“Thank you,” she said. “I didn’t expect you to support me like this when I first saw you back in Serenity.”
“I’m glad you’ve let me be there for you,” Ben said. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
When he gently put his arm around her shoulders, Amelia leaned into him, closing her eyes as she let him support her.
Did she have the right to lean on him that way? To take advantage of the support he offered her when she wasn’t giving him anything in return?
But his words had touched something deep inside her. Regardless of whether she was taking advantage of his kindness, Ben was offering himself as a support system, and right now, she needed that more than she needed to protect her pride.
"It means a lot," she whispered. "More than you know."
The office door opened, and Julian emerged with Dr. Donner following close behind. Amelia straightened slightly, though Ben's arm remained around her shoulders.
"We’re done for now,” the doctor said. “It will be a week or two before we compile all the results, then, depending on what they tell us, we’ll be able to formulate a treatment plan for you.”
Amelia could hardly believe that she might finally be able to gain control of her life again. She had a feeling nothing was going to remove the symptoms she dealt with on a daily basis, but if they could give her medication and advice on how to manage them, she would count it as a win.
She would forever be indebted to Ben and his family for helping her, and she didn’t know how she’d ever repay them for the help they’d given her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ben glanced over at Amelia as the plane leveled off and reached its cruising altitude. He’d planned to tell her she could go to the bedroom in the back to sleep, but it was too late. In the short time he’d been answering an email after the plane had taken off, she’d fallen asleep in her seat.
He reached for the button that controlled the position of her chair and pressed it. Slowly the back of the chair lowered and the footrest rose. Amelia shifted, but she didn’t wake up, an obvious indication of just how exhausted she was.
When the attendant appeared, Ben asked if she could bring a blanket for Amelia. After a nod, she left and quickly returned with a soft blanket, which Ben carefully draped over Amelia.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked. “I’ll have your meals out in a few minutes.”
“I’ll have a seltzer water with lemon,” he said.
Julian asked for a coffee, then turned his attention back to his laptop.
“Do you ever stop working?” Ben asked.
Julian looked at him over the top of the laptop. “Yep. When I’m with Kiara and the kids. I make the most of the time when I’m away from them so that I can focus on them when I’m home.”
Ben considered his brother’s words and decided that they held a wealth of wisdom. And should he ever have a wife and children, he would definitely follow it.
He glanced at Amelia, taking in the way her lashes fanned out over the soft swell of her cheeks. She’d changed over the years, but those changes weren’t a negative, though he thought that shemight say they were. To him, she was as beautiful as she’d ever been.
Her exhaustion was apparent on her face, and Ben knew that the past twenty-four hours had taken their toll on her. He just hoped that the energy she had expended would be worth it in the end.
When the attendant brought them plates of roast beef and potatoes with a salad, Ben wondered if he should wake Amelia but decided not to. He’d make sure she got something to eat once they got to Coeur d’Alene, even if it meant having someone deliver food to the airport for her.
As he ate, Ben mulled over the situation with Amelia. Even though he’d spent most of the day sitting in the waiting room, reading and playing games on his phone, he was aware of the strain the testing was putting on Amelia.
Would she ever get to the point where she could do what she wanted or needed to do without such activity wiping her out?
He knew it was unlikely that she’d ever skate competitively again. And maybe not even professionally. But could she get back on the ice in a coaching capacity? Or maybe even as a choreographer?
As a teen, she’d loved helping to choreograph her own skating programs, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she had continued to do that throughout her skating career.
It just hurt his heart to consider that she might live the rest of her life unable to participate in the sport she’d loved so much. But it was heartbreaking for her to be so close and yet not have reached her ultimate goal.
After he finished eating and his dishes had been cleared away, Ben reclined his seat a bit and pulled out his phone.He checked his email, but there wasn’t anything urgent that demanded his attention.
He tried to read, but his mind kept wandering to Amelia and what the results of the tests that day might mean for her moving forward.
