*

  In his room Wesley quickly got changed, while waiting for Shane to text his reply.

  Roger’s on lifeguard duty for another hour, so you’re good to go until 5:00 p.m.

  At that, Wesley rolled his wheelchair toward the elevator and down to the ground-level floor. Only when he got out, a great big Newfoundlander sprawled in his way. He looked at her, and his heart melted. “I don’t know who you are, beauty,” he said in a soft tone, “but you’re definitely not making it easy for me to get to the pool.”

  At that came a call from behind him. He turned to see a man walking toward him, a genial smile on his face. “Hey, this is Heidi. She lives here permanently.”

  Heidi just reached up that big head and sniffed him. She didn’t move her huge body, but, when Wesley studied her fully, he said, “Oh, wow, she’s missing a leg.”

  “Yep, she sure is, and, if you’re a sucker, then she’ll milk it for all she can,” the man shared, “until you’re out there with the horses one day and watch her run as fast as them.”

  At that, Wesley burst out laughing. “Seriously?”

  “Oh, yeah, she is very adept at both getting attention for her amputation and at making that amputation a nonissue.” He gave a voice command and a hand command to follow it, and Heidi hopped to her feet and came over to the man, her tail wagging. And, true enough, she appeared to be completely comfortable.

  “How long since she lost her leg?” Wesley asked.

  “Quite a few years now,” he replied, thinking about it. “Five, maybe.”

  “Interesting,” Wesley murmured. “She is quite comfortable, isn’t she?”

  “She so is.” He walked her closer and introduced them. “Heidi, this is Wesley. Wesley, this is Heidi.”

  “And how did you know I’m Wesley?” he asked, looking up at him.

  He grinned right back at him. “I’m Stan. I’m the vet down here. I generally have a good idea who the new people are, and I have a note on my file to bring you a rescue animal or two to visit with, depending on who and when we both are available.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep, and your picture’s on my file,” he added, with a chuckle. “So no magic involved.”

  “Seems like magic,” he murmured.

  “Ah, this place is a bit on the magical side,” Stan agreed, with a bright smile. “How are you finding it, being here?”

  “Well, I’ve been here a little more than three weeks, so I’m getting a little more comfortable with it all,” he murmured. “It’s still new, and it’s still different, and it’s still a little unnerving.”

  “In what way?” Stan asked.

  “Because everybody expects a lot out of me,” Wesley admitted, “as if this is the starting point and where I’ll finally end up is a long way away from here. While I want to believe that they’re correct, I also think that they’re out to lunch for even expecting such progress.”

  At that, Stan shot him a commiserating look. “Not the first time I’ve heard something similar from other guys and gals. However, what I can tell you is that almost everybody here leaves in way better shape than they arrived.”

  “Maybe,” Wesley conceded, “but will it be enough to get me back to a normal life or not?”

  “I don’t know,” Stan stated. “How about creating a new normal. Just like Heidi here.”

  At that came a call from the double doors in front of them. Stan pointed to them and added, “Our office and clinic are through there. Anytime you want to come see some of the animals I’ve got on tap, feel free. It could be a busy day, depending on how many appointments I have or if I’m doing surgeries that day,” he explained, “but all the patients upstairs are welcome to come down here. Sometimes I come upstairs, looking for help,” he shared. “Sometimes I’ve got kittens that are being nursed overnight, or maybe I’ve got puppies that are missing their mom and need some love,” he described, “and then, of course, there’s all the other therapy animals.”

  “Good to know,” Wesley said, with a nod. “I’m heading to the pool right now. I only have until 5:00 p.m. apparently.”

  At that, Stan pointed him in the right direction and then walked over a few steps and hit a big button, and the double glass doors opened. “You’re right there,” he declared. “Enjoy.” And, with that, Stan turned and walked back to his clinic.

  Chapter 5

  Alba really shouldn’t be going swimming with Wesley. Yet he was an interesting man, and anything that got him staying positive and moving in the right direction was okay by her. Besides, she didn’t have any plans right now. Alba reached her onsite apartment and changed into a demure one-piece, grabbed a cover-up and a towel, a book and a pair of sunglasses, and slowly walked over to the pool area. She could see him already in the water. She stopped at the edge and smiled down at him.

  When he noticed her, he turned, stood up on his good leg, and said, “There you are. I figured you chickened out on me.”

  “Nope, I’m here.” She walked over to the closest chair, dropped her towel, book, and sunglasses, then peeled off her cover-up and walked over to the steps, and slowly made her way down. As she sank under the water and reappeared soon afterward, she noted, “It’s cooler than I expected it to be.”

  “It’s not cold at all once you get moving around,” he countered. “It’s really nice.”

  She nodded, made a clean dive under the water, and came up a good ten feet away. As her face crested through the water, she murmured, “It really is refreshing, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is. I wonder why you don’t come more often.”

  “I tend to think of it as more for the patients,” she replied, giving him a bright smile, “like you.”

  “Probably it is, during the day,” he noted, “but what about after that?”

