Hard Love (Wild Hearts, Contemporary Romance Book 3)

by Nancy Adams

  Robbie had chicken as well, but his was plain old fried chicken, with corn and mashed potatoes and gravy on the side. That was one of his all-time favorite meals growing up, and he was sure he would never outgrow his love for it. The family sat and talked as they ate, and Robbie thought it was one of the nicest meals they'd had in a while.

  When it was over, they got back into the car and resumed the journey. The town where they'd stopped wasn't very big, and soon Robbie was happily surrounded by wilderness once again. He picked up the book and went back into the story, wondering what the forest in that world looked like, with its purple trees, scaly squirrels and other strange sights. Part of him wished he could go and join in Trixie's quest to reclaim the throne from her evil, wicked aunt, wielding a sword and perhaps even discovering some magic of his own. How awesome would that be?

  Robbie grinned as his own silliness. He knew, of course, there was no such thing as magic. There was no way you could just snap your fingers and make something appear; that just wasn't how the world really worked. It was okay in books and movies, and it was even exciting to lose yourself in those worlds for a while, but underneath it all, you had to keep yourself focused on the real world. You had to be sure you understood what was really going on. That was how people grew up and became what they wanted to be. You just made a plan, and then you stuck to it.

  Robbie knew what he wanted to be. He'd had it all planned out for a long time, and he was determined to make it come true. Robbie wanted to be a policeman, and eventually, a detective. He loved reading mystery novels, and was very good at figuring out who the bad guy was, usually even before the hero of the story. He figured that with abilities like that, being a cop was probably the best thing he could hope to do.

  Part of that plan involved keeping himself in top physical shape. He not only played football, but he also worked out with weights, and of course, skateboarding and motocross involved a lot of physical exercise. For his age, Robbie was in spectacular condition, which was what made him such a terrific quarterback. He loved staying in shape, and enjoyed working out in many ways. Running, jogging, wrestling, you name it—if it was a form of exercise or any sport that produced greater physical condition, Robbie was into it.

  He finished the book about an hour before they would get to Maxwell, and sat back to think about the story. Janine had been right; the climax was exciting. All throughout the story, there had been talk of a magical power that Trixie should have inherited from her mother, a power that could help to defeat the evil queen, but she didn't know how to use it, or even what it was. Without it, there was no hope, and the ending had actually brought tough, football star Robbie to tears.

  Of course, he would never admit that to anyone, not even to Janine. There were some things a guy just never owned up to, some things that he would take to his grave. Getting choked up over the end of the story about a little girl was one of them. No, that would be his secret forever.

  Missouri had a lot of hills, and a good part of it was covered in forest. Robbie went back to daydreaming about hunting and camping and trapping, about building a secret home in the forest that people would walk by, never knowing it was there. He loved to have such fantasies, and still hoped that one day they might come true. He wasn't in a hurry, though, since he was only 13 years old. He had his entire life ahead of him, and he knew it. He could do a lot of things, from being a policeman to maybe spending a few months in the wilderness, because he had all the time in the world.

  “Was that a good book?” Anna asked him, and he turned and smiled at her.

  “Yeah, it was pretty good. Maybe when you get older, you can read it, too. It's about a little girl, but she's a little older than you. And she lives in a place where there's magic and talking animals and all sorts of things.”

  Anna's eyes got wide with wonder, as she looked up at the big brother she adored and idolized. “Oh, wow, would you read it to me? I can't read yet, I'm only four years old.”

  Robbie rolled his eyes and groaned. He should've known better than to tell her about the story, but it was too late, now. He didn't know how he might get out of reading it to her, because sooner or later, she'd complain to their parents, and he'd be forced to do it.

  Robbie caught his father looking at him in the rear view mirror, and knew that he was already busted. The old man had heard Anna asking him to read the book to her, and that look meant, “Tell her you'll be glad to,” and Robbie knew it. He sighed and looked at his little sister.

  “Sure,” he said. “Yeah, how about I read it to you when we're on the way back home? That way it will make the whole trip seem to go a lot faster, right?”

  “Yeah!” Anna said, clapping her hands together. “Read it to me then, read it to me then!”

  Robbie breathed a sigh of relief, because there was a good chance she would forget all about the book before they headed for home. He glanced at the rear view mirror again and saw his father wink at him. He smiled at his dad, and then glanced over at his mother, who was looking back at him. She was smiling at him, and he felt genuine peace at that moment in the comfort of his family.

  There was a thump against the back of the car, and suddenly Robbie was thrown to the left, bouncing off the door on his side of the vehicle. He saw his father yanking at the steering wheel, but something was wrong and the car seemed to be moving sideways, skidding. He turned his head to look out the window, and that's when he saw the truck, the big semi truck that was barreling straight at him.

  For a split second, Robbie froze, panicking and terrified, but then he turned his head to look at little Anna. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open in a scream because she didn't understand the forces that were yanking her from side to side. He didn't know what to do, so he did the only thing he could think of, which was to throw himself over her. The truck crashed into the side of the car, and Robbie felt it start to roll, the driver's side raising up from the impact and starting to roll the whole car onto its right side. Robbie heard his mother scream, but then the view out the window beside little Anna was suddenly filled with part of the road, and then the car was rolling for real.

