by Caroline Lee
His fingers gently squeezed hers, and she shivered involuntarily.
She was wrong? He wanted to be more than friends?
Someone like Dustin McIver—a flirt, a playboy—wanted to be more than friends? With her?
Well, why not? Her grin slowly blossomed.
She knew her own appeal, and knew only the shallowest of guys couldn’t see it. And it had been pretty horrible of her to assume Dustin was that shallow, huh? Sure, she’d caught him admiring all those other women, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about what was below the surface. That didn’t mean he couldn’t like a woman for her mind or abilities or smile.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t like her.
So she twisted her hand until her fingers were twined through his.
“Dustin McIver, I say this in all honesty...”
“Yes?” he asked, with a raised brow.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to be proven wrong.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Friday before Labor Day, Dustin stood in his living room in front of his easel and canvas, laughing uproariously at Marley’s irritated commentary of a Bob Ross video. She sat in her wheelchair off to one side, a short easel on a folding table beside her. Dustin had ordered new equipment—including paints and canvases and brushes—just for this evening, and was thrilled to share his hobby with her.
Especially because it turned out painting was one talent Marley didn’t possess.
“Happy little trees, my numb butt,” she muttered as she stabbed at the canvas with the fan brush. “These look like a toddler painted them. How in the— How does he make them look so real?” Switching her glare to Dustin’s easel, she blew out an exasperated breath. “Your trees look happy! Why don’t mine?”
Dustin bit down on his laughter and nodded sympathetically. She was right; despite the ease of the video’s instructions, her trees did look like a toddler had slapped the canvas a few times.
He’d painted this scene before, more than a few times. To him, the relaxation and meditation of an hour-long painting-with-Bob-Ross session was worth the cost of the canvas and paints. His paintings decorated his parents’ house, and some of his siblings’ homes, and of course, the office he shared with Travis. But that was only to have something to do with the canvases once the paintings were complete; if Dustin could have his way, he’d just paint over them with white and start over again.
It was the process he found so soothing, but tonight, it was less meditative and more hilarious.
He paused the video. “You’ve got to hide the trunk behind the leaves.”
“Those aren’t leaves,” she snapped. “They’re blobs.”
“Fine,” he said, with a grin. “Then hide the trunk behind the blobs. Not a straight line, like this.”
He showed her what he meant and watched as she tried it, a frown on her lips. Then she put her brush down, unlocked her wheels, and backed up. Five feet from the easel, she cocked her head to one side and hummed thoughtfully.
“Okay, you were right. From this distance, the blobs do kinda look like leaves. With a trunk.”
He was chuckling when he unpaused the video.
It was hard to believe he’d been dating Marley for almost three weeks now. Sure, in the past, he’d gone on more than one date in a row with a woman. But those were almost always on the weekends, and after a few weeks, he’d get bored and give her the “let’s be friends” line.
But he’d seen Marley almost every day of the last three weeks. Whether it was an official date, with just the two of them going to dinner, or a meeting with Caroline and Travis to help plan the upcoming wedding, or an appointment in the PT room of Joint Ventures…they’d seen each other plenty.
And Dustin found it still wasn’t enough.
He hadn’t kissed her yet. Although, to be fair, she hadn’t kissed him yet either.
And he was honest enough with himself to know it was the mere physical differences which held him back. How did one kiss—much less do all the other things with his lips he wanted to try—a woman who stayed seated?
As she grumbled her way through the lake shore Bob had moved on to, Dustin remembered when she wasn’t seated.
The ReWalk exoskeleton had arrived in record time. Dustin was learning if you spread enough money around, you could make a lot of things happen. She had her first sessions right there in his office, after hours.
And he’d been there the whole time.
That moment, when Marley stood for the first time, had been a very emotional event. Caroline had been there for moral support, but had been the first one to burst into tears. Marley had grinned, but her expression had quickly slipped into uncertainty, and that had caused Dustin’s eyes to tear up a bit as well.
Technology was an amazing thing, but sometimes it wasn’t always the best thing.
Still, Dustin had held his breath when, a few sessions later, Marley had taken her first steps. He’d stood on one side of her support bars, with Travis on the other, both of them with their hands hovering above her shoulders, ready to catch her should she miscalculate.
She didn’t.
By the end of today’s session, Marley’s hair had been plastered to her forehead with sweat, and she’d been panting with exertion, but had walked the length of the bars.
It was a miracle, but when he finally helped her settle back into her wheelchair, Dustin couldn’t help but think how much more comfortable she seemed.
Marley was the one who paused the video this time.
“Look, I can only handle so much incompetence at a time. First, stumbling my way through that walk, now this.”
He was quick to reassure her. “I think you’re doing an amazing job with the exoskeleton. But if you don’t like painting—”
She blew out a breath and dunked her brush in the water cup. “No, I like it, because you like it. But maybe we could eat now, and finish up this painting and video on our next date night?”
His heart leapt at the mention of another date, as it always did when she was the one to suggest it. It was nice to know this—this—whatever this was, wasn’t one-sided.
