Denton Read online

  “Good. Feel free to call them any time. If you look, you’ll see both their numbers programmed in your phone on a secondary contact list. Okay, I’ll explain the meals and how that works for you, but I’m sure they’ll fill you in with a lot more as soon as they get a chance to see you.”

  So much information tumbled out of Hannah’s mouth, Denton struggled to keep up. His expression must have given him away because she laughed when she came to a stopping point.

  “I know I’ve dumped a lot on you, but it’s not that bad. Everything I said is also written in here.” She handed him a folder.

  “Oh, thank God,” he said. “I was so afraid I wouldn’t remember.”

  “Not at all.”

  They shared grins.

  She turned and walked toward the door. “I suggest you take a little time to get accustomed to your surroundings,” she said. “In that folder is a map of the ground floor. Downstairs is a vet clinic. The public comes and goes on a regular basis to see the vet, to visit the animal patients. Some of the animals are permanent residents, and some are here for only short-term help. But all of them need as much loving care as any of the people in this place can give.”

  “Just like the patients.” He liked the sound of that. “And I can go down there?”

  “Eventually. Brock or Cole can take you in a day or two.” At the doorway she stopped and faced him. “I do want to caution you. Please don’t rush anything. Take your time. The move alone to transfer you here is hard on your body. You need time to adjust, so please honor that and give your body the time it needs.”

  He nodded soberly. “I can do that. I wouldn’t want anything to set back my progress.”

  She gave him the sweetest smile. “I know you’ll do your best.”

  And damn if there wasn’t something special about her that made him want to do just that.

  Chapter 2

  Hannah stepped into the hallway. Denton appeared to be a little overwhelmed with all the information she’d given him. She decided to come back later to see how he was doing. It was a lot to take in. This kind of medical center was a new experience for everyone, including the staff. Adjustment took a while. Patients needed time to settle in, as soon as possible, and to get into a routine.

  She walked to the front desk and poked her head into Dani’s office. “I’m done with Denton but will check again later today. The poor guy looked a little lost. Maybe if you get a chance, stop by this afternoon.”

  Dani looked up and smiled. “I can do that. You have definitely been helpful, taking over some of this work for me.”

  “Anything I can do to help. You’re overworked. You should have a full-time assistant for yourself.” Hannah smiled and withdrew.

  Dani worked harder than anybody she’d ever seen before. Of course, it was her place, so it made sense. And she probably worked the hardest at keeping the staff and the patients happy. Obviously, there would always be personality conflicts and the occasional butting of heads, but in general, this place worked relatively smoothly.

  Hannah had had experience in other medical offices, including a doctor’s office and a medical clinic in Houston. She certainly preferred working here. She’d only been at Hathaway House one year, and it had taken a few weeks to get into the Hathaway House mind-set and a few more weeks to realize how freeing it was to be here. The fact that the animals were here as well helped tremendously.

  Thinking of the animals reminded her of something. She quickly jotted a note to herself. The next time she went shopping, she’d get a couple dog beds. That way she could have a few more of the animals upstairs on a regular basis. The patients appreciated having them around, and it wasn’t always easy for patients to go downstairs. One of her jobs was to bring various animals from the clinic to visit the patients upstairs. She tended to use her various scheduled breaks throughout the day to find people who needed a one-on-one animal visit. This was especially true for the animals. Seeing too many people all at once was often stressful for them.

  Hannah had three animals that she looked after on a regular basis and tracked when they were picked up by patients and taken away. If she’d had the chance, she’d have kept them all for herself. But understanding the animals were doing a very important job here made it easier to share them.

  Some animals—like Chickie, the tiny partially crippled dog that appeared to get around in everyone’s arms rather than walking—were a good example of that. He had water and food and a bed at the front counter and in the back area of the ground floor. But he was often cuddled up with somebody who needed it. And it was probably better that way as Chickie was very small and didn’t move very well. The worst thing would be to have animals running loose, tripping up people on crutches or getting in the way of wheelchairs. Hathaway House employees didn’t want any of the humans or the animals to get injured on-site either.

