Jason heaved a relieved sigh when the doctor smiled.
“She’s fine. They just wheeled her into recovery.” His expression sobered. “It was a bad break, though, one the most extensive procedures I’ve performed. We’ve inserted a rod and bolts to hold her bone in place while she heals, but given her age—” He shook his head.
“But she’ll recover, right?” Kelli clasped her hands beneath her chin. The pleading look in her eyes brought Jason closer to her side to encircle her shoulders with a protective arm.
“Miss Jackson, you need to understand that this has been a life-altering injury. She’s eighty-one years old. Her body won’t heal as well as it would have twenty years ago.”
Tears choked Kelli’s voice. “You mean she won’t ever walk again?”
“Oh, I think she will. In time. But maybe not without the aid of a walker. When you choose a facility, make sure they have good rehab services.”
“Facility?” Her eyes went round. “You mean she can’t come home?”
“Is her house all on one level? Or at least have a bedroom and bathroom on the main floor so she doesn’t have to go up and down stairs?”
Her teeth appeared and bit down on her lower lip. She glanced at Jason. “The one here in Florida is.”
The doctor seemed to consider this. “She’s going to need twenty-four-hour care for several weeks. I really think a good facility is the best option.”
“I don’t want Nana going into a nursing home.” Kelli’s chin shot upward. “I can take care of her.”
His expression became kind. “Miss Jackson, I’m sure you’re willing. But she’s elderly and her body has experienced a major trauma. It would be best if she were surrounded with people who are medically trained. You want what’s best for your grandmother, don’t you?”
Kelli’s eyes flooded as she nodded.
Her tears stirred emotions inside Jason that he had never felt before. He wanted to protect her, to solve all her problems so she would never cry again.
An idea occurred to him. He squeezed Kelli’s shoulders. “I’ll be right back. I need to make a phone call.”
Nana’s face looked pasty and pale, nearly the same color as the pillow she lay propped against. Seeing her like this kept Kelli’s stomach muscles knotted, although she forced herself to smile calmly as she held the bent straw to her grandmother’s lips.
She continued outlining the arrangements as Nana sipped the ice water. “So Jason’s mom said she would love to have you stay with her for a few weeks when you come home from the hospital. The doctor will arrange for Home Health to come in three times a week to check on you and make sure you’re progressing like you should.”
“But she doesn’t know me at all. Why would she want to take care of a complete stranger?” Her drink finished, Nana collapsed against the pillow. “Maybe I’d better just go ahead and move into a nursing home now and get it over with. That way I won’t be a burden to anyone.”
Kelli covered her hand. “You’re not a burden. And Barb is a very nice lady whose husband died not long ago. She nursed him full-time for several years, and she says she’s been so bored since he passed away that she’s even considered volunteering at the hospital just so she’ll feel useful again.” She gave Nana’s hand a final pat and straightened. “She says you’re an answer to her prayers.”
When Jason told Kelli of his mother’s offer, she’d cried with relief. It was the perfect solution to their problem.
A tiny smile crept across Nana’s creased lips. “I’ve never been the answer to anyone’s prayers before.”
Emotion swept over Kelli, bringing a rush of fresh tears to her eyes. She leaned forward and gathered Nana into a gentle hug. “Oh, yes, you have. Mine.”
She straightened, and Nana studied her through narrowed eyes for a moment. “Jason certainly has proven himself a knight in shining armor, hasn’t he?”
Warmth crept up Kelli’s neck. She smoothed a wrinkle from the white blanket. “He did come to our rescue.”
“Am I to understand you’ve begun to consider your boss in a different role?”
“Perhaps.” Nana’s shrewd smile sent the blush into Kelli’s cheeks. “I mean, he still has one big black mark against him. He does work in a zoo.”
Nana’s veiny hand crept across the blanket to stroke Kelli’s arm. “That will be very difficult for you. Are you sure you want to date someone in that profession?”
Kelli avoided her gaze. “I think so.”
