by RJ Nolan
Sam took two more steps toward the door, then stopped again. If there was even a slim chance it might be Riley, she couldn’t let it go. She limped over to where the woman was sitting. Her heart pounded at the sight of the slight figure on the bench. Was it really her? “Excuse me,” she said softly.
The woman turned.
Bright green eyes captured Sam and held her in place.
She smiled down at Riley as it took her a moment to find her voice. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?” Riley asked.
Sam’s elation fled at Riley’s tone. “I’m sorry I disturbed you.” She already made it clear she didn’t want any further contact with you. Her shoulders slumped, and she turned away.
“Wait.” Riley rose from the bench. “You just caught me by surprise. Not many people know about this place.”
Sam rested her cane against her leg. “I found it by accident when I was looking for a shortcut back to the parking lot.” She swept one arm wide. “I found this instead.”
“One of the trauma team nurses told me about it. It’s a great place to escape to for a little while when I can’t leave the hospital grounds.”
And now Sam had intruded on her sanctuary. “Well, I’ll leave you in peace, then.”
Riley took a step closer. “You don’t have to go.”
Gazing down at her, Sam searched her face. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Please.” Riley sat down and motioned toward the other end of the bench. “Have a seat.”
Sam lowered herself onto the indicated seat and tried to subtly stretch out her injured leg, not wanting to remind Riley of her injuries. She had hoped to run into Riley, but now that she had, everything she wanted to say had fled her mind.
An awkward silence settled around them.
Come on. Say something. Sam blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. “Izzy says hi.”
Riley smiled. “Oh, she does, huh?”
Grinning, Sam nodded. “Yep. And she asks about you too.” The unexpected sound of Riley’s lighthearted laughter filled her with pleasure.
Riley’s expression sobered. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Sam said.
Riley’s gaze slid over her, then lingered for a moment on her thigh. “Could we try that again? How is your recovery progressing?”
Sam didn’t want to talk about her injuries. Riley’s face had assumed the guilt-ridden expression she had worn when she’d visited Sam’s hospital room. Sam wanted to see her smile and laugh again. “Really, I’m fine.”
“Really, you’re not.”
Sam grimaced at the narrow-eyed stare Riley sent her way. Called you on that one.
“The truth.” Riley laid her hand on Sam’s arm for a moment before withdrawing it. “Please.”
No fair! “Okay.” She pulled up the sleeve of her T-shirt and bared her shoulder. “It’s almost healed.”
Riley scooted closer and skimmed her fingertips over the yellowing bruises and scabbed-over graze mark on Sam’s shoulder. “Does it still hurt?”
Goosebumps erupted in the wake of Riley’s touch. Sam tugged down her shirtsleeve. “It aches a little sometimes.”
“And your leg?”
How much do I tell her? One look into Riley’s eyes answered that question. The whole truth. Sam sighed. “My leg has quite a way to go before it’s back to being fully functional, but it is getting better. I just got the go-ahead this week to start driving again. I started physical therapy two weeks ago. I’ve got at least another six to eight weeks of PT.”
Riley gently touched Sam’s knee, then quickly withdrew. “Are you still in a lot of pain?”
“It does hurt, especially after my therapy sessions.” Sam shrugged. “But that’s to be expected.”
“I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t! You have nothing to be sorry for.” Sam put on her stern cop face. “I mean it. No more apologies.”
Riley ducked her head and gave a vague nod.
“Riley.” Sam softened her expression and tone when Riley looked up. “Promise me. No more apologies. Please.”
“Okay.” Riley offered a halfhearted smile. “I promise.”
Sam smiled. “Good. For a minute there I thought I was going to have to bring Izzy here to get tough with you.”
Riley burst out laughing.
That’s what I want to see more of. Sam laughed, and she felt her own spirits lighten. She hated to turn the conversation serious again but remembered that Riley had previously asked her about bad dreams. “Enough about me. How are you doing?”
