Percy: A Hathaway House Heartwarming Romance Read online

  Percy

  Hathaway House, Book 16

  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

  Iain, Book 9

  Jaden, Book 10

  Keith, Book 11

  Lance, Book 12

  Melissa, Book 13

  Nash, Book 14

  Owen, Book 15

  Percy, Book 16

  Quinton, Book 17

  Hathaway House, Books 1–3

  Hathaway House, Books 4–6

  Hathaway House, Books 7–9

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  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

  Epilogue

  About Quinton

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

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

  It was Aaron who convinced Percy to take a chance on Hathaway House. Yet, when he arrives, Aaron is back at school, and Percy’s alone after all. The place is everything Aaron said it was, but the trip getting here set his progress back, from slow to nonexistent.

  Giada has worked at the center for several years and always went home happily to her brother at the end of the day. Only now her brother is engaged and planning to marry in six months. Change is happening, whether she likes it or not. And, in this case, it brings up a lot of turbulence in the family dynamic. Dani offers Giada a place of her own here at Hathaway’s staff quarters, but the path forward is not so easy. Thankfully Percy is there as both a comfort and a friend.

  Now if only he could find the progress he’s looking for, and she could find the new beginning of her own …

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  Prologue

  Percy Erwin stared down at the application. It had come in the mail from his old friend Aaron. He read the letter that went with it, looked at the application, and shook his head. He immediately picked up his phone and sent a text to Aaron. Got your application.

  Good, fill it out.

  Are you sure, man?

  Get your butt to Hathaway House, he texted. With any luck, I’ll be there too.

  You still healing?

  No, read the letter. I’m almost a vet by now.

  Animal vet? At that, his phone rang.

  “I’m almost done with school to become a veterinarian,” he said. “And I’m marrying the owner of Hathaway. But you need to be here because here’s where the magic happens.”

  “I’m not sure I’m up for it, man. That last surgery was three months ago, and I’m still not back on my feet.”

  “Which is why you need to be here,” he argued. “Besides, you’re missing a foot. How can you be on both feet if you’re missing one?”

  “Ha, ha,” Percy said. “The leg’s all messed up.”

  “So, if you don’t have a leg, you don’t have a leg. If you got a bum leg, you got a bum leg. Come here and start dealing with it.”

  “What makes Hathaway so special?”

  “You know what? I’ve been trying to explain that to a lot of people for a long time,” he said. “I don’t really have anything as an answer. Except for incredible results. What I can tell you is, it is special. I guarantee it.”

  “Hmm,” he said.

  “Just deal with it, get that application in, and come.”

  “If it’s that good, I’m sure there’s a heck of a waiting list.”

  “There is,” he said. “But I put your name down when I heard you went back in for surgery again.”

  “You what?”

  “Yep,” he said. “I know you weren’t ready three months ago, and you still had a lot of work to do, but you’re only as healed as much as you feel it.”

  “And that isn’t very much.”

  “Which is why you need to come here,” he said. “I can’t force you. So, fill it out and send it in. Or better yet, just fill it out, take a photo of it, and send it to me.”

  “It’ll hardly be that fast,” he said.

  “No, there’s all kinds of other paperwork to be done.”

  “I don’t do paperwork.”

  “Stop being difficult,” Aaron said. “I mean it, man. I carried your sorry butt through the jungle to save you one time, and I’ll do it again, if I have to.”

  “This is hardly to save me.”

  “And that’s where you’re wrong. This is to save you. You have no idea what a different person you’ll be after a few months here.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Never more serious in my life,” he replied. “Please, if you can’t do this for you, do it for me.”

  “Man, I don’t think I’m ready for more of this.”

  “Like I said, you don’t know what you’ve got, and you don’t know what you’re capable of, until you’re here.”

  He sighed and said, “Okay, but I’m only going to fill this out, take a photo of it, and then I’ll come whenever it’s approved.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’ll do the rest.”

  “Not likely,” he said. “There’ll be all kinds of things to deal with for this to go through.”

  “But it’s worth it,” Aaron said cheerfully on the other side.

  “I’m only doing this because you say so.”

  “I saved your life back then,” Aaron said, “and, honest to goodness, this will save your life too.”

  Chapter 1

  Percy Erwin was already in bed in his assigned room at Hathaway House and glared at the email on his phone. “Why are you not here, Aaron?” he snapped to no one in particular. When a cough came at the open door to his room, he lifted his gaze to a young woman, a bright, cheerful smile on her face and a clipboard in her hand. He groaned. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be showing my impatience,” he muttered.

  She stepped forward, gave him a gentle smile. “I’m Dani, and Aaron was really hoping you would get in last week before he had to leave for school. But we had a mix-up on the beds and had to postpone your arrival.”

