by Dale Mayer
He looked at her and smiled. “I’m so sorry. I fell asleep.”
Immediately her heart calmed down. “That’s fine,” she said. “Are you still up for a picnic?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Absolutely. Do we have time?”
“I do if you do.”
He checked his schedule, nodding, and said, “I’ve got an hour and a half until my next appointment,” he said, “but I am tired, so I’ll definitely take the wheelchair.” He hopped to his feet, grabbed his crutches, and went to the bathroom. When he came back out, he put the crutches down on the bed and grabbed the wheelchair. “Do you mind?”
“I’ll never mind if you use a wheelchair or crutches,” she said.
He nodded. “I’m grateful for that too.”
They headed out, and she said, “Let’s take the elevator.”
“Where’s the lunch?” he asked.
“I’ll be right back,” she said with a smile, and she returned to the kitchen, grabbed the baskets, and rejoined him.
When he saw her and both baskets, he said, “Wow, good thing I’m hungry.”
“It is, indeed,” she said, laughing. She gently put one of the baskets on his lap. “You can carry that one.”
He chuckled, and they made their way past the vet clinic and out to the large wide path. She walked beside him as he slowly pushed the wheelchair down the heavily packed gravel walkway. When they got to where the horses were, she wandered around, looking for a spot, then pointed to a nice little low spot over on the left, near the paddock. “What about there?”
Just then, several of the horses came over to greet them. She put the baskets down, opened up the one with the blanket, spread it out, and brought out the wine. Setting the basket to the side, she walked down a few feet to the animals and spent a few moments cuddling them. When she looked over, Keith was at the fence beside her. He was scratching Midnight’s beautiful long nose.
“They’re so beautiful,” he murmured.
“And very understanding,” she said. She looked back and saw that he had made his way over without the wheelchair or crutches. “Wow. I hadn’t expected to see that either.”
“The legs work,” he said, “but sometimes they’re not something I can really count on.”
She turned and headed the few steps over to the blanket where she opened up the other basket. She deliberately left him to his devices to get where he needed to go, using whatever methodology he needed. But when he took two hesitant steps toward the blanket, and then managed to crouch down and sit, she smiled at him. “That was very well done.”
He grinned at her. “According to Shane, Dani, and Iain, I still have months and months to go, but I’m beginning to see the progress I need to see.” He winced as he shifted.
“Sounds like maybe you’re doing too much.”
“No,” he said. “I’m finally doing the right amount.” He didn’t explain, and that was okay too.
She laid out the picnic foods and served up two plates of everything.
He looked at the food and smiled. “This looks amazing.”
“I hope so,” she said. “It’s just for us.” And she sat here in the beautiful sunshine, watching the horses and the long green grass, feeling happy inside for the first time in a very long while.
Keith couldn’t believe how much effort she’d gone to for him. “You know what? Having a date at a place like this is pretty hard to pull off,” he said, “but you managed.”
She looked at him in surprise, then smiled and said, “That’s what this is, isn’t it?”
“Well, we’ve been having little dates all along,” he said. “Lunches and coffee, but this? This is special.”
“It is, indeed.” She smiled and took another bite.
He hesitated, not sure what he was supposed to say. “I had a phone call with Gunner earlier this morning. We’ll go ahead with the job,” he said. “I’ll work for him. Not while I’m at Hathaway, but he’s hoping to have a start date for me in two and a half months.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said.
He nodded. “I’m pretty happy, I have to admit. Some of the work I can do from home, and some will require me to go to the local office, but we’ll see how it goes.”
“Well, it gives you a couple months to figure out where home will be as well.”
He nodded. “And you live here on the Hathaway property, don’t you?”
She nodded. “I have one of the larger residences,” she said. “I’ve been here since the beginning. It just happened that way.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
She looked over at him. “You’ve gotten awfully quiet. Is something wrong?”
He looked up at her, smiled, and said, “Not really,” he said. “I’m just wondering about my future and about your future.”
“Well, I would like to stay here,” she said. “There’s just so much value in the work I do.”
“There is,” he said. “So I can either find a place to live on this side of Hathaway near Dallas, so the commute is a little shorter, and maybe you could move in with me,” he said.
She stared at him in surprise. “Oh my,” she said.
“Or,” he said, “I could check out how big your residence is, and maybe I can move in with you and commute when I have to.”
“Oh, my goodness.” She stared at him, stunned because he was saying the words that she’d wanted to hear but, at the same time, hadn’t expected to hear.
He said, “I’m not very good at this. I mean, really not good.” With a sigh, he pulled out a very tiny thin metal ring. “This is my mother’s. I thought Robin would want it, but she told me it makes better sense for me to have it to give to someone special, like Iain would give her an engagement ring. I’ve just hung on to it all this time. So I know it certainly isn’t an engagement ring, no diamond or anything, and it’s only a token—and a cheesy token at that. But it’s a piece of my mother that I hung on to with my heart, and I haven’t been able to let it go. Maybe I can add a diamond to it, signifying you, so there’s a piece of you as well. So I was wondering if maybe, sometime down the road—” He heard her catch her breath as she stared at him, tears in the corner of her eyes. And she already had her hand out, her fingers splayed. With a gentle smile, he placed the little band on her ring finger, and he whispered, “Will you marry me?”