  It rolled all the way over onto its top, and Robbie's back hit the roof of the car, which was now under him. The fleeting thought went through his mind that he was glad Anna was still so small, because she had to be fastened into a car seat, and he wished he'd been smart enough to wear his seat belt. The car kept rolling, and he was thrown about inside it, but every muscle in his arms held onto that car seat so that his body would be between Little Anna and anything else.

  Strange thoughts go through your mind in a moment like that, and he wondered why he hadn't heard his father's voice. Normally, when something went wrong, his father was the first one to be shouting and yelling. Robbie wondered why he was quiet at that moment, but he couldn't turn his head to see without letting go of the car seat. He knew he had to take care of Anna, no matter what else happened.

  The car stopped rolling, but it was still sliding along on its roof, upside down, and Robbie got one glimpse of his father. His dad had been belted in behind the steering wheel, but somehow he had managed to turn his entire head around to look back at his children, and something about it seemed so strange that Robbie had to stare. After a second, he knew that that blank look, and the loose flopping of his head, meant that their father was dead.

  Although that was a shock, Robbie didn't have time to let it settle in. He looked at his mother and saw that her head was covered in blood. He called out to her once, but she didn't respond.

  Anna was still screaming, still strapped into her car seat, which was belted tightly to the backseat of the car. Robbie was able to look from where he lay, on the upside-down ceiling of the car, and see that she was staring into his eyes. In that moment, he knew that no matter what else happened, his little sister would be looking to him, not to their parents or anyone else, and he felt a strange sense of pride in knowing that she put such faith in him, even as the logical part of his mind insisted that
they were both about to die.

  Another impact hit the car, and it spun around, but then it was hit again and the lights went out. The last thing Robbie saw was the terrified but trusting eyes of his baby sister, as they pleaded with him to keep her safe.

  There were sounds, and he could feel something tugging on him. Robbie tried to open his eyes, but for a moment, they refuse to obey his commands. He tried again, and got them open, but he suddenly realized that he was looking at Anna's empty car seat. His sister was gone, she wasn't there, and he began to scream.

  “Calm down, son,” a voice said, and Robbie rolled his eyes upward to see a face leaning through the broken window. “If you're worried about the little girl, we got her, she's safe. She doesn't seem to be hurt too bad, just banged up a bit. Now we got to get you out of there, so just relax, and let us do our jobs.”

  The man who had spoken took hold of one arm, and then someone else took hold of the other one. They began pulling on him, trying to drag him out of the upside-down car, so he thought he should try to help them. He tried to push with his legs, but couldn't get them to do anything. He tried again, and suddenly he realized that he couldn't feel anything below about the middle of his chest.

  Robbie had heard about paralysis, even read stories about people injured playing football and such, ending up in wheelchairs or worse. That, he figured, was something that happened to other people, not something that could ever happen to him.

  Suddenly, it didn't seem so impossible after all. He couldn't feel a thing from his ribs down, and he couldn't make his legs move at all. Robbie didn't know how he could survive if he couldn't run, if he couldn't walk…

  2

  “And how's my favorite quarterback this morning?” Ellie asked as she entered the room.

  Robbie liked Ellie. As far as he was concerned, she was the nicest nurse on his floor. It didn't hurt anything that she was also extremely pretty, of course, but those thoughts he kept very private. He figured she could probably tell that he thought so, but he didn't want anyone else to know it.

  He also liked the fact that she did everything she could to help him keep his spirits up. He’d been in the hospital for almost two weeks by this point, and with everything that had happened, he felt that he was actually holding himself together fairly well. When he'd been brought in, they didn't tell him at first that his father had been killed in the accident, but he had already known it. That didn't come as such a shock, but when he was told that his mother had suffered severe brain damage, and might never awaken from her coma, he’d been left speechless at first. His father had always been the disciplinarian in the house, but his mother was the strength in it. It was she who held everything together, and Robbie didn't know what would happen to him or Anna if she were never to wake up.

  Anna, on the other hand, had come through the accident fairly well. She had not been seriously injured, and Dr. Jennings and nurse Ellie told him over and over that he had probably saved his little sister's life. They had brought her into his room for the first couple of days, but then Aunt Kay showed up.

  Because their father was dead and their mother might never wake up, she had been appointed as legal guardian for the two children. What that meant, she had explained to Robbie, was that Anna would be going to stay with her until their mother was able to come home and take care of her. Likewise, when the doctors released Robbie from the hospital, he would be coming to live with her, as well.

  Robbie had begged the doctors not to release Anna just yet, insisting that she needed him, but they said they couldn't keep her any longer, because she didn't need serious medical care. Aunt Kay had promised to bring Anna to see him often, and she kept her word. She brought Anna up a couple of times a week, and when she had come to visit the day before, she told him that the doctors were talking about releasing him, as well.

  But then the conversation had become upsetting. “Robbie,” Aunt Kay said, “there is some news about your mom. I don't know if anyone told you yet, but she actually woke up about a week ago.”

  Robbie's eyes went wide. “No, no one told me,” he said. “How—how is she?”

