Gregory: A Hathaway House Heartwarming Romance Read online

  Gregory

  Hathaway House, Book 7

  Dale Mayer

  Books in This Series:

  Aaron, Book 1

  Brock, Book 2

  Cole, Book 3

  Denton, Book 4

  Elliot, Book 5

  Finn, Book 6

  Gregory, Book 7

  Heath, Book 8

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  About Heath

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  Welcome to Hathaway House, a heartwarming and sweet military romance series from USA TODAY best-selling author Dale Mayer. Here you’ll meet a whole new group of friends, along with a few favorite characters from Heroes for Hire. Instead of action, you’ll find emotion. Instead of suspense, you’ll find healing. Instead of romance, … oh, wait. … There is romance—of course!

  Welcome to Hathaway House. Rehab Center. Safe Haven. Second chance at life and love.

  Navy SEAL Gregory Parkins knows he’s not so bad off as to need what Hathaway House offers, but he’ll do anything to get in. RN Meredith Anderson is there, and Greg loves Meredith. In the time since they split up, his life has been one disaster after another, including the one that ended his career—the career that separated them in the first place.

  Meredith was horrified to hear what happened to Gregory. But seeing his file was an even bigger shock. Greg thinks he’s basically back to normal, but Meredith knows he has a long way to go. She doesn’t know how to tell him, without running the risk of him leaving Hathaway House before his healing can really take place.

  But the last thing she wants is for him to walk away from her again. Not if there is any chance that they can find their way back to each other …

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  Prologue

  Gregory Parkins stared at the application in his hand and wondered. He’d had this thing printed off and filled out half a dozen times in the last couple weeks, and every time he had balled it up and threw it away. Hathaway House was just one of many other rehab centers that he had thought of going to. He knew he needed to go to this one though, but it wasn’t so much for himself but because of the woman he had left behind.

  He wouldn’t have had a clue that she was even there if not for a write-up about Hathaway House that had hit the internet and gone viral. Something about Dani and her father and what they had accomplished since they built the center. The article had piqued his interest, and he’d gone looking to see what kind of a rehab center it was. His research had led him to photographs of the staff at the center, and there, sure enough, he’d seen the photo that had sent him into a tailspin.

  Meredith, the woman he had left behind the last time he had headed off on a mission. It had already been five years, but he’d never forgotten her. Gregory could only hope that she’d never forgotten him either. But the chances were, she’d moved on, was likely married and had a family by now.

  But he didn’t know that. Should he reach out to her or just ignore this? Ignore? His laugh was hollow, completely devoid of emotions. He knew he couldn’t ignore her. Wasn’t that evident by the number of times he’d filled out the paper applications only to crumple them up and throw them away? He and Meredith had spent three wonderful weeks together, and he thought he’d found the one.

  When he had finally told her that he was leaving again, she’d been heartbroken. Desolate. Her brother had died overseas, and she didn’t want to deal with the same kind of loss again. Gregory understood, but he’d signed up for the navy as soon as he could, right out of school. He’d been honored to join, and his career had fulfilled him every year since. No way would he walk away at that point.

  As soon as he left her, he regretted his decision.

  He knew he should have turned around and found a way to make this work, but instead, he’d buried himself in his work and had tried to forget her. And, for a time, he’d managed. But then he had been blown up by an IED. Now, if he went to look for her, he would feel like he was second-best, like he had only come back to her because he was no longer whole. No longer fit for the navy, so she was his second choice.

  Again.

  Just like before.

  But for different reasons.

  He didn’t want that. Nor did he want her to feel that way.

  Yet, if she was still at the rehab center and single, they had a chance to work on a whole new level of a relationship. And with so many more problems than they had originally. Even to him, that sounded harsh, but the truth was often harsh. He didn’t even know why she would want him back in this state. He’d be offering her less than what he had been before, and yet, he’d walked away from her.

  He snorted.

  As if he were fully capable of walking away anymore. Because he no longer could. … Not without crutches, a wheelchair or a prosthetic.

  Gregory laid the paperwork off to the side. He had also filled out the online form but hadn’t really worked on the last couple questions, determined to at least do that much as he knew Hathaway House could help him physically if nothing else. Maybe he could walk away from Meredith again and not regret it this time. Maybe, just maybe, he could find a whole new life. Sometimes one had to go through the pain to get to the closure, and eventually, to reach a new life at the other end.

  He quickly filled out the last few questions online; then his gaze landed on Meredith’s picture once more. Not giving himself much chance to rethink anything, he reviewed the online application—the same as the physical paperwork he had filled out a dozen times—and hit Send.

  For better or for worse, his application was in.

  Chapter 1

  Meredith Anderson stood at the reception desk as she watched her colleague flip through the stacks of incoming patients. “How many today?”

  “Three,” Melissa said. “I can’t believe it. We’ve had such a high turnover lately.”

