bad, and there wasn’t much they could do for him at the hospital, so it was probably good that he would get out there in two days. Otherwise he would only get cranky if he couldn’t leave the hospital. Jane knew that feeling all too well.