by Linda Kage
His face glowed with joy, and a smile spread across his face, making his tired eyes glitter with more life and vitality than she’d ever seen in them before. Then he winked at her and squeezed her hand in a conspiring way.
She rolled her eyes, blushing harder.
Tess stayed another half hour after the nurse’s check-in. But she didn’t get back on the bed with Jonah, no matter how much he tried to cajole.
The boy was proving to be a lot more enticing than she bargained for. After just a few days—mere days—of knowing him, she felt…
Honestly, she had no idea how she truly felt, but it was a lot stronger than she knew she should feel about a virtual stranger. Her emotions didn’t seem to care, though. He needed her, and she was too drawn to him to stay away now.
She didn’t leave until nearly forty-five minutes after visiting hours were over. Not that she really tried all that hard to escape. Every time she’d look at the clock on the wall and mention how she should go, he’d grip her hand and put on the begging eyes, telling her he wanted her to stay.
How was a girl supposed to resist that? Honestly.
So, she didn’t. She stayed until the door to his room opened. Diving behind his bed so she wouldn’t get caught and in trouble with yet another nurse, she hid out until his check-in was complete and they were the only two left in the room. There’d been a moment in there she was tempted to kick Jonah’s bed because he’d started to snicker about her lame hiding technique. But, hey, no one had caught her so she figured she’d done just fine.
After that, she didn’t let his big brown begging eyes get to her. Well, not completely. She only stayed five minutes longer, most of which was spent kissing each other goodbye. His mouth was becoming downright addictive, which was probably going to be another problem.
But she’d worry about that later.
It wasn’t until she was sneaking out of his room that she realized her hiding technique truly did suck.
“Hey!”
She had no idea why she’d been easing out of his room back first, maybe so she could face him and see him for as long as possible before she was in the hall. But at the sharp call, she yelped out a muffled scream and whirled around.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped as the nurse who’d scolded her for being on Jonah’s bed marched toward her. Pressing her hand to her heart, she winced, bracing herself for a new lecture. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I totally lost track of time and—”
The nurse waved her concerns aside. “Are you his girlfriend?” she asked, not really sounding accusatory but not sounding all that friendly either.
Oh, boy.
Tess barely controlled herself from wincing. “Um…” For some reason, lying to a nurse felt about as bad as lying to a priest. So, instead of admitting anything verbally, she merely gave a vague nod of her head.
When the nurse’s face bloomed into a bright smile, Tess was instantly befuddled. “I’m Kari,” the nurse said, sticking out her hand. “And I just wanted to thank you for being here for him. You cannot imagine how much your presence has helped him in the past few days. Before you came along, he was—” she blew out a breath as if relieved that time was over “—completely unmanageable. No one wanted to deal with him. But now he actually has a couple of friendly moments between all the crabbiness.”
Tess blinked at her, not sure what to say. It was hard to believe she’d had that much influence on anyone. But beyond the disbelief was warmth and tenderness…and a load of guilt. Despite how much she was doing this for a good cause, she didn’t want to deceive him anymore. And yet, hearing the nurse say what she’d just said, she was convinced more than ever that she should stay on this dishonest path.
“I…” When her voice cracked, she licked her lips and tried again. “Thank you.”
Nurse Kari’s smile was sincere when she patted Tess’s shoulder. “But, seriously, don’t bother hiding the next time you stay late. I saw you the moment I walked in. And do be careful when you crawl on the bed with him again. He’s still very fragile. The risk of him getting an infection truly does exist.”
Tess wisely shut her trap, cleared her throat, and nodded. Face flaming hot with embarrassment, she waved goodbye to Kari and darted toward the exit.
Chapter Ten
JONAH’S STOMACH WOULDN’T STOP swirling over the indigestion he was giving himself. The day he would learn whether he could walk had finally come. Though he’d been impatient for it to arrive, now that it was here, he wouldn’t mind waiting awhile longer.
What if it ended up he couldn’t walk? What if—
He shook his head, refusing to think about that. He was going to have to walk. That was all there was to it.
The door to his room swung open. He schooled his expression to hide all the panic and anxiety crowding through his system. People had been popping in all morning to make sure he was ready. And with every visit, his apprehensions rose. The last visitor, a nurse, had told him his physical therapist had arrived and had decided to put Jonah last on his rounds so he could spend more time with him. Jonah was sure he was about to hyperventilate.
His face already felt tense when he glanced up, but seeing Tess stroll into his room sent him over the edge. Shit.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded, utterly alarmed. She might calm him down and cheer him up every other time she visited, but today…today he didn’t want her here. He didn’t want her to watch him fail. She’d be more likely to leave a failure behind and never come back.
She jerked to a stop, looking surprised and a little hurt by the harshness in his voice. And he immediately wanted to kick himself. He hadn’t meant to hurt her.
“I…I…couldn’t stay away. I had to know how you did today.”
He tried to calm his tone. “But…don’t you have classes?”
Her shoulders relaxed, and a soft smile lit her face as she snorted. “As if I’d actually be able to concentrate in any of them while you’re here, doing this. This is the only day I’ve skipped, anyway. One day can’t hurt anything.”
