Melissa Read online

  “And going for breakfast needs to be done?”

  Such a note of disbelief was in her voice that he had to laugh. “You need to see your new home,” he said. “You need to take a look at the world that is now your world. And, while we’re at it, we’ll find you some food, yes. And, if you have special dietary needs, then we’ll talk to Dennis about it.” As he walked over, he didn’t give her a chance to argue but flipped back the covers, reached down, gently swung her legs around to the side, and had her sitting on the edge of the bed before she had time to argue.

  She stared at him in shock, as her body struggled to stay balanced in place. “You’re very good at that.”

  “I am,” he said, with that lethal smile of his.

  “Bet the ladies love it,” she muttered.

  He broke out laughing. “Not exactly my normal bedside style.”

  “Probably a good thing,” she said. “That doesn’t always work for everybody. It’s a little too masterful.”

  “There’s a time to be masterful, and there’s a time not to be,” he said. “When somebody’s being stubborn, it’s time to take charge.”

  “Gee,” she said. “Thanks for that.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said, ignoring her grouchiness. “Now, are you ready to get out, or will I just pick you up and put you in the wheelchair?”

  “Well, if you put it that way,” she said, as she reached out a hand, and he gave her an arm for support, while she slid to her feet and stood. She took a deep breath and straightened.

  “So tell me something,” he said. “Do you consider yourself standing right now?”

  She looked at him and said, “Of course.”

  He just nodded and said, “Into the wheelchair with you.”

  She took a few steps to the wheelchair and then sat down carefully to avoid a spike in pain. But, with every movement, she tried to ward off the sudden anguish.

  “Interesting,” he muttered to himself.

  “I don’t think interesting is quite the right word,” she muttered, feeling more than shaky. Not exactly a strong and in-control movement.

  “Oh, it is,” he said. “Half of the battle is decoding what the problem is.”

  “Well, you should have my file,” she said. “You’d see lots of problems.”

  “And I’ll get to it,” he said. “I took a quick look already but need to delve deeper.”

  “What? Another doctor who doesn’t look or do his homework?”

  “I prefer to do my homework in person,” he said, ignoring her attitude. “And I’m not a doctor.”

  She shrugged and said, “Do you think you know more than the doctors?”

  At that, he burst out laughing. “Absolutely not. Our educations are extremely different. The doctors do what they do, and then I take over.”

  “Interesting.” But, by then, he already had her rolled out in the hallway. She looked around with interest. “I hadn’t expected it to be so big.”

  “It’s very big,” he said. “We’re up to several hundred beds by now.”

  “So how come I have your attention if you’re the head of PT?”

  “Well, we’re all assigned to teams for various patients. I had several patients go home, so some of my workload is reduced. Now I have new patients,” he said cheerfully. “Of which you are one.”

  “And it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m friends with Dani?”

  He looked at her in surprise. “Are you?”

  “Yes,” she said. “We went to school together.”

  “Interesting,” he said. “Why didn’t you come here earlier then?”

  She hesitated and then shrugged. “Maybe because I’m stubborn?”

  “I hadn’t noticed,” he said.

  She burst out laughing. “I guess I can be a bit of a grouch,” she said. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “You’re not sorry about it. It’s a defense mechanism,” he said. “It’s normal from someone in your situation.”

  She groaned. “Do you have an answer for everything?”

  “Nope,” he said. “It’s up to you to find the answers, not me.” He watched the frown form on her face at that. He knew he took things a little bit differently than a lot of people, but he also needed to shake her up a bit. Just so much negativity was in her world that she had to let some of it go in order to find the progress that she desperately wanted. The question was, did she want it enough to do the work to get there?

  Because that was a whole different story.

  Chapter 2

  As Shane pushed her forward, Melissa noted how many private rooms were here, how wide and open and spacious the center was. “It doesn’t look like a hospital,” she said cautiously.

  “That’s because it isn’t a hospital.”

  “Okay, but it doesn’t resemble a VA center either.”

  “How long were you in one?”

  “A few months,” she said with a shrug, then winced because that shrug hurt too. “Basically, I feel like somebody took my body and tossed me off a high wall. Just call me Humpty Dumpty.”

  He chuckled at that. “We’ve seen a few of those here.”

  And something about him not being shocked or worried made her relax even further. “Well, it’s nice to know that it’s not necessarily something you haven’t seen before,” she said slowly. “But I wouldn’t want you to think that, just because you may have seen something like me before, I’ll be the same as everybody else.”

  He leaned over and said, “You’re not like anybody else. We’ll treat you as an individual. Give us a chance.”

  And, with that, she had to be satisfied.

  They approached a huge area, some common area for recreation with a pool table, card game tables, even huge TVs mounted on several walls.

  “Well, this is a nice spot,” she said. “It’s empty though.”

  “That’s because everybody’s heading for breakfast.”

  She laughed. “Well, that in itself would be a good sign, if people cared to get to breakfast on time.”

  “The food is wonderful here, and, if you especially want something, just tell us.”

