Old Dream Die Hard (Wild Hearts, Contemporary Romance Book 4)

by Nancy Adams

  Julie sat there and looked at him for a long moment. “Man, do I wish I had convinced you to sleep with me while I was here. It's been a while, and like I said, you are the best ever.” She leaned forward, looking him in the eye. “I almost had you the other night, in the theater, didn't I? Admit it, you were just about ready to go for it, weren't you?”

  Rob turned pink, but didn't lose his smile. “Okay, yeah, for a minute there I was about ready to let go and—see where things ended up. It's been a while for me, too.”

  Julie winked at him. “I've still got my room,” she said. “It isn't too late. Sure you don't want us to help each other out?”

  Rob looked her in the eye, and his smile faded away. “I'm sorry, Julie, I just can't. If I can fix things with Katie Lou, that'll be great, but if not—well, then we'll see what happens. But until then, I don't want to take a chance on messing up what I've got going.”

  Julie smiled and relaxed. “See? That's what I told her, that no matter how hard I tried, she came out on top.” Julie picked up her ticket from where it lay on the table. “Rob, we don't need to be sharing coffee, or anything else right now. I need to be headed back to Kansas City. I'm going to go check out, and head home today.” She slid out of her seat, and Rob stood, as well. He put his arms around her and gave her a hug, then let her go and watched her walk away.

  The waitress hadn't even noticed them there, so he had no check to pay. He walked out the door and got into his car, headed for home.

  15

  Rob had set his phone down on the couch after talking to Julie, and forgot to pick it up when he left. By the time he noticed, he was almost to the Diner, and didn't worry about it. On the way home, he decided to stop and pick up something for dinner so that neither he nor Anna would have to cook. That delayed him another twenty minutes, as he waited for the fried chicken he ordered to be done and packed. By the time he got home, Katie Lou had already called and left her message.

  Anna had gone out to do something with a couple of friends, and left a note for him on the table. He found his phone on the couch, and saw instantly that he had missed a call from Katie Lou. He listened to her voice mail, and then called her back.

  “Hello,” she said.

  “Katie Lou, it's Rob,” he said. “Are you—are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I am,” Katie replied. “You got my message?”

  “Yes, I did. Julie also called me, and told me that she talked to you. Katie, I'm so sorry. I promise you, that wasn't any kind of kiss you needed to worry about, but it never should have happened anyway. I can promise you that it never will again, not with anyone.”

  Katie gave a sigh. “Well, I admit it definitely caught me off guard,” she said. “I really didn't know what to think at that moment, but I should've let you explain.”

  “No, like I said, it should never have happened at all. That was my mistake, but if there's one thing I know how to do, it's learn from my mistakes.”

  Katie chuckled. “Well, at least that's a good thing. What's that old saying? If we don't learn from our mistakes, were doomed to repeat them?”

  Rob smiled. “Something like that. So—are we okay?”

  He heard the hesitation, just a split second, before she said, “I think so. I think maybe we better slow down just a little bit, though, just so we're both sure what we're doing.”

  Rob swallowed. “Okay,” she said, “if that's what you want. I just want you to know how sorry I am, and that I'll never let anything like this happen again. There's something about you, Katie Lou, something that makes me want to be close to you. It dawned on me last night, when I couldn't get you to answer the phone, that I have fallen in love with you.”

  Again, there was a hesitation. “Rob, you mean a lot to me, too, but again—I think we need to take things a little slower. I want to be certain, and I want you to be certain, as well.” She sighed again. “When I wasn't sure what was happening this morning, I went to look at an office, a place I might want to open my practice. It's over in Maxwell, but it's closer to the hospital.”

  “You—you don't want to share an office with me, now?”

  “It's not that I don't want to,” she said. “It's just that I think it might be too soon for us to make any kind of commitment to each other, whether in business or in a relationship. Rob, if you think about it, we've only known each other for a few weeks. We've actually been moving pretty fast, don't you think?”

