Hard Love (Wild Hearts, Contemporary Romance Book 3)

by Nancy Adams

  The GTO hummed along the highway. The whole trip took about 10 hours, and he pulled up in front of the building that he'd be living in for the next few years. The real estate agent had agreed to meet him there, and Robbie was pleased to see that she was right on time. He got out of the car and went to meet her.

  “Mr. Christopher? I'm Lynette Johnson, from Stewart Realty.” She extended a hand, and Robbie shook it.

  “Hi, Lynette, I'm Rob Christopher,” he said. It was only at that moment that he made the decision to become “Rob,” instead of “Robbie.” He hadn't even thought about it before that, but suddenly it just felt right.

  She took him up to see his apartment, gave him his keys, and filled him in on all the little details of apartment living. She told him the rules about noise, showed him where the trash dumpsters were, and took him to the basement to show him where he could store any extra things. Each apartment had a storage locker in the basement, it turned out, but Rob couldn't think of any reason he would need one.

  The apartment was furnished, so he carried up his personal things and began getting settled in. He was walking fine, lately, but he would still get sore from time to time, so it took him a couple of trips up and down the stairs. He was on the third floor, and there was an elevator, but Rob decided he would much rather walk than ride. He guessed it was because he had spent so much time riding in his wheelchair.

  He arrived on Friday, and school would begin on Monday. Somehow, Rob knew that he was following a plan for his life that was much bigger than he was, and the further along he went down this path, the more certain he was. There was so much to learn, so much to do, but he knew he had made the right choice for his career.

  Six years later, Rob Christopher became Dr. Robert Christopher. His entire family was there, including his extended family, consisting of Julie and Jerry, and their two children. As he accepted his degree, there was an incredible sense of pride that went through him. He wished his father could've seen him, and that his mother could understand that this was her son who had made such an accomplishment, but you can’t change what’s already happened. He comforted himself with the knowledge that Linda was there, along with his little sister Anna—who wasn't all that little anymore—and his Aunt Kay, who had been there when he needed someone the most.

  All in all, Rob Christopher thought he was one of the luckiest men alive. He had his degree, he had a position waiting for him at Columbia Medical Center, and he was on track for a private practice in just a very short time. In fact, Dr. Lindstrom had recently announced that he was ready to retire, and Rob was already talking with him about buying out his practice. If everything went according to plan, within three years Rob would be back in Maxwell, running his own practice in his own clinic.

  9

  Sometimes it's quite amazing that things we experience when we're young can be connected to other parts of our lives when we are older. Rob Christopher knew about some of the things that connected different parts of his life, but there were many others that had escaped his notice. 16 years had passed since that fateful day when a tire blew out on a semi truck and turned his entire life upside down. If anyone had told him that morning about all of the things—both good and bad—that were in store for him, he would've laughed.

  Even after that, there were so many things that happened in his life that led and connected directly to things that would come later. His experiences with all of the people in his life contributed to who he became as a man, helping to shape his complete personality and mold him into the person that he saw when he looked in the mirror.

  16 years. That seems like a very long time, when you're looking from the beginning of it, but when you're looking back from the other end, you wonder how it could've passed so quickly. Rob was thinking about that one morning, in the middle of his first year in his own practice in Maxwell. He had a new patient coming, one that had been referred by Dr. Capshaw back at Columbia. It was a young woman, and she'd been injured in an auto accident. Unlike him, however, she had gone through the windshield after the car she was riding in struck a tree. She was very lucky just to be alive.

  And incidentally, she should have been waiting for him right about now. He walked out into the reception area, and spotted the brunette in the wheelchair.

  “Katie Lou Brennan?”

  Katie smiled at him. “That's me,” she said, and he walked over.

  “Hi,” he said and extended a hand to her. “I'm Doctor Rob Christopher; I'll be your physical therapist. If you'll follow me, we'll go over a few things and start working on a game plan for you, okay?”

  Katie was surprised at how young Dr. Christopher seemed to be; she would have guessed him at no more than twenty-four or so, but she figured that getting a doctorate, and then working in Columbia long enough to develop a reputation would put him closer to twenty-eight or thirty. “Sure,” she said. “Can my mom and sister come along?”

  Dr. Christopher smiled. “Of course,” he said. “There'll be a lot that you'll need to do at home, too, and your family will need to know what you're going through. If you ladies will come with me...” He turned and led the way back through the door he'd come out of.

  They followed him down a short hallway into a room that reminded Katie of a small gymnasium. There was a mat on the floor, and several different kinds of machines and exercise balls and “toys,” as she thought of such things, all around it. There were also a few chairs, and he took one for himself after inviting Judy and Kylie to sit down. Katie, of course, had her own chair, and Dr. Christopher positioned it so that she was right at the edge of the floor mat.

  “Okay, Dr. Capshaw called me yesterday and gave me the history of your case, including the accident and your injuries. I've gotta say, you are one lucky girl; most people who went through what you did wouldn't be even close to being released from the hospital, and that's assuming they would have even woken up yet. When he said this only happened last weekend, and he was ready to turn you over to me already, I was pretty shocked.” He smiled. “On the other hand, I've come to trust his judgment, and if he thinks you're ready for PT, then you are. Still, I'm gonna go easy on you for the first week or so, and see how you handle some of what we're going to do.”