  But something was very special about Chickie. He also had a supersensitive stomach, and although they warned everybody not to feed him, somehow his tummy was always a little upset. She wasn’t sure if he was nibbling on crumbs off the floor or if somebody was secretly feeding him.

  Helga was another example. She was a beautiful young Newfoundland, missing a leg. Her prosthetic limb was constantly undergoing design upgrades, everybody coming up with suggestions to make it work better for her. Helga herself didn’t seem to care. The joint moved and rolled as she needed it to, and other than that, she was happy.

  This group had been amazingly helpful in getting animals back on their feet. Chickie didn’t have prosthetic limbs because his legs were quite crippled, and he had nowhere near the mobility that a lot of the other animals did. Being small made it easier as he required a lot more assistance.

  Helga was huge, and as such she was appreciated by the men who were a little too afraid of hurting Chickie. The ones who loved Chickie simply carried him around like a baby.

  Chickie belonged to the center, and Stan kept up regular medical treatments to keep him healthy. Hannah didn’t understand how Dani had the time or the influx of funds to funnel monies in so many different directions, but she managed to get enough to cover what was needed. Hannah knew finding donors was a constant challenge, but Dani did it. She had a lot of benefactors who she could call in to get assistance for people who needed specialized medical help but couldn’t afford to come here. And when one healed and moved on, then she opened the waiting list and brought in the next person needing their special rehabilitation efforts. It was a good system.

  Dani also kept horses on the property. Most were refugee rescue horses. Some were damaged, but some were older and had no place in the regular world anymore. Dani was a horse lover, and Hannah didn’t think Dani would ever turn away a horse. They had six right now. But unlike the dogs with a life expectancy of about twelve to fifteen years, horses often lived to their mid-twenties. The commitment was a lot longer.

  Hannah had the title of administrative assistant, but really she was a jack-of-all-trades. She was a cross between Dani’s assistant and the substitute front receptionist, plus she did some bookkeeping. And truth be told, she was good with that. There was certainly nothing boring about this job.

  Her phone was ringing as she walked behind the front counter.

  “Hey, Hannah. Do you have a moment?”

  “Sure Stan, I’ll be right down.”

  She hung up the phone and checked to see where Chickie was. He was curled up in his bed, looking darn tired. She decided to leave him where he was. He had done the rounds this morning with her, and he was certainly entitled to a nap. She grabbed a coffee cup, filled it and headed downstairs to see Stan.

  The vet clinic was a mess. Several dogs in the reception area were struggling with their owners. In the center of the chaos was a cat, glaring at everybody.

  Hannah stared at the cat. “So who’s this guy?”

  “We’re not exactly sure.”

  Hannah looked at the vet’s receptionist. “What? Didn’t he have an appointment?”

/>   Rebecca stood behind her desk. “No, and I didn’t see who he came in with either. I have no idea. He doesn’t look to be injured in any way.”

  Stepping between the dogs and cat, Stan crouched down. The cat took one look and jumped onto Stan’s shoulders. Stan laughed. “Well, he’s a friendly fellow.”

  “Very.” Hannah studied the cat for a moment. “He’s not scared of the dogs, and he seems to like the noise.”

  Stan glanced over at her with a knowing look. “You’ve been trying to get a therapy cat upstairs since forever.”

  She shrugged sheepishly. “It seems hardly fair that we have therapy dogs, but no cats.”

  He nodded. “We’ll have to give this wonderful cat a checkup before we can let him around the human patients. But I was thinking of you and upstairs.”

  She stroked the feline, who seemed to like all the humans so far. “He’s a beauty. He’s almost bobcat size, isn’t he?”

  Stan nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if something wild was in his heritage. He is really big.”

  She gently scratched behind his ears, and the huge cat’s rumble filled the room.

