Quinton, page 14
As she got closer, she saw her brother there with Shane, working out. She thought if she could get him to spare a moment, she could ask him now. But she didn’t want to interrupt her brother’s session. These sessions were too important. When she found Shane staring at her, she shrugged. “Are we allowed?”
He nodded. “We’re almost done.” He checked his watch. “I’m surprised to see you, since you were pretty tired.”
“I’m still tired,” she admitted, “but I’m here.”
“Good,” he murmured.
“I would like to ask,” she added, “any chance we can start working on the prosthetic again?”
“We need to see if it still fits,” he stated. “You may have to get a new one.”
She winced at that because that could take a long time. “You think it’s not been fitted properly?”
“Well, it depends,” he noted, with a chuckle. “You haven’t been standing properly, so you haven’t been using it properly, and, therefore, I don’t know if it works well for you now or not.”
She groaned. “We’re back to that again, huh?”
“We sure are,” he said, with a smile. “It all comes back to posture. Everything comes back to alignment.”
She nodded and managed to get herself close enough to the pool and locked the wheels. Then on one leg, grabbing the ladder, she hobbled over closer and fell into the pool itself. When she surfaced, her brother splashed her in the face. She chuckled. “What was that for?” she asked, splashing him back.
“Just felt like it,” he replied, with a chuckle. “Haven’t been able to splash you like that in a long time.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” she said in delight. “As I recall, I probably owe you more than a few.” And she proceeded to grab his head and try to dunk him. By the time he had retaliated, and she’d retaliated a couple times herself, they were both exhausted.
She pulled herself up to the side of the pool and just sat on the edge there. Shane had a big grin on his face. “We’re still siblings,” she confirmed.
He nodded. “And that kind of play—when it’s all done in good fun,” he stated, “is huge. Just think about all the muscles and the energy you expended.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking about it,” she noted, groaning. “I’m exhausted now. And the thought of getting back to my room is even more exhausting.” Now Stan had shown up too. She smiled up at him. “Hopefully you didn’t see that childish display of affection,” she said, with a big grin.
“Absolutely I didn’t.” But his grin was wide enough to tell her that he certainly had.
She sighed. “Not exactly the kind of impression I’d want to make.”
“Hey, you’re well past the point of making an impression with anybody here,” her brother teased, as he heaved up onto the pool edge beside her. He looked over at her and added, “It’s good to see you again, kiddo.”
“Ditto,” she murmured. And it really was good to see him—especially seeing him like this, seeing him feeling a whole lot better, a little bit more like she’d expected to see him. She groaned as she looked down at the water. “I don’t know what Shane’s got you doing in here,” she said, “but he beats me up when it’s my turn.”
At that, Shane protested.
She shook her head. “No, no, I’m not letting you off the hook on that one,” she argued. “You know perfectly well that I’m right about that.” And that started another session of joking and splashing water on Shane. This time her brother was on her side.
Finally Shane gave up the fight. “That’s it. You guys are picking on me, so I’m leaving.”
She smiled, as he headed off. “As long as there are no hard feelings.” He lifted a hand amid his laughter. And she realized it was all good. She looked over at her brother. “I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired now.”
He nodded, obviously short on breath, and said, “Ditto, but I’m going to leave you to your lover boy. I’ll head up, get a shower, and, if I’m lucky, I’ll still have energy to grab some food.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure right now that I can do that.”
Stan suggested, “Contact Dennis if you need food delivered to your room.”
At that comment, her brother looked at him and said, “I suppose that’s always an option, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Stan confirmed. “You don’t always have to be the tough guy. There are some days when just getting out of bed is more than any of us can handle.”
Ryatt looked at Stan and asked, “You too?”
“Yeah, me too,” he admitted. “There are good days. There are bad days, and then there are all the rest in between that vary across the scale. And sometimes on some of those days it just isn’t worth moving.”
“Yeah, I get that part.” Ryatt pulled himself up into his wheelchair, lifted a hand, and slowly pushed himself toward the elevator.
Quinton frowned, worried about him.
But Stan was here at her side, murmuring, “He’s fine.”
She winced. “It’s that obvious?”
“You love him. You care for him We can’t expect anything less.”
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Sometimes I think I shouldn’t have brought him here.”
“It would have been a different story if you hadn’t come at the same time,” he noted. “But the fact of the matter is, I think it’s been good for you, good for both of you.”
She looked over at him. “You can’t fix everything. You know that, right?”
“No, I know that,” he said. “I’m just going to fix everything within my capability to fix.” And, with that, he looked at her and added, “Now it’s my turn to get in the water. At least all the children have left for the day.” And he waggled his eyebrows at her and jumped in.
Unfortunately she didn’t have any energy to go in and splash Stan, like she’d done her brother. She’d certainly worn herself out earlier, and yet it felt good—like life again, enlivening, like she wasn’t as much of an invalid as she had worried that she was. And maybe that’s what it was all about, just that mind-set.
