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Moments later, with the table set, she pulled up a chair to sit beside his bed and they began to eat.
Javier stuck his fork into a piece of marinated beef and popped it into his mouth.
Dang. When was the last time he’d tasted meat so tender, so tasty?
After relishing another bite, he said, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. How’d you come up with an idea like this?”
“It just struck me on the way home last night. You’ve been eating at the hospital for weeks on end, and while I think the food is pretty good, I can see where you might get tired of it.”
He’d gotten tired of just about everything in the hospital. Everything except his nurse.
“I asked Marcos which meal was your favorite,” she said, “and he suggested the carne asada. Would you have preferred the chile rellenos? Or maybe the tamales? He said you liked them, too.”
“No, this is perfect. If I’m still in this room tomorrow, maybe I can have someone at Red deliver us another meal. I owe you one now.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
That’s not the way he saw it. If not for Leah, he might have gone stir-crazy weeks ago.
They finished their meals in silence, but that didn’t mean Javier’s mind wasn’t going a jillion miles an hour—plotting and planning—much like it used to do before the injury.
Finally he said, “I’m going to be transferred to the rehab unit within the next couple of days.”
She paused, her fork in midmotion. Her pretty eyes, a whiskey shade of hazel, widened. Then she smiled. “That’s good news. You’re getting closer to being able to go home. I bet you can’t wait.”
He wanted to leave the hospital; that was a given. But he wasn’t keen on the idea of never seeing Leah again.
Why had she done all of this for him? And on her day off?
He could read all kinds of things into her effort to surprise him, he supposed. But he wouldn’t. Instead, he planned to enjoy the meal and the nurse who’d brought a bit of sunshine on a mundane day, the beautiful Florence Nightingale who’d provided him with a taste of the real world he was about to reenter.
Chapter Three
The next morning, while Dr. Fortune was making his rounds, Javier learned that he would be transferred to the rehab unit within the next hour or so.
After two long months, he would finally put that devastating, life-altering tragedy behind him. But leaving the third floor also meant leaving Leah.
He supposed he could always look her up after he was discharged from the hospital completely, but not until he was back on his feet and had a better grip on just who the post-tornado Javier really was—and where his future lay.
Still, he hoped to see her before he left, to say goodbye, to talk one last time. But he might not get the chance since Karen, one of the other third-floor nurses, had already come in and told him she’d been assigned to his room for the day.
Karen was nice enough, but she wasn’t…
Well, she wasn’t Leah.
Javier had just turned on the television to watch the midday news when his dad, Rafe and Isabella entered his room.
Determined to be a little more upbeat and better tempered than he’d been in the past, he greeted them, then reached for the remote and shut off the power to the TV.
“How’s it going?” his dad asked.
Javier gave them the good news that he was moving to rehab, which meant he was one step closer to being discharged and sent home.
“That’s great,” Isabella said.
Rafe and his father broke into smiles, too, clearly in agreement. Then his dad pointed toward the serape that was now draped over the back of the chair by his bed. “What’s that doing here?”
Javier smiled, thinking about the lunch he’d shared with Leah. “I had a surprise visitor yesterday and she brought that to me, along with some carne asada, which beat the heck out of what I’ve been eating.”
“So Savannah came by to see you,” Rafe said with a grin—no doubt pleased with himself for setting it all up.
“Yes, she came by. And she gave me those flowers by the window. But Leah’s the one who brought the serape and the food I hadn’t realized I’d been craving.”
“That was nice of her,” Luis said. “The entire nursing staff has been great, but I gotta admit, Leah’s one of my favorites.”
She was one of Javier’s, too.
“When will they transfer you to your new room?” Isabella asked.
“Probably within the next hour.” Javier studied his sister, with her long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was actually his half sister, a young woman he’d only met seven years ago.
Javier’s father had married young and divorced shortly thereafter. He’d been very involved in Isabella’s life, but when his ex-wife remarried and relocated to California, she took Isabella with her and disappeared under the radar for more than fifteen years.
Javier’s dad had been devastated to lose contact with his daughter, and even after he married Elena, Javier’s mom, and started a new family, he’d never forgotten his “little girl.”
When Javier was born, Luis had been thrilled to have a son. Yet he hadn’t made a secret of the fact that he would never truly be happy until Isabella was found.
Javier and his brothers knew they were loved, of course. And that they each had a secure position in the family. Still Javier had always gone out of his way to make his father proud and to fill the hole in his heart created by Isabella’s loss.
Deep inside, Javier had hoped that his achievements would enable his dad to forget Isabella and to get on with his life.
Of course, Luis had always been incredibly proud of Javier—of all his sons, for that matter. But he’d never forgotten his firstborn or given up hope that they’d be reconciled someday.
By the time Javier finally understood the depth of his father’s love for all his children, the need to win and come out on top had become so ingrained in his character that Isabella’s memory no longer had anything to do with it.
When Isabella finally reached adulthood and found Luis, the entire family welcomed her with open arms, including Javier, who actually liked having a big sister, especially one who was as artistic and talented as she was sweet. And he couldn’t imagine what their lives would have been like if she’d never come back home to San Antonio.
Isabella, who’d married J. R. Fortune a few years back, was a talented Tejana craftswoman, as well as an interior designer. So it wasn’t a surprise that the handwoven blanket had caught her interest.
“That’s amazing.” Isabella made her way to the chair and lifted the serape, carefully looking it over. “This is one of mine. Where did Leah find it?”
“I don’t know. My guess is that Marcos gave it to her when she was at Red. She brought that vase and the bougainvillea, too.”
If anyone thought the nurse had gone above and beyond, they didn’t say it, and Javier was glad. He’d been doing a little too much thinking about what might or might not be going on between the two of them as it was.
“I’ll have to ask Leah about it when I see her,” Isabella said. “Is she working today?”
