“But, if I think I am doing better than the others, I sound arrogant and conceited,” he argued, with a laugh.

  “And that too is basically an insecurity. It’s the need to push yourself so that you’re better than everybody else because inside you believe or are afraid that you’re worse than everybody else.”

  Just then her phone rang. She looked at it and sighed. “That’s a great conversation,” she pointed out, “so hold that thought and work on it. I have to run.” And, with that, she was gone.

  Chapter 5

  The days just blended in, and Dawn didn’t realize how much they’d merged until she kept finding herself looking for opportunities to go see Victor.

  Finally Ilse turned, looked at her, and said, “Just go already.”

  Dawn winced. “That obvious, huh?”

  “You’re useless until you’ve said hi to him in the morning. And, yes, it’s six o’clock, and it’s probably too early, but, if you don’t run past Victor’s room, you won’t know.”

  “It is too early,” she agreed, appalled, staring at the clock. “My God, I would have woken him up.”

  “And yet he might be awake already.”

  “Maybe not though,” Dawn muttered. “I can’t do that to him.”

  “Then settle down,” Ilse said. “And then, when the time is appropriate, go, spend a few minutes, and then get back here and get to work.”

  “Will do,” Dawn replied. “I guess it’s pretty silly, isn’t it?”

  “I love seeing adults in love act like two-year-olds,” Ilse shared, with a chuckle.

  “Oh my, surely it’s not that bad.”

  “Well, for two-year-olds, yes, but it sounds like the flush of first love.”

  “I don’t know,” Dawn argued. “I’m twenty-nine. How would that even work?”

  “What’s wrong with being twenty-nine?” Ilse turned toward her bakery chef.

  “Your comments about the flush of first love and acting like a giddy youngster.” She shook her head. “I just realized that I’m too old for this.”

  “Too old for what?” Ilse asked in astonishment. “Love?”

  “Maybe, I don’t know.” She stared at her friend in confusion.

  “Wow. Well, first off, that’s nonsense. Absolutely no way you’re too old for love,” Ilse stated. “I love seeing these eighty- and ninety-year-olds who fall in love and get married, some of them for the first time in life,” she shared. “Why would you put an age limit on love?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it was your reference to toddlers.”

  “How anyone acts versus their biological age can be two different things,” Ilse pointed out, still laughing. “And definitely don’t go down that rabbit hole of you’re too old because no way you’re too old. I’m older than you are, and I’m only now getting married to Keith.”

  “That’s true,” Dawn acknowledged, then gave her a wicked grin. “What are you? A whole two weeks older than me?”

  “At least,” Ilse confirmed. “However, that’s not the point. The point is, you are as old as you feel, and you should always be young at heart, even when life doesn’t make it seem to be an option.”

  “That’s a sad thing to even consider, isn’t it?”

  “Lots of sad things happen in life, but we work in a place where a lot of good things can happen in life too,” Ilse stated. “We just have to focus on the good things.”

  Dawn nodded and kept working. The next time she looked up, it was 7:30 a.m. She glanced over to Ilse, who just rolled her eyes, and Dawn dashed out the kitchen. As she walked quickly down the hallway, she realized she probably should have brought Victor a coffee or something. It was too late now. If she went back and got something, it would take up too much time.

  She heard a voice when she got to Victor’s room, even through the closed door. She frowned, not sure if he was alone or if he was on the phone. She knocked tentatively on his door and heard him call out to come in. She opened the door and poked her head in and saw he was on the phone. She smiled. “Hey, just wanted to say, Good morning,” she said cheerfully.

  He lifted the phone and waggled it. “It’s Gerry.” He chuckled. “She got offered a job here.”

  Her face lit up. “Really? Dani didn’t tell me.”

  “I don’t think Dani’s probably had a chance yet. Gerry got the offer last night, but she hadn’t accepted it then.”

  “That’s fantastic news,” Dawn said. “Give her my congrats.”

  He passed over the congrats on the phone.

  Then Dawn pulled out her phone and sent Gerry a text herself. “I’m really happy for her.”

  “Me too. She will do really well here.” When he said his goodbyes to Gerry, he disconnected the call and looked over at Dawn. “Now that we’ve done that,” he asked Dawn, “do you ever worry that we did the wrong thing?”

  She stared at him because, of course, she already had once worried about that. “You mean about uprooting her present life and bringing her here?”

  He nodded. “I have full faith in what I said about her,” he clarified. “I don’t in any way doubt that. I just wonder about having her move to Texas to get this job. What if we’re impacting fate or something by putting in a good word for her?”

  “I don’t think so,” Dawn countered, with a bright smile. “How bad can it be if we help somebody else? Not only is it good for that person, it’s also good for us.”

  “I guess,” he replied. “It was just a thought.”

  “Your head’s full of thoughts,” she noted, chuckling.

  He nodded. “That’s very true,” he agreed. “I hadn’t realized how much my mind is always working on something.”

  “I think in many ways a lot of our minds are.”

  “Yet I had a friend who told me that his mind was empty.”

  “Seriously?” she asked. “How does that work?”