  “Well, I’m really big on eggs,” she said. “I love my veggies too.”

  “You’ll get both here,” he promised.

  “Neither are particularly hard to supply,” she said, “but doing them right? Now that’s a whole different story.”

  “Do you cook?”

  “I do,” she said, “or at least I used to.”

  “It’s not something you have to stop doing, is it?”

  “It’s not like I’ve had an opportunity to do any,” she said with half a smile. “I’m stuck with things in place. I mean, I haven’t had space where I can do a whole lot.”

  “What other hobbies have you stopped doing?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Most anything that requires movement.” And then she gave a broken laugh. “I don’t mean to sound so whiny about everything,” she said. “That’s really not who I am. But, when you ask the questions, some of them are hard to answer.”

  “Do you read?”

  “Yep,” she said. “I love thrillers.”

  “Do you do anything with your hands, such as knitting, crocheting, painting, woodwork? Anything like that?”

  She shook her head. “No. I haven’t done anything like that for a long time. I used to garden.”

  “Gardening is good,” he said. “It’s a gentle hobby that reconnects people to their basic needs. You should be able to resume that hobby down the road. We need to work on balancing out your body and strengthening the muscles first.”

  It made her smile to think she might be able to grow things again—even if only a few herbs and tomatoes. There was nothing like fresh tomatoes from a garden.

  By then they had entered another huge room, the cafeteria space, a line of people along the right side opposite masses of tables. The kitchen must be behind the doors on the right side too.

  “Well,”
she said.

  Then he leaned forward and said, “You’ll have to talk loud up here.”

  She realized the din of the place was the second effect that really surprised her. “A lot of people are here,” she said. And that, in itself, was almost intimidating.

  “There are,” he said. “You want to go out on the deck and take a look first or get in line?”

  She looked at the line and shrugged. “That doesn’t look like it’ll go anywhere quickly, so let’s go out on the deck.”

  He headed her wheelchair through the tables until they got to an open-air deck with great big sliding glass doors that separated most of the deck, but they were wide open right now. And he said, “You can sit out here in the sun or in the shade.”

  She was amazed at the space. But then her gaze caught the green hills before her on the other side of the deck. “Can you take me over there?”

  He pushed her forward to where she could see over the edge of the railing. When she saw the horses running across the field, she cried out, “Horses!”

  “I thought you were Dani’s friend?”

  “Well, Dani and I were always horse crazy back then,” Melissa said, shaking her head, “but I had no idea horses were here.”

  “Did she not tell you about the animals?”

  “She did, it’s just hard to envision without being here.” She tilted her head at him. “Is there much more?”

  “There absolutely is more,” he said. “A whole vet clinic is downstairs. They work on injured animals and do basic care for all animals, plus they run a lot of fosters through there. We have therapy animals from downstairs that visit the human patients up here, and several dogs, cats, and horses are permanent residents here too. Of course, out there is Lovely, the llama. We have a little filly out there too. Midnight is Dani’s horse.” He pointed out Midnight, who stood at a fence, leaning over and accepting long grass from somebody in a wheelchair.

  “Wow,” she whispered. “That’s huge.”

  “Are you an animal lover?”

  “Absolutely,” she said. “Especially dogs.” Then she pointed. “Who’s that one?”

  “That’s Helga,” he said with a chuckle. “She’s one of the therapy dogs who doesn’t know she has only three legs. Couldn’t care less either.”

  “She’s huge,” she said.

  “She’s a Newfoundlander, and, as far as she’s concerned, her size makes no difference. She thinks you still should be cuddling her twenty-four hours a day.”

  At that, Melissa chuckled. “Oh, wow,” she said. “Dani really created something here, hasn’t she?”

  “She has, indeed. And now you know why she wanted you to come.”

  “Yes,” she said, “and she knew that I was a big animal lover to boot.”

  “Good,” he said. “The line is going down, so let’s go back and get you some food.”

  “Can I bring it out here?”

  “You sure can,” he said. “It’s all part and parcel of the whole deal.”

  “Good,” she said. “I would like to spend as much time outside as I can.”

  “Vitamin D is very important,” he said. “You need about four hours a day in order to get what you need.”

  “I thought it was only like twenty minutes,” she said jokingly.

  “Well, it certainly isn’t four hours. I was making sure you were listening to me,” he said with a laugh. “But you can get quite a bit of time outdoors. Once we get you into the pool, that will help too.”

  “And a pool?” she said, twisting gingerly and slowly to look at him a minute. “Is that for us or for the staff?”

  “For everyone,” he said, nodding. “We’ll start some of your physiotherapy there, once we have an idea of where you’re at for mobility. You swim?”

  “I was navy,” she said. “I swim.”

  “Good,” he said. “That makes it a little easier.”

  “It must be hard to have somebody who doesn’t swim.”

  “On the other hand,” he said cheerfully, “it’s a great time for them to learn to swim.”

  “Wouldn’t that be nice,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the pool. When can I get in there?”

  “Not for a while,” he said. “We have days of testing.”

