Treatment is at hand.

Jessica was on her feet before Spencer had even straightened again. "Spencer!" She closed the distance between them in three quick strides, one hand instinctively reaching for his forearm to steady him. "Easy," she guided him.

"I'm alright," he insisted through clenched teeth.

"No, you're not." The certainty in her voice left little room for argument. "Where?"

Spencer frowned.

"Where does it hurt?"

"My back."

"Where in your back?"

He reached awkwardly around with his right hand, pressing just beneath his left shoulder blade. "There."

Jessica nodded thoughtfully. "Is that where it started?"

"No."

"Then where did it start?"

"My shoulder."

"The one I've been treating."

He gave a reluctant nod.

Jessica sighed, though there was no irritation in it—only the exasperation of a professional watching a patient prove every prediction she'd made. "How much lifting did you do today?"

Spencer glanced towards the cleared barn site. "A fair bit."

She folded her arms. "Define 'a fair bit.'"

He scratched at the back of his neck.

"There was some digging..."

"Mm-hmm."

"We found an old still."

Jessica blinked. "You found an illegal distillery underground and what, you just lifted it out?"

"With John's excavator."

"Of course, and after that?"

"We dug through the dirt looking for bottles."

"You dug."

"A little."

She raised an eyebrow. "Spencer."

"Quite a lot."

"And then?"

"We carried a few boxes."

Jessica stared at him for several seconds before shaking her head. "So... after I specifically told you to avoid heavy lifting until your shoulder settled down..."

He braced himself for the tongue-lashing he knew he was about to receive.

"...you spent the entire day doing heavy lifting. As well as all the digging, lifting and carrying."

"When you say it like that..."

"Because that's exactly what you did." Jessica’s face had become all scrunched up as she read the riot act to Spencer, but seeing the handsome older man with his hangdog expression, she couldn't help smiling despite herself.

"You really are determined to keep me employed."

He laughed. "I hadn't thought of it like that."

"I have."

Seeing her smile, some of the tension started to ease out of Spencer.

Jessica stepped closer again. "May I?"

Spencer nodded.

She placed her fingertips lightly against the muscles at the top of his shoulder, careful not to apply any real pressure at first. Even through the fabric of his T-shirt, she could feel how badly the muscles had tightened. They felt almost solid beneath her fingertips, every bit as hard as if they had been carved from timber instead of flesh.

"Relax," she said softly.

"I'm trying."

Her fingers travelled carefully across the top of his shoulder before following the muscle down toward his shoulder blade.

"There?"

He flinched. "That's tender."

"I noticed."

"And here?" She pressed another point.

Spencer sucked in a breath. "That's worse."

Jessica frowned.

"The muscles across your shoulder and upper back have gone into spasm."

"So that's bad?"

"It means you ignored every piece of advice I gave you."

"I only ignored most of it."

She laughed quietly. "I'll accept 'most.'"

Her hands continued their assessment with practised confidence, comparing one side with the other.

"The left side is like concrete."

"It feels like concrete."

"I'm not surprised."

She asked him to slowly raise his left arm.

He managed little more than halfway before his face tightened.

"Pain?"

"Pulling."

"Sharp or dull?"

"Dull."

"Pins and needles?"

"No."

She nodded. "Now bring it across your body."

He obeyed, moving more slowly this time. "That one's not as bad."

Jessica gently guided his elbow a little farther before stopping. "No more."

Spencer lowered his arm again. "So?"

"So..." She looked around at the fire, the chairs, the darkness surrounding them. "I can help."

He looked hopeful.

"But not properly out here."

He followed her gaze.

"The firelight's lovely," she continued, "but I can't assess movement properly, and these chairs are hopeless."

"So, what do you recommend?"

Jessica smiled professionally. "I need decent light, somewhere warm, and somewhere you can lie flat." She gestured towards the farmhouse. "A bed would actually work perfectly."

Spencer hesitated, only for a second.

Jessica noticed immediately. She met his eyes without embarrassment. "Spencer..." Her voice softened. "This is treatment."

He held her gaze for another moment before nodding. "I know."

"I'd like to get those muscles to release before they seize completely tomorrow."

He chuckled. "So that's doctor-speak for 'you're an idiot'?"

"It's physiotherapist-speak."

"Is there a difference?"

Jessica's smile widened. "Only in the vocabulary."

