by Diana Palmer
“Physical therapy.” She laughed and almost cried. “I can’t stand up!”
“It’s much more than just exercise,” he said and smiled gently. “Heat, massage, gentle movements, you’ll see. You’ve never had physical therapy I see.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never really had an injury that required it.”
“You’re very lucky, then,” he said.
“You think I’ll walk again?” she prompted, her eyes wide and full of fear.
“I think so,” he said. “I won’t lie to you, there’s a possibility that the injury may result in permanent disability.” He held up a hand when she seemed distraught. “If that happens, you have a wonderful support group here. Your family. They’ll make sure you have everything you need. You’ll cope. You’ll learn how to adapt. I’ve seen some miraculous things in my career, Miss Lane,” he added. “One of my newest patients lost a leg overseas in a bombing. We repaired the damage, got him a prosthesis and now he’s playing basketball.”
She caught her breath. “Basketball?”
He grinned, looking much younger. “You’d be amazed at the advances science has made in such things. Right now, they’re working on an interface that will allow quadriplegics to use a computer with just thought. Sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it? But it’s real. I watched a video of a researcher who linked a man’s mind electronically to a computer screen, and he was able to move a curser just with the power of his thoughts.” He shook his head. “Give those guys ten years and they’ll build something that can read minds.”
“Truly fascinating,” she agreed.
“But right now, what I want from you is a promise that you’ll do what your doctor tells you and work hard at getting back on your feet,” he said. “No brooding. No pessimism. You have to believe you’ll walk again.”
She swallowed. She was bruised and broken and miserable. She drew in a breath. “I’ll try,” she said.
He stood up and handed the chart to the nurse with a smile. “I’ll settle for that, as long as it’s your very best try,” he promised. He shook hands with her. “I’m going to stay in touch with your doctor and be available for consultation. If I’m needed, I can fly back down here. Your friends out there sent a private jet for me.” He chuckled. “I felt like a rock star.”
She laughed, then, for the first time since her ordeal had begun.
“That’s more like it,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of recovery is in the mind. You remember that.”
“I’ll remember,” she promised. “Thanks for coming all this way.”
He threw up a hand. “Don’t apologize for that. It got me out of a board meeting,” he said. “I hate board meetings.”
She grinned.
* * *
LATER, AFTER SHE’D been given her medicines and fed, Odalie and Cort came into the private room she’d been moved to.
“Dr. Parker is very nice,” she told them. “He came all the way from the Mayo Clinic, though...!”
“Whatever it takes is what you’ll get,” Odalie said with a smile.
Maddie grimaced as she looked at Odalie’s beautiful pink dress, creased and stained with blood and dirt. “Your dress,” she moaned.
“I’ve got a dozen pretty much just like it,” Odalie told her. “I won’t even miss it.” She sighed. “But I really should go home and change.”
“Go home and go to bed,” Maddie said softly. “You’ve done more than I ever expected already...”
“No,” Odalie replied. “I’m staying with you. I got permission.”
“But there’s no bed,” Maddie exclaimed. “You can’t sleep in a chair...!”
“There’s a rollaway bed. They’re bringing it in.” She glanced at Cort with a wicked smile. “Cort gets to sleep in the chair.”
He made a face. “Don’t rub it in.”
“But you don’t have to stay,” Maddie tried to reason with them. “I have nurses. I’ll be fine, honest I will.”
Odalie moved to the bed and brushed Maddie’s unkempt hair away from her wan face. “You’ll brood if we leave you alone,” she said reasonably. “It’s not as if I’ve got a full social calendar these days, and I’m not much for cocktail parties. I’d just as soon be here with you. We can talk about art. I majored in it at college.”
“I remember,” Maddie said slowly. “I don’t go to college,” she began.
“I’ll wager you know more about it than I do,” Odalie returned. “You had to learn something of anatomy to make those sculptures so accurate.”