Riley took a sudden interest in the large leaves of the nearby banana plant. “I’m fine. Remember, I wasn’t hurt.”
Oh no, you don’t. Not all injuries are physical, and you know it. She wasn’t about to let Riley get away with minimizing her own trauma. “Could we try that again?” Sam asked, mirroring Riley’s earlier question. “How are you coping? Any more bad dreams?”
Riley’s brow furrowed, and she looked as if she wasn’t going to answer. She met Sam’s eyes and then blew out a breath. “Sometimes,” she said, so low that Sam could barely hear her.
“I’m sorry—”
“Ah! No apologies,” Riley said. “That goes both ways.”
Sam smiled. “Right. Fair’s fair.” She hesitated, then gave Riley’s shoulder a light squeeze. “I just want you to know if you ever need to talk, I’m here.”
“I appreciate that, Sam, but there’s really nothing to talk about.”
Sam might have believed her if Riley hadn’t avoided making eye contact. Her stomach picked that moment to remind her that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Would Riley be willing to go to lunch with her? She looked down at her baggy workout pants and sweat-stained T-shirt. Her rumpled appearance was a sharp contrast to Riley’s pristine white lab coat and pressed green scrubs. Maybe not.
The phone clipped to Riley’s scrubs buzzed, taking the option out of Sam’s hands.
Riley glanced at the screen. “Excuse me. I need to answer this.” She slid open a small keyboard and typed out a message. When she was finished, she stood. “I need to get back to work.”
Sam tried to stand without her cane and faltered. Her leg had stiffened.
Riley leaped forward and wrapped her arm around Sam’s waist to steady her. “Okay now?”
Heat flooded Sam’s face. “I’m fine,” she said, her tone much sharper than she intended.
Riley instantly released her and stepped back.
Good going, jackass. Sam touched Riley’s sleeve. “Thank you. It gets a little stiff when I sit.” She resisted the urge to rub her aching thigh and reached for her cane. “Well, I’ve taken enough of your time.”
“I’m glad I got a chance to see you again.”
Sam smiled down at her. “Me too.” Now that the time had come, she wasn’t willing to see Riley walk out of her life again. “Maybe if you have time, we could have lunch some afternoon after my therapy.” She tugged self-consciously at her sweat-stained shirt. “I promise to dress better.”
Riley hesitated.
Think of something. Quick. She grinned to herself. “I’ll bring Izzy. She’ll be so disappointed she didn’t get to see you today.”
Shaking her head, Riley laughed. “Well, I would hate to disappoint Izzy. But I can’t promise a specific time. I never know when I’ll be free.”
All right! Sam didn’t care when they got together; she was just happy Riley had agreed.
Riley’s phone sounded again. She gave the screen a quick glance. “I have to go.” With a quick wave, she strode toward the door.
It wasn’t until the door swung shut behind her that Sam realized she didn’t have any way to contact her directly. Damn it. She limped toward the door, her good mood having departed along with Riley.
Chapter 14
“Just one more,” Tony said.
Sam propped herself up on her elbows and shot him a glare. “That’s what you said last time. That’s what
you always say. What is that…like a stock phrase in the physical therapist’s handbook?”
Tony laughed. “But I really mean it this time.”
She growled and glanced at the curtain surrounding the treatment table to make sure it was closed. Other patients and therapists were talking on the other side of the curtain, but at least no one but Tony could see how weak she was. Teeth clenched, she struggled to raise her injured leg.
“That’s it. Just a little higher. Great.”
Her leg shook as she lowered it. A sharp pain shafted through her thigh. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath. She grabbed her thigh and attempted to rub away the pain.
Tony tried to brush her hands aside. “Let me.”
“I’ve got it.”
“Sam.” He shook his head as he urged her to move her hands. “This is my job. Let me do it.”
She gave in and removed her hands.
He pushed up the leg of her shorts and massaged her cramped muscles, carefully avoiding her healing incisions. “Good job, by the way.”
Sam snorted. “That was pathetic.” She winced when he hit a particularly tender spot.
