Resisting Love

by Kat Bellemore

  Isaac folded his arms across his chest. “My body is in peak condition.”

  “It was in peak condition.” The nurse took a step toward him. “I’m going to help you lie back down now. You aren’t going to fight me, are you?”

  She seemed determined, so Isaac grumbled a bit but waved a hand, giving her the go-ahead. The nurse placed a hand on his back and helped lower him. Isaac didn’t want to admit that she had been right, but now that he was lying down, his head wasn’t swimming as much.

  “What is the last thing you remember?” the nurse asked as she pressed a button that raised the back of the bed so he could at least look at her while they talked. Her eyes held compassion, and Isaac decided that he trusted the woman.

  He thought back. Him and Leanne kissing on the beach. He hoped it hadn’t been a dream, because after that, things were a bit fuzzy. He vaguely remembered going to Leanne’s house to pick her up for a date. There was a guest that had arrived at the same time.

  “It’s only coming in bits and pieces,” he said, his lips dipping into a frown.

  The nurse patted his hand, like a grandmother would. “Oxygen deprivation can cause short-term memory loss. It will come back, though.”

  “Oxygen deprivation…” Issac’s voice trailed off. His gaze met the nurse’s. “What happened to me?”

  The nurse’s attention wandered to the doorway. “I think this young woman will be able to answer that question better than I can.”

  Isaac turned to find Leanne standing just outside the room. She gave him a small wave.

  “I’ll leave you two,” the nurse said. On her way out, though, she stopped next to Leanne. “If you notice anything concerning, please let us know.” Even though she lowered her voice, it wasn’t enough to keep Isaac from overhearing.

  Had things really been that bad?

  Leanne gave the nurse what seemed like a grateful smile, then crossed over to the bed. “You’re looking good.”

  Isaac managed a grin. “You’d expect anything less?”

  She raised a hand like she was going to whack his arm, a bad habit of hers whenever he teased her, but she paused midair. “Sorry, force of habit. Just remind me that I owe you one, you know, once you get out of here.”

  “Yeah,” Isaac said, “about that. Mind telling me what finally managed to bring me down? I’ve had a lot of close calls, but I was starting to think I was invincible.”

  Leanne laughed. “I’m sure you were.”

  He eyed the end of the bed and raised his eyebrows, hoping she’d get the hint to sit down. They had a lot they needed to talk about.

  Leanne followed his lead and slowly lowered herself, careful not to sit on his leg. “It was a surfing accident. You got pulled under, and I think your board must have whacked you in the head.”

  Isaac’s pulse quickened. “Marlin. He’s not—”

  “Broken. Yeah,” Leanne said. “I’m sorry.”

  He and his board had been through a lot together over the past decade. And it wasn’t just the numerous gold medals, or the hundreds of mornings when it was just the two of them out on the water. Marlin had been his board when his parents had moved away, then Leanne, and when she’d returned. All of the big moments of his life.

  Isaac was quiet for a long time, and Leanne allowed him to be. She didn’t mock him for grieving a surfboard. She knew how much Marlin had meant to him.

  “Were we out there together?” he finally asked. “You and me surfing, I mean.”

  Leanne hesitated. “You don’t remember.”

  “No, something about oxygen deprivation or some nonsense like that.”

  She nodded, thoughtful. “No, we weren’t surfing together. But I did see you fall. I got there as quick as I could, but I thought…” Her voice broke off and her gaze dropped. “I had hurt you—again—and I’m pretty sure you were avoiding me. The thought that you might die because of my stupidity, it almost broke me.”

  Isaac now noticed the dark bags under Leanne’s eyes. “How long have you been at the hospital?” He didn’t mean to abruptly change the subject—maybe it was because he wasn’t sure he wanted to know all of the details, didn’t want to know why he might be mad at her. But it was more than just a distraction. She didn’t look well.

  Leanne glanced up. “Since they brought you in a couple of days ago.”

  “Have you slept?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Not really.”