By the time the dinner bell came, she looked at Stan and asked him, “What are the chances of getting anybody to deliver food down here?”
He stared at her, nodding. “You know what? It’s probably not a bad idea, but nobody has to deliver it. I’ll go grab us some stuff. What do you want?” And he hopped up, grabbed a towel, and dried himself off.
“Anything,” she said, “seriously, anything. I feel bad for asking.” He stopped and glared at her. She threw up her hands. “I know. I know. I’m the broken one right now.”
“You’re not broken,” he stated firmly. “You’re the one fixing yourself.”
“How? I’m not even doing anything. It’s all I can do to get outside in the fresh air on a regular basis.”
He shook his head. “You’re doing more for yourself and your future than most.” And he took off.
She wondered if he was right. Everyone needed to move ahead at their own pace. She rarely brought up her own future because it felt like she had so much still to do.
Just so many things in life that people thought were a done deal, and then suddenly they weren’t, and maybe that’s what this was all about too.
When Stan returned with two large plates, he set them on the outdoor table. “I’ll be right back.” Then he headed back up to get more. By the time he’d made two more trips, they had water and everything else they needed. She protested when he looked like he was ready to go up again. “Surely we don’t need anything more. Now you’ll make me feel really bad.”
“Don’t even go there,” he replied. “He who can help should help.”
At that, she frowned. “I’m sure that was a quote from somewhere, but I wouldn’t know where.”
He laughed. “Neither would I. It just sounded good. And I firmly believe that. We often get some of the patients up here who come down and help out in my office. The animals all need to know they’re loved, and the humans all need to know that they’re capable, and both just need acceptance. And that’s the same for you. So stop making excuses and making things harder on yourself,” he murmured. He looked around and raised one finger. “One more thing.” And he disappeared.
Acceptance? Is that what this was all about? To make her feel like she was accepted just as she was right now? She hated the fact that insecurities were still rife within her. Mostly because she hadn’t locked anything down. She hadn’t told him anything—or at least not enough—and she hadn’t given herself that same level of comfort. Which was kind of weird then because that kind of comfort was something that was so important.
And it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep it from him. They needed to talk, and they needed to talk freely.
When he came back down, she looked up and smiled at him. “You are my constant in life.”
Stan raised his eyebrows. “Wow. Where did that come from?”
“I needed to tell you something about how I feel. My brother told me to as well. In fact, he told me recently that I was his constant in his life. Funny, even my brother is wise in this place.”
“Well then, here’s to you and your brother,” Stan replied, setting down his last item on the table.
“Is that wine?” she asked.
“It is, indeed. Dennis arranged it for us.”
She smiled. “And what are we celebrating?”
“Well, I hope we’re celebrating,” he replied, “but I will take it on the chin like a man if we’re not.”
She frowned. “Sorry?”
“I’m really hoping,” he said, “that we can clear the air once and for all.”
She nodded, feeling her stomach churn, as she looked down at the food. “As long as it’s all good news,” she added. “I’m not sure I’m up for bad.”
“You and me both,” he agreed, with a smile. “You and me both.” He popped the wine, poured them a glass, and then sat here and stared at her.
“Stan?” she asked uncertainly. “Are you okay?”
He shrugged. “Well, it’s the most important time in my life,” he stated.
Confused, uncertain, and now suddenly very worried, she reached for his hand. “I don’t know what’s going on,” she murmured, “but I really don’t want to do anything to jeopardize what we have.”
“And the first question is,” Stan began, staring at Quinton, “what is it we have?”
And she realized it would be that kind of conversation. She whispered, “Something very precious, I hope.”
He smiled. “Absolutely precious, but, at the same time, if it’s not meant to be, I don’t want to sit here, holding my breath for more.”
“For more?” she asked. “You do know I’m damaged, right? And that I’m going to be a cripple for the rest of my life?”
He stared at her. “I don’t know where you got that idea from, but you need to stop that now.”
She glared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Sometimes I wonder if you don’t use your injuries,” he explained carefully, as if feeling his way, “in order to keep people away.”
“Well, keeping people away is usually a healthier idea,” she declared, “than having people believe something that isn’t there.”
“And that’s why we’re having this conversation,” he stated suddenly, “because I guess that’s what I need to know.”
“What do you need to know?” she asked, worried once again.
“Whether you care enough for us to keep going on this pathway,” he said blatantly, “or whether you’ll break it off because you’re too afraid that what we have is real.”
“Too afraid?” she repeated, staring at him. “Does it look like I’m afraid?”
“No, and I don’t want to do this the wrong way, but it is very important to me that you understand that I’m not somebody who’s only here for the good times. I’m somebody who’s here for the long-term.”
She smiled. “Anybody who doesn’t understand that about you doesn’t know you.”
“And that’s very true,” he agreed. “So …” He stopped, hesitated.