“Sure,” he said with a smile. “But I think our next date should be something you choose.”
“Swimming!” she said automatically, grinning.
In the weeks they’d been together, he still hadn’t been to the lap pool with her. The weather was still nice enough he was running in the evenings after work, before seeing her. And her lap times were always in the morning, as he was preparing for work.
He very much wanted to swim with her. “I’d like that. Tomorrow?” he asked as he started to pack up the paints.
“Y— No. Sorry, Caroline has her last fitting tomorrow.”
He hummed. “And Sunday doesn’t work, because I promised Travis I’d drive over to Spokane with him to pick up the sparkling cider.” Hard to believe the wedding was a week away.
“And Monday is your family barbecue, right?”
“Oh, yeah.”
He wished he had forgotten about it, but truthfully, it was impossible. First of all, Grandma had called him just a few days ago to remind him—and to ask him if he was bringing a certain young lady. Also, a veggie platter.
He said yes to the veggie platter, but hadn’t answered about the young lady.
“Should I bring anything in particular?”
He swung around so quickly, he splattered paint water against the hardwood, but didn’t bother even looking down at the mess. “What? You’re going?”
She lifted her chin and met his eyes with a bit of a challenge. “Yeah, Travis invited me and Caroline. Is that a problem?”
“No,” he managed to choke out. “No, that’s…that’s awesome.”
Her expression softened. “Choka..”
“Um…” He occupied his hands by cleaning the brushes. “Having you there…it’ll be epic.”
When he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, she was grinning again. Probably at his us
e of one of her terms.
He was completely distracted as they cleaned up, thinking about what his family would say when they met her. He’d been seen with her enough times in the last weeks, it was impossible to think his family wouldn’t realize she was the woman he’d been dating. Would they hound her about dating him for so long?
Dustin stopped still as a realization slammed into him.
You were so against settling down. Andrew, and Heather, and Katie, and even Alyssa got married this year, and you weren’t even seen with the same woman twice in a row.
He’d been seeing Marley for three weeks straight, and if she was okay with it, he planned on seeing her a lot longer. He liked hanging out with her, liked laughing with her, liked the way she looked at the world.
She was his buddy, yeah, but she was also more than that.
He blew out a breath.
The family’s going to have a field day with this.
She was the one who set the table, and the fact she knew her way around his apartment so well, made him feel… Well, in the past, just thinking about a woman in his home like this, making herself at ease, it would’ve made him all itchy. But Marley being in his kitchen was no different than Travis or one of his other friends. In fact, Dustin liked knowing she was so comfortable with him.
So maybe Marley was one of his buddies. A buddy he was growing increasingly desperate to kiss.
Oh yeah. Totally normal.
He pulled the takeout from the oven where it had been keeping warm and plated her pasta and his pot pie. As they settled in to eat, she grinned across the table at him.
“Did Maggie give you a hard time again?”
He stuck his tongue out at her. Actually stuck his tongue out. Like a child.
She snorted with laughter and stabbed at her rigatoni.
The first time he’d taken her to Quinn’s Pub, the informal restaurant his cousins owned, it seemed as if half his family had been in attendance that night. Now that Ivy had moved to Nashville, he thought there’d be fewer Quinns hanging around.
He’d been wrong.
First his cousin Maggie, the bartender, and then Renae—who nearly spilled her water on Marley’s lap—had taken pains to point out to Marley that Dustin had never brought a date to Quinn’s.
“Maybe it’s not a date,” Marley had responded.
Renae had pursed her lips and studied Dustin, who’d been seated next to Marley, their hands clasped and resting on her thigh.
“Oh, it’s a date,” his cousin had finally said, “even if you don’t think so.” Then she’d smiled knowingly and waved to her husband Chad across the room. “We’ve been like dominoes around here, falling in love left and right. We just never expected it to happen to Dusty.”
After she’d flounced off with a smirk—stumbling halfway across the dance floor, because that’s what Renae did—Maggie had sidled up to them with their drink refills.
“She’s right, you know,” she’d said in a low voice and a wide smile. “You always take your dates someplace fancier.”
“Someplace where I’m less likely to run into family,” he’d said with a scowl.
Maggie had winked at Marley then. “Which says to me he’s finally met someone he doesn’t mind his family meeting.”
She’d been correct then, and was still correct. What would Maggie and Renae—and the rest of them—say on Monday, when Marley arrived at the ranch? She would be there as a guest of Caroline, sure, but he was sure they’d all be able to tell she was his date, no matter what they claimed.
Oh boy.
Marley had been eating quietly, one elbow braced beside her plate, her shoulders dropping. Dustin pulled himself out of his thoughts and felt his lips tugging down at the corners as he studied her.
She did look tired. Maybe he ought to get her home sooner rather than later.
Still, when dinner was done, he’d left all the plates right there on the table and taken her hand, tugging her towards the couch. She’d nodded, still looking tired, and extricated her hand to wheel herself into the living room.
Once there, moving in tandem, he helped her lift herself from her chair and onto the couch. With her upper arm strength, it wasn’t that difficult for her to lift her body that way, but he’d discovered it was always harder on squishier surfaces.
