Clash of Hearts (Wild Hearts, Contemporary Romance Book 2)

by Nancy Adams

  To kill a little time, they stopped by their mother's beauty shop. The place was downtown, not far from where James Allsip's law office was located, and all of the ladies who worked there were delighted when Katie came in on her walker. Naturally, Judy had been keeping them informed about her daughter's progress, and everyone there was excited about her recovery.

  "Hey, Mom," Kylie said. "We're just killing time, thought we'd stop by for a minute. How's it going? Are they keeping you busy?"

  "Oh, yes," Judy said with a laugh. "There must be something big coming to town. It seems like every woman within fifty miles wants her hair done today, not tomorrow, today! We’re packing them in as fast as we can, and we’re booked solid for the next week."

  "Well, we won't keep you," Katie said. "By the way, you'd never guess what new exercise Rob came up with for me today. Want to try?"

  "Hey, here's a hint," Kylie said, "there's music involved!" She said, "ow!" when Katie smacked her on the head.

  "No hints! Knock it off!"

  Judy smiled at their antics, the way she had when they were little girls. "Well, let's see," she said. "It involves music? I think I'm gonna go with, oh, let's see, how about dancing?"

  Katie was beaming from ear to ear. "Yep! And guess who he’s taking to the dance this weekend? Never mind guessing, I'll just tell you, it's me. Your favorite crippled daughter."

  It was Kylie's turn to whack Katie on the head. "What did I tell you about calling yourself crippled? We're not having that!"

  "Ow! Hey, not so hard! I didn't hit you that hard." Katie rubbed the top of her head.

  "Well, anyway, we gotta go," Kylie said. "Just wanted to stop by and say hi."

  Judy gave each of the girls a hug, and they turned and went out the door. Kylie looked at her sister. "It's almost a block to James's office," she said. "Want to walk, or take the car?"

  Katie grinned, but there was something dark in her face. "Oh, I'm gonna walk. I don't care how long it takes, or how tired I get, I'm walking through that door."

  Kylie smiled. "Yeah, I kind of figured you'd feel that way. Let's go."

  Walking the length of the block took Katie almost five minutes, with her legs not cooperating the way she wanted them to. Each step took several seconds to accomplish, and sometimes, she just had to stop and lean on Willie the Walker for a moment before she could go on. Kylie offered to stop and let her sit down for a moment, if she needed to, but Katie just shook her head with determination and kept going.

  When they got to the law office, Kylie opened the door and held it for her sister. Katie pushed the walker through, and was surprised when the receptionist looked up and smiled, then jumped up from her seat and came rushing around her desk to give Katie a hug.

  "Oh, Katie, it's so good to see you," the girl said. Of course, Katie knew her because she had come into this office so many times to see Darren when they were engaged. She thought hard for a moment, and then said, "Hi, Charlotte. It's good to see you again."

  "You, too," Charlotte said. "I couldn't believe it when I heard that Mr. Darren had broken up with you. That was such a shocker, especially after…" Charlotte's voice trailed off, but it was obvious what she meant. Especially after the accident.

  "Well, it was a shock to me, too," Katie said, "but I'll be honest and tell you that, if that's the kind of man he is, I don't have any regrets about ending the engagement. If he'd get rid of me over being crippled now, I can't help but wonder what it would've been like if this had happened after we were married and had children."

  Charlotte started to say something, but she heard a sound and turned to see James and Darren standing in their office doorways. Both men simply stared for a moment, but then Darren turned away and closed his door.

  "Charlotte?" James said. "Please show Ms. Brennan into my office."

  "Yes, sir," Charlotte said, and then simply stood back as Katie started pushing the walker to where James stood in his doorway. He stood aside to let her enter.

  "Ms. Brennan," he said formally. "We got everything ready for you. Did you want to have an attorney go over the paperwork?"

  "James, that won't be necessary. I'm not stupid, and you know that. If you put something in there that an attorney would object to, I'm fairly sure I'll spot it. Let's just get this over with, shall we?"

  James nodded. "As you wish," he said, and then moved behind his desk. He motioned for Katie and Kylie to take chairs that faced him, and they did so. Katie's chair was actually up close to the edge of his desk, so he simply handed a stack of papers to her and began reading aloud from an identical copy.

  A half hour later, Katie was satisfied that there were no traps or tricks in the contract. In return for her agreement not to seek further damages or compensation, and to refrain from making any public statement regarding the accident or the termination of their engagement, Darren Allsip would pay her three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

  "If you will sign each copy," James said, "where the X indicates your signature, we can conclude this unpleasantness and I can hand you this check."

  Katie took the pen he offered, and signed both copies of the document, then waited as he did likewise. As soon as he finished applying his signature to the second one, he picked up that copy and a check and handed both of them to her.

  "Katie Lou," he said, "I'm truly sorry that it came to this."

  Katie reached for her walker, and got to her feet. She looked down at the man who had almost become her father-in-law, and smiled. "I'm not," she said. "To be honest, I'm just thankful that I found out what a piece of crap your son is before we got married." She turned the walker as Kylie got up and opened the door. Seconds later, they stepped out into the sunshine, and Katie began to laugh.