  “Yes, but a good high turnover,” Meredith replied. “Every patient’s gone home in much better shape than they arrived. It’s not a case of them leaving because they aren’t happy or leaving because they, … you know, … passed away,” she said. “They’re leaving because they can go home in better shape than when they first got here.”

  “I know,” Melissa said, a beautiful smile breaking across her face. “It’s awesome. But, at the same time, that’s three new people today alone. We need more nurses if this keeps up.” She handed off the files for Meredith’s review and said, “I think they’re all coming in this afternoon.”

  Meredith shook her head. “And we need more doctors and therapists too, and poor Dani needs at least one full-time assistant. Plus, Stan could use another veterinarian as well. I know he’s waiting on Aaron to complete his studies, but maybe they can hire a temporary vet in the meantime?”

  “Dani’s interviewing now for some position. Not sure for what position but you know she won’t hire someone to help her until the rest of us have more help.”

  “So true. One of us may have to hire someone behind her back,” Meredith whispered with a sly
grin.

  “As if Dani doesn’t know everything that’s going on here,” Melissa said, grinning too. “But there’s always the major. He could get that done.” Melissa winked.

  “Good idea. We should approach him on that matter the next time we see him alone—or at least not with Dani.” Meredith sighed. “Back to the work at hand.” She looked at the first new patient intake file and noted that this guy was fifty-seven years old, with two damaged hips and both knees gone. She winced. “Ouch, Bob.” She flipped to the second new patient’s file. This one was a much younger man, yet he had severe back injuries—which was not unusual here. Hathaway House worked miracles with patients thought to be permanently damaged and beyond improvement.

  The third new patient’s file came with an even greater shock. This one had a missing foot and half his lower leg and a forearm that had a recent surgery.

  She found an unopened envelope added to the file. It contained a further typed update from the surgeon, stating how he was cautiously optimistic after the last surgical procedure, would have liked to have had the patient under his care for six more weeks, but that the patient was determined to make this switch in order to take advantage of an empty bed here. The doctor’s handwritten note at the bottom added that the patient’s mental outlook was just as important as his physical outlook, so the doctor felt good about this patient’s decision. Would love to hear from his new surgeons as to Gregory’s six-week checkup. Hmmm.

  Also, this patient was missing a couple ribs and had some steel plates inserted. She whistled when she took a look at the X-ray of the steel plates and then a few photos of his back, both pre-op and post-op. “Wow, I bet you met up with an IED and not in a good way,” she whispered. She flipped through the thick file, shaking her head at the damage noted in his records and confirmed by more before and after photos of his chest and his arms and legs included too, then looked at the patient’s name.

  Gregory Parkins.

  Her heart stalled.

  She picked up the file, walked around the corner to Dani’s office and asked, “Dani, do you know this guy?”

  Dani looked up, saw the folder in Meredith’s hand and asked, “What’s the name?”

  “Gregory,” she said. “Gregory … Parkins.”

  “No. He’s one of the new patient intakes, isn’t he?” Dani asked, before settling in her chair, leaning back, and instantly recognizing the look on Meredith’s face. “What is it?”

  “I knew him five years ago,” Meredith said, rooted in place.

  “Oh my,” Dani said, as she bounced to her feet. “Like knew him?”

  “The love of my life,” Meredith said drily. “At least for three glorious weeks.”

  Dani let out a peal of laughter. “Oh my,” she said again. “Well, I’m glad you had those three weeks.”

  “Yes. … And no. … I didn’t want him to go back to the navy, but he went anyway.” Meredith was near tears and felt so stupid. She thought she had dealt with this. Over and over and over again. She reminded herself that this was five years ago. Five. Why couldn’t she forget Gregory? It was only three weeks of her life. … She swallowed, shook her head, trying to not cry in front of Dani.

  Dani frowned, walked toward her friend. “One of the hardest lessons anybody has to learn when dealing with military men,” Dani said, “is to realize that these men go into the navy or the air force or whatever because they have a deep abiding passion for it. They have already made the heart-heavy decision to leave family and friends and loved ones to take on that lifestyle. And not just for one hitch or one tour. It’s in their blood or deep in their soul or resident in their very DNA. They have to follow that drive, that pull, or they are never happy themselves. It’s almost impossible for them to walk away from the military call.”

  “Oh, I realized that afterward,” Meredith said. “Immediately afterward, … yet I was too late.’

  Dani patted her friend on the shoulder. “And,” Dani continued, “it takes a special woman to pair up with these men. As a nurse, you are more qualified than most to deal with their war wounds, both physical and mental.” She saw the pained look on Meredith’s face. “But dealing with the long and constant separations are another matter entirely. Nursing school probably doesn’t cover that issue. … Sit down, Meredith,” she said softly, leading her dumbstruck friend into a nearby chair.

  “When I couldn’t find any other man to even begin to replace him, I … I realized that a little bit of him was a whole lot better than none of him.”