  “Good Lord,” Stan said. “That’s quite the engine.”

  She smiled. “You have to check him out real fast, Stan. I could use him upstairs.” She turned to look at all the dogs sniffing the cat. She smiled. “Looks like you have a full day as it is.”

  Stan nodded, lifted the cat off his shoulders and handed him to Hannah as his temporary assistant. “Isn’t that the truth?”

  Hannah stepped out of Stan’s way as he led one of the dogs with its owner into a treatment room. The cat gracefully jumped from Hannah’s arms and onto the reception desk. Hannah smiled at the big cat, busy inspecting Rebecca’s workspace.

  “Is it usual to have them this calm at the clinic?”

  Rebecca shook her head. “No. Usually they come in hissing at everything in sight.”

  “Well, this guy is certainly not doing that.”

  Rebecca stood and picked up the cat. “I’ll take him to the back. That’ll help the dogs calm down.”

  Hannah nodded and watched as the huge cat stared at her, his eyes glowing until he was out of the room.

  She turned to the other people sitting in the waiting room. “Did any of you see the cat arrive?”

  Two people shook their heads.

  “No, suddenly he was just here. With all the chaos with the dogs, I didn’t notice where the cat came from,” the older woman replied.

  Hannah looked down the long hallway. “It’s possible he came in from the barn area.” She headed that way to look, but the stalls were all empty, and the doors were closed. Mystified, she headed upstairs. She popped into Dani’s doorway and explained the scenario.

  Dani laughed. “So the center is so good that animals are coming in on their own now, are they?”

  The two women laughed, and then Hannah returned to her office. They never knew what the next unusual scenario would be at this crazy job. And she wouldn’t change it for anything.

  Her cell phone rang within minutes of her sitting down. She groaned. “Good thing my workload is easier today.”

  She glanced down to see the caller was Denton. “Denton Hamilton, what can I do for you?”

  His hesitant voice came through. “I hate to be a bother, but I’ve tried calling Brock and Cole, but neither call appears to be going through.”

  She frowned. “That’s odd. I’ll bring the numbers down myself, and we can double-check them.” She grabbed her checklist and headed toward Denton’s room.

  He sat on his bed, his legs hanging over the edge. He had switched to shorts, perhaps for some of the medical tests or physical therapy or just to feel more comfortable. But to see his calf mangled like that, she fought back a wave of sympathy. His foot was also completely covered in scar tissue, and it appeared to be missing part of a joint. She glanced at his face and realized he had watched her reaction.

  He kicked out his bum leg. “What do you think?”

  She shrugged and sent him a gentle smile. “I’ve seen worse.”

  He looked at her, his gaze searching her face until he realized she was serious, and he relaxed. “I guess I don’t have to hide it, do I?”

  She shook her head. “Never. Please do not hide anything. Find a level of comfort, and learn to live with it. You can relax. We’ve all seen much worse injuries. We’ll do the best we can to help you get back to a normal life.”

  He smiled. “And part of that is contacting my friends.” He held out his phone.

  She checked to see if she’d switched some of the digits. “I’m so sorry. I’m mildly dyslexic, and phone numbers are sometimes a challenge.” She carefully brought up each of the numbers, then checked her list, and together they watched as she put in the right numbers.

  “Try that now.” Inside, she winced at her mistake. She hadn’t done that for a while. But when she got tired or busy, her brain automatically switched numbers on her. It was frustrating.

  Denton tried Brock first, and when the man answered, she watched happiness bloom across Denton’s face. He waved at her and mouthed the words, Thank you.

  She nodded, gave him a smile and turned to leave. Behind her, she could hear him chatting with Brock. There was such love and friendship in his voice, and she was happy for them. It also reminded her how lacking her own life was in those two areas. Love, well, she hadn’t found it yet. However, she’d made more friends since arriving at the center than she had ever had in her life. But she didn’t have any friends from school or from college. She didn’t have any long-term friendships beyond this last year. She’d tried hard enough to make some, but it never seemed to work out. She never had the knack for it. Apparently, of all the things wrong with Denton, his ability to make and keep friends was not one of them.