“If he makes you happy, Kelli, that’s the most important thing.” With a final pat on Kelli’s arm, Nana pulled the blanket higher under her chin. “I was thinking this morning before I fell that the warm weather here in Florida suits me far better than those harsh Colorado winters.”
Her eyes took on a glimmer of their trademark twinkle, which untied a few of the knots in Kelli’s stomach. With a chuckle, she shook a finger in Nana’s direction. “Don’t get any ideas just yet. There’s no need to rush into anything.”
But Nana’s words sent her spirits soaring like a helium balloon. The reasons to return to Denver were all fading away one at a time. Jason’s heart-stopping grin loomed in her mind’s eye. Florida was looking less like a six-month assignment every minute.
Chapter Twenty
Jason stood beside Kelli, watching Michael work with Samson. The young keeper stood in the wide walkway between the waist-high public barrier and the sturdy metal mesh wall that formed the front of the lion’s exhibit. Jason was impressed that Kelli had agreed to stand this close, just on the other side of the public barrier, not ten feet away from the animal. She’d schooled her expression into one of detached attention. If he hadn’t been standing close enough to feel her tremble, he wouldn’t guess she felt anything other than impersonal interest in the procedure.
Michael pressed the target, a bright green tennis ball on the end of a long pole, next to the fencing up high enough that Samson had to rise on his hind legs to touch his nose to it.
“Target, Samson.”
The lion rose obediently and placed giant paws against the metal. Kelli, her eyes wide as Frisbees, jerked with a start as the metal mesh rattled.
Jason spoke in a low, calm voice. Maybe if he described the reason for the training exercise, it would distract her from her fear. “We train all the animals to a target like this, so we can get close enough to inspect them. When Michael has Samson rise up like that, he’s checking his underbelly and paws to make sure there are no cuts or sores.”
Michael acknowledged Samson’s obedience with a short blast on the whistle he wore around his neck, and rewarded him with a chunk of meat shoved through the holes. After Samson had eaten the treat, Michael held the target out at arm’s length, and the cat turned sideways to press his golden body against the welded mesh.
“That’s so we can give him injections if we need to,” Jason explained.
Her throat convulsed, but when she spoke, her voice matched his calm tone. “You don’t tranquilize him? Like when Pete wants to give him a physical?”
“It’s dangerous to tranquilize any animal. We only do it when we absolutely have to.”
She nodded, her gaze fixed on Michael. “What about—”
Her question went unspoken. Samson, apparently tired of the training session, began an impossibly low and ominous growl, his big, golden eyes locked onto Michael. The sound reached a crescendo with an impressive roar that resonated in Jason’s sternum and sent instinctive alarm signals speeding to his brain. He could hardly blame Kelli for running.
He dashed after her, Michael’s voice fading behind him as he admonished the lion, “If you don’t want to play anymore, fine. No need to get nasty about it.”
Jason found Kelli around the corner, standing on the sidewalk with her arms wrapped around her middle and tears streaming down her face. Wordlessly, he gathered her in an embrace and held her tight while she heaved with quiet sobs.
“I can’t do it, Jason.” Her voice was muffled against his s
hirt. “I can’t. I’ll work here for five and a half more months. I’ll make piñatas and clean cages all day long, but please don’t ask me to go near that animal.”
“Shhh. It’s okay.” He stroked her silky hair and hugged her tighter. “You don’t have to.”
She pulled back. Her hands balled into fists at her side. “This is all my mother’s fault! If she were here right now, I’d—I’d shake her until her teeth rattled!”
“Kelli.” He pitched his voice low. “I will be the first one to agree that your mom made some terrible mistakes. But what happened to your dad wasn’t Lil’s fault.”
She wore an expression as fierce as Samson’s had been moments ago. She spoke through gritted teeth. “If she had supported me instead of shipping me off to Colorado, I might have gotten over the trauma. But no, she was too busy taking care of another lion to worry about her only daughter. And another lion after that, and then—” she glared in the direction of Samson’s cage “—that one!”
Anger flashed in her eyes, and the sight of it settled a sense of discomfort deep in Jason’s core. He’d seen anger like that before—in Aimee’s face, when she accused him of ruining her life. Would Kelli end up bitter and angry like Aimee?