“I think so, but I haven’t seen her yet.”
Javier and his family made small talk for a while, and he did his best to act interested in everything they had to say, especially about what was going on outside the hospital walls. Since he could finally see some light at the end of the tunnel, he was going to have to play catch-up if he was ever going to recreate—or, more likely, reinvent—his life.
Just as his family was saying their goodbyes, Leah entered his room.
She wore a pair of light blue scrubs today, so she was obviously working. And the fact that she’d made the effort to stop by to see him, especially when she didn’t have to, brought a smile to his lips.
The Mendozas greeted her, then excused themselves and headed for the door.
When they were gone, Leah said, “You have a nice family. They’re so loving and supportive.”
Javier merely nodded his agreement.
“I’ve noticed that you’re not always happy to see them,” Leah added.
A stab of guilt robbed him of his smile. “It’s not that I’m unhappy when they stop by.”
“Then what is it? Do you have issues with them?”
“No, it’s just that… I don’t know. I guess you could say that I feel as though I’ve failed them somehow.”
“How? I don’t understand.”
By not being at the top of his game…
By being flawed and less than perfect…
By him needing their help instead of it being the other way around…
Javier had always been the one to step up to the plate, the one who’d had money to loan, advice to give, but he didn’t feel like admitting any of those things. Instead, he said, “I guess it’s their sympathetic expressions that bother me. Sometimes, I wanted to climb the walls—and probably would have, if I could have gotten out of the damn bed.”
“They love you, Javier. You can’t blame them for being worried about you. First because they thought they would lose you, and now because they sense you’re wrestling with something.”
She was right on all counts, he supposed. But how did he admit that the struggle was in the realization that he was less than the best—something he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to?
Competition and winning had always come easily for him, whether it was in academics, sports, business … or even romance. But now he wasn’t anywhere near as confident about anything, and that bothered him more than he cared to admit to anyone—even to Leah.
“Your family would like to help,” she said. “But they can’t unless you let them.”
He hated feeling helpless, something he’d felt ever since regaining consciousness. But instead of making that admission, he said, “Some roads are meant to be traveled alone.”
Leah eased closer to his bed and placed her hand on his arm. “Most of the time, it’s nice to have someone at your side or in your corner.”
Their gazes met and locked. For a moment, he wondered if she was offering her support even though he was about to leave her care. But before he could make any real assumptions, she withdrew her hand and took a step back, as if she’d realized that she’d overstepped her boundaries.
And maybe she had. Javier wasn’t up for a relationship until he was back on top, and God only knew when that would be.
While the patients ate lunch and Leah manned the nurses’ station, the call Javier had been waiting for finally came in. An orderly was on the way to get him and take him to the rehab unit.
Leah hated to see him go, but it was really for the best. Hopefully, she’d find the old saying to be true—out of sight, out of mind.
She took some comfort in that thought until another old adage came to mind. What if absence made the heart grow fonder?
At that possibility, she clucked her tongue, then told herself no. Once Javier was gone, she was determined to put him out of her mind and to focus on her work and the other patients.
Still, she was glad that she would be the one to give him the news that an orderly was coming to get him, even though it was Karen’s job to do that today. But Karen had taken an early lunch break and Leah was covering for her.
So she turned to Brenna, the LVN who was working at the desk with her. “I’m going to step away for a minute or two. Will you get the phone if it rings?”
When Brenna agreed, Leah went to Javier’s room, where she found him wearing a grimace as he carefully set aside a pair of crutches he’d been using for balance and then climbed back into bed. Earlier in the week, Dr. Fortune had surgically removed several of the pins that had held his broken bones in place until they healed, leaving some that would remain permanently. So now Javier could stand and bear his full weight, although it was still painful for him to do so.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Do you need any help?”
“No… thanks.” His grimace morphed into a pain-streaked scowl, and his words came out in labored huffs. “I’ve… got it.”
She hoped so. He’d just started to use those crutches, thanks to the seriousness of his fractures. He’d been through a lot physically, so there were going to be some tough days ahead. She wasn’t sure if he carried any scars beyond what she could see, but she understood why his family had suggested that he get some counseling.
Since she’d already made a note of it in his chart, she wouldn’t bring it up to him again.
“Does your family know you’re moving to rehab today?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He shifted his hips in bed, lifting the sheets and moving his legs to get into a better position. As he did so, he stopped and closed his eyes for a moment, clearly dealing with the effort and pain. “I told them about it yesterday, although I wasn’t sure when the bed would open up.”
She watched him move again, straightening his legs out a little more.
“Do you want me to call anyone and let them know which room you’ll be going to?” she asked.
“No, that’s not necessary. They’re going to check with rehab before their next visit.”
She waited a beat before adding, “I’m a little envious of you and your family. I know there’s a downside to having so many people in your life, but there must be some wonderful perks, too.”
“Yeah, there are.” His expression softened, indicating that the pain he’d suffered from his trek to the bathroom had finally eased. “I take it you don’t have many brothers or sisters.”
“I just have one—a brother. But Justin and I aren’t very close.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know.” She moved toward the serape that was draped over the chair, then began to fold it so he could take it with him. “I suppose it’s because he’s nearly ten years older than I am. He also lives out of state, so we don’t see each other very often.”
“That’s a pretty big age difference. Is he only a half brother?”
Leah could understand why he’d think so. Javier wasn’t the first to make that assumption, especially since she and Justin didn’t bear much resemblance to each other.
“Our parents got married young,” she said. “They loved each other, but they separated and reconciled off and on for years. They finally got it together when he was nine, so they decided to have me.”
“It sounds as though your childhood was probably a lot happier than your brother’s must have been.”
“In some ways it was. But when I was four, my mom was diagnosed with cancer.”
“I’m sorry.”