“Well, yes, I did,” Maddie faltered. “I went on the internet and read everything I could find.”
“I have all sorts of books on medieval legends and romances, I’ll bring them over for you to read when they let you go home. Right now you have to rest,” Odalie said.
Maddie flushed. “That would be so nice of you.”
Odalie’s eyes were sad. “I’ve been not so nice to you for most of the time we’ve known one another,” she replied. “You can’t imagine how I felt, after what happened because I let an idiot girl talk me into telling lies about you online. I’ve had to live with that, just as you have. I never even said I was sorry for it. But I am,” she added.
Maddie drew in a breath. She was feeling drowsy. “Thanks,” she said. “It means a lot.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing,” Odalie added. “I’ll take care of you.”
Maddie flushed. She’d never even really had a girlfriend, and here was Odalie turning out to be one.
Odalie smiled. “Now go to sleep. Things will look brighter tomorrow. Sometimes a day can make all the difference in how we look at life.”
“I’ll try.”
“Good girl.” She glanced at Cort. “Can you drive me home and bring me back?”
“Sure,” he said. “I need a change of clothes, too. I’ll drop you off at Big Spur, go home and clean up and we’ll both come back. We need to tell our parents what’s going on, too.”
“John will be beside himself,” Odalie said without thinking. “All I’ve heard since I got home is how sweet Maddie is,” she added with a smile.
She didn’t see Cort’s expression, and she couldn’t understand why Maddie suddenly looked so miserable at the mention of her brother’s name.
“Well, don’t worry about that right now,” Odalie said quickly. “But I’m sure he’ll be in to see you as soon as he knows what happened.”
Maddie nodded.
“I’ll be right out,” Cort said, smiling at Odalie.
“Sure. Sleep tight,” she told Maddie. She hesitated. “I’m sorry about your rooster, too. Really sorry,” she stammered, and left quickly.
Maddie felt tears running down her cheeks.
Cort picked a tissue out of the box by the bed, bent down and dabbed at both her eyes. “Stop that,” he said softly. “They’ll think I’m pinching you and throw me out.”
She smiled sadly. “Nobody would ever think you were mean.”
“Don’t you believe it.”
“You and Odalie...you’ve both been so kind,” she said hesitantly. “Thank you.”
“We feel terrible,” he replied, resting his hand beside her tousled hair on the pillow. “It could have been a worse tragedy than it is. And Pumpkin...” He grimaced and dabbed at more tears on her face. “As much as I hated him, I really am sorry. I know you loved him.”
She sniffed, and he dabbed at her nose, too. “He was so mean,” she choked out. “But I really did love him.”
“We’ll get you a new rooster. I’ll train him to attack me,” he promised.
She laughed through her tears.
“That’s better. The way you looked just now was breaking my heart.”
She searched his eyes. He wasn’t joking. He meant it.
He brushed back her hair. “God, I don’t know what I would have done if you’d died,” he whispered hoarsely. He bent and crushed his mouth down over hers, ground into it with helpless need. After a few seconds, he for
ced himself to pull back. “Sorry,” he said huskily. “Couldn’t help myself. I was terrified when I saw you lying there so still.”
“You were?” She looked fascinated.
He shook his head and forced a smile. “Clueless,” he murmured. “I guess that’s not such a bad thing. Not for the moment anyway.” He bent and brushed his mouth tenderly over hers. “I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere.”
“If I tried to, three nurses would tackle me, and a doctor would sit on me while they sent for a gurney,” she assured him, her eyes twinkling.
He wrinkled his nose and kissed her again. “Okay. He stood up. “Anything you want me to bring you?”
“A steak dinner, two strawberry milkshakes, a large order of fries...”
“For that, they’d drag me out the front door and pin me to a wall with scalpels,” he assured her.
She sighed. “Oh, well. It was worth a try. They fed me green gelatin.” She made a face.
“When we get you out of here, I’ll buy you the tastiest steak in Texas, and that’s a promise. With fries.”
