Melissa: A Hathaway House Heartwarming Romance Read online

  He looked up and smiled. “I think it’s just a lack of security again,” he said, “because you’re so afraid you can’t have something, and there is bound to be a part of you that feels you’ll lose it anyway.”

  “And that takes me back to my family, yes,” she said. “You don’t realize what losing your entire family as a teenager can do to you.”

  “And yet, when will you walk away from it, recognizing that it’ll always be there,” he said calmly, “but not prepared to give it the power to ruin your future?”

  She stared at him for a moment. “Well, I hadn’t thought of it that way. I don’t want it to be always determining my future.”

  “However, if you hang on to that as your past,” he said, “it has to be something that determines your future because there’s no way it can’t. It is a part of you.”

  “I know,” she said, as she was just realizing how much she let that part of her have control over her future. “You’re right. I don’t want it to have that much power, and I don’t want it to dominate my life, stopping me from getting something else I want.”

  “Good,” he said. “Just understand that sometimes it’s likely to come up, and you’ll just recognize it and let it go. You don’t have to let it be that dominant in your world anymore.”

  A bubble burst. Immediately such a sense of calmness and a sense of rightness filled her inside that she stared up at the blue sky and took several long, slow, deep breaths. She didn’t know how to describe it to him, but it was a sense of release, letting go, like an inner tension slowly dissipating, something that she’d hung on to for a long time that she suddenly put down on the ground beside her. Then as she slowly straightened up, she could feel everything so weightless, so fresh, and just so free. She stared at the sky and wondered.

  She looked at him and said, “I don’t even know if I can describe what just happened.” And she tried to explain.

  He reached across and gripped her fingers. “I understand,” he said. “It’s awesome.”

  She smiled and felt tears in the corner of her eyes. “And why now tears?” she said, half laughing, half crying.

  “It’s a release,” he said. “And not just women cry.” He gave her a gentle smile. “Women are often teased for crying, but men cry too.”

  “Well, I’ll be crying for a minute here,” she said, as she brushed her eyes several times, as this massive wave of emotions ruptured and sent difficult feelings aside. But, at the same time, she could see the emotions as they dissipated from her system, almost with a thankfulness.

  “As you see this,” he said, “remember to thank it for being there for you. It was a defense mechanism. For a long time, you needed it. Now you don’t.”

  She looked at him. “Was I really supposed to say thank you for that?”

  “Yes,” he said with a decisive nod. “Be grateful, and that will give you an avenue to a whole new world.”

  She closed her eyes, and, as the emotional waves pounded through her, she mentally whispered, Thank you for being there. Thank you for helping me get to where I am right now. I am grateful. It seemed strange, but, at the same time, an even bigger part of her felt refreshed and delighted with it all.

  By the time she was done, she reached out, lifted a hand, and saw it was almost trembling. “Wow!” she said and reached up with her sleeve to wipe her eyes. “Dennis didn’t put any napkins or tissues in there, did he?”

  Just then Shane handed her several napkins to wipe her eyes with.

  She blew her nose and sat here for a long moment. “I feel old and yet young at the same time.”

  “Good,” he said. “That’s called being reborn.”

  She turned and smiled at him, seeing him beside her once again. “And I also realized why I slowed my healing,” she said. “I’m still uncomfortable telling you about it, but maybe it’s because all this just happened that I’m feeling brave.”

  “So tell me,” he said, sitting up to stare at her intently.

  She gave a self-conscious smile and said, “Well, if I improve at the rate I should be improving,” she said, “I would be doing so much better, so much faster, that my end date would be coming toward me very quickly.”

  “Ah,” he said. “And you were afraid of what comes after that.”

  She shook her head. “No,” she said softly. “That wasn’t it at all. I mean, and it makes sense, that it would be because I don’t have a job. I don’t have a career. I don’t even know what I want to do although …” She turned her head to look back in the direction of the vet clinic. “I was wondering about talking to Stan about training to be an assistant in the vet clinic.”

  Shane looked at her in surprise. “That is a great idea,” he said. “You could sit some of the time, stand some time, work with animals, be in a field that you would really love.”