  “Well, I imagine that the reason they didn't tell you yet, Robbie, is because she's not—well, she's just not herself. You know that she suffered some brain damage, right? Well, sometimes brain damage can cause some strange effects. In your mother's case, what's happened is that she seems to have lost a lot of the memories that she's had since she was a little girl. She doesn't remember growing up, Robbie, or getting married or having children. Mentally, she's about like Anna. She's like a little girl, and the doctors say that the type of injury that happened in her brain means she probably won't come back to normal. Basically, she's going to be a little girl for the rest of her life.”

  Robbie stared at her, completely unsure of how to respond, or even whether to believe what she was saying. His mother would be like Anna? She'd be like a little child? But that—that just didn't make any sense. “Can she, like, take care of herself?”

  Aunt Kay nodded. “Well, yes, to some degree. I mean, she can go to the bathroom, she can take a bath by herself, that sort of thing. She wouldn't be able to cook anything, and she certainly couldn't take care of Anna or you. I'm afraid that, even though she looks like your mother, she's going to be more like another child that I have to take care of. Because she's my sister, they let me take her home a few days ago, but it's going to make things a little difficult when you get there.”

  “Difficult? Difficult how? I don't understand what you mean.”

  “Well, Robbie, I know the doctors have told you that you've got some fractures on your spine that have put pressure on your spinal cord, and that’s the reason you can't walk. I talked to your doctor today, and he says there's a chance you're going to be able to walk again someday, but that you're probably going to have to have some operations. Surgeries to help you get back to where you can walk again, you understand?”

  Robbie nodded. “Yeah, Dr. Jennings explained all that to me. He says they have to fix parts of my spine that got broken, but that they can't do it just yet. They have to let it heal, even though it won't be right, and then go back in and fix it later. It means I'll be in a wheelchair. They've had me practicing in one for the last few days.”

  Aunt Kay nodded again. “Yes, I know, and they tell me you're already getting around in one like an old pro. Well, I had to have a few things changed at my house so that you could bring your wheelchair and live there, like we put a ramp in so you can get up onto the porch and into the house, and we had to make a few of the doors wider, like to the bathroom and the bedroom that you'll be using. That's so that you can get in and out of those rooms on your own. The kitchen and living room doors were already big enough, so there’s nothing to worry about there.”

  Robbie held up a hand to stop her and get her attention. “But what's all this got to do with mom? You said mom being there was going to cause some difficulty when I come, what did you mean by that?”

  “Well—Robbie, like I said, your mom is a lot like a little girl. A very mischievous little girl, who doesn't always do what she's told, and has to be watched all the time, just like Anna. She has a tendency to just get up and take off, and one of the things the doctors are worried about is that she might decide to grab hold of your wheelchair and take off running, maybe crash you into a wall or something.”

  Robbie glared at her. “Mom would never do that!” Robbie insisted. “No matter what's happened to her, she'll still be my mom, and she'll still love me.”

  Aunt Kay looked sad. “Robbie, I wish I could agree with you, but I can't. In a way, you're right. Your mom would never do that to you. The trouble is, she's not your mom anymore. She's a little girl in a big body, and she doesn't know a whole lot about what's going on in the world. She doesn't remember that she has children, or that she ever got married. Those things are just gone from her life, and there is no way for her to ever get them back.” She sighed, and Robbie suddenly realized that she had a tissu
e in her hand when she raised it to wipe the tears from her eyes. “The fact is, you're the one who's going to have to be grown up with her, now. When she's acting up, when she's doing something she shouldn't do, you're going to have to be firm with her. You have to be strong enough to tell her no, and stick to it. You may have to slap her hands to keep her from doing things that could hurt her, or possibly hurt you or Anna. That's what I meant when I said it presented some difficulties, because it may be hard for you to do.”

  Robbie held out a hand and invited Aunt Kay to take it. She did after a moment, smiling at him. “Aunt Kay, I'm sorry I yelled at you like that. Look, I don't know what this is going to be like, but I need to do something besides just lay here. This is driving me crazy; I don't know how to take it. I know I'm going to be in a wheelchair for a while, and I hate that more than anything, just about, but that's the only way I can get out of this hospital, so I can live with it. How soon do you think I could get out and come to your house?”

  “The doctors say a couple of days, maybe three at the most. They just want to be sure that they caught any infections in time, from all the cuts and scratches you had, and see how you're handling things emotionally. We all know that this is very hard on you, and we just want to do what's best for you and your sister, and now for your mother, too.” She grinned. “She's actually quite a handful, and I had to get some help. I've got a young woman who has been helping me out, who knows how to deal with situations like this. She's taking care of your mother now.”

  Robbie shook his head. “We'll do whatever we've got to do, Aunt Kay,” he said. “It's not like we got any choice.”

  After she’d left, Dr. Jennings had come in and talked to Robbie about leaving the hospital. He said he didn't see any major problems ahead for Robbie, except for the fact, of course, that Robbie would be needing surgery on his back. Dr. Jennings seemed to think that it would take two or three different operations before he could get back on his feet. That had been scary, but Robbie wasn't one to let himself be scared out of doing what he had to do.