“Sorry,” Tony said. “I know it’s frustrating, but you need to be patient. You only started your therapy two weeks ago.” He turned her leg from side to side. “There’s a lot of muscle damage here. It’s going to take time, but I promise you, you will get back full function of your leg.”
That’s what Sam kept telling herself, but she couldn’t help worrying. She stared at the red scars marring her thigh. I couldn’t catch a perp who was on crutches and half-blind. Blowing out a breath, she flopped back onto the therapy table. The ringtone of her cell phone made her jump.
Tony gave her a disapproving look.
She was supposed to shut the phone off during therapy but had forgotten. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and was just about to send the call to voice mail when she noticed the caller. She couldn’t hold back her smile. “I need to take this.”
“We still need to put some ice on this.”
“Okay, I’ll make it quick.” Her thumb was already hovering over the soft button on the screen.
Tony frowned but nodded. “Okay. I’ll get the ice packs.” He pulled aside the curtain around her table and disappeared.
Sam stabbed the screen to connect the call. “Hello, Riley.” She was greeted by silence. Damn, did I miss her? “Riley?”
“Yes. Hi. I umm…hope you don’t mind me calling you. I realized after I left on Wednesday, I hadn’t given you my phone number. Your number was in your records.”
“I’m glad you called.” The thought that Riley might have intentionally avoided giving her any contact information had stopped Sam from trying to reach Riley through official channels. Aware that Tony would be back at any moment, Sam quickly said, “Do you have time for lunch today?”
“Yes. That’s why I called. I was hoping you’d have therapy today at the same time you did before.”
Sam smiled at the prospect of seeing her again. “That’s where I am now. Give me a chance to finish here, get cleaned up and changed, and I can meet you for lunch. Say, in about an hour?”
Riley hesitated. Papers rustled. “Maybe we could make it another time? I only have an hour, right now.”
Disappointment dimmed Sam’s mood. She glanced down at her sweat-stained T-shirt and shorts. It wasn’t as if Riley hadn’t seen her like that before. “If you won’t be embarrassed by being seen with me while I’m rumpled and sweaty, I can meet you now.”
“That’s not a problem,” Riley said. “Meet me in the arboretum, and I’ll bring lunch. What would you like?”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll meet you in the hospital cafeteria.” Was Riley embarrassed to be seen with her and just didn’t want to admit it? Sam didn’t know her well enough to gauge from her tone of voice.
“There’s no reason for you to walk all the way over here. The arboretum is closer to where you are.”
Okay, it wasn’t her scruffy appearance. Sam frowned. Does she really think I’m so weak that I can’t even make it over to the hospital’s cafeteria? “I can—”
Tony stepped back into the treatment area with a thick towel over his shoulder and two ice packs in his hands. He set the ice wraps down, then made a wind-it-up motion with his hand.
There was no time to discuss it further, and Sam didn’t want to waste what little time free time Riley had. “Okay. The arboretum it is. Umm…” She glanced at Tony’s frowning face. “You know better than I do what’s available. Just go ahead and pick out something for me.”
“All right,” Riley said. “I’ll get our lunch and meet you in the arboretum.”
“Okay. Bye.” Sam ended the call and met Tony’s scowling gaze. “I have to go.”
“All your therapy is important, Sam.”
“I know. And I appreciate all you’re doing, but this is a special circumstance. I’ll put ice on it when I get home if you want.”
“No. It’s fine.” Tony shook his finger at her. “Just don’t make a habit of cutting sessions short.”
“I won’t.” Sam pulled on her sweatpants, snagged her cane, and headed for the arboretum as quickly as her leg would allow.
* * *
Riley juggled the tray as she tried to open the arboretum door at the same time. After managing to get inside without spilling anything, she scanned the area for Sam. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips when she spotted her.
Sam was sitting with her arms along the back of the bench, her long legs stretched out in front of her and her face turned up to the sun. From where she stood, Riley couldn’t tell whether Sam’s eyes were closed or not.