  “He called it the nothing box. And he’d go into the nothing box, and it would be completely empty.” She frowned at him, stunned. He nodded. “I think, if you search Google for it, you’ll find an awful lot of people out there have a nothing box in their head.”

  She murmured, “I can’t imagine. … I’m always working on new recipes or figuring out what to bake next week or what to do on my days off. … I can’t imagine a nothing box. What a waste.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t even know if a waste is the word for it,” he murmured. “I mean, just because it’s not us and our way, maybe it gives them something.”

  “What could it give them?” she asked in wonder.

  “Time out,” he replied instantly. “Time out, where you don’t have to worry or think about anything.”

  “Maybe,” she conceded, staring at him. “Still seems like a waste to me. My mind is an active and busy place, and, even earlier this morning, I wanted to say Good morning to you. However, I didn’t want to wake you. So I’ve been clock-watching to see when you might be awake.”

  A flush of pleasure rolled across his cheeks.

  She smiled at him. “Now I have another reason. I should ask Gerry when she’s coming.”

  “I can do that,” he said, pulling out his phone. He quickly texted her. As they waited for a response, Victor added, “And, by the way, I would have been awake this morning. I just can’t count on it every morning.”

  Dawn nodded. “I try not to work the hours that Ilse does, which are godforsaken early,” she noted, “but I’m not much further behind her.”

  “We all appreciate how you two are in the kitchen, making food to feed an awful lot of hungry people, who are looking forward to each meal here.”

  “I’ve seen hungry people waiting to be fed and who are fairly impatient about it,” she said, with a nod. “Nobody likes it when breakfast is behind schedule.”

  He winced. “I would be right there with them—not impressed about the delay part.”

  She chuckled. “See? You would be just as bad,” she accused in a teasing tone.

  “It sounds terrible, doesn’t it?” He laughed. “I’ll try not to ever be impatient again.”

  “But you will be,” she stated. “It’s human nature. Once you get adjusted to a schedule, nobody likes having that schedule changed.”

  “Maybe not,” Victor agreed, “but now I have a face behind it, so I’ll be a little more tolerant.”

  “A lot more tolerant would be good.” She nodded. “I have to go to bed and sleep sometimes too.”

  “Got it. So, yeah, I’ll work on it.”

  She smiled at him, looked at her watch, and said, “And, just like that, I have to go again.”

  “How about you let me know when you’re off for lunch?” he suggested.

  She tilted her head. “With my early start, my lunch would be around 10:00 a.m. I could push it to eleven, but that would be it. I would need food before then.”

  “Right, and I’ll be busy with a workout, so not today. That’s for sure.”

  “Not today, but we can work it out. Like you said, another time.” And, with that, she was gone. She walked back into the kitchen.

  Ilse laughed when she saw Dawn return. “See? It wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “No, it wasn’t. And he would have been awake this morning even earlier.”

  “Ah, another early riser, huh?”

  “Apparently,” she noted. “He also asked if we could meet for lunch.”

  “Ooh, this is sounding more serious all the time,” Ilse faced her.

  “I don’t know about serious, but it would be nice to spend some designated time with him, apart from dropping by for a minute or two.”

  “Absolutely,” Ilse agreed, “but your lunch is not necessarily on his time schedule, is it?”

  “No, it isn’t,” Dawn replied. “So we’re not doing that today, maybe in another couple days.”

  “Find out what his schedule is,” Ilse suggested. “You can try and work something out that way.”

  “I was wondering about that. I guess I have to ask him for his schedule, don’t I?”

  “Ask him, but I’m pretty sure any of the nurses or Dani could tell you. Of course then be prepared for a whole lotta questions.” Ilse chuckled, with a knowing grin.

  Dawn rolled her eyes at that. “Right? Does anybody else enjoy a couple in love more than this place?” she quipped. “Everybody is unbelievable.”

  “Hey,” Ilse pointed out. “I’m one of those people who fell in love here, so this whole place was involved. Therefore, I fully realize exactly how everybody feels about it,” she declared. “They love it when people fall in love.”

  “Everybody loves a happy ending. Some of the best patient stories here are all about happy endings. Sure, we get our fair share of sad ones too, and we do our best to smile bravely and to move on. However, when you get a chance to be part of a happy ending, everybody here jumps on that bandwagon pretty darn fast.”

  “And, with good reason,” Ilse declared, “as happy endings are the best.”

  And, with that, Dawn had to agree, and returned to the cinnamon buns she was making for lunch.

  *

  Victor wasn’t sure if he’d been too forward or too pushy, but, when Dawn didn’t mention their tentative lunch date for the next couple days, he realized that he would have to leave it in her court.

  Finally she stopped in one morning and said, “Hey. I’m not too sure what your schedule looks like, but how about lunch today?”

  He looked at her with pleasure. “I’m not sure what my schedule looks like either,” he murmured, “but I’ll tell you one thing. I’ll try to make it happen.”

  She chuckled. “Not if it puts you in any trouble or makes life difficult for you,” she added. “That won’t help either of us.”

  “Maybe not, but, getting an invitation from a beautiful woman? I’m no fool.”

  At that, she burst out laughing. “Just check your schedule, and let me know if it works or not.”

