Melissa: A Hathaway House Heartwarming Romance by Dale Mayer (good book club books txt) 📕

“That sounds so … woo-wooish,” she said with a laugh. “For want of a better word.”

“I know,” he said. “But we see it time and time again here.”

She nodded. “I guess I just hadn’t thought about it before.”

“Well, now you have plenty of chances to think about it.”

“Which is exactly what these sessions appear to make me do,” she admitted.

“Good,” he said. And then in a gentler voice, he continued, “Just don’t stress yourself too much about it because then you’re defeating the purpose.”

She rolled her eyes at that. “It’s not like there’s an easy way to handle any of this.”

“Maybe not,” he said. “But, when you think about it, there’s an awful lot that one can do, and a lot of it is just allowing yourself to heal, allowing yourself to heal inside as well as outside.”

She nodded slowly.

He pointed at her room and asked, “Are you going in there or are you heading down to the cafeteria? What’s next on your schedule?”

“Well,” she said, “I think I have an update meeting with Dani. She said to stop by whenever I had a moment today. Then I’m not sure. I may have an hour or two off this afternoon.”

“Wow,” he said. “How’d that happen?”

She looked up at him, smiled, and said, “I figured somebody must have dropped the ball.”

“Not likely,” he said. “Maybe they just knew you needed a break.”

“And that’s possible,” she said. “It is nice, but I’m also at loose ends.”

“Why not go down and visit Stan?” he said.

“Can I just go down there though?” she said doubtfully. “I figured I’d be in the way.”

“And you’d be wrong there,” he said, laughing, “because Stan’s always happy to see people.”

“Is there anything useful I can do?”

He checked his watch and then, on a sudden decision, said, “Come on. I’ll take you down now. We’ll see if any animals need feeding or petting and looking after.”

She looked up at him, but he could see the pleased grin on her face and the twinkle in her gaze.

“I’d love to,” she confessed, “but I don’t want to take you away from work.”

“I’m just heading to the office to do paperwork,” he said. “I can do that afterward too.”

“If you’re sure.”

He rolled his eyes. “Remember what I said? This is an offer. Accept it and let’s go.”

And laughing, she wheeled up behind him and said, “If you say so.”

“I say so,” he said, feeling a certain release and freedom inside.

“Do you ever get to do picnics out here?” she asked, as they went down the elevator.

“I know a lot of patients have,” Shane said. “I’ve thought about it, but I just never made it a priority to try it out. I do come down here in the evenings with a coffee.”

“Now that,” she said, “would be nice. Just in the evening before bed, maybe for a couple hours—at eight, nine, ten o’clock—when the air is cool and refreshed after a hot day,” she said with a nod.

“Exactly.” He smiled down at her. “I like to hit the pool around then too.”

“Ah,” she said. “The joys of not being a patient.”

“If there’s something you want or need,” he said, “you have to speak up. We can’t read minds.”

She looked at him and said, “I doubt I’d be allowed to go to the pool at that hour, would I?”

He thought about it. “It depends on whether anybody’s there for you,” he said. “Any patient’s at the pool must have somebody watch over them. In the evenings it’s open to everybody, but, if a patient wants to go, we still have to ensure somebody can keep an eye on them, just for safety.”

“Which basically means,” she said, “that I can’t go.”

“I’m not sure about that,” he said, shaking his head. “Again, you’re jumping to an assumption that I’m not sure is true.”

“Well, maybe you could find out for me,” she said impulsively. “I know, in the evening sometimes, it would be lovely to get out and just ease back in the pool after a hot day.”

“Depends on how tired you are at night too,” he murmured.

She nodded. “I haven’t been sleeping all that great, so that might make it better.”

“We could try it. Just let me know, as I usually hit the pool every night.”

At that, he walked out of the elevator and pointed toward the double doors for the vet clinic. “These doors are automatic, specifically for the wheelchairs. And for people carrying animals,” he added as an afterthought.

“We always like to think that everything’s here for us, don’t we?” she said. “When really it’s probably about the people bringing in animals.”

He chuckled and said, “You know what? I never even thought about it. I assumed it was here because of the human patients, but you could be right.”

As they walked in, Robin stood at the desk. She looked up with a big smile. “Hey, Shane, what’s up?”

He smiled and introduced Melissa.

Robin came around from behind the counter. “Hi. Welcome to Hathaway House and the animal section,” she said with a chuckle.

“You’re lucky to work here,” Melissa said. “I met Hoppers the other day with Stan,” she said, “and it reminded me just how much I miss animals in my life.”

“Well, you can sign up for an animal tech course,” she said. “It doesn’t take all that long, and you could always look at adding animals back into your life, but it’s not all sun and roses.”

“No,” she said. “A lot of death is here too, isn’t there?”

“There can be, but there’s an awful lot of reward. So I certainly wouldn’t want to discourage you from getting into the field.” She looked at Shane. “Depending on what your injuries are all about.” She added, “It’s something that you could certainly look at, and Shane would definitely help you get back into shape, so you can handle whatever physical effort was required.”

She looked at Robin in surprise. “Sounds like you have a lot to do with Shane and the people upstairs.”

“Well, my partner was a patient