  She nodded. “There is an after that every day, every evening, where the pool is available. No lifeguards or orderlies or attendants are assigned here after 5:00 p.m. though. Unless by special permission maybe. And, of course, there are often patients in the hot tub. Sometimes Shane comes down himself and has to bring somebody in for muscle cramps.”

  Wesley winced at that. “Honestly, muscle cramps are the worst.”

  “They can be, no doubt about it. You won’t have to worry about it here though. They attack them as quickly as they know about them.”

  “I hope so. Most of those issues I’ve already suffered through.”

  “And you’re doing better now?”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “Of course Shane has got a much harder program for me here, so maybe I’m speaking too soon.”

  She laughed. “It’s possible,” she murmured. “Sometimes we expect to be doing just fine and then find out that it’s not quite so easy.”

  “You’re right,” he confirmed, “but still, I’ll take what I can get right now.”

  “Exactly. And, if you don’t mind, I’ll do a few laps.”

  “Go for it,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out how to do that.”

  “I’ve seen people without any arms do it,” she shared, looking at what remained of his left arm. “Maybe yours is more of a roll problem. I don’t know, but one guy goes through the water as if he’s a dolphin,” she stated. “It’s really amazing to watch.”

  *

  And, with that, Alba dove back under the water and started doing laps, with a clean, crisp front crawl motion that he both admired and was jealous of. He thought about what she’d said about the one guy with no arms. That would be brutal, and yet he could imagine it. He’d certainly seen videos of other people who struggled with various injuries, and yet they still managed. Maybe Wesley really was making a bigger deal out of this than it should be. And, with that thought in mind, he went under the water to just give it a try.

  And was absolutely amazed that, although it took some new body movements, he was doing okay. Instead of trying to use his good right arm, he put it against his side and just rolled through the water, using his head to cleave through as he moved forward. When he came up for air, she was watching him.

  “How was it?” she asked him.

  “That,” he murmured, “was fantastic.” And he pushed off and went back under again. He barely heard her laughing above the noise of the water, but it was something that he really needed to try. After he wore down, which didn’t take very long at all unfortunately, he came to the pool’s steps and sat down.

  And there Shane stopped him and said, “You have a very interesting way to work through the water.”

  “But it worked though,” he stated excitedly.

  “It did, indeed. And, with you having one working method,” Shane pointed out, “then everything else will slowly get easier.” He waved a hand in goodbye and added, “Now that you’re in good hands here, enjoy your pool time.” And, with that, Shane walked away.

  Feeling he’d been given a pat of approval that he didn’t even realize he needed, he headed back to diving in and out of the water, more like a porpoise than a human, but it felt so freeing to move the way he wanted to. By the time he was tired for the second time, he pulled out of the water and sat on the steps, realizing that Alba had gotten out of the water and was sitting poolside in a chair.

  “Hey,” he said, giving her a smile. “That worked out pretty well.”

  “Looked like it did,” she agreed, returning his smile. “Honestly you looked as if you were totally in control.”

  “Well, I was when doing that part at least,” he murmured. “There’s an awful lot more to learn. Or to relearn, as it were.”

  “There’ll always be more to learn,” she murmured.

  And once again he got one of those little gems of wisdom from Alba. He nodded slowly. “And sometimes,” he replied, “you just need to see other people’s perspectives to realize how things can work.”

  “Exactly.” She nodded. “And I’m thrilled to see that the idea worked, although I can see that just from your legs alone, you shouldn’t have any problems swimming properly. You just have to figure out how to adapt your rhythm.”

  “Maybe,” he muttered, “but I have to tell you that I’m too tired to worry about it today.”

  She chuckled at that. “I am not surprised.” She shifted her sunglasses onto her face and stared around her. “It’s a pretty spectacular day,” she murmured.

  “It is. It really is.” He sat here, regaining his breath. “And now the problem is, I have to get changed in order to make it up there for dinnertime.”

  “You and me both,” she replied.

  And that was just one of the really good things about her. She didn’t expect him to complain about it taking him longer. She didn’t expect it to be something that he would look at her and say, Oh, well, it’s easy for you. It’s not so easy for me. It was just one of those things that wasn’t even an issue. She acknowledged that he would have a harder time getting changed than she would, and that was just the way it was.

  What a unique view, and he still wasn’t sure what to do with it. Yet he was pretty happy that it lent that level of normalcy about everything here. “I suppose I should get a start on dressing for dinner.”

  She nodded. “If you want, I’ll meet you up there.”

  He looked at her. “Don’t you have somebody to eat with?”

  “Meaning that, if I do, I should go with them instead of with you?” she asked, a soft smile on her face.

  He winced. “I’m not sure that’s the way I intended it.”

  “And the fact that you’re not sure that’s the way you intended it is an even bigger problem,” she pointed out, chuckling.

  He groaned. “It seems everything’s always taken the wrong way.”

  “It’s not always taken the wrong way,” she clarified. “Here we’re very literal, so, if you need to say something, then just come out and say it.”

  “And that’s a lesson I have yet to learn, I gather.” He shrugged and stated, “I would be delighted to meet you for dinner today.”