Finally, though, she settled back with a sigh, and Dustin tucked himself up beside her. They’d sat like this a few times, and he really enjoyed it, because they felt like a real couple.
“There,” she murmured, her head back against the cushion. “Now we’re almost, like, normal.”
He frowned as he slipped his arm behind her shoulders, turning her so he supported her weight. She was right; this was normal, and with her disability, it was difficult to achieve this position. Still, he didn’t want her to think he considered her abnormal or something.
“It’s worth the effort, I think.”
He loved being able to hold her.
She didn’t respond, but sighed instead and sank deeper into his arms. From this position, he could press his cheek—and his lips—against the top of her head and inhale the coconut scent of her hair. He nuzzled her softness and wished she were facing in the opposite direction, so he could kiss her lips.
What would she taste like?
Still, he was too comfortable to find out, and she’d given him no indication she wanted him to kiss her.
Maybe she still thought of them as just friends, despite what she’d said that night at Impressions.
“I think I’ll be ready to walk down the aisle next week,” she suddenly announced.
He hummed in agreement. Once Caroline saw Marley was serious, she’d changed the order of the ceremony so Dustin could walk down the aisle beside Marley, as a support. He was looking forward to it actually.
“I think so too. I’ve never heard of anyone making as fast strides as you—”
He broke off when he realized what he’d said, and they both snorted softly at his unintentional pun.
“Well,” she said, “it’s amazing what money can do.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d said that, but he’d never followed up on it before. “Can I ask you a question?”
She nodded, bopping him in the nose with the thick topknot she’d gathered her hair into. Smiling, he bent out of the way.
“Your mom is a teacher, and your dad’s a charter fisherman. I’ve never heard you talk about work, so where did all this money come from?”
Slowly, she slid out of his arms as she pushed herself upright. Turning to face him took another few steps, but he was happy to wait patiently.
Since he’d started to spend time with Marley, he’d enjoyed this slower pace of life. She was an energetic person, but going anywhere with her required extra time to account for her getting into and out of the car, especially since she didn’t want to accept much help.
She wouldn’t even let him push her wheelchair, much less pick her up out of the passenger seat!
But he’d found he didn’t mind it. Being with her, waiting beside her while she did her thing, allowed him time to relax, to enjoy the sunset or the birds singing or the curve of the distant mountains.
And now was no different. He took the time to study her neck and admire the way her shoulders moved as she shifted her weight on the couch.
“I’m surprised Caro didn’t tell you,” she finally said.
He shook his head. “I’d rather hear from you, anyhow.”
She sighed and cracked her knuckles. “It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, if you really want to know. I know someday I’ll get a real job, put my degree to work. For now, training and keeping in shape takes up a lot of time, and I’m really lucky to be able to devote myself to something like that. But one day I know I won’t be as fast, and I’ll have to find a new hobby. I figure that’s about when I’ll be ready to settle down.”
He chuckled softly and shifted position. “I can’t picture you settling down anytime soon, Marley.
You love to travel.”
“True. I just do it at a slower pace these days.”
“One day, you have got to take me to the Keys.”
“That’d be totally sick.” She met his eyes then, her expression earnest. “I mean, I’d really like that, Dustin.”
He grinned and liked the way she flushed, just slightly, as her eyes landed on his dimple.
“So…the money isn’t something you’re proud of?” he prompted.
“Right.” She sighed. “Okay, so my accident was in college, yeah? I had to take a few years off, but I finished with my degree in early childhood ed. I wanted to be an elementary teacher, or maybe even preschool, if I could find someplace close to home.”
Dustin was nodding, since she’d told him that before.
“Well, I worked for a year in Homestead, which is a commute to the middle Keys. I started getting antsy, and Caroline was the one who suggested I apply for a job someplace else.”
The way she winced told him what was coming. “What happened?” he asked quietly.
“I had a video interview on one of those big-name cruise ships. I was also interviewing at one of their theme parks, but the cruise ship interview went further. They have an entire deck devoted to the kids’ play area and babysitting, you know, since the corporation is so focused on kids’ entertainment.”
She took a minute to describe the touch-screens and games and “epic craft department,” and it was obvious she was a big fan. Even Dustin was impressed; his nephew Jerm would love it there.
Then she shrugged. “Like I said, it was a video interview, and they offered me the job. But when I showed up in person, they fumbled and gave me an excuse about my position being filled. I know cruise ships are ADA accessible, and I know they hire employees with disabilities in their headquarters. But I guess the dude in charge of hiring for the ships just hadn’t run into the problem before, and he screwed up.”
Now, Dustin was wincing, thinking of how that must’ve made her feel, only a few years out from her injury.
“What happened?”
“My father talked me into getting a lawyer, who filed a discrimination case. We settled out of court with the corporation, with enough money for me to live happily for, like…ever. I help my parents out, but my little brother won’t take any of it. I’ve got it invested with a guy up in New York, and I take out the interest, plus a little more, each year to live on.”
