I was at physical therapy. That fact alone was usually enough to put me in a bleak frame of mind. 

But today I was happy for reasons I couldn’t quite explain. 

“You’re in a good mood today!” Kristyn trilled as she manipulated my ankle. 

I glanced up at Everly. Only a few days had passed since we found each other again, but everything had changed. I’d found her. I’d found her, and she’d been right under my nose all along.

Her blue eyes were fixed on my foot with a look of extreme concern on her face. Her lips were screwed up in sympathy as she watched Kristyn go through the exercises. 

Her lips.

They were all the explanation my happiness needed. It didn’t even matter that it felt like Kristyn was driving knives into my feet. I’d found the girl. My lost girl from my lost night. 

For the first time in a long time I felt like things were starting to go my way. I felt like I was floating on a cloud. Hell, I felt like I was high, but this was one hundred percent natural. Real, honest-to-god happiness. 

I’d forgotten what that felt like. 

Kristyn hopped back up to her feet. “Can you stand up, please?” she asked, gesturing to the floor. 

“’Course I can,” I said. I could fucking do anything. I leaped off the table. 

“Whoa, slow down,” she warned, holding up her hands. 

I grinned and waved away her concern. “I’m fine. I’ve never felt better. Watch!” I stood up. “See that?” I straightened my back, stretching up to my full height for the first time in months. I glanced over at Everly, who was watching me, unable to hide her smile. “Come here,” I told her. 

She wrinkled her nose but got up anyway. “You’re not overdoing it right now, are you?” she asked, then looked at Kristyn. “Is he?”

Kristyn made scales of her hands, weighing one side, then the other. “It’s really up to him.”

“Yeah, baby, it’s really up to me,” I said with a wink. She rolled her eyes and I reached out and pulled her in to me. “I bet you had no idea how tall I actually am,” I said with a smirk. 

She lifted her chin. “I knew exactly how tall you were,” she said in a voice so heavy with meaning I felt my cock jump. And one more time I was reminded that she was it. She was the girl I’d kissed. And more than that, she seemed to enjoy kissing the new Gabe as much as she’d enjoyed kissing the old one. 

The new Gabe kissed her right there on the therapy floor. 

She kept her mouth firmly closed–ever the professional–but her lips were soft and yielding. I brushed my good hand up to her hair and she gently extricated herself from my grasp with a firm, “Therapy time.”

“I’m totally cured now,” I told her. “That was all it took.” I touched her lips with my fingers.  

She rolled her eyes again. 

I laughed. “No, it’s true. Want to see?” I trotted in a tight circle around her. “I can run circles around you now,” I said with a wicked grin. 

“Oh my god. You’re terrible at puns.”

“You mean amazing.”

Her eyes shone and she glanced sheepishly in Kristyn’s direction before confessing in a whisper, “I love puns.”

I wanted to kiss her again, but right then Kristyn cleared her throat. “Gabe! Why don’t we go over and do some stair steps now?”

“Can I walk over there?” I asked.

Kristyn made those weighing scales again. “Stop if you feel pain.”

I started walking, reveling in how straight and strong my body felt. I was so fucking thrilled that I didn’t say anything when something tweaked in my right ankle. I didn’t even miss a step. 

“Ten reps on each side. I want you to plant your entire foot, not just the ball of it,” Kristyn ordered. 

“Look,” I called out, wanting Everly’s eyes on me again. “I’m Jane Fonda. Jazzercise. Ready?” I clapped my hands in a four count, then shouted, “Grapevine!” 

“You’re a nut. You’re gonna fall!” she shouted.

“I am not,” I declared, even as my foot came down wrong. I stepped back, landing hard on my heel as I tried not to lose my balance. The shock of the landing reverberated right up my newly healed leg. An involuntary yelp escaped my mouth as my still-weak ankle turned with a sharp, searing pain. In a last-ditch effort to save myself, I crossed my other foot over and planted it, gritting my teeth as the same jolting shock raced up my other leg.

Kristyn reached out to catch me, and Everly was a mere second behind in grabbing my other arm. Shame made me press my lips together and say nothing when Everly asked if I was okay. I also kept my mouth shut when Kristyn asked if I needed any ice, just shaking my head. My ankles were screaming and inside of my head I was screaming right along with them. Because just like that, all of the pain that I thought happiness had washed away came flooding right back.