“Hi, Sam,” she said as she approached the bench.
Sam’s eyes popped open, and she greeted Riley with a bright smile. “Hey.” She began to stand.
Riley waved her to stay seated.
Sam stood anyway, and then reached for the tray.
“I’ve got it,” Riley said. “Relax.”
A frown marred Sam’s face. “I’m not helpless.”
“No. You’re not. You’re hurt. There’s a big difference.” Riley narrowed her eyes when Sam remained standing. So stubborn. Despite their short acquaintance, Riley knew that Sam was bothered by looking less than strong and independent. I’d blame it on her being a cop, but since I feel the same way, I can hardly give her too hard a time. “Just this once, humor me.” She met Sam’s gaze and smiled. “Please.”
Muttering something that sounded like “no fair,” Sam sat down.
Riley set the cafeteria tray on the bench between them. “I wasn’t sure what you’d like.” She handed Sam a bottle of water. “Hope that’s okay.”
“It’s good.” Sam opened the bottle and downed a good portion of the water. “Thanks. That hit the spot. What else have you got? I’m starving.”
Riley laughed. “I figured you might be. They have the best fresh sushi here. I always splurge and get that when I’m really hungry.” She slid the tray with the sushi toward Sam. “I brought you a few things: a sake nigiri, a four-piece tekkanaki roll, and a temaki.”
“What are you having?” Sam asked.
Riley nabbed a small container off the tray and popped the lid open. “A sprout salad with a great raisin vinaigrette dressing.”
Sam eyed the contents of the small tray for several moments.
“Is there something wrong?” Riley glanced down at the six pieces of sushi. “I know it’s a lot of food, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t go hungry. Just eat what you want.” She frowned as a thought occurred to her. Dang! Maybe she didn’t like sushi. “Would you rather have something else instead? I can go get whatever you want.” Riley set down her salad.
“No. This is fine. Relax and enjoy your lunch.” Sam picked up the sake nigiri and popped it into her mouth.
“You sure?” As Sam chewed the sushi, Riley studied her face for any signs of distaste.
“I’m sure.” Sam picked up a p
iece of the tekkanaki roll. “It’s fine. Thanks.” She finished off her sushi before Riley was done with her salad.
I guess she was hungry. Riley picked up the small, foil-covered fruit cup she had chosen as a spur-of-the-moment indulgence for herself. “Would you like some fruit?”
“No. You go ahead. I’m good.”
Riley smiled and slid the fruit cup and a plastic spoon into her lab coat pocket. “I’ll save it for later, then.”
Silence reigned for several minutes and began to feel uncomfortable.
This wasn’t turning out as Riley had hoped. After seeming to connect the last time they’d met, today they had gone back to acting like the virtual strangers they actually were. Neither one seemed to know what to say. “I should probably get going.”
Sam started and glanced at her watch. “Oh. I was hoping we might have a little time to visit.”
Riley glanced at her own watch. “Well, I guess I could stay a little longer.” Searching for something to say, she smiled as a familiar topic occurred to her. “So, how’s Izzy? I thought she was going to come with you today.”
Sam grinned, and the discomfort between them popped like a bad gas bubble. “Izzy’s great. She just has an aversion to Tony, my physical therapist.”
“Ah. You’re working with Tony. He’s pretty tough, but he’s good.”
Sam scowled. “He’s a slave driver,” she grumbled, just loud enough for Riley to hear.
Riley laughed. “I know. If I never hear the words, ‘just one more’ again, it will be too soon.”
“Ah. His favorite phrase.”
“One of them. Don’t forget his ever popular, ‘it’s good pain.’”
“Oh great.” Sam grimaced. “Haven’t heard that one yet. Something to look forward to.”
That was stupid. Now she’s going to be worried. “That was just me. It might be different for you.”
“So how did you end up in Tony’s clutches? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Heat rose up to tint Riley’s cheeks. “Umm…” It had not been one of her better moments.