  “I think it would be,” she said. “I don’t know what money would be available for retraining or how long the training itself would be, but I think it’s something I would like to do. Maybe at least work in the reception area and give it a try first.”

  “I like the sound of that a lot,” he said. “That’s really a huge step, but that’s not the reason you just discovered.”

  She took a slow, deep breath. “No,” she said. “Because essentially, when I get to the point where I’m strong enough, and I’m leaving, heading into whatever this future of mine is, I’m leaving you behind.”

  Shane finally heard the words that he wanted to hear. He squeezed her fingers gently, tugged her slightly, and saw she was leaning forward too, coming his direction. Then he pulled her into his arms, where he just held her.

  She started to cry again, this time soaking his shirt, and he just held her. This was definitely one of the moments to let her release all the tension and the stress inside. He rocked her gently back and forth, loving the time, the peace, the serenity with just the two of them.

  Woof.

  And Helga.

  “And you still don’t say anything,” she whispered, hiccupping.

  He waited for her sobs to ease back a bit before he said, “I was waiting for you to be able to hear me,” he said with a note of humor.

  She smiled, wiped at her eyes again, and said, “I feel like a baby. I never cry like this.”

  “So. It’s good,” he said. “This is the release you need.”

  “Maybe.”

  She tried to sit up, but he wouldn’t let her. Now he said, “I’ll respond because I’ve been waiting for you to say something like that for a long time.”

  She looked at him in wonder.

  He looked down at her, smiled, and said, “Yes, I could have said something to you. But, in my position, where I was a caregiver, somebody working to get you back on your feet, I didn’t want to influence your emotional levels by showing you just how much I did care. And I was also waiting for you to show me that you cared enough to find something that you wanted to ask for.”

  She closed her eyes, as if in understanding, and he nodded.

  “Right. So just like you wanted to go in the pool,” he said, “it’s really nice to know that you want me, and you want me that much,” he said, tapping her gently on the nose with his index finger.

  “And does that mean that you like me as much as I like you?” she whispered.

  He dropped a kiss on her forehead and held her close. “I have no idea how much you like me,” he said, “but I know that my heart smiles when it sees you, that my brain wakes up and thinks of you first thing in the morning. You’re the last thought in my head before I go to sleep. And I’m looking for excuses all day long to come past your room to see if you’re around.”

  She stared at him in astonishment.

  He nodded and smiled, couldn’t stop smiling now. “I’ve had to keep a lot of that inside,” he said, “just because I’m in a professional environment. And we want you to heal. We want you to do the best you can do without it being tied up to an emotional attachment with one of us …”

 
“Oh, I love you for you,” she said, “no doubt about that. I just hadn’t realized it until all this was going on right now,” she said. “I didn’t realize I was sabotaging my own progress because I didn’t want to leave you. It makes sense to me now. A lot of it makes sense now. But honestly, it’s lovely to know that A, I could tell you, and that B, we’re here.”

  “Isn’t that the truth?” He kissed her on the nose and said, “Now, you still have a couple months here, and, in that couple months,” he said, “we’ll get you back on your feet, so you’re as strong and as capable as you can be. We can look at various job options in the animal world, if that’s where you’d like to go, and,” he said, “we’ll do the best we can to take our relationship one step further.”

  “And what does that mean?” she said in a cheeky voice.

  He laughed and laughed. “Not that,” he said. “Not until you’re fully cleared.”

  “And that’s sad,” she said.

  He hugged her tight and said, “It’s something for us to wait for.”

  “Because it’s all about living today.” She smiled, reached up, and caught his face gently with her hand. “And that’s a lesson I’ll delight in learning,” she said. “One day at a time. Together.”

  “Every moment with us,” he said, “is a gift. So let’s just enjoy it, and later we’ll work out all the details of our tomorrows.” He leaned his head closer, and he kissed her gently and thoroughly.

  When he finally lifted his head, she smiled and whispered, “I can get on that program. You’re the best in your field. So, if you say this is what I need to do, I’m happy to follow your lead.”