  “Let me do that now,” he said. “It’s early, and I’m heading down to breakfast. Still, I was hoping to have a better handle on how this scheduling thing works.” He studied his e-tablet and nodded. “I think I can make it happen. I do have Shane this morning until 11:30, so we need to do lunch afterward.”

  “Good. I’ll have a snack to hold me off,” she shared. “How about lunch after your rehab?”

  He nodded. “I will need a shower first,” he added cautiously.

  “Okay, so how about twelve o’clock at the actual entrance to the dining room.”

  “Perfect. Oh and I heard from Gerry. She’s coming all right but won’t start for another month. And she’s excited.”

  “Excellent.” And, with that, she bounced off.

  He grinned. It was hard to imagine anything that would make him happier than something like this. His lunch date kept a smile on his face and kept his heart light and happy, as he made his way to breakfast. By the time Shane was done with him later this morning, Victor was exhausted and worn out. But he was more concerned about getting a shower and changing before meeting with Dawn.

  He hadn’t even argued with Shane or groaned at all during the rehab session, and Shane had finally asked him, “What’s going on? You’re never this agreeable.”

  “Lunch date,” he muttered. “I won’t do anything to mess that up.” When Shane raised his eyebrows, Victor shrugged. “Just because I’m injured doesn’t mean I’m dead.”

  At that, Shane burst out laughing. “No, you definitely are not, and I’m certainly happy for you.”

  “Good, then help me to make it there, without being such a wreck.”

  “I won’t make it easy on you,” Shane declared. “Too much is going on in your world and you need to get things fixed up.”

  “I get it. I get it,” Victor confirmed. “I was just hoping to not be a total wreck by the time lunch rolled around.”

  Shane laughed again. “The sooner you’re not a wreck, the sooner you can move on in bigger ways.”

  Of course it was too much to hope that Shane would take it easy on him. As Victor wheeled his way back to his room, he realized just how tired he was. Still, he was also excited, which was foolish, because he got to spend a fair bit of time with Dawn anyway. So one lunch shouldn’t make that much difference. But somehow it did.

  As he made his way to the appointed time, he looked around to see her off talking with somebody near the buffet line. Victor wasn’t late but wondered if he should wave so that she knew he was here. And then decided there was no need for that, as she left her friend and turned Victor’s way. He rolled up beside her and said, “Hey.”

  She smiled at him. “There you are. I was afraid I would have to eat without you.”

  He shook his head. “Nope, not happening.” He chuckled. “The shower did take a bit longer than I expected, though.”

  “That’s not unexpected either,” she replied. “Even a fast shower can still take time.”

  “I didn’t want to interrupt something, as you were talking with people when I came in.”

  “I talk with lots of people,” she noted, with a smile. “Not a big deal.”

  “Good enough,” Victor said and waved her into the buffet line.

  The two of them met up, where Dennis was waiting to serve people. He took one look at them and smiled. “There you guys are.”

  “Yep, we’re here,” Victor replied. “What’s good?”

  Dennis slapped a hand over his heart. “Oh my, now you’ve done it,” he declared, “absolutely broke my heart.”

  “And why is that?” Victor asked in confusion.

  “Because everything here is good,” Dennis teased. “How could you doubt that?”

  Victor rolled his eyes at the theatrics and played along. “Right,” he agreed. “You are so right. Everything is good. So what’s extraspecial today then?”

  “Well, I might let you get away with that one,” Dennis stated. “And what is extraspecial today are the Mexican burritos.” He pointed to a large tray of them.

  “Ooh, I’ll take two,” Victor said.

  “Me too,” Dawn added.

  And, each with their trays, they slowly made their way to a table outside. “Inside or outside?” he asked, hesitating at the entrance to the deck.

  “Let’s sit at the edge,” she decided.

  He smiled at her. “Do you ever get angry, upset?”

  “Nope, I can’t say that I do very often,” she shared. “I’m not some angel,” she clarified. “I have all the same human emotions as everybody else, … but sometimes things go along better with certain people than others.”

  “I agree.” Victor nodded. “You always seem very even-keeled.”

  “Ha, that’s a good term for it, and you’re probably right,” she told him. “I generally don’t get too flustered about much.”

  “How about if your pastry gets ruined?”

  She winced. “Nobody likes to fail at things, and I can’t say that I’ve failed at very much in the kitchen in a long time,” she explained, “but it’s been known to happen.”

  “I can’t even imagine that anything that you fail at in the kitchen is all too major,” he muttered. “Those pies the other day?” He just rolled his eyes.

  “They were good, weren’t they?” she asked. “I do like my pies.”

  “Anytime you want to repeat your homemade pies,” he said, “you know we’re all ready.”

  “Really?” she asked, with a laughing look. “Is that the only reason we’re having lunch today?”

  “Hey, you asked me,” he pointed out.

  “I did, indeed,” she confirmed, with a smile. “And I do like that about us—that we can laugh and joke.”

  “I think life’s too short for anything less,” he murmured.

  “Until you start thinking about all the other things in life, like how humanity’s let you down.”

  His mood visibly dimmed. “It’s not even that so much, as just realizing that what you so wanted out of life wouldn’t necessarily happen.”