  Dani nodded in understanding. “Long-distance relationships are not for everybody. To only see your partner when they’re back home every once in a while …” She shook her head. “Some women can handle six months of single life at a time, even when married on paper. I’m dealing with being engaged, and yet, separated from my fiancé now while Aaron is in school and not living here at Hathaway House or even in town. And I’m okay with that. For the most part. For now. For a couple years of his hard work at school, while I suffer through those couple years of me dealing with the absence of him, then we can be together twenty-four seven for three hundred and sixty-five days of every year thereafter.”

  Dani laughed. “There are times I don’t think I can do this, but … but you have to understand your own tolerances for this setup. Like wives whose husbands worked on the pipeline or even now work on those Gulf Coast offshore rigs. I hear they are on one week and off the next, or some work two weeks on-site and are off two weeks. That doesn’t compare to the military’s tours, which are so far away and for much longer stretches of time. But regardless it’s a different lifestyle, and both parties have to be okay with it for those relationships to work.” Dani sat next to Meredith and rubbed her arm. “But now you get to meet Gregory again.”

  “Yeah,” Meredith said, holding up his thick file folder. “His body has been destroyed.”

  “Yes,” Dani said. “I remember that case. The question really is, can you handle working with him, or would you like me to assign him to somebody else?”

  “I’ll handle it,” she said. “Just like I handle every other patient.” Meredith took a deep inhale, letting it out slowly. “But to read what’s happened to him …” Meredith shook her head, words failing her. She looked at Dani and winced. “Why do I feel so guilty? Why am I … so very mad? Why am I feeling such frustration and helplessness? … Why am I even telling you all this right after I just said I could handle this?”

  “Like what drove Gregory to serve, you have a drive within you that makes you a great nurse. You have empathy for your patients. It may be in overdrive with Gregory, but I understand. Totally. And maybe it’s a good thing that you have seen this now,” she said, “so that, when you do see him for the first time, you won’t be shocked, and you won’t let him down by crying.” She noted Meredith’s trembling lower lip.

  “This is so hard,” Meredith whispered. “I loved him so very much.”

  “Well, I’m a great believer in true love lasting forever,” she said. “So, if you loved him, maybe that love is still there.”

  “Maybe. … Maybe I still do love him even now. Maybe that’s why I can’t just close that chapter of my life, why I have remembered him at the most random times over these last five years,” Meredith said sadly. “But he walked away from me, so what kind of love is that?”

  “Was he as devastated as you were to leave you behind?”

  Meredith shook her head. “He wasn’t glib about it, if that’s what you mean.”

  Dani smiled softly. “He was in pain?”

  “I thought so,” Meredith whined, wiping the tears in her eyes.

  “So the big tough guy was hiding his feelings?”

  “Probably. At least I hope so.” Meredith hiccupped.

  “And you never heard from him again?”

  “Not one word.”

  “Yet you said you still thought about him, didn’t you?”

  Meredith nodded, her head down.

  “So maybe the big tough
navy guy thought about you too, over the years.”

  Meredith shrugged, still not making eye contact with Dani.

  Dani paused, giving Meredith a moment to catch her composure.

  Meredith straightened in the chair, sniffled, raised her head to glare at Dani and repeated her question. “But he walked away from me, so what kind of love is that?”

  “The kind of love that you can’t argue with,” Dani said. “Your love doesn’t necessarily have to be the same love that anybody else has. Love is individual. It’s unique to all of us and to each relationship. The trick to it is making it yours, whatever version it is.”

  “I wish you’d been around five years ago,” Meredith said, slumping in her chair. “Because that would have helped me a lot.”

  “Wouldn’t it?” Dani said. “But I had my own demons to deal with too. You must work your way through this. Just give it time.”

  “I thought I did. I thought I already had. I survived five years without him. That should have been enough. That should have been plenty. But it wasn’t. I thought that was hard. And now I have to get myself together in a handful of hours before he pops into my life again. What I dealt with for five years doesn’t begin to compare with this.” She raised Gregory’s heavy file in the air and shook it. “And now I can’t let him know how affected I am by his physical condition?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Dani said. “As a medical professional—and as his friend—the biggest thing is to never show pity. Especially for these men, but all men in general, what with their egos and that protector mindset and the provider image they all seem born with. But particularly when dealing with these military types, wounded or not. Never let Gregory think that you consider him less of a man than he was before.”

  Gregory slowly made his way up the ramp on crutches, an orderly helping on either side. He knew he was being beyond stubborn, and his latest surgeon would be swearing mad to see this, and Gregory knew he was probably pushing his luck, but it seemed wrong to be wheeled over the threshold to this next stage of his life. He wanted to face it head-on. He also knew that chances were, the crutches weren’t the right thing to do. It was too early yet. Too soon after the latest surgery on his arm. Which was iffy yet. Too soon after the added exertion of traveling.