“You…” But he couldn’t think of anything to say. It just threw him totally off balance to know she cared enough to be here while he experienced one of the biggest, possibly most life-altering moments of his life.
Giving up on words, he held out his hand. She skipped forward, her face filled with joy, and suddenly, he was glad she was here, relieved he had a hand to hold as he waited. “Thank you for coming.”
“Of course.”
He gazed at her, continually amazed that she returned every day, just to see him, to be here for him. Emotion filled his throat, but he swallowed it back down. Dropping his gaze, he watched his thumb move over her soft knuckles.
“You painted your fingernails,” he said, needing to talk about something totally unrelated to the trials that awaited him.
Tess sent him a startled glance. “Yeah. I figured it was time.”
He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he assumed it was a good thing because the smile that blossomed across her cheeks was blinding in its beauty. “I like the color,” he went on, smoothing his finger over her glossy red nails. “Reminds me of your hair.”
Groaning, she leaned closer to him, driving him crazy by the flowery smell her proximity brought him. “Please don’t tell me you like my hair next. I know better than that. This mop is completely ridiculous.”
Jonah smiled as he looked up to her curling red locks. “No. I don’t like your hair.” He let go of her hand so he could wind a brilliant strand of scarlet around his index finger. “I’m hopelessly in love with your hair.”
When she sucked in a breath, he knew he’d said the right thing. Tugging gently on the lock he held, he drew her closer. “So, are you going to give me a kiss for good luck, or what?”
Her blue eyes glittered with a glee that did all kinds of amazing things to him. “Jonah, if you just wanted me to kiss you, all you had to do was say so. You didn’t have to toss in all that ‘for luck’ stuff.”
She laughed, but he cut the sound short with his mouth. She had to catch her hand in the mattress by his head to keep from losing her balance. Burying both of his hands in her amazing hair, he cupped her face and urged her mouth open so his tongue could curl around hers.
Being with her, like this, did things to him, pulled emotions from him, until he pressed his forehead to hers the moment their kiss ended. “I’m scared out of my mind that I won’t be able to—”
“Well, well, well.” Someone broke into his whispered confession, thank God, keeping him from spilling his soul to her. “What do we have here?”
Tess jerked guiltily upright and spun toward the doorway as Jonah’s physical therapist strolled into the room.
“There’s a new face.” Striding forward, he focused on nothing but Tess as he held out his hand and sent her a big, goofy grin. “You must be my man Jonah’s better half?”
She appeared momentarily flustered but finally nodded and shook his hand. “I’m Tess.”
“It’s good to meet you, Miss Tess. Call me Frenchie.”
Frenchie had always been annoyingly cheerful when he came to inflict pain on Jonah three days every week by stretching his muscles. He looked like a computer geek with pasty, pale skin, frail frame, and thick black horn-rimmed glasses, but he talked more like a salesman, yapping on, usually in a one-sided conversation. Jonah was typically too bitter to engage him, though, so he kind of preferred it being one-sided.
Today, however, he scowled at his PT because the man was making his girl blush.
“So, I’m the physical therapist,” Frenchie rambled on. “And today is this big boy’s special day to finally try getting up on his feet. But I assume you already knew that, and that’s why you’re here. To watch the show.”
“If that’s okay,” Tess answered with a nod.
“Sure, sure. The more cheerleaders coaxing him on, the better.” Turning to Jonah, he waggled his eyebrows. “You ready to get this party started?”
Hell, no. But Jonah drew in a deep, bracing breath, glanced at Tess, and nodded.
“All right, then. First we’re going to do our routine stretches to limber you up, and then we’ll call in some help for the walking part.”
Realizing they weren’t going to get straight to attempts at walking set Jonah’s nerves on edge even more.
When Frenchie had him sit up and draw his legs over the side of the bed, his stress blossomed through every limb, making them quake. His muscles strained as he shifted his hips around. Frenchie assisted him, grabbing his legs until he was sitting upright on his own with his sock-covered feet actually pressing against the floor. He couldn’t believe it. This was probably the first time in weeks that the soles of his feet had touched a floor.
But Tess’s gasp stole some of his wonder. “Oh, my God. You have clothes on.”
Both he and Frenchie glanced at her, all of their eyebrows lifted. She immediately blushed and slapped her hand over her face. “I mean…” She waved frantically at his outfit. “You changed clothes. You were still wearing your hospital gown last night. I, uh, just now noticed you’re not in it anymore. And your I.V.’s gone too.”
Her flustered expression was adorable. Jonah grinned, and Frenchie snickered. “Yeah, you did seem a little too preoccupied to notice what he was wearing when I came in.”
After sending his therapist a brief scowl, Jonah glanced back toward Tess. “One of my nurses went to the store this morning and picked me up some street clothes.”
“We can’t have our boy walking around the hospital with his tushy hanging out, now, can we?” Frenchie laughed, making Tess blush and Jonah roll his eyes.
The gray T-shirt was actually a little snug and the pants too short. A lump bulged from the right side of his stomach where his bullet wound was taped together under his clothes. But he was so relieved he wouldn’t have his bare ass on display when he tried to walk today, he didn’t care. Short and tight clothes were better than no clothes.
