Mali rolled her eyes. “I was pregnant five times and I worked just fine.”

“Touché.”

I kept my laughter quiet and texted Tina to see if she could come in at one fifteen. She immediately responded with a yes, like I knew she would.

“Um, sir,” I called to the man in the waiting room. “Your therapist is actually running late. I can start you now if you’d like. Or you could wait for Elodie.” I didn’t know if he was partial to her for some reason, or if he simply wanted a massage. Now that we were on Yelp and booking online appointments, I never knew which clients wanted a specific therapist and which didn’t care.

He stood up and walked to the desk without saying a word.

“Is that okay?” I asked.

He hesitated for a second before he nodded. Okay . . .

“All right—” I looked at the schedule. Kael. What a strange name. “Follow me, please.”

We didn’t have assigned rooms—not technically—but I had fixed up the second room on the left to almost perfectly fit my taste, so that was the one I used the most. No one else took it unless they had to.

I had brought in my own cabinet and decorations that included lots of fake plants and was in the process of convincing Mali to let me paint the walls. Anything would be better than this dark purple color. It wasn’t exactly relaxing, plus it was dull, with chipped corners and edges that dated the room by about twenty years.

“You can leave your clothes on the hanger or the chair,” I told him. “Go ahead and strip down to however you’re comfortable. Lie facedown on the table, and I’ll be back in a couple of minutes to see if you’re ready.”

The client didn’t say a word; he stood next to the chair and lifted his gray T-shirt over his head. He was definitely military. Between his solid build and his nearly shaved head, he screamed soldier. I grew up inside and outside of Army posts my entire life, so I knew a soldier from a mile away. He folded his shirt and set it down on the chair. When his fingers tugged at his athletic pants, I left him alone to undress.

CHAPTER FOUR

I pulled my phone out of my scrub pocket and read the first line of a text from my dad:

See you tonight? Estelle is cooking and wants you to come.