  It was Rob's turn to sigh. “Yeah, I guess we have. I haven't meant to rush you, I really haven't, but again, there's just something about you.”

  They talked a little while longer, and both of them relaxed quite a bit. Katie told Rob about going out without her walker that day, and he was ecstatically happy for her, but wanted her to come into the clinic the next day. She agreed, and they finally ended the call.

  Anna made it back a little while later, and they sat in the living room and ate the fried chicken, while they watched a movie. Anna teared up a little bit, thinking about the last time she had watched a movie there, with Linda, and they ended up comforting each other.

  Back in Ralston, Katie Lou had also watched a movie with her family, and when it was over, she had gone to bed. The lack of sleep the night before had left her very tired, and she drifted off rather quickly. When morning came, she got up and took a shower, then got dressed again. It was Friday, so the clinic was open again, and she had promised to see Rob at eleven.

  The phone rang at nine, and she glanced down to see that it was Darren calling. For a split second, her heart skipped a beat the way it always had when he had called during their engagement. She answered the phone, ready to tell him that she had decided not to try again, but the sound of his voice made her choke on her words.

  “I've been going nuts,” he said, “just waiting. I'm scared to death of what you might have to say, mostly because I know that if you tell me to get lost, it's my own fault. I can't blame you—I can't blame anyone but myself.”

  “Darren,” she began, but once again the words just wouldn't come out. “I—I don't really know what to say, at this point. Can I tell you I don't have any feelings for you? No, I can't say that. We were together for more than two years, you don't just shrug that off. But am I ready to try again? I just don't know.”

  “Well, that doesn't sound like a definite no,” Darren said, and she could actually hear the relief in his voice. “How about this? How about if we just sort of start over? Let me take you to dinner tonight, how about that? We can just talk, nothing else, just talk. Please?”

  She sat there for a long moment, just thinking it over. There was a small part of her that was actually concerned that she might still be in love with Darren, and that having any feelings for him would mean that a relationship with Rob—or anyone else—simply wouldn't be real.

  “Okay,” she said at last. “Dinner tonight. Let's just meet somewhere, I'm not ready to tell anyone what we're doing, is that okay?”

  They agreed to meet at a restaurant, one in another town not far away. Katie said goodbye, and Darren hung up the phone, but she could tell there was a lightness in him that had not been there before.

  She got to her appointment at Rob's clinic right on time, and Anna smiled as she walked in. “Look at you, no walker! So, I hear you and Bubba are okay?”

  Katie smiled, but Anna could see that there was a reservation to it. “I told him I think we need to take things more slowly,” she said. “I just think we both need to be sure about what we're doing, don't you?”

  Anna nodded slowly. “That could make sense. Just don't let the big idiot out of your sight in the future, okay? And I'll keep a watch over him when you're not here.” She pointed at the door to her right. “He's ready for you back there.”

  Katie Lou went to the door, and made her way back to the treatment room. Rob was waiting, as Anna had said, and Katie could tell that he wanted to rush over and put his arms around her, but he was holding himself back.

  Rob had her walk back and for
th, while he watched her, and he told her that he was absolutely amazed at how well she was doing. “There's still a slight hitch in your get along,” he said. “That's normal, your muscles and tendons are going to have to get used to working normally, again. It'll take a little time, but I would guess that within a week, no one will ever know that you ever had a problem.”

  They talked about her progress a little longer, and then the conversation turned personal. “So, can I take you to lunch?”

  Katie was sitting on a bench, and she looked down at the floor before answering. “Rob,” she said. “There's something I need to tell you. A couple of days ago, after I saw you and Julie, and misunderstood everything, I got a phone call. It—it was Darren, my ex-fiancé. Rob, he's asked me if we could try again. He's apologized for everything that happened, and told me he's dropping out of all the political stuff he was involved in.”

  Rob's eyes fell. “And you want to give it another try with him?”