  Isaac slid over to the edge of the bed, clenching his teeth as he did. It felt like there were some broken ribs swimming around in his chest, but he patted a spot next to him. Leanne looked at him, her eyes questioning.

  “There’s no way you’ll be able to sleep in those waiting room chairs,” he said, patting the bed again. “Please.” He hoped she could hear the sincerity in that one word.

  “All right.”

  She scooted over and lay down, her head next to his and her hand resting on his chest. “Is this okay?”

  He breathed her in. “Perfect.”

  It was another moment before she whispered, “Thank you for not dying.”

  Isaac made the mistake of laughing, and every muscle in his body made him pay for it. After a minute, he managed to say, “You’re welcome.”

  And then a miracle happened. Despite the pain, despite Marlin’s demise, and whatever else he couldn’t remember, Isaac felt at peace. He was with the woman he loved—the woman he wanted to marry. And right now, that was enough.

  Isaac hated that he was in a wheelchair. Apparently, he had broken several ribs as well as both legs. Thankfully, his arms were only bruised, but intact. He couldn’t imagine having to ask people to take shifts spoon-feeding him.

  “Are you sure this is okay?” he asked as Leanne pushed him up a ramp that her parents had installed at the bed and breakfast, just for him. “I mean, I’m taking a room from a potential guest, right?”

  Leanne stopped him on the wraparound porch, put on the brake, and walked around the wheelchair so she could face him. She placed her hands on his cheeks and gave him a quick kiss. “I’ve already told you, it was their idea. Our place is never full this time of year, and they’ve been meaning to get that ramp installed for ages. You helped give them the push they needed. Besides, there’s no way you can be on your own in that little bungalow of yours. Not until you get those casts off, anyway.”

  Isaac knew she was right, but he still felt guilty. “Okay, but tell them I’ll repay them someday. Like, maybe I can figure out how to be a handyman or something and can work off the debt.”

  She laughed and walked back around the wheelchair.

  “What?” he asked, wondering if he should be offended. “I can be handy.”

  “Okay,” Leanne said, but he could tell she didn’t believe a word of it. “Until then, Mr. Handyman, we are going to take care of you. And you are going to hate it, but knowing you, you’ll learn a profound life lesson from the experience, write a book, and become a millionaire.”

  “You think so?” he asked, perking up. That didn’t sound so bad.

  Leanne laughed again as she opened the front door and pushed him inside.

  “Did you remember to grab my medicine?”

  “Yes,” she said. “And your clothes. And the remnants of Marlin.”

  Isaac tried to run through a mental checklist, but it was like his brain kept blinking out. He hoped his memory fully returned soon, because it was infuriating to not be able to recall simple things. “What about my sock drawer?” He couldn’t believe he’d nearly forgotten that one. It was the most important.

  “Yes,” she said.

  Isaac could hear the eye roll, even if he couldn’t see it. He hoped she didn’t think he was just trying to be funny. He really needed his sock drawer.

  Before he could press the issue, her phone burst into song. She stopped the wheelchair so she could answer it, but instead released a groan.

  “Who is it?” Isaac asked, twisting in the chair, as if that would help him s
ee the caller ID. He didn’t manage to see the phone, but he did catch Leanne’s guilty expression. “What?”

  Leanne grabbed the handles again and rolled him into the dining room, where several tables were set up for the guests. She moved a chair at one of them, making room for him, and rolled him up to it. “Remember Frederick, from LA?”

  Isaac’s breath stalled as he watched Leanne walk across the room and fill a plate with tarts and muffins from the breakfast counter. It was called that, but in reality, guests could grab a snack at any time of day. She returned and placed the plate in front of him. Uh, oh. This must be bad, and she was trying to get him in a better mood by feeding him.

  He refrained from eating any, even though a blackberry tart was begging him to take a bite.

  “Yeah, I remember,” he said, hoping the fact that he was about to have an anxiety attack wasn’t obvious. Leanne had said she’d grabbed his medicine, but had she gotten all of them? He was going to need something soon.

  She sat down across from him, and she studied him. “Do you…remember him visiting Starlight Ridge?”