  He shook his head and said, “In our personal relationship, you’re not following anybody’s lead. I want a partner who stands beside me and walks with me.”

  “Well, hopefully,” she said, “you’re also okay if I sometimes roll along in a wheelchair too.”

  He chuckled. “Absolutely. I don’t have any requirements, other than you spend your time with me.”

  “Easily done,” she whispered, and he lowered his head once again.

  Epilogue

  Nash Covington listened as the doctor explained once again why his trip to Hathaway was delayed. “But it’s all been approved,” he said in frustration. “Why is there even a discussion about it right now?”

  “We’re just making sure that you’re well enough to travel,” the doctor said. “So another four days, then you should be good to go.” The doctor walked out, not willing to discuss the issue anymore, not willing to even explain any further.

  Nash fell back onto his bed and groaned. His buddy Owen, beside him for many weeks, said, “So not the news you wanted?”

  “Well, it’s not bad news,” he said. “It’s just the same old bull again.”

  “I think they specialize in that,” Owen said. “Here you seem pretty bound and determined to get to Hathaway. Are you sure it’s Hathaway you want to go to, or just this place you want to get away from?”

  “Probably both,” Nash said. “But it’s back in Dallas, and Dallas is where I want to be. That’s family. That’s friends. That’s an old girlfriend, who I know won’t want anything to do with me in this shape. But still, that doesn’t mean that I won’t be friends with her, and, right now, it feels like I have very little family and no friends in my life.”

  “I think that’s the way of it,” Owen said. “As soon as you have an accident like this, you find out who your friends truly are.”

  “Well, not only is it the accident,” he said, “but it’s the accident and all the surgeries and time recovering. It’s not a short-term support system. It’s been what? Eighteen months now?”

  “Mine’s not been quite so bad,” Owen said. “But, in your case, yeah. You’ve had a lot more surgeries.”

  “And I’m so ready to get out of this bed.”

  “How did you hear about Hathaway House?”

  “A friend of mine,” Nash said. “He’s been gone quite a while already. But, last I heard from him, it was Hathaway House that made the difference. Cole was someone I could trust, and, if he says I’ll do better there, I’d like to try.”

  “Then four days,” Owen said. “Four more days. That’s all you have to wait for now. And, when you get there, let me know if it’s any good, will you?”

  “Count on it, buddy. You can count on it.” Nash closed his eyes, resting. If they thought he wasn’t good enough to make that trip, he was bound and determined to spend the next four days doing what he could to build up his strength and to make sure that his arrival at Hathaway happened because it seemed like everybody else was against him, and that he wouldn’t tolerate it. It was Hathaway or bust. Go big or go home.

  Go to Hathaway House or never find a future for him again.

  This concludes Book 13 of Hathaway House: Melissa.

  Read about Nash: Hathaway House, Book 14

  Hathaway House: Nash (Book #14)

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

  Nash has been struggling to get back on his feet after his last set of surgeries. He pushed for a transfer to Hathaway House on an old friend’s recommendation and finally made it there—after multiple frustrating delays—only to find that he isn’t ready for the strides he hopes to make in the new facility.

  To add insult to injury, on his first day at Hathaway House, he comes face-to-face with Alicia, the only woman he’s ever loved and the last woman he’d want to see him in his current condition.

  Alicia let Nash go more than a decade ago, unwilling to settle for a long-distance relationship with the sailor, certain that her future would bring other dreams and other loves. But, when her brother fell ill, all her dreams shattered. She devoted herself to nursing him and, after his death, to helping others.

  Seeing Nash again is both pleasure and pain. The rapport between them is instant, as if the years apart had never happened. But, if they couldn’t make things work back then, when life was bright and new, do the people they’ve become in the years since have a shot at a future together?

  Find Book 14 here!

  To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading Melissa: Hathaway House, Book 13! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.

  Dear reader,

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  Cheers,

  Dale Mayer

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  About the Author

  Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).

  She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!

  To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.

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  MELISSA: HATHAWAY HOUSE, BOOK 13

  Dale Mayer

  Valley Publishing Ltd.

  Copyright © 2020

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-773364-20-9

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