“You want to just spit it out?” she asked, laughing.
“When you were here as a patient last time,” he confessed, “I really, really, really wanted to get to know you better. And, when you left, I felt like I’d missed out on an opportunity that I didn’t … that I shouldn’t have missed out on,” he murmured. “And it was very hard on me. I … I was quite depressed for a very long time, never really understood what I was supposed to do about it, and then, all of a sudden, you were back again. Just distant. Formal. Businesslike.”
She smiled. “Well, sometimes good things come out of these injuries.”
“A lot of good things come out of healing these injuries,” he noted. “But they aren’t always as obvious as we would like to think they are.” He watched, sensing something in her own mood, as if she suddenly understood where he was going with this.
“So,” she replied, “are you saying that you would like to see where we can take this, or am I misreading you entirely?”
He grinned. “I’m really bad at this, aren’t I?” he asked in a conversational tone.
“Well, let’s just say that I’m getting very, very confused—and very worried,” Quinton replied.
“Worried?” he murmured, staring at her. “Why on earth worried?”
She shook her head. “Just in case it’s not quite what I think it is.”
He frowned and stared at her for a long moment, then picked up his glass of wine and said, “Well, I guess I’m just looking for a reassurance that you’re prepared to go the distance, so that we can figure out exactly what we have.”
“Absolutely,” she replied immediately. “That’s what I was hoping we were doing together.”
“Whew,” he said. “I’m glad to hear that because some days I haven’t been too sure where you were at.”
“And that’s my fault. It was also brought home to me—again by my brother—that I haven’t exactly explained what it was that I was looking for.”
“Nope, you sure haven’t.” He smiled and gave a little shrug. “I didn’t even want to push you now, but you could be leaving soon, as you told me not very long ago,” he explained, “and things kind of hit me the wrong way that I might be once again in danger of losing you a second time.”
“I wasn’t planning on going too far,” she said gently. “Only back into town.”
“Only back into town, yes, and the occasional visit isn’t quite what I was thinking of.”
She frowned. “Well, if we’re going out, presumably we would see each other a couple times a week?” she asked hopefully.
“Yeah, a couple times a week might be nice. Only I want more.”
“You’re the one who has this absolutely gorgeous place to live,” she noted, her hand waving around at the complex. “We could meet here half the time and have dates in town too.”
He grinned. “It is nice here, isn’t it?”
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “It’s a huge perk for you.”
“It certainly made life a lot easier on me, as I’ve gotten the business going,” he admitted. “It’s also, in some ways, been a detriment because I’m always here, not in town, so it’s hard to meet people.”
“That’s a good thing for me,” she added, with feeling, “because that means you’re still here.”
He laughed. “Exactly. I’m still here, and I find that I’m still waiting.”
“And what is it you’re waiting for?”
He took a deep breath, reached across, laced her fingers with his, and said, “I don’t know how you feel about this, but I feel like I’ve wasted enough time in my life hesitating, and I don’t really want to hesitate anymore. So, for me, right now, I have a burning question that I don’t want to wait any longer for an answer.” He took a deep breath, and it just rushed out. “Would you marry me?”
She stared at him in shock, tears coming to the corners of her eyes. “Oh my God, are you serious?”
His gaze was locked on her face. “Of course I’m serious. It’s hardly something to joke about.”
Her jaw worked, almost as if she didn’t know what to say.
And he felt the pain inside him clenching down tighter and tighter. “Oh, God.” He starting to pull his hand away. “You really don’t care like I care, do you?”
Then she grabbed his hand, pulled it up to her lips, and kissed it. “I didn’t think you’d ever say it,” she whispered. “Eight years ago I didn’t think you’d ever say it.”
“Eight years ago we weren’t ready for that,” he said. “You were just out of the denial stage about your accident and taking baby steps toward healing. And me? I had taken on this clinic by myself. I was overwhelmed, but Dani stood by both of us.”
She thought back, smiled, and nodded her head. “You’re right. We weren’t on steady ground yet in our own lives, were we?” she asked. “We were still working on our own careers. I wanted to heal so I could light the world on fire as a lawyer and take on so many things and do so much,” she shared. “And I got bogged down in work and bogged down in life, and I came back to visit during that time, but there was always this distance between us,” she murmured.
After a moment of complete silence, Stan mentioned, “You haven’t answered me. … And, dear God, that lack of an answer is making my stomach churn in all kinds of ways that I don’t like.”
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. As one slowly dripped down her cheek, she nodded and whispered, “Please.”
He looked at her and asked, “Is that a yes?”
“It’s a yes.”
He shouted it louder. “Is that a yes?”
“It’s a yes!” she shouted.
And he did it one more time at the top of his lungs, and, when she shouted right back, “It was a yes!” the entire place burst into cheers.
Startled, the two of them turned and looked around to see everybody leaning over the railing up on the deck area, staring down at them at the pool, clapping their hearts out.