  Kylie looked at her in surprise. "What's so funny?" she asked.

  "Oh, nothing," Katie Lou said. "It's not that something is funny, it's that I just suddenly feel so free. Maybe it's just that feeling that a rabbit gets, when it almost gets caught in the trap but gets away. That's how I'm feeling right now, like I almost got caught, but by the grace of God I escaped." She looked at her sister, who was looking confused. "I'm pretty sure this is one of those feelings you have to experience to understand," she said, "and I truly hope and pray you never know how it feels."

  Kylie shook her head and shrugged, but didn't say a word as they walked back down the block toward her car. Once they were seated inside it, she looked at Katie and asked, "Okay, where to?"

  "Well, I think I should stop by the bank," Katie said. "With my luck, I'll forget this check is in my purse and end up losing it somewhere. Let's go deposit it now, and then we can go home and relax."

  "Relax? Relax? Are you nuts? Girl, you just got a small fortune dumped on you! Don't you think it's time for a little shopping therapy?"

  Katie laughed at her sister. "You know what? That does sound like a good idea! Bank first, and then the mall."

  That's exactly what they did. After a stop at the bank to deposit the cashier's check, the two of them went to the local mall and spent the next two hours, and about three thousand dollars, on a shopping spree. Katie bought a lot of clothes for herself, particularly things that she thought would look professional in a counseling practice, picked up a new computer that was one of the best available, and then bought some things for her sister and parents. All in all, she felt like the shopping was as much fun as the dancing had been earlier in the day, and it was definitely therapeutic. She truly felt considerably better than she had before she had gone to the lawyer's office.

  Unlike her sister, Katie didn't have a car of her own. When she'd been in college, she hadn't had time to mess with it, and there was wonderful public transportation available. Then, after she'd come home, she used her mother's car when she needed to go somewhere, right up until she became engaged, and after that she never seemed to need one.

  Now, she suddenly felt the need to go car shopping, so they went by Allen's shop. When Katie pushed her walker through the doors, all of the guy
s stopped what they were doing and began to applaud. For a moment, Katie was surprised, but then she saw the wreckage of the Corvette still in the bay where Allen had been going through it. It dawned on her that these guys, more than anyone else, knew exactly what she had gone through, and that was the reason for their applause. They knew how lucky she was just to be alive.

  Allen came to them and hugged both of his daughters. "Hey, girls," he said, "what brings you here?"

  "Your crazy daughter has decided she needs to buy a new car," Kylie said. "I'm trying to convince her that she doesn't want a new car, she wants an old car. Help me out, Dad."

  Katie interrupted. "Actually, your absolutely insane daughter is trying to convince me that I should hang out with her in the shop and build the car from scratch. Now, considering that I don't know a monkey wrench from a spark plug wrench, I'm not seeing that is a very good way to get myself into a set of wheels. I'm thinking more along the lines of something new, something professional looking. Got any suggestions?"

  Allen chuckled. "What do I drive? Chrysler two hundred. One of the safest and best cars on the road. If you're serious about buying a new car, go on out to the Chrysler shop and tell Johnny Simmons that I said treat you right or I'll beat his head in."

  "Well," Katie said, "I wasn't exactly thinking of the car identical to yours. What would be your next suggestion?"

  Allen looked at her for a moment, and then smiled. "Then step up a notch," he said. "Go see Johnny, and check out the three hundred. It's an absolutely beautiful car, and I think you'll love it, but if not, then get him to show you a Jeep. I've never known a girl who didn't like a Jeep."

  Katie was sitting on the walker, just staring at the wrecked Corvette. She pointed at it. "When are you getting rid of that thing?" she asked.

  "The insurance company is supposed to be sending a truck after it today. Of course, they want their own experts to go over it, probably because of the family connection if nothing else, but that's their problem. I just wanted out of here. I've looked at it long enough; there's nothing more about it I want to know."

  Katie sat there a moment longer, then stood and turned the walker around. She pushed it directly at the Corvette, then stood and stared at the gaping hole in the windshield, the one she'd made as she crashed through it. She looked into the seat where she'd been sitting, saw the collapsed airbag with her blood all over it. Most of that blood, she knew, had come from her nose, a result of the impact of the airbag on her face. Some of it, though, was from the cuts and scratches she'd gotten as she went through the windshield.

  Just looking at the car, she truly came to understand just how close she had come to losing her life. Without taking her eyes from the car, she said, "If I had seen this earlier today, I probably would've told them to take their check and shove it." She turned around and walked away without looking back. That part of her life was over now, and she wanted to leave it that way.

  When she got back to where her father and sister stood waiting, she smiled. "Okay, so I should look at the three hundred or a Jeep, right?"

  Allen grinned. "Well, you asked for my advice. That's it, and it's probably worth what you paid for it."

  Kylie shook her head. "You don't know what you're missing," she said. "There's just something about putting a car together with your own hands that makes it special. You really ought to try it sometime."

  Katie nudged her with an elbow. "I'll leave that to you, and I'll stick to making my masterpieces in the kitchen. That okay with you?"

  Kylie sighed. "Oh, I suppose so. As long as you invite me over when you're cooking, we'll get by."