  “What?” Isaac practically shouted it, and had to force himself to take a long, slow breath. His memory was better, but it was still spotty. He did remember a man with a fancy car arriving at the bed and breakfast, though. And when he tried to hold onto that memory, he felt angry. Not at the fact that he couldn’t remember everything, but at the man. Like he had offended Isaac in some way. “Did he happen to look like a mobster from an old Frank Sinatra movie?”

  Leanne nodded slowly. “You’re starting to remember.”

  “Not enough,” Isaac said, releasing an exasperated sigh. “And honestly, you haven’t been much help.” He didn’t mean for his tone to sound so accusing, but he was tired of having blank pages in his memory—pages that were apparently important.

  “I know,” Leanne said, her gaze dropping to the table. She sounded sad, and Isaac wished he could take it back, tell her that none of that mattered. Live blissfully in ignorance. But it did matter—a lot.

  He placed a hand on hers. “Will you please tell me? Not just what you want me to know, but…everything?”

  She raised her gaze until it met his. Her eyes held the same sadness her voice had, plus a little fear. Isaac could tell that she wanted to tell him, but also that it was going to hurt. And he wasn’t sure who she was afraid of hurting more—her or him. Maybe both.

  “Before your accident, we hadn’t spoken for a couple of days,” she started.

  Isaac blinked in surprise. He had been holding onto his most recent memory, of them kissing on the beach. How long ago had that been? Isaac didn’t know what to say to that, so she sucked in a long breath and continued.

  “Two or three weeks ago, Frederick had started calling and texting me. Said he wanted to talk. I figured he was trying to get me to return to LA. I thought if I ignored his calls, didn’t respond, that would be the end of it.”

  Isaac found his voice. “But it wasn’t.”

  She shook her head. “No. He showed up at the bed and breakfast a few days ago.”

  Flickers of memory began to form. Isaac had been there, that day. A surge of fear and hatred flooded him. He couldn’t place his finger on why he would feel such strong emotion, though.

  “And?” he prompted her. “Did he ask you to leave with him?”

  Leanne looked like she didn’t want to continue this conversation, her gaze avoiding his, but she eventually nodded. “Yes. I already knew my answer was going to be no, but when he said he was going to stay the night here, at the bed and breakfast, before heading back to LA, I thought I’d make the best of the situation. Figured if he wrote a good review or something, it would boost the bed and breakfast into a whole different playing field.”

  “That doesn’t sound so bad,” Isaac said. But if that were the case, why did he dread what was coming next?

  “You and I were supposed to go out to dinner that night,” Leanne said, her gaze meeting his. “You were at the bed and breakfast and…well, let’s just say that you and Frederick didn’t exactly hit it off.”

  That would explain where all the intense emotions were coming from. “Did I hit him?” he asked hopefully. “You know, for trying to steal you away?”

  “No,” Leanne said, looking even more miserable than she had. “I knew that to get a good review out of Frederick, I’d have to cater to him—give him the level of service he was used to. And if I left, Jules would be the only one here. Mom and Dad were out that evening.”

  “So...” Isaac wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell him.

  “I sent you away, okay?” she said, her voice rising in frustration. Whether it was with him or herself, he couldn’t tell. “I said I had to stay, and I gave Frederick the type of service he expected from a five-star hotel—carrying his luggage for him, bringing his meals to his room, and everything else he’s used to.” Leanne grabbed one of the tarts from the plate she’d placed in front of Isaac and ripped a bite out of it.

  Isaac fingered the plate but didn’t move to take any food from it. “Were you ever tempted? To go back with him?”

  Leanne chewed slowly. “Yes,” she finally admitted. “Frederick told me that shortly after I’d left LA, he’d found a producer who wanted my script. A good producer too, from the sound of it. Would be able to get A-list actors.”

  Wow, he’d just thought Frederick was full of his own hot air this whole time. If he could have given that to Leanne… “You should have gone,” Isaac said, surprising himself.

  She blinked. “Um…after you left, you wouldn’t talk to me. This was why you were mad, and out on the waves instead of with everyone else for the sunset stroll.”