  “And”—he lifted his stump—“I had an infection that held me back anyway.”

  She nodded. “Aaron will be back for a long weekend here soon. Next month I think.”

  Percy settled back into bed and studied her. He’d heard so much from Aaron over the last few months about his Dani, but, at the same time, it didn’t do her justice. “You’re really marrying him, huh?”

  A beautiful smile beamed once again from her face, and she nodded cheerfully. “I sure hope so. We just have to get through a little bit more first. We’ve got plans happening all the time.”

  “This year?”

  “I think next spring,” she replied. “He’s in an accelerated program, and, with any luck, he should be done come April.”

  Percy’s eyebrows shot up at that. “Hard to imagine the guy I used to know as a veterinarian.”

  “In a way,” she murmured, “he always was a vet. It was his first love.”

&nb
sp; “And again that seems hard to believe too. I knew him in the navy,” he murmured. “And he was definitely not the same person.”

  “No, he went in because of his brother,” she noted.

  “I remember hearing something about him. Levi, I think.”

  “Yes, Levi,” she confirmed.

  And didn’t her dimples peek out when she tilted her lips in a certain way. He was fascinated and, at the same time, envious of everything that Aaron had found. “A wife and a new career and apparently, according to him, a whole new view of life and health.”

  At that, she chuckled. “He was one of our first success stories,” she admitted, “but I’m grateful to say that we have hundreds of them now.”

  “Well, I’m hoping I can be another one.” Percy shifted in bed.

  She studied him. “It’s not just the leg, is it?”

  He shook his head. “A piece of shrapnel is in my spine that they can’t remove for danger of paralyzing me.”

  She winced at that. “I’m sorry. That’s a tough one. Have you gotten a second opinion on that?”

  “No, I haven’t bothered.” He reached out an arm to snag the water, but, as sometimes happened, he overreached and, instead of grabbing it, knocked it over.

  She immediately walked forward and picked it up. “And that’s one of the reasons why we keep lids on them,” she noted cheerfully, as she handed it to him.

  He took it and had a long sip of water, before relaxing again.

  “You’re having some arm coordination problems too?”

  He nodded. “It’s all in the folder.” He closed his eyes, took in a long heavy breath, and let it out very slowly, as in tiny increments.

  “And back pain,” she added, with a nod.

  He opened his eyes, studied her. “Why don’t we just say that all of me is a mess? Top to bottom.”

  “The good news is,” she replied, “we specialize in that.”

  He searched her face to see if she were serious, but she appeared to be. “Aaron told me a miracle is here for me.”

  “Miracles require help though,” she pointed out in a sweet voice. “That is something for you to remember.”

  “Meaning?”

  “We can offer the miracle, but it’s up to you to reach for it and to make it your own.” And, with that, she gave him the gentlest of smiles. “I’ll see you later. Press the Call button on your bed if you need anything.” And she stepped out of his room.

  But she left him with something to think about—something he hadn’t really considered. Yet she was right. If he wanted a miracle here, he would have to reach with both hands to accept what was offered and would have to do the work required. Too bad Aaron hadn’t warned Percy about that. With a shake of his head, he snatched his phone and sent Aaron a quick text message, saying he had just met Dani. She has a definite way about her …

  Not expecting an answer, he put his phone back down and reached again for the cup, this time a little more carefully, knowing that, if he were the one who had to get out of bed to pick it up off the floor, he would regret it. In fact, it would stay on the floor, as that effort was just more than he could handle. He had finished the water and had set aside the empty cup, when a tap came at the door. He looked up to see a tall and very fit male standing in the open doorway, smiling at him. “Hey. Who are you?”

  “Shane,” he murmured. “I’m on your team. Has Dani been through here yet?”

  “She was just here.”

  “Good. As long as she’s introduced herself, I’ll go over the formalities.” He picked up the folder that Dani had left. “And I’ll explain the Hathaway House system to you.”

  By the time Shane finished talking, Percy could almost feel his head trying to explode. “So the gist of it is, everybody assigned to me will come to me to introduce themselves. Then I’ll follow the schedules in my tablet, when I have the time and energy to look at it.”

  “That’s just about it,” Shane replied in a cheerful voice.

  “Is everybody here so cheerful?” Percy groused.

  Shane laughed, shaking his head. “Nope, not always. You’ll find a lot of the other patients know exactly how much it takes to make them cry,” he noted quietly. “As far as the staff, we try to be compassionate, caring, and upbeat.”

  “The upbeat part gets a bit much.”

  “Then you’ll be happy to see it some days because everything else in your world may look like storm clouds otherwise.”