  Katie shook her head. “I'm honestly not sure,” she said. “On the other hand, if I said I didn't have some feelings for him, I'd be lying. I don't want to go into a new relationship with you, or anyone else for that matter, if I've still got feelings for him. These last few weeks, I've been so angry over everything that I haven't even let myself think about whether I still cared for him, but when we talked the other day, I realized that a part of me still does.” She looked up at his eyes. “Rob, please understand, I’ve just got to be certain of what I'm doing. I—I agreed to have dinner with him tonight, just to talk. Maybe that's as far as it will go, I just don't know at this point. Please understand.”

  Rob Christopher forced himself to smile at the woman he loved, even though his heart was breaking inside. He had spent a good part of the last two days thinking he had lost her, only to get another chance—but suddenly, he might be losing her all over again.

  “Of course I understand,” he said.

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  1

  How do you enjoy an evening with someone who nearly killed you, then abandoned you when your life was at its lowest point? How could it be possible to not only forgive someone for such things, but actually manage to get past them so that an evening spent reminiscing could be touched by gentle laughter and a sense of happiness?

  Even more pertinent, at the moment, was the question of how she ended up in such a situation. She had been engaged, so wildly and madly and passionately in love that nothing on earth could possibly have interfered with her happiness. That was the certainty in her life, that she was living the dream she'd had since she was a little girl. She would be married, in a wonderful ceremony with many in attendance, and everyone there would be envious.

  Her fiancé, Darren, was a great catch. She knew that. And with only three weeks to go until the wedding, she just couldn't believe that anything could go wrong. It was a beautiful weekend, and she and the love of her life were going to enjoy it.

  But there were the memories of that awful day, when her life changed forever. Now and then, she would suddenly find herself reliving that day. She'd be thinking about how things had changed since then, and suddenly it was like she was back there again...

  Darren's family owned a big pontoon boat that they kept on the lake, so big that they'd had some pretty impressive parties on it. It was easy to operate, though, and he and Katie had taken it out a couple of times before. They liked the peacefulness and solitude of being out on the big lake, all alone with nature. Darren would put a couple of lines out and do some fishing, and Katie liked to lie on the padded deck and soak up some rays. Somewhere along the way, they'd find themselves lying there together, just enjoying one another. Katie loved those moments, and did all she could to make sure Darren knew it. She was planning for this day to be one that he'd remember for a long, long time.

  It was a wonderful day. The live well had four big, beautiful bass swimming around as they waited to become dinner, Katie Lou had a freshly enhanced tan, and both of them had smiles on their faces as Darren tucked the boat back into its slip and tied it off. He'd surprised her with a bottle of wine; they rarely drank any kind of alcohol, but it just seemed right, so they enjoyed a toast to one another and to their future, and the slight buzz it brought on made everything else more enjoyable, too, which was fine by both of them.

  Katie Lou pulled her shorts and blouse back on, and they got into the car to head for Sosebee's Restaurant, where Darren had made dinner reservations. Katie chuckled to herself when he'd told her, because you didn't need a reservation at Sosebee's; the place was nice, but she'd never once seen it so busy that she couldn't get a table. Darren just liked to pretend they were already living in a bigger city, as they planned to do once they were married. He had his sights on moving to St. Louis, and while Katie was a little apprehensive about living in a big urban center, she was the type of girl who would go where her man went.

  With Darren's plans for a future political career, staying in small-town Missouri just wouldn't work out, and she had accepted that. He'd been out of school for almost two years, working in his father's law firm there in Ralston, but he'd had offers from a couple of larger firms when he graduated near the top of his class. One of them, Matthews and Johnson, had agreed to a two-year delay, so that he could keep a promise he had made to his father to come and work two years back home. It was time for him to make the move, and Katie Lou knew that he was more than ready. The only thing that was holding him back was waiting for the wedding, and it was almost upon them. As soon as it was over, they would be flying off to Cancun for their honeymoon, and as soon as they got back, they'd be loading a truck and heading for St. Louis. They'd already made a few trips up there, and had chosen a beautiful apartment that would be their first home together.