She picked up the small sports bag she'd brought with her. "Come on," she said. "Let's see if we can undo some of today's enthusiasm before it turns into a week of misery."

Jessica helped Spencer make his way back into the farmhouse. She supported him by placing one arm around his waist, giving him something to lean on. If Spencer noticed her small yet strongly built body next to him, he didn’t comment. Inside, Spencer led Jessica through the kitchen before stopping in the hallway. The thought suddenly occurred to him that Amy deserved to know why another woman was disappearing into his bedroom with him.

“I should let Amy know you’re here and,” he hesitated for the briefest of seconds. “What we’re doing.”

Jessica nodded. It was a good idea. If Amy was to walk in on them unaware during treatment, it could look quite compromising.

“Amy,” Spencer called out to his daughter’s side of the house. “Jessica is here. She’s going to take a look at my shoulder. It’s playing up. We’ll be in my room.”

Amy appeared a few moments later, already changed out of her school uniform and into a pair of track pants and an oversized hoodie she'd stolen from her father's wardrobe months ago. “Hi Miss Wolfe,” she said in greeting to her teacher and coach. “Are you okay, Dad?”

Seeing her dad in discomfort made her not question what Jessica was doing there in the evening or that Spencer had used her first name familiarly.

"I'm alright. Just overdid it a little. Turns out I'm not twenty-five anymore," Spencer joked.

Jessica watched the easy affection between father and daughter with a small smile. It was impossible not to understand why so many people at school spoke so highly of Spencer Askren. Whatever mistakes he made elsewhere, being Amy's father wasn't one of them.

Amy seemed satisfied by the explanation and disappeared back towards her room, calling over her shoulder that she'd be doing homework if they needed anything.

Jessica waited until Amy's bedroom door clicked shut before looking back at Spencer.

"Right," she said, slipping effortlessly back into professional mode. "Show me where we're working."

Spencer led Jessica down the short hallway before stopping outside the master bedroom. Pushing open the door, he stepped aside to let her enter first.

It was the first time Jessica Wolfe had ever been inside Spencer Askren's bedroom.

The room was exactly what she would have expected from the man. Spacious without being extravagant, immaculately tidy, and decorated with the same understated taste that seemed to run throughout the renovated farmhouse. A broad timber bed dominated one wall beneath a large window looking out across the lake, while a matching chest of drawers and wardrobe completed the room. There were remarkably few personal possessions on display. No clutter. No discarded clothes. No untidy piles of books. Everything had its place.

Jessica found herself looking at the bed for perhaps a second longer than she should have.

Bedrooms were curious places. They revealed more about a person than almost any other room in a house. They were private sanctuaries, normally seen only by family... or by the people invited to share them.

As far as she knew, only one woman had ever crossed that threshold in quite that way since Spencer had moved to Awonwick.

Danielle.

The thought came unbidden. Jessica hadn't intended to compare herself, yet she found herself doing exactly that. Danielle had almost certainly stood where she was standing now. Sat on the edge of this very bed. Perhaps admired the same view across the moonlit lake through the bedroom window, been intimate in that bed…

And now here she was. The second woman to enter the room. It was, Jessica reminded herself firmly, for entirely professional reasons. She was a physiotherapist. Spencer was her patient. That was all this was.

Even so, she couldn't quite ignore the strange awareness that settled over her as Spencer closed the bedroom door most of the way behind them, leaving it open just enough that Amy could call out if she needed her father. The gesture was so typically Spencer that it made Jessica smile to herself. Even in pain, his first instinct had been to make sure everything remained above reproach.

"Right," she said, slipping comfortably back into professional mode. "Let's have a proper look at what you've managed to do to yourself. Get undressed.”

Spencer started by attempting to remove his shirt but struggled to get it up and over his head with his bum shoulder. Jessica had to step in and help him. The thought that she was helping Spencer get undressed in his own bedroom wasn't entirely professional.

Jessica gasped in surprise as Spencer undid his jeans and dropped them straight to the floor in front of her, boxers included. She was dangerously out of her routine treating a patient like Spencer in his own home. At her studio, Jessica would have politely given Spencer the room to get undressed. She caught herself staring before wrenching her eyes away, noticing unprompted how Spencer’s manhood hung freely against his inner thigh.

“I’ll get you a towel for cover,” Jessica squeaked as she darted off into the ensuite to find something to drape over Spencer.