  Katie smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “Okay,” she said. “I have, like, no idea what we're going to do, so I'll just try to do what you tell me.”

  Dr. Christopher laughed. “That's usually all I ask,” he said, “and I try to make my instructions clear and simple.” He looked down at the file he held in his hand. “Katie, I've got Dr. Capshaw's notes here, and as I said, we talked about your case for quite a while yesterday. What I'd like to know, though, is what you're feeling, in your hands, your arms, your legs and feet. Does any part of your body feel normal, and what parts do not feel normal? If they don't feel normal, how do they feel abnormal?” He looked at her expectantly.

  Katie sat there and thought over what he had asked, and a part of her wanted to run out the door. Of course there were parts of her that didn't feel normal; holy cow, she'd been thrown through a windshield! Her back felt abnormal, because it still hurt above her waist, and there was tingling feeling that went from about the level of her waist to her tailbone. She could feel that her feet were on the footrests of the wheelchair, but she couldn't feel her legs or feet the way she could days before, just sensing them there. Her hands—she could feel them, and they seemed to work okay, but there was something odd about the way they felt, and even in their sense of touch. She began composing how to say all of this to him.

  “Well,” she began, “I guess nothing really feels normal, right now. My head and neck and back are sore, and so are both shoulders. My arms don't exactly feel sore, but there's something in the way they feel that just seems—I dunno, different, maybe? Just a sort of 'not quite normal' feeling, I guess, like they aren't my arms, but some new ones I'm getting used to. My lower back is tingly—in fact everything from my waist down is tingly—then, from about my hip sockets on down, the
re isn't really any feeling at all, unless you touch my legs or something. I can feel, like, pressure when I'm touched, and where my feet are on the footrests or the floor, or whatever.”

  Dr. Christopher was making notes, and then looked up again. “What about movement? Show me what you can do.”

  She shrugged. “From the waist up, no problem, I can move my head, neck, arms and hands like always. When I try to move at the waist, it's like I can feel it moving, but when I look down, nothing's happening. From the hips down, nothing, except I can make the toes on my right foot curl downward just a bit. That's it.” She shrugged her shoulders again, as if to say that she didn't have anything more to add. “Dr. Christopher, is there really any hope that physical therapy is going to help me get the use of my legs back?”

  Dr. Christopher smiled. “First, let's get a little less formal; titles are wonderful for signs, but I'm not that crazy about them, so just call me Rob, okay?”

  Katie grinned and said, “Okay, and I'm Katie Lou, or just Katie.”

  Rob nodded. “No problem, then. Now, as for your question, there is always hope, and PT has been shown to have some very beneficial effects in cases like this. How much it will help actually depends on three things, and one of them, the most important one, is you. You have to be determined to get the use of your legs back. From what Dr. Capshaw told me, he thinks you've got plenty of determination; is he right?”

  Kylie laughed. “Doc, you don't know the half of it!” she said. “Katie's wedding day is less than three weeks off. Think that's enough motivation to make her determined?”

  Rob's eyebrows shot up a half-inch. “Wow, congratulations! This was some pretty rotten timing, then, wasn't it?”

  Katie gave a short laugh. “You think? If I'm not walking by then, we'll probably end up postponing the wedding; give you any clue how motivated I am?”

  “Ah, yes,” he said. “I can see that this is important to you on many different levels, right? Well, then; let's talk about what we can do to help you get back onto those feet! I will be right back, and then we'll get started, okay?”

  Rob walked out of the room, and as soon as the door was closed behind them, he leaned against the wall in the hallway. Holy cow! Rob thought to himself. That must be the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life! I don't know who she's planning to marry, but he is one lucky son of a gun.

  He went on down the hallway, but suddenly stopped. He turned and glanced back over his shoulder toward the room where Katie Lou Brennan was waiting for him to do all he could to help her walk again. He shook his head. Katie Lou Brennan, he thought. Somehow, I'd swear I've heard that name before.

  He shook his head again, and went on to do his job.

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  1

  “Bubba,” Anna said, “you look fine! Stop messing with your hair, stop fidgeting with your tie. You look great.”

  “What do you know?” Rob asked her. “You're just my kid sister. How in the world could I be expected to take your advice on how to look for my first date with the girl of my dreams?”

  Anna rolled her eyes. “Oh, good grief,” she said. “Look, Bubba, I know how you feel about Katie Lou, right? I mean, haven't I had to listen to it for the last few weeks? All I hear about is how wonderful she is, how beautiful she is, how crazy about her you are…”

  “I have never said anything about how crazy about her I am,” Rob said. “You added that part in. I really don't need you to put words in my mouth; I'm perfectly capable of putting them there myself, and ending up having to eat them.”

  “Stop it! I'm only trying to help,” she told him. “Besides, I'm a girl, so I'm perfectly capable of looking at you from that perspective, as far as your hair and clothes and such are concerned. I'm qualified to give advice on how you want to look for this girl.”

