Chapter Four
The therapy gymsounded like a day at the races with the construction and clients working. A drill whirled, and some men spoke in the corner while assembling some contraption. Kevin strutted toward me in that way that made him look like a runway model. His dark hair fell over his brow with a messy sophistication. “Hey, glad you’rehere.”
“You are?” I asked, the tone of my voice hitchinginvoluntarily.
“Sure. We could use the help.” Kevin waved for me to followhim.
“Right, of course. Well, I’m here to volunteer, so put me to work.” I watched an older gentleman using a strange utensil that wrapped around his hand, scooping up fruit and putting it in his mouth. His smile gleamed across the room when he managed to take a bite of a piece of strawberry the first time. Another patient, a woman maybe in her mid-forties, was lying on her back while a therapist moved her leg around in alldirections.
Kevin led me to a back office in the corner. Inside were four laptops, one on each desk, shelves full of books, and several rolling deskchairs.
“I’m not surprised you stepped up when Sadie couldn’t make it. I always thought you’d be a pediatrician or a therapist someday.” Kevin snagged a tool belt from the corner and wrapped it around his waist. The look of sexy contractor wascomplete.
I wanted to bang my head against the glass window of the office to pound my wayward thoughts from my brain. “Really? Why would you say that?” There, at least I managed a coherent thought. That was better than I ever had in the same room as Kevin in the past. It was a childhood crush, nothing more. Sure, he was handsome, but we had nothing in common. He’d stayed in Magnolia Corners to work in construction. I’d left to go to college. He was an athlete. I was abookworm.
Kevin closed the distance between us and looked down at me. His eyes were intense but soft. “Because you’ve always had the kindest heart I’ve ever known. I remember the day that Susie Richards tripped over something and her tray flew across the linoleum floor in the cafeteria. All the other kids laughed, but not you. You marched across the floor and helped her up, took her to the bathroom, and even lent her the sweater you’d been wearing to cover up the spaghetti stain on her chest. You didn’t have much back then, yet you still gave from theheart.”
We both stood there for a moment. I couldn’t believe he remembered that when it had happened so many yearsago.
“Not to mention you’re beautiful.” He broke eye contact, stepped back, and scratched the back of hisneck.
“What?” I asked, not sure I’d heard himright.
He marched past me and out the door. I followed after him like that little lost freshman puppy, through the gym and down another hallway. I’d definitely heard himwrong.
“I’m just saying you have something special. A unique gift that makes you perfect in an allied health profession. Most girls I’ve met over the years are either kindhearted or beautiful or smart,” he said while slicing a knife hand in the air, as if karate chopping made what he said factual. “You’re the only one I’ve ever met that is all three. I think you’d make an excellent therapist. You’re smart, so the information will be retained. You’re sweet, so you’ll always make the patients feel uplifted and special. And that beautiful smile of yours will light up their day.” Kevin pulled a badge on a cord from his belt, tapped it to a scanner, and the door poppedopen.
“I’m sure you’ve met plenty of women like me.” We were in a small storage room stacked full of boxes and equipment. He pulled several down from shelves and placed them on theground.
“No, not really,” Kevin said as if we were talking about the color of the exercise ball instead of what he thought aboutme.
“What about Kaley? I mean, you must feel that way about her.” I studied the box as if it contained a hiddentreasure.
He chuckled. “Kaley?”
“Yeah, I mean, she must be something special if you’ve been with her all theseyears.”
He hesitated for a millisecond but then handed me a small box, lifted the other two himself, and headed out of the room again. At the end of the gym by the front windows, he placed his boxes down and took the one from my arms. “You’re right, she is special. More special than I even thought possible when we were in highschool.”
I swallowed so loud I thought the men working in the corner could hear me over theirhammering.
Kevin waved Kaley over from the corner where she’d been talking to the man in the wheelchair from the front desk. He was so fit on top, yet his legs had atrophiedconsiderably.
Kaley plopped down on the therapy bed with a sigh. “We’re supposed to have this place set by the day after tomorrow for a full patient load, not to mention the uppity-ups will be here for a tour.” She lifted her left hand to her face, and I noticed a large diamond ring on herfinger.
Iblinked.
Kevin popped Kaley on the head with a foam noodle. “No complaining allowed. This was all your doing,remember?”
She snagged the noodle and swung it, popping him in thegut.
Kevin tossed it to the side and plunged into the box again. “You’ve never failed at anything in your life, Kaley. You know we’ve got this. If you doubt me, just askJoe.”
The man in the wheelchair wheeled up next to me with a smile. “You’ve got this. Nodoubt.”
“What do you think, Zoey?” Kaleyasked.
“I’m sure Kevin knows you best. If he says you can get this done, I’m sure you can.” There. That sounded politically correct, and there wasn’t even a hitch to myvoice.