  Matthews and Johnson was more than just a law firm, though; it was also part of the Republican campaign network in St. Louis, and through some of his father's connections, Darren had already caught the eye of some of the party's top people. It was already planned that, once he was fully installed at the firm, he would be groomed for the House of Representatives, and that would be only a first step on a political career that had much higher aims.

  Katie was letting herself dream about how wonderful it was going to be, her seat leaned back and her head resting against it. Darren was holding her hand in his right, as he drove with his left, and she loved the feeling of his grip. It reminded her that he would be her provider, her protector, and give her all the love and affection she needed, for the rest of her life. It made her feel warm and loved and secure.

  She felt his grip on her hand loosen, and opened her eyes to see what had drawn his attention, but for a second she couldn't figure out what she was seeing. Darren's head was leaning forward, and his eyes were closed as if he were praying, or sleeping, and suddenly she realized that he'd fallen asleep behind the wheel, and she called his name as she looked forward…

  The road curved to the left, but the car went straight, and suddenly she felt the impact as the front end of the long sports car struck the tree. Everything went into slow motion, and she saw the plastic and fiberglass begin to crumple, saw the spider web of cracks appear to slither across the windshield, saw the airbag explode out toward her, but something snapped, and she felt herself launched forward, felt the airbag on her chest as she seemed to slide up and over it, and then the glass was everywhere as she went through the windshield. She lost consciousness then, and never felt herself flung through the air. She barely missed hitting the trunk of the tree that had stopped the lightweight car dead in its tracks; she flew past it and, by some miracle, turned over as she flew and landed on her back when she finally hit the ground. She bounced a couple of times, skimming across the ground and finally coming to rest in the middle of a clearing.

  The driver of another car that was not far behind them saw it all, and called 911 immediately, then stopped to see if he could help. When he found Katie Lou lying on the ground fifteen feet in front of the car, h
is first assumption was that she was dead, so he turned his attentions to the man behind the wheel.

  Darren's seatbelt had held, and his airbag had deployed properly. He was badly bruised, his nose broken and a couple of ribs cracked, but in general, his injuries were minor. When paramedics arrived a few minutes later, they found Darren conscious and sitting on the ground beside the car, though he seemed dazed and incoherent. He knew his name, but couldn't remember who had been in the car with him at first.

  Though she wasn't dead after all, Katie Lou was in far worse condition. The first thing the paramedics did was stabilize her neck and spine, with braces and a backboard. When they couldn't get a consistent pulse and found her blood pressure to be dangerously low, the decision was made to call in a Life Flight, and Katie was loaded into a helicopter that landed in the road, right there at the scene, twenty minutes later. She was flown to the University of Missouri School of Medicine, at Columbia, where she was immediately rushed into the trauma unit on life support.

  Things did not look good.

  Yes, those questions were valid. After what she had been through, they were valid. Not long after that, Darren had suddenly changed, as well, when he called her on the telephone to tell her that he was breaking off their engagement. He couldn't risk havng a wife who was crippled, he said, because no olitician wanted to win with a sympathy vote…

  How could you ever spend an enjoyable evening with someone who would do such a thing? How could you ever consider giving him another chance?Katie Lou didn't know the answers to those questions, but somehow, she was living them. In the weeks since her near-fatal accident, thrown through the windshield of ex-fiancé Darren Allsip's car, she had run a gauntlet of emotions that ranged from terror to grief to heartbreak, and then come around again to love and hope, as she dealt with Darren's betrayal and her own burgeoning feelings for her physical therapist, Doctor Rob Christopher. She had been certain that there was no way she could ever spend any pleasant time around Darren again, especially after he and his father had literally paid her off to make her go away—and yet, when he had called and begged for a second chance, she had been shocked to find a part of herself that was willing to consider it.