He crushed her to him, trying to banish the thought. “You have to forgive her, Kelli. Not for Lil, but for yourself. Don’t let your anger with your mother make you bitter.”
At first she stood rigid in his arms, but after a moment, he felt her relax. “You’re right. I know you are.” She pulled away slightly to lift a weak smile up at him. “How did you get to be so wise?”
Now was the time to tell her about his past—and about Tiffany. “I’ve made mistakes of my own, mistakes that hurt others.” Outrage flashed onto her face and she opened her mouth to speak, but he stopped her with a finger on her lips. “I’m not excusing Lil for choosing her career over you. It’s just that I know what it’s like to—”
Angela’s voice erupted through his radio. “Jason, Francine Cowell is on the phone for you. Are you close enough to come to the office and talk to her?”
Frustrated, Jason pressed his lips tight. He couldn’t have this conversation with Kelli right now. They needed to go someplace without the worry of interruptions.
He unclipped the radio from his belt. “Tell her I’ll call her back in ten minutes.” To Kelli he said, “She’s a board member, so I need to talk to her. There’s something I need to tell you, but this isn’t the time or place. You’re off work tomorrow to take your grandmother home from the hospital. What are you doing tomorrow evening?”
“I’d planned to spend the whole day at your mother’s helping Nana get settled. After that—” She shrugged. “Go home and play with the cat, probably.” Her gaze turned shy. “Unless I get a better offer.”
Jason grinned. “You have one. Let’s go to dinner. I’ll pick you up around seven. Sound good?”
A warm glow lit her eyes. “Perfect.”
As he made his way to the office and his phone call with Mrs. Cowell, he was already planning where they’d go on their first official date.
Chapter Twenty-One
“There you are, Mrs. Jackson. How did that feel?”
The physical therapist from Home Health stood beside the bed in Barb Andover’s house, smiling down on Nana. She’d just demonstrated how to swing the injured leg from the floor to the mattress using the other leg as a lever. Kelli could tell the girl’s overly-perky attitude was starting to irritate Nana, who grimaced with pain every time her leg moved.
“It felt like someone was sawing through my bone with a table knife, that’s how it felt.” Nana’s normally cheerful disposition was nowhere in evidence as she collapsed backward on the pillows in the hospital bed.
Barb, standing beside Kelli in the doorway to her guest room, wore a sympathetic grimace. “I’ll help Mrs. Jackson work on that after she’s had a nap. This has been an exhausting day for all of us.”
Kelli turned a grateful smile toward Jason’s mother. Barb had been the epitome of kindness throughout the afternoon, ever since Nana and Kelli arrived from the hospital.
“That will be perfect,” the therapist said, with too much enthusiasm. She placed a hand on Nana’s arm and directed a slightly louder voice to her elderly patient. “I’ll be back to see you on Friday, Mrs. Jackson. You practice getting in and out of bed on your own, and we’ll move on to something else then.”
Nana didn’t open her eyes as she answered in a voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’ll be counting the days.”
“That’s the spirit!” The clueless girl beamed down on her patient.
Kelli and Barb both hid a smile as the therapist gathered her papers and left. Barb walked her to the front door, while Kelli moved to Nana’s bedside.
“She’s a little hard to take, isn’t she?” She kept her voice low.
Nana cracked an eye and glanced around the room, as though assuring herself the girl was really gone. “I half expected her to pull out her pom-poms and give me a cheer for making it all the way from the wheelchair to the bed.” Her eyes shut again. “Which I hate using, by the way.”
“I know.” Kelli placed a sympathetic hand on her arm. “But it’s only temporary, until you can walk farther than two feet without collapsing. If you work hard at those exercises she showed you—”
Nana’s deep breathing alerted Kelli to the fact that she had fallen asleep. The day had been exhausting for her. Moving silently, Kelli tiptoed from the room and pulled the door shut behind her. A monitor on the nightstand beside the bed would alert her and Barb if Nana woke and called for them.