“Ooooh,” she murmured.
He grinned. “Incentive to get better. Yes?”
She nodded. “Yes.” The smile faded. “You don’t have to come back. Odalie, either. I’ll be okay.”
“We’re coming back, just the same. We’ll drop Great-Aunt Sadie off at the house, but she can stay at Skylance if she’s nervous about being there alone. She’s been a real trooper, but she’s very upset.”
“Can I see her?”
“For just a minute. I’ll bring her in. You be good.”
She nodded.
Great-Aunt Sadie was still crying when she went to the bed and very carefully bent down to hug Maddie. “I’m so glad you’re going to be all right,” she sobbed.
Maddie touched her gray hair gently. “Can’t kill a weed.” She laughed.
“You’re no weed, my baby.” She smoothed back her hair. “You keep getting better. I’ll bring your gown and robe and slippers and some cash when I come back. Here. This is for the machines if you want them to get you anything...”
“Put that back,” Cort said, “Maddie won’t need cash.”
“Oh, but—” Sadie started to argue.
“It won’t do any good,” Cort interrupted with a grin. “Ask my dad.”
“He’s right,” Maddie said drowsily. “I heard one of his cowboys say that it’s easier to argue with a signpost, and you’ll get further.”
“Stop bad-mouthing me. Bad girl,” he teased.
She grinned sleepily.
“You go to sleep,” he told her. “Odalie and I will be back later, and we’ll bring Sadie in the morning.”
“You’re a nice boy, Cort,” Sadie said tearfully.
He hugged her. “You’re a nice girl,” he teased. “Good night, honey,” he told Maddie, and didn’t miss the faint blush in her cheeks as she registered the endearment.
“Good night,” she replied.
She drifted off to sleep before they got out of the hospital. In her mind, she could still hear that soft, deep voice drawling “honey.”
The next morning, Maddie opened her eyes when she heard a commotion.
“I can’t bathe her with you sitting there,” the nurse was saying reasonably.
Cort frowned as he stood up. “I know, I know. Sorry. I only fell asleep about four,” he added with a sheepish smile.
The nurse smiled back. “It’s all right. A lot of patients don’t have anybody who even cares if they live or die. Your friend’s very fortunate that the two of you care so much.”
“She’s a sweet girl,” Odalie said gently.
“So are you,” Cort said, and smiled warmly at her.
She flushed a little.
Maddie, watching, felt her heart sink. They’d both been so caring and attentive that she’d actually forgotten how Cort felt about Odalie. And now it seemed that Odalie was seeing him with new eyes.
Cort turned, but Maddie closed her eyes. She couldn’t deal with this. Not now.
“Tell her we went to have breakfast and we’ll be back,” Cort said, studying Maddie’s relaxed face.
“I will,” the nurse promised.
Cort let Odalie go out before him and closed the door as he left.
“Time to wake up, sweetie,” the nurse told Maddie. “I’m going to give you your bath and then you can have breakfast.”
“Oh, is it morning?” Maddie asked, and pretended to yawn. “I slept very well.”
“Good. Your friends went to have breakfast. That handsome man said they’d be back,” she added with a laugh. “And that woman. What I wouldn’t give to be that beautiful!”
“She sings like an angel, too,” Maddie said.
“My, my, as handsome as he is, can you imagine what beautiful children they’d have?” the nurse murmured as she got her things together to bathe Maddie.
“Yes, wouldn’t they?” Maddie echoed.
Something in her tone made the other woman look at her curiously.
But Maddie just smiled wanly. “They’ve both been very kind,” she said. “They’re my neighbors.”
“I see.”
No, she didn’t, but Maddie changed the subject to a popular television series that she watched. The nurse watched it, too, which gave them a talking point.
* * *
LATER, SADIE CAME in with a small overnight bag.
“I brought all your stuff,” she told Maddie. “You look better,” she lied, because Maddie was pale and lethargic and obviously fighting pain.