  “Sometimes it’s nice to know that the sun’s on the other side,” he muttered, staring at the tall, very fit man that Percy already didn’t want to be around because Shane was just a reminder of who and what Percy used to be. “Yet we don’t want it to break through because that means we have to face it.”

  Shane stopped and looked at him quietly for a long moment. “Interesting philosophy. You can also turn that around and see that the rays of sunshine mean that you can break through the cloud to the other side.” He looked at Percy, handed him the folder, gave him the iPad, and turned it on for him. “I’ll leave you to go over your schedule. Sounds like we’ll have a lot of fun here.”

  “What in any of that means fun?” he asked.

  At the doorway Shane stopped, turned, and looked at him. “You might need a little attitude adjustment, but I have no doubt that you’ll get that soon enough.”

  “And what would bring that on?” he murmured. “I used to be like you,” he admitted. “Fit, strong, could bench press incredible weights. Gymnastics, sports, whatever. It didn’t matter. I was up for it. From heavy physical sports to martial arts.”

  “Good to know,” Shane stated. “I guess that’s what the goal is then, isn’t it? Which one of those really matters the most?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, does sports matter most to you? Or do the martial arts matter more? Does it matter to return to snowboarding or skiing? Do you want to paddleboard? What is the one thing that you really miss the most and that you would really strive for?”

  “I don’t think there is just one,” he murmured, staring at Shane in puzzlement. “Why? You can’t give it to me.”

  “Absolutely I can give it to you,” Shane argued, his voice calm, patient. “It just depends on how much you really want it.”

  And, with that, just like Dani, Shane left with that heavy-weighted shot that gave Percy so much more to think about. As he wondered about that, he had to question if it were really possible. He stared down at his phone. Even though Aaron had yet to answer Percy’s last text, he quickly texted his friend again. Is weight-lifting even possible again?

  When the response came back, Aaron texted Yes. You might be surprised. Find the one thing that you really care about. That, if you could return to it, you would feel recovered. Get it clear in your mind and use that as a goal post. When you reach it, we’ll both celebrate.

  Percy stared at his phone, as he slowly laid it on the bedside beside him. “Jesus.”

  To even think that something like that could be possible again was almost too much for him to believe. As far as he was concerned, these were all pipe dreams.

  His previous doctors had told him that he’d never walk normally again. Other doctors told him that he would never sit for a long period because of the shrapnel. Still another one stated that disability benefits were for people like him. Like how was any of that geared to make Percy feel like a man again? A whole, healthy contributing-to-society and functioning man? Where in all that doom and gloom did Hathaway House find any hope for Percy? So what was so different about this place?

  Yet he’d already seen something was different. Yet his tight ball of anger remained in his throat, locking down his chest, tightly locking in the words that he wanted to get out. But, for the first time, he had to wonder if he hadn’t tripped into a wonderland of some kind. As if the people here were talking in a language that he didn’t recognize, as if they saw something in him that he didn’t see in himself.

  None of it made any sense.
And yet, for the first time—and maybe because none of it made sense—he could see that he was somewhere completely foreign. Maybe because it wasn’t exactly what he’d been through over and over again, maybe this time the end result could be different.

  Giada Tiasco pushed the cart down the hallway, watching as Shane left the room that she was heading to, with a supply of new towels, just delivered this morning. At the open doorway she knocked, stuck her head around, and asked, “Do you mind yet another interruption?” The patient looked at her, and she noted not anger so much but a sense of loss maybe.

  “I have fresh towels and a couple spare blankets for you,” she stated, ignoring the look in his eyes. She quickly brought in the towels, stocked up the bathroom, and placed one of his blankets over the end of the bed. She noted the missing foot and completely ignored it. She’d seen so much worse in this place. With the second blanket, she walked over to the closet and stored it there. “In case you don’t know, your personal belongings are in here, and I’ll put this extra blanket for you here too.”

  “Thank you.”

  She nodded and stepped towards the door.

  “I mean it, thank you.”

  “Not a problem.” She tossed him a gentle smile. “It looks like you aren’t having a good day.”

  “I just arrived,” he muttered.

  “Ouch. Those are the worst days.”

  He looked at her with interest. “You mean, there are bad days?” he teased. “It seems like everybody here is living on sunshine and roses.”

  She chuckled. “Not always. This isn’t my normal job, but I’m doing this today. We’re short-staffed right now because, you know, somebody’s day wasn’t sunshine and roses. But that doesn’t matter because we all pitch in to help.”

  “You don’t mind running laundry carts around the place?” he asked doubtfully. “Unless of course your other job would be to grab cleaning cloths.”

  She crossed her arms, leaned against the open doorway, but she smiled. “I guess to you it probably seems that way, doesn’t it?”

  “I would do a lot to avoid scrubbing anything,” he admitted.