  Rob had been trying to get ready for the dance for over two hours, but he’d found some sort of fault with everything he put on. He was suddenly irritated with himself over the fact that he hadn't bought a new suit since the day he graduated college, and that had been just long enough ago for styles to have changed a bit. The nicest suit he owned would probably look a little out of place at the country club, and he just couldn't stand the thought of not looking his best for Katie Lou.

  Katie Lou Brennan had come into his life a few weeks ago, sent by Dr. Capshaw, the neurosurgeon from the Columbia University Medical Center who had first treated her after she was life-flighted there. She'd been sent to the medical center in the hope that they could save her life after she was thrown through the windshield of a Corvette that hit a tree. Once the ER had gotten her stabilized, Dr. Capshaw had been called in to deal with the serious damages done to her spine and cranium. There was neurological damage, the doctors knew, and she was in a coma. The coma was severe enough that, for a while, the doctors and nurses wondered if she were ever going to awaken, or if she'd be on life support for years to come.

  Miraculously, the coma lasted only a day and a half, but when she did awaken, they discovered that she was paralyzed from the waist down, and Katie Lou had been sure that that was the moment when her life actually ended.

  But that was weeks ago. Now, Katie Lou had made progress that was almost considered unbelievable, and she was well on her way to beginning a whole new career. She had already gotten her degree in psychology, and would shortly have her license as a counselor. Because she understood the trauma and fears of someone who had suffered a spinal injury, she had decided to go into the field of specialized counseling for people with disabilities.

  Katie Lou credited her incredible progress in large part to her physical therapist, Dr. Rob Christopher. Rather than simply inundating her with all of the conventional exercises that most physical therapists adhere to, Rob had demonstrated his creativity, coming up with exercises that were designed specifically for her. He looked at each step of her progress, and considered how to enhance it for her, how to play on each strength that she demonstrated in order to develop the next level of that strength.

  She had come to him in a wheelchair, barely able to get around on her own at all. Within days, she was up and walking back and forth on the parallel bars. A week later, she was using a walker, one with wheels and brakes and a seat that made it possible for her to be far more independent.

  Katie Lou had been injured in an accident with her former fiancé. The Corvette they were riding in had been his, and while she didn't remember the actual accident, there was substantial evidence that he may have fallen asleep behind the wheel. The car struck a tree, and Katie Lou went through the windshield, due to wear on the seat belt that was abnormal, and primarily the fault of the car's owner.

  Her ex-fiancé, Darren, had great political ambitions. A number of powerful people and organizations were backing him in a long-term plan that they hoped would eventually lead him to the White House, and it didn't take long for them to decide that a crippled wife would be a liability, rather than an asset to his future candidacy. After a weak attempt to argue the point, he allowed himself to put those ambitions before everything else, and when it became obvious that Katie Lou was going to need long-term therapy, he broke off the engagement.

  In order to protect his career, his backers advised that he should forestall any attempt by Katie Lou to reveal what had happened, or to file a lawsuit for damages. Since both he and his father were attorneys, they quickly put together a settlement offer. Darren's insurance was already on the hook for all of her medical care, so they offered her three-hundred-and-fifty thousand dollars to sign an agreement that she would never discuss what happened, or seek any future damages from Darren over the accident or the canceled engagement.

  Katie Lou wanted to put the episode of her life that included Darren as far behind her as possible, and so she signed the agreement. The money she received in the settlement would be more than enough to allow her to establish herself in a counseling practice, and when she mentioned the idea of specializing in disability coun
seling to Rob, he immediately suggested, since there were additional, unused rooms in the building he had purchased for his clinic, that she simply open her practice there.

  Katie Lou was thrilled, partly because it would put her in a perfect position to meet potential new clients, but also because it would allow her to see Rob Christopher every day. Rob felt precisely the same way, excited that his daily life would now include Katie Lou. Rob's red-haired sister, Anna, and Katie Lou's sister, Kylie, rolled their eyes in tandem, both of them fully aware that Rob and Katie were falling in love.

  At first, Kylie had been jealous. She happened to think that Rob Christopher was the most gorgeous hunk of male flesh she had ever seen in her life, and she had worked very hard to get his attention. It had sort of worked, because Rob had asked Kylie to go with him as his date to a charity ball at the country club, but after watching the way he looked at Katie Lou, Kylie finally accepted the reality of the situation, told Rob she wouldn't be able to go after all, and suggested he take her sister instead.

  Rob thought that an excellent idea, and changed Katie Lou's physical therapy sessions for the next few days to include dancing as her primary exercise. That allowed them to develop their dancing style, since Katie Lou would have to spend a good part of her time on the dance floor basically hanging from his arms. Yes, she could move her legs about, but she was still suffering bouts of weakness in them, which meant that he would literally be holding her up, at times.

  The girl was barely over five feet tall, and weighed in at less than 100 pounds; Rob didn't mind, and after they had practiced it just a little bit, anyone who didn't know that he was holding her up would never guess. In fact, they had become so comfortable dancing together that when Katie Lou's legs failed her, Rob could simply hook her toes with his and make them move where they should go. The move looked entirely natural, and he was thinking of recommending dance lessons to other patients of his.