Her fingers closed around his in a hard tight grip, and she tugged him forward ever-so-slightly and kissed him.
“Yes,” she whispered, just before their lips met. “Double yes.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “I didn’t expect this when I first came here,” he said. “And I’m not anywhere near in the shape that I can be, but I’m getting there.” He smiled. “So that means you’re seeing the worst that you could possibly see, and I can only tell you that it’ll get a whole lot better.”
She smiled and reached up a hand, gently rubbing her fingers across his cheek, and she whispered, “If this is all there is,” she said, “I’m delighted to spend the rest of my life with you. Please don’t worry about how good you can be or where you’re going because you’re no longer alone. This is a journey for the two of us, and we can work it out, no matter what way it goes.”
He tilted her chin and kissed her. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for being awake at five o’clock in the morning and showing me that the world wasn’t such a lonely place.”
She chuckled and whispered back, “You’re so welcome. And thank you for letting me know that the world isn’t full of short-term relationships. Thank you for showing me that there really is somebody out there for each and every one of us.”
Epilogue
Lance Mayfair stared at the picture from Iain. In fact, there were multiple photos. It’s just that none of them were registering as being from his friend. How was it even possible? Iain had left the same VA hospital Lance was in, as a mess. A determined jokester but somebody who would turn his life around. They hadn’t
talked too long or too deep because it had been painful for them all. But Lance had never really expected to hear from Iain again. Instead, here he was, sending him photos and letting him know that there was life after the VA hospital. Not only life but a crazy-good life. He stared in shock, and then he read the simple message again.
Get here. It’ll make all the difference in the world.
Lance quickly responded.
But will it? Or is it just more false hope?
No, it’s not false hope.
Just then his phone rang. He picked it up and answered it. “Are you sure? Because, man, these pictures look like they’ve been seriously edited with Photoshop.”
Iain’s laughter boomed through the phone. “I know they do,” he said, “but I would never steer you wrong. It’s a completely different world now. Take a look at that last photo. That’s me. That’s me right now,” he said. “Compare that to where I was when you saw me last.”
“It’s unbelievable,” he said.
“I know. It is unbelievable, but it happened here to me, and you can do it too. Don’t mess it up. This is one of the biggest opportunities you’ll ever have,” he said. “Send in the application, and I’ll put in a good word.”
And with that, Iain hung up, leaving Lance to his rather dark thoughts. It was hard to be in the same place forever with no progress. The doctors had pretty well decided he was as good as he would get, and that was it, so what would he do with his life? And how was he supposed to deal with that when everything seemed to be so off-kilter?
It’s not what he wanted for his life. This isn’t what he expected, and now so much anger was inside him that he just didn’t know how to deal with it. If he listened to Iain, Lance might have another chance at something more, but that didn’t mean that Iain’s progress would be the progress Lance would see in himself. And that was one of the hardest things to accept in life.
Realizing that something could work for everybody else, but you were the one exception it wouldn’t work for? He didn’t want that. He didn’t want any more of that same depressing outlook for his future. He missed his music. It had been a large part of his life before the military, and he’d hoped to give it a bigger part in his future. But not since his accident. However, given Iain’s photos—could Lance get some of that dream back?
But as he looked at those photos again, a small voice asked if he could take a chance on this. Did he really want to pass up on applying for the one opportunity he had to make a real difference?
And of course he couldn’t. He didn’t dare pass it up. Because everything in his world was hanging on this one chance. He had quickly followed the link in the email and found the Hathaway House application form. He looked at it, took a deep breath, and quickly downloaded it. If he just filled it out, he could at least say he tried.
With one last look at the photos from Iain, Lance filled out the application. Quickly he opened up an email, attached the application, and sent it in, using Iain’s and Jaden’s names as his referrals. Because he’d do anything he could to be the man Iain had showed him was possible. Now he just had to hope one more miracle was left for him too.
This concludes Book 11 of Hathaway House: Keith.
Read about Lance: Hathaway House, Book 12
Hathaway House: Lance (Book #12)
Welcome to Hathaway House. Rehab Center. Safe Haven. Second chance at life and love.
Lance Mayfair sought out Hathaway House at the recommendation of a friend, who told him it was an answer to prayer. Lance knows more about prayers than answers, but, if he can see progress in one particular area of his life and health, it will be worth the effort and the pain. He’ll do anything he can to play music again. It’s all he has left now that his days as a Navy SEAL are over and, with them, any chance of a happy, productive life.
However, the shoulder injury that ended his career pretty much guarantees he’ll never play his beloved instruments ever again.
Unless Hathaway House and Jessica can work a miracle.
Jessica has worked with many patients at Hathaway House, but she connects with Lance in a way she didn’t with any of the others. She can see the need inside him—his desire to create again, to heal through music. And his goal becomes her goal: to see him play music in his soul again.
Only his music isn’t all he wants or needs, and making him happy goes a long way to making her happy, but it’s not enough. Both want and need so much more.
Find Book 12 here!
To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Keith: Hathaway House, Book 11! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.
Dear reader,
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Cheers,
Dale Mayer
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About the Author
Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).
She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!
To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.
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KEITH: HATHAWAY HOUSE, BOOK 11
Dale Mayer
Valley Publishing Ltd.
Copyright © 2020
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1-773363-81-3
Kindle Edition
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