  Isaac had gone surfing in the evening? Leanne was right, he must have been furious, because that was the only thing that could get him out on the waves at that time. He hated how the setting sun made the light bounce weird, making everything appear different. “But your dream…”

  “Is to be here with you,” Leanne finished for him. “I told Frederick no, and I sent him packing. Without me.”

  “Guess you didn’t get your stellar review,” Isaac said with a wry smile, though secretly he was celebrating inside. Leanne had chosen him over a life filled with the rich and famous. He, Isaac, was enough.

  Leanne stood and walked out of the room. She returned a moment later with a framed picture. “Actually, he left this,” she said, handing it to Isaac. The photo of Frederick made him look even more pompous that he already was. Isaac smiled at the message the screenwriter had written. Yes, Leanne had gotten away, and she wasn’t going back. Because she was in Starlight Ridge. To stay.

  An overwhelming sense of love filled him, and he knew what he needed to do.

  “My sock drawer,” he said, the words bursting from his lips. “Did you really bring it?”

  Leanne started at the abrupt change of conversation. “Yes, it’s in the room Mom prepared for you.”

  “And you didn’t bring the individual socks, but just brought the whole drawer, right?”

  She raised an eyebrow and slowly said, “Yes.”

  Isaac had no doubt that she thought he’d finally lost it, a byproduct of the accident. He needed to hurry before she called the doctor and told him that Isaac might not be as okay as they had originally thought. The last thing he needed was more tests.

  “Stay here,” he said as he tried to maneuver his wheelchair away from the table. He still wasn’t used to it and bumped into the leg a couple of times before finally breaking free.

  Leanne watched, her brow creased in concern. “I can help.”

  “No, no. I got this,” he assured her. Isaac couldn’t very well have Leanne fetching the ring he had buried in the drawer. No, this proposal was all him.

  20

  Leanne drummed her fingers on the table, tempted to jump up and search for wherever Isaac had disappeared to. She’d heard a couple of bangs and a crash, but when she’d slid back her chair, he’d called out, “I’
m fine! Stay right there!”

  She had begrudgingly stayed, but was worried that all of this had something to do with his sock drawer. If Isaac came out with handmade sock puppets, she was calling the doctor. Leanne imagined eyes and a mouth hastily drawn with black permanent marker, and Isaac talking through them instead of for himself. Maybe she shouldn’t have told him everything that had happened with Frederick. The doctor had warned her that trying to fill in too many missing details and asking things like “Do you remember?” would only cause frustration for Isaac.

  Maybe she’d broken him.

  But then Isaac returned. He rolled in, seemingly in better control of the wheelchair, and there were no sock puppets. No socks at all, actually, or drawers. That was a good sign, but left her wondering what had been so important that he’d needed to take off like that, and why he’d insisted that she not come along.

  Rather than returning to the spot where Leanne had parked his chair before, he wheeled himself around the table and stopped next to her.

  Isaac seemed happy—full of light. It radiated from him in a way that she hadn’t seen in a long time. Definitely before she’d left for LA. This Isaac was the one she’d fallen in love with. She smiled, grateful that he had returned to her. She wondered what had caused the shift. Her fear of him pulling out the sock puppets returned.

  “Leanne Warner,” he started. “We’ve been through a lot. Both since you returned, and before. But I want you to know that I love you. And I want to move forward with our lives. Together.”

  Okay, no sock puppets.

  Leanne grinned so wide, her cheeks felt like they wouldn’t be able to contain it. A deep love for the man who sat in front of her enveloped every one of her senses, and she had no idea how she was going to convey what she felt. So she instead stood up. Isaac’s gaze questioned what she was doing, and she slowly lowered herself onto his lap, careful not to bump his casts.

  “I love you too. You took care of me when I fell on the playground all those years ago, and now it’s my turn to take care of you.” And then she kissed him like the world was ending. His arms pulled her into him as their lips frantically danced together. Maybe the world would still be standing when they finally finished, but their world wouldn’t be the same. Leanne could feel it—this was the start of something new.