Barb really did have a perfect setup to care for an invalid, although Kelli felt slightly guilty that Nana would occupy the master suite while Barb slept in one of the smaller bedrooms on the opposite side of the house. But Barb explained that she’d become comfortable in the cozy bedroom, where she’d moved her furniture when the necessity for a hospital bed for her husband had arisen. Prior to that, the room had held the white-and-gold daybed Kelli was sleeping on.
A third bedroom, next door to Barb’s, had been Jason’s during childhood. Kelli crept down the hallway and peeked inside the darkened room. Apparently, he’d been a sports fan. A baseball bat and glove hung from a wooden stand on the wall, beneath an Atlanta Braves pennant. On the other wall was a framed picture of a tall basketball player beside a preteen boy. She could just see the dark scrawl of a signature in the lower corner of the picture. Kelli wanted to slip inside and study the boy’s face, but she hated for Barb to catch her snooping around Jason’s bedroom. With regret, she continued down the hallway to the kitchen, where she found Barb punching buttons on the microwave.
“There you are. I thought you might like a cup of herbal tea.” She smiled and gestured for Kelli to be seated at the round table that dominated one corner of the room. “Is she sleeping?”
Kelli nodded as she slipped into a cushioned chair. “I think today has worn her out.”
“Oh, I’m sure it has. Plus, major surgery is hard on anyone. I expect she’ll sleep most of the time for the next few days.”
She set a mug and spoon in front of Kelli and then arranged several boxes of herbal tea within reach. Kelli selected Apple Cinnamon Spice. “I want to thank you again. The way you gave her that shot in the stomach even impressed the Home Health nurse.” Kelli shuddered. “I couldn’t do it.”
Barb dismissed her thanks with a wave. “That was nothing. I gave my husband injections for years. I’m sure your grandmother will be a dream. I really am looking forward to having someone to take care of.”
The microwave beeped, and she pulled a steaming glass pitcher from it. She crossed the kitchen to Kelli’s side and poured water on top of her tea bag. A cinnamony-apple fragrance rose with the steam, and Kelli inhaled deeply while Barb seated herself in the chair on the opposite side of the table.
“She really is a sweet person,” Kelli said as she stirred a spoonful of sugar into the hot tea, “but today she’s so
mething of a crab.”
“You should have seen Greg when he first started losing his independence. Now, there was a crab.” Barb dunked her own tea bag up and down in her mug, her expression thoughtful. “Of course, becoming an invalid frustrated him so. I understood. And he always apologized after he’d snapped at me.”
Compassion stirred in Kelli’s heart. How awful it must have been to watch someone she loved deteriorate. And how lucky he was, to have someone like Barb. Unlike Lillian, who’d had no one to care for her at the end, except the nurses on staff at the hospital.
Kelli glanced around the kitchen for something to distract her from her disturbing thoughts. Her gaze fell on the refrigerator. It looked like Nana’s in Denver, covered with handwritten reminders, to-do lists and snapshots. One picture stood out, perhaps because it was a close-up of a young child’s laughing face, or maybe because it held a place of honor in the exact center of everything else. Even from this distance Kelli could see a family resemblance. The child’s eyes were shaped like rounded almonds, exactly like Barb’s, and framed with wispy sun-kissed brown bangs.
“What a pretty little girl.” Kelli nodded toward the picture. “She’s obviously related to you.”
Barb twisted in her chair and glanced at the refrigerator. When she turned back around, she wore a wide smile. “Yes, she is. That’s my granddaughter, Tiffany.”
The smile on Kelli’s face went cold. Granddaughter?
Barb lifted her tea bag and dangled it, dripping, above her mug, regret in the eyes that she kept fixed on the bag. “Tiffany just turned four, but I’ve only seen her twice. While Greg was alive I couldn’t leave him long enough to visit her. So sad, really, because I missed playing with her as a baby.”
Her mouth dry, Kelli lifted her mug and sipped the scalding tea. Even so, her voice cracked when she spoke. “I didn’t realize you had children other than Jason.”
Confusion creased Barb’s brow. “I don’t. Jason is our only son.”
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