  The two girls gave their father a hug, waved at all of the guys, and headed out the door. Katie put Willie into the trunk of the Riviera, and got into the car beside her sister. Since it was only five thirty, and the Chrysler dealership was open until seven, they decided to go on out and take a look.

  Katie never got to see the Jeep; the Chrysler three hundred swept her off her feet the way Prince charming did to Cinderella. There was a scary moment when they took it for the test drive, because Katie hadn't stopped to think about whether her limited control over her legs would allow her to handle the gas pedal and brakes, but as it turned out, she did fine. She had enough control to be able to swing her foot from accelerator to brake pedal and back, and pressing on them was no problem. In fact, the hardest part of the whole decision was when she had to choose between the blue one and the red one.

  She bought the red one. When she loaded Willie into the trunk, and walked around to get behind the wheel of her own car for the first time, Katie Lou finally felt her independence. It had been a long time coming, and she realized that had she married Darren, it was a feeling she might never have known.

  Kylie followed her home, and called ahead to make sure that their parents were waiting outside to see Katie's new car. Somehow, she understood what the car meant to her sister, so even though she felt a little left out now, she knew that this was a step that Katie had needed to take for herself.

  Judy and Allen both raved about the car, telling Katie what a wonderful choice she had made. She showed them all its wonderful features, enjoying their reactions.

  "Hey," Katie said, "you haven't started dinner yet, have you?"

  "No, not yet," Judy said.

  "Good! Everybody get in, I'm taking us all out to dinner! Come on, it's my treat."

  Everyone smiled, and they got into the car, but then Judy remembered that the house was unlocked and ran back in to grab her purse and lock it up. Judy and Allen took the big backseat, while Kylie sat up front with her sister. They all commented on the car's ride and comfort, and chatted until they got to the restaurant. Allen started to offer to get the walker out of the trunk, but Kylie stopped him. They all stood and watched as Katie got out of the car, held on to it as she walked to the trunk, and then got the walker out all by herself. She closed the trunk and smiled brightly.

  "Shall we?" she asked, and then led the way to the door.

  She brought them to the local buffet steakhouse, one of the all-you-can-eat places. They made their way through the ordering line, each of them choosing the steaks they wanted, and then let a waitress take them to their seats. In deference to Katie and Willie, they were placed at a table that was off by itself. That gave Katie a place to put her walker while she sat in a chair at the table.

  The waitress brought their drinks, while they went through the buffet line to get the side dishes that they wanted. Katie managed by setting her plate on the seat of her walker as she moved along the line, adding a baked potato, corn, green beans and other sides as she went along. By the time they got back to the table, their steaks had arrived, and they said grace before digging in to eat.

  Katie was laughing and having a wonderful time, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Judy looked around at her family and thought about how close they had come to never being able to be together like this again. The thought sent a chill down her spine, but she shook it off and whispered a prayer of thanks to God above. He had not only brought their daughter through the wreck, but they saw her growing every day in ways she may never have achieved had it not been for the experiences she was going through.

  Sometimes, Judy knew, it was just not possible to see how wonderful God's plan would be if we could only trust Him. Katie, despite her current handicap, was rapidly growing into the woman that she should be. Through this terrible experience, she had found the strength in herself and her purpose in her life, things that she had never known existed, nor ever expected to find. God had blessed her in so many ways, and Judy only prayed that her daughter would see just what an incredible part all of this would play, not only today, but for the rest of her life.

  "Mom? Are you okay?" Kylie asked.

  Judy smiled. "Oh, I'm fine," she said. "I was just thinking how wonderful it is that we're all here, all here together, the way we should be."

  All of them fell silent for a moment, because they all realized exactly w
hat she was saying. Yes, it had been close. Katie knew that they were all thinking the same thing, and whispered a prayer of thanks of her own. She was thankful that she was still here, of course, but also for the new sense of purpose and direction that she felt in her life, and she was thankful for the closeness that she and Kylie had regained. As they had grown up, each of them moving into their own lives, some of that had been lost. Katie was grateful that they had found it again, even if it took something this tragic to bring it about.

  Then, of course, there was Rob Christopher. Katie was thankful that he had come into her life, both as a physical therapist and as a friend, and, potentially, more than a friend. Katie could admit to herself that she hoped that there was something to the attraction they seemed to feel for each other. She remembered the day she had first seen him, and feeling that attraction even though she was still engaged and, she had thought, in love with Darren.

  Wasn't it amazing how quickly things could change in life? Her circumstances, her feelings, her future—all of these had changed in an instant, as she went through the windshield of the Corvette. She thought back to when she had seen the car in her father's garage earlier that day, and it dawned on her that she was looking at the moment that had changed her life in so many ways. How many people could look that moment straight in the eye, the way she had gotten to?

  Okay, she thought to herself, so life is different. Now, what are you going to do with it, Katie?

  8

  The next couple of days were enjoyable for Katie, as she got to show off her new car, and spend her physical therapy sessions dancing with Rob. Kylie rode along with her, even though she had her own wheels now, insisting that she needed to be present as chaperone and DJ. "Hey," she said, "what are you going to dance to without my music?"