  “That does not appeal,” she said in a grumbling voice.

  “Maybe not, but it’s very necessary.”

  Just then they pulled up through the crowded cafeteria, and the din was once again overwhelming. “Everybody’s so loud.”

  He bent closer to her ear. “But it’s a happy loud,” he said. “If you listen to it, you’ll hear that it’s just people being people.”

  She tilted her head, as she assessed some of the chatter around her. But he was right. It wasn’t upsetting. It wasn’t cries. It wasn’t anger. It was conversation. It was Good morning and How are you? and How was your night?—that type thing.

  And, before she realized it, he had her in a line, and they headed alongside the buffet offerings. He grabbed a tray for her and kept pushing it forward.

  She looked at it and said, “I could walk, you know.”

  “Not right now,” he said. As they came up to one of the glass counters, he called out, “Dennis.”

  A huge man came to the front counter, leaned across the top, and smiled down at her. “Now that’s a new face I haven’t seen before.”

  She smiled up at him. “I’m Melissa,” she said. “I just got here last night.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said. “So I see they wouldn’t let you skip breakfast, huh?”

  She shook her head. “No, Shane was pretty much against that.”

  “We’re all against that,” he said. “You need your food.”

  She smiled up at him. “But what if I’m not hungry?”

  “We always have something to be hungry for.” He quickly explained how the kitchen worked, how the coffee and tea were always here. Food was always here. If she ever woke up hungry, she could raid the self-serve fridge filled with sandwiches, muffins, quiches, things like that. All beside a microwave, if needed. “And,” he said, “I have lots of hot fresh food now. What do you prefer for breakfast?”

  She raised both eyebrows. “Wow! I haven’t been asked that in a long time.”

  “Well, that was then. This is now,” he said, “and food is a big part of your healing. But the right food.”

  “Oh, I agree with that,” she said. “What do you have?”

  “I’ve got eggs, sausages, bacon, omelets, fresh fruit, yogurt, homemade bread, French toast. If that doesn’t appeal, tell me what does. Oh, we also have muffins today. What would you like?”

  Just then her stomach growled. She stared at him, a bit embarrassed. “I haven’t heard that sound in a long time,” she said. “Something triggered it nicely.”

  “Well, if you haven’t eaten, and you’re not working out today because it’s still not a whole first day for you,” he said, “let’s get you a decent breakfast. Then you will have lots of energy to hold you over, and you won’t have to worry about your stomach getting upset from Shane’s workouts.”

  She looked at Shane. “You already have a reputation, huh?”

  “Maybe,” he said cheerfully, “but we won’t worry about that right now.” He looked at Dennis and said, “She told me that she loves eggs.”

  Dennis smiled, looked down at her again, and asked, “So poached, scrambled, fried? Or how about a spinach and bacon omelet?”

  “I’d love that,” she said. “Are you sure though? That’s more work.”

  He laughed. “I’m very sure. I’ll have it up in a few minutes,” he said. “Make sure you get the rest of what you want, and I’ll bring the omelet to you.”

  And, with that, Shane moved her a little farther down the counter. He asked, “You want some yogurt, some berries, muffins? Anything here?”

  A whole pile of add-ons went with breakfast. She grabbed a parfait that looked like half the size of the other parfaits. It was full of yogurt, berries, and g
ranola. “I like this,” she said, “but I don’t want to take so much food that I can’t eat it all.”

  “And that’s a good thing,” he said, “because we do have to watch that people eat what they take.”

  “Right,” she said. “So maybe not this.” But she hesitated.

  He put it firmly on her tray and said, “If nothing else, we can take it back to your room with you because you’ll be in there dealing with a lot of team members, as they come to interview you all day.”

  “Right,” she said. “So for a coffee break.”

  “And the cafeteria is always open,” he reminded her. “If you’re ever hungry, you can always come and get food.”

  She nodded, and they went to the coffee area. He poured coffee for the two of them, which surprised her because she figured he had something better to do than to sit around and babysit her. But he didn’t seem to be in any rush to leave. Quietly she wondered at that.

  He pushed her back to the outside deck, knowing she craved the sunshine and the sight of the animals. She sat close to the railing as she worked away on her parfait without even thinking about it.

  By the time Dennis arrived with the omelet, she had tucked into that without realizing just how much food she was consuming. But the two men noticed.

  Dennis quickly took away the empty parfait glass and smiled at her. “See? Just even being here helps bring up the appetite.”

  “That’s not a bad thing,” she said. “I’ve lost a lot of weight from the surgeries.”

  “That’s not allowed at all,” he said. “I’m really good at fattening people up.” He gave her a big toothy grin and took off, leaving her.

  She laughed. “How do you guys stay skinny at this place?”

  “Well, for the staff, we work it off,” Shane said, chuckling. “But, for everybody who’s here to heal, you must remember. Good food is a major part of healing.”

  “I get it,” she said and looked down at the omelet. “Wow!”

  “And, if you don’t like something, just tell Dennis. He lives to make everybody eat happily.”