  “Hey, buddy … Guess who’s finally landed?” Denton asked when Brock answered.

  Brock laughed and cheered. “What room are you in? I’ll come to you.”

  Denton gave Brock the room number and ended the call. Denton thought about the look he’d seen on Hannah’s face when she exited the room. Something in her voice, something in her expression, he didn’t quite recognize.

  Something akin to hesitation, as if she wanted to stay longer. He wished he could call her back. He didn’t know what, if anything, was wrong. But he’d spent a lot of time alone himself, wishing that somebody would talk to him. Sometimes he had to admit the last few months at the hospital had been hard. He’d been inundated with people. But not one of them had been a friend. Not one of them had been a Brock or a Cole. His friends had been here, dealing with their own rehab, and Denton had been there, dealing with his. However, now he’d passed through one stage and had made it to the next. Although he was following in their footsteps, he knew that these guys would always give him a helping hand. That was what friends did. And he never doubted them.

  Together they’d seen some pretty ugly things. They’d been on some dangerous missions. They’d done some incredibly grueling training and had pushed themselves to the limit, and still they’d survived. Not just that but they’d excelled. He wasn’t ashamed or worried about anything he’d done in his past. That his future was unknown, and therefore a little unnerving, was true. But he hoped he didn’t have to face that alone either. And again, Brock and Cole were there ahead of Denton to show him the way.

  He could hear footsteps coming down the hallway. He wasn’t sure if someone was headed toward him or not, but he got excited nonetheless.

  Suddenly a familiar head popped around the corner of his doorway, and with a big grin on his face, Brock stepped into the room. “I am glad to see you’re here finally!”

  Denton shook his head. “I tried to get here earlier, honest. But recovering from my surgeries was a never-ending process, and I couldn’t seem to get clear of it.”

  Brock nodded in understanding. “We’ve been there, done that.” He motioned at the bare leg Denton had hanging off the edge of the bed
. “Looks pretty gnarly, man.”

  Denton laughed at his slang. “It is gnarly. But hopefully here we can build it up. Who knew they could take muscles off your back and reattach them somewhere else?”

  “Modern medicine is a beautiful thing, man.” Brock’s back and side were severely damaged. “My injuries weren’t much better. Half my body is scar tissue, with half a cheek missing.” But he said it with a big grin and a shrug, as if to say, What the hell? It’s what the cards are, and we must live with them.

  Brock had always been like that, until his accident. Denton nodded. “It’s not exactly where I thought we’d end up though.”

  “We should have. The lives we led, the situations we were in, if we’d had even a basic understanding of how many of our fellow soldiers ended up like this, it wouldn’t seem so odd.”

  “Maybe we chose not to look too closely?”

  “Absolutely.” Brock glanced around the room. “This place is great. You’ll love it here. If you work hard, you will excel, and in no time, you’ll see a huge difference.”

  “I’m counting on it,” Denton said in a quiet voice. “A lot of extra funding had to be put into place to get me here. I’m looking to make the most of the opportunity.”

  Brock stared at him for a long moment, before giving a sharp nod. “You’ve always been the one who showed gratitude and understanding about how lucky you were. While I was griping about circumstances, you’d put that sunny smile on your face and say, We are good.” He shook his head. “Honestly, that’ll hold you in good stead here.”

  Denton laughed. “Look what I got.” He held up the map in his hand. “Hannah gave this to me.”

  “Hannah? Not Dani?”

  Denton shook his head.

  “Hannah’s been here for a while, but she’s stepping up to take some of Dani’s extra workload apparently.”

  “Both of them made sure I was settled into my room.”

  “Well, lucky you. Hannah’s a sweetie.”