  “Good,” she said, as she stood up and snagged her towel. “I’ll see you in what, twenty minutes?” She turned and looked at him. “Or do you want to shower first?”

  He looked at his watch with the slip on elastic band and tilted his head. “A shower would be good, but I think I would rather do that at the end of the evening. And then I can go straight to bed.”

  “Makes sense to me. So is the twenty-minute time frame workable?”

  “It is.” He watched her leave and then realized that the last thing he wanted was to be late. So, if he didn’t get a move on, that’s what he would be.

  Chapter 6

  Alba wasn’t sure how they had fallen into it, but, following almost a sense of rhythm, they went from being friends to meeting up for a lot of their meals. It was good, but it also might complicate her ability to be detached as his counselor. She frowned as she thought about it over the next few days. And then, when Dani stopped in to ask Alba about something else, Alba brought up this issue with her boss and longtime friend.

  Dani looked at her and nodded. “That’s an interesting issue. Do you feel you can be detached as his counselor, even while spending more time with him at meals and such?”

  “Sure. And I really like him. I like to see him challenge himself, and I like to see him get up and go farther down the pathway that he’s on. He definitely has a few challenges that he can’t really recognize within himself, so it’s nice to spur that on,” she murmured. “I just wonder if I’m creating a problem where there isn’t one.”

  “I have no idea,” Dani admitted. “However, I trust you, and so, if you feel something is there that may hinder your counseling of him, we can switch him to another doctor.”

  “Let’s see how far along this pathway we get,” Alba suggested. “It could very well be that, as he makes more friends here, he won’t want to spend as much time with me. And I definitely do not want to hamper his progress. I’m so careful about that.”

  Dani agreed, and they left it at that.

  When Dennis made a comment a few days later about her being alone for a meal, she smiled at him and replied, “I guess it is quite noticeable that we’ve spent a lot of time together, isn’t it?”

  “Of course,” Dennis replied. “Hathaway is a big place, yet it’s a small place. But it’s not a problem.”

  “Maybe not,” she admitted, “but I’m also his doctor.”

  At that, Dennis nodded slowly. “But if there’s nothing between you but friends, and nothing to interfere with his rehab,” he pointed out, “maybe having this level of a friendship helps you to understand who and what he really is and what he needs. Besides, spending time outside of the counseling probably goes far with these guys, being accepted in real-life situations.”

  “Well, it sounds good in theory,” she said, with a laugh. “I’ll have to think about it.”

  As it was, Wesley didn’t join her that night, and she found herself constantly looking at her phone, wondering if there was a problem. When she didn’t hear from him at all, she assumed that he had made other plans. It’s not as if they had had an arrangement set, where they met every night. It just happened to be that way, as they fell into that routine. Until tonight.

  When she saw him a couple days later, she was at the entrance to the dining room, waiting in line, when she heard a man beside her.

  “There you are,” Wesley said. “I finally caught up to you.”

  She looked over at him and smiled. “Hey, I just figured you got busy and made some new friends.”

  He shook his head. “No, I wish that was all. I just ended up feeling not so good.”

  She looked at him. “You were sick?”

  “I’m not exactly sure that’s what I would call it either,” he noted, “but I ended up with a touchy tummy.”

  She nodded. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” The fact that he hadn’t contacted her about it also kind of made sense because, as far as he was concerned, they were still very much a case of patient and doctor. “I didn’t know about that,” she shared, “because it didn’t interfere with one of our sessions, or somebody would have told me about it.”

  He nodded. “And I wondered if I should contact you, but guess who broke his charger?”

  She stared at him. “Wow, you’ve really had a couple of days.”

  “Exactly.” He nodded. “But, hey, I figured you probably would have gotten the message through the grapevine.”

  “Nope, not at all,” she said cheerfully, feeling inordinately pleased that she had a valid reason for his silence, something that didn’t involve their ongoing friendship. And how foolish was that because there wasn’t any reason to suspect anything other than that he had just gotten busy. “Next time, send me a message. I can bring you meals or a drink or whatever,” she explained. “Just send it through the e-tablet.”

  He frowned at her. “I didn’t even think of that,” he murmured. “How foolish. I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head. “Gosh, no. We didn’t have anything arranged, already in place, other than your scheduled appointments.” And then she laughed. “In a place like this, you always have to be open to change.”

  He nodded, as they moved through the buffet line, keeping his voice low. “I have to admit I wasn’t doing all that great these last couple days.”

  “And maybe there was a message sent out to your team, but, as it didn’t impact my schedule, I probably didn’t look at it too closely,” she admitted. “I’ve been pretty busy.”

  He smiled. “I think in a place like this, we are all busy.”

  “And not only that, there’s always the forward and backward motions, one step forward, three back,” she noted. “So, it’s just one of those things that we adapt to.”

  “Got it,” he murmured. “Anyway, I’m back. I’m eating, and I’m feeling a lot better.”

  “Good,” she said, as she studied him. “Were you not eating for a few days?”