Inside the bathroom, Jessica quickly composed herself by splashing some cold water on her face before finding a clean, rolled-up bath towel that would do. She waited an extra minute for Spencer to settle himself before re-entering his bedroom proper.

Thankfully, Spencer was lying face down when she re-entered the room. Jessica took a moment to look at Spencer’s exposed bum without risk of being caught this time before she covered him completely.

Jessica had some massage creams and oils already packed in the sports bag she’d brought the resistance bands in. She pulled them out and got them ready on the bedside table. One thing that was immediately different from her massage table at home was that Spencer’s bed was enormous. With him lying in the centre of it, Jessica could hardly even reach the man. In order to carry out the treatment she intended, Jessica had to pull her boots off so that she could climb up onto Spencer’s bed with him. Barefoot now, she climbed onto the bed, sinking slightly into the mattress as she moved closer to begin.

Jessica settled herself carefully on the mattress beside Spencer, grateful she'd thought to bring the small bottle of massage cream from her clinic. She warmed a little between her palms before placing her hands lightly across his upper back. Even before she began working, she could feel how badly the muscles had tightened. The entire left side felt rigid beneath her fingertips, his shoulder sitting noticeably higher than the right as his body instinctively protected the injured joint.

"You can relax," she said quietly. "I'm not going to do anything that hurts unnecessarily."

Spencer let out a slow breath into the pillow. "I'll try."

Using slow, deliberate strokes, Jessica spread the cream across the top of his shoulder and down towards the shoulder blade. She started gently, allowing the tissues to warm before attempting anything deeper. It was a technique she'd used hundreds of times with athletes after overtraining, and Spencer's injury felt remarkably similar. He hadn't damaged the muscle further so much as convinced every supporting muscle to seize in protest.

Her thumbs began tracing the tight bands of muscle either side of his spine before working outward towards the shoulder. Whenever she found a particularly knotted section, she paused, applying steady pressure rather than forcing it.

"There?" she asked.

Spencer gave a muffled grunt into the pillow.

"That means yes."

"That's... exactly the spot."

"I thought it might be."

What was holding Jessica back from being able to truly do the best job she could do was the jeans she’d worn to Spencer’s house. In her studio she normally wore yoga pants or other leisure wear that allowed her full freedom of movement. Her denim trousers were too tight for her to move around easily, especially as she was crawling about on her knees and they caught against the fabric of Spencer’s comforter.

“Spencer don’t think I’m being weird, but I need to get out of these jeans. They’re too restrictive,” Jessica said, halting things momentarily.

“Umm…maybe close the door then,” Spencer said, turning his head to look at the still partially open door to the room.

Jessica got off the bed and shut the door quietly before turning back to Spencer. He was still looking in her direction. Jessica’s finger went to the bottom of her pants. “No looking,” she chided playfully before turning around and bending over as she lowered her pants.

Spencer watched as Jessica revealed her remarkably toned bum in a pair of lacy purple boy-short panties that cut right up between her black buttocks. The contrast between Jessica’s ebony skin and the deep coloured material was alluring. Spencer hadn’t turned away by the time Jessica turned back, and he was still looking at her.

“Eyes to yourself, Mister,” Jessica teased as she got back onto the bed. This time she could stretch out properly, placing one leg on either side of his thighs before returning to her work.

Several long minutes later, all Jessica’s efforts started to show dividends. Moving from one bad spot to the next, Jessica held the pressure for several seconds until she felt the muscle begin to soften beneath her hands before moving on to the next knot. Little by little, the hard ridges across his upper back started to give way.

"You're carrying all of this on one side," she observed. "Your shoulder's been injured long enough that the rest of your back has been trying to compensate. Today's lifting just pushed everything over the edge."

Spencer nodded faintly.

"I should've listened to you."

Jessica smiled to herself as she continued the treatment.

"It certainly would've made my evening easier," she replied. "But then, you never did strike me as someone who learns lessons the easy way."

Twenty minutes later, Jessica was satisfied with the improvement in Spencer's back. She'd relieved as much of the tension in the trigger points as she could. “Turn over,” Jessica told Spencer.

He didn’t move right away. “You’re still on top of me.”

There was a towel between them, but Spencer was naked underneath. Jessica, meanwhile, wore only her pink sweater and the purple boy-short panties she'd changed into moments earlier. Jessica lifted herself just enough for Spencer to roll carefully onto his back, taking care to keep the towel in place between them and preserve what little modesty remained.