“We’ll start with the knee joint,” Frenchie was saying as he grasped Jonah’s leg and started bending and stretching.
Jonah clenched his teeth and focused on breathing through the pain. Every once in a while, a muscle would stretch over a sensitive spot, and he’d nearly black out from the agony.
“Does this actually help him?” Tess asked, edging in closer to watch the show over Frenchie’s shoulder. “He looks like he’s in a lot of pain.”
“Of course it helps. I wouldn’t torture him without a good reason.” Frenchie grinned up at her, explaining the reason behind each stretch. Tess looked so fascinated by it all, Jonah’s PT actually scooted aside to let her work his second leg, talking her through the procedure, step by step.
Jonah watched her, endeared by how seriously she took the task and how closely she listened to each one of Frenchie’s instructions. Her soft hands felt much better than Frenchie’s, too, and it didn’t hurt nearly as much when she pulled on sore muscle tissue. After she finished with his knee, she actually looked reluctant to step aside and let Frenchie finish. Jonah couldn’t take his eyes off her as she concentrated on every part of the process.
After working his hip joints, ankles, and feet, his PT dusted his hands off on his hips. “And with that, I think we’re ready for the main event.” He winked once at Tess and turned back to Jonah. “Let me go grab a couple more hands, and we’ll be good to go.”
When he jogged from the room, Tess immediately moved closer. He glanced at her warily, hoping to God she didn’t try to feed him any sappy words of encouragement. He didn’t think he could take that right now. Felt like he might throw up as it was.
But instead of a boosting “You can do it,” she wrinkled her nose. “That was kind of fun. Is Frenchie his first name or last?”
“Uh.” Jonah blinked and chuckled, glad she was still stuck on what she’d just done. “You know, I have no idea.” He’d never thought about Frenchie’s name before, because he’d been too bitter and rude to care before. But with Tess here, his bitterness had drained away. If only it hadn’t left behind an emotional time bomb. He wanted to yank her into his arms and sob against her shoulder because he was so scared right now.
“You really look different in those clothes.”
She blushed over her confession, causing a thrill of arousal to spark through him. Sitting upright in regular clothes with his feet against the ground, Jonah felt different. He felt like someone who might actually have a life outside this building.
His mouth spread wide as he caught her hand and tugged her closer. “Good enough to kiss?”
Tess licked her lips. “Oh, much better than that.”
At his urging, she shifted between his knees so her hips were braced by his thighs. But when Jonah bent his head to kiss her, a tongue clucked disapprovingly from the doorway.
“There you two go again. I swear, you guys are like magnets.” Frenchie grinned at them as he swept into the room, leading two nurses.
Tess backed away, and Jonah wanted to dive after her, tugging her back to his side. But Frenchie was already positioning her to stand behind him as he sat on a rolling stool in front of Jonah and slid a walker between them. His two helpers flanked them on either side.
Jonah lifted one eyebrow as he glared at the contraption. “A walker?” Jesus, he was going to feel like an eighty-year-old trying to get around with this thing.
“Hey, don’t knock it.” Frenchie stroked one of the metal railings as if to soothe its insulted feelings. “This baby is going to help you work a miracle, my boy.”
Under the PT’s instructions, two nurses helped him upright by the arms. Frenchie remained sitting in front of him and gripped him around the waist, talking him through each step and telling him how everything was going to work…or not work.
As Jonah hovered above the ground, not yet putting his full weight down on his legs, he glanced toward Tess where she stood
with her hands clutched together by her mouth as if in prayer.
Worried blue eyes took him in, and he immediately forgot what he was about to do.
“God, you’re tiny,” he said. He had no idea she was so much shorter than him. He’d always had a thing for petite girls.
With an immediate frown, she slapped her hands to her hips. “No, I am not.” Though clearly, she barely came up to his shoulder. “You’re just…mammoth.”
He grinned. He was so busy smiling at her that he didn’t notice how the orderlies had put his hands on the walker until cool aluminum filled his palms. His smile fled and dread filled the pit of his stomach. Somehow, he just knew this wasn’t going to end well.
“Now, gradually,” the therapist instructed him, “let out the weight in your good leg. Don’t put any pressure on the broken one.”
Jonah nodded, following the instructions. His knee trembled, but he felt as if he was actually holding himself up with his one leg, even though his weight seemed to settle on the wound in his gut instead of his hipbones.
The hands holding onto his arms began to ease up on their hold. Jonah instinctively put the weight down on his bad leg as well, to brace himself.
And he nearly blacked out. With a choked cry of pain, he crumpled, agony splitting through every atom in his body. Tess gasped and lurched forward. But the nurses had already caught him and were easing him back onto the bed, while his limp noodle legs dangled uselessly over the side.
“It’s okay. It’s fine,” Frenchie’s soothing voice reassured him. But Jonah knew it wasn’t. He couldn’t walk.
They tried for about ten minutes—though to Tess, it felt like hours. Jonah kept growling to keep at it, and they’d go again until Frenchie finally murmured, “No. That’s enough for today. You’ve lost what little strength you had.”
“No. One more—”
“No,” Frenchie repeated firmly. “This is enough.”