“It’s a little worse today,” she replied heavily. “You know what they say about injuries, they’re worse until the third day and then they start getting better.”
“Who said that?” Sadie wondered.
“Beats me, but I’ve heard it all my life. Did you bring me anything to read?” she added curiously.
“I didn’t. But somebody else did.” She glanced at the door. Odalie came in with three beautifully illustrated fairy-tale books. After breakfast, both Odalie and Cort had gone home to change, and then picked up Great-Aunt Sadie when returning to the hospital.
“I bought these while I was in college,” Odalie said, handing one to Maddie. “I thought they had some of the most exquisite plates I’d ever seen.”
And by plates, she meant paintings. Maddie caught her breath as she opened the book and saw fairies, like the ones she made, depicted in a fantasy forest with a shimmering lake.
“Oh, this is...it’s beyond words,” she exclaimed, breathlessly turning pages.
“Yes. I thought you’d like them.” She beamed. “These are updated versions of the ones I have. I bought these for you.”
“For me?” Maddie looked as if she’d won the lottery. “You mean it?”
“I mean it. I’m so glad you like them.”
“They’re beautiful,” she whispered reverently. She traced one of the fairies. “I have my own ideas about faces and expressions, but these are absolutely inspiring!”
“Fantasy art is my favorite.”
“Mine, too.” She looked up, flushing a little. “How can I ever thank you enough?”
“You can get better so that my conscience will stop killing me,” Odalie said gently.
Maddie smiled. “Okay. I promise to try.”
“I’ll settle for that.”
“I put your best gowns and slippers in the bag,” Sadie told her. “And Cort brought you something, too.”
“Cort?”
She looked toward the door. He was smiling and nodding at the nurses, backing into the room. Behind his back was a strange, bottom-heavy bear with a big grin and bushy eyebrows.
He turned into the room and handed it to Maddie. “I don’t know if they’ll let you keep it, but if they won’t, I’ll let Sadie take him home and put him in your room. His name’s Bubba.”
“Bubba?” She burst out laughing as she took the bear from him. It was the cutest stuffed bear she’d ever seen. “Oh, he’s so cute!”
“I’m glad you like him. I wanted to smuggle in a steak, but they’d have smelled it at the door.”
“Thanks for the thought,” she said shyly.
“You’re welcome.”
“Bears and books.” She sighed. “I feel spoiled.”
“I should hope so,” Odalie said with a grin. “We’re doing our best.”
“When we get you out of here, we’re taking you up to Dallas and we’ll hit all the major museums and art galleries,” Cort said, dropping into a chair. “Culture. Might give you some new ideas for your paintings and sculptures.”
“Plus we bought out an art supply store for you,” Odalie said with twinkling eyes. “You’ll have enough to make all sorts of creations when you get home.”
“Home.” Maddie looked from one of them to the other. “When? When can I go home?”
“In a few days.” Cort spoke for the others. “First they have to get you stabilized. Then you’ll be on a regimen of medicine and physical therapy. We’ll go from there.”
Maddie drew in a long breath. It sounded like an ordeal. She wasn’t looking forward to it. And afterward, what if she could never walk again? What if...?
“No pessimistic thoughts.” Odalie spoke for the visitors. “You’re going to get well. You’re going to walk. Period.”
“Absolutely,” Sadie said.
“Amen,” Cort added.
Maddie managed a sheepish smile. With a cheering section like that, she thought, perhaps she could, after all.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE THIRD DAY was definitely the worst. Maddie was in incredible pain from all the bruising. It was agony to move at all, and her legs were still numb. They kept her sedated most of the day. And at night, as usual, Cort and Odalie stayed with her.
“How are you getting away with this?” Maddie asked Odalie when Cort left to get them both a cup of coffee.
“With this?” Odalie asked gently.
“Staying in the room with me,” she replied drowsily. “I thought hospitals made people leave at eight-thirty.”