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

“While I would have said that this person wasn’t quite ready, I think she’s also slowly learning a little more about herself, what she wants in life, and … where some of her issues are coming from.”

“And that’s what life’s all about here, isn’t it? Every day is some emotional challenge just to figure out what and where people are working from, what the reasons are why they’re struggling,” he said. “And it’s usually not the reason we think it is.” He looked up at him. “In your case, you’re probably afraid to have a relationship with anybody in case you think, … they think, … it’s a patient-therapist-transfer notion. Which I presume the person you’re talking about, from what you said, is a patient?”

Shane nodded slowly. “It’s because of that issue that personal relationships with patients are always avoided.”

“Sounds like that’s something that you might need to deal with,” Keith said.

“I don’t think it’s an issue, a situation I have come up against before, but it’s unique. And I’ll just have to work my way through to accepting that this is potentially my new normal.”

Chapter 9

Something between Melissa and Shane had shifted in a good way. The next few days the smiles were brighter, the touches held longer, and the need to spend more time together deepened. It was a wonderful feeling. They met for breakfast several times a week when before they might have met only once a week. And now they met for lunch every day. She knew other people were commenting, as there were smiles and nods in their general direction when they went in for lunch that following Friday.

She smiled and said, “We’re attracting attention.”

“Let them comment,” Shane said comfortably. “All in all, I would say everybody’s pretty happy. At least I haven’t heard anything otherwise.”

“As long as you don’t mind.”

“And I’m certainly not against it,” he said, chuckling. “And we have to expect a certain amount of interest when you start a relationship.”

At his words, she smiled and said, “Here I thought we were past just starting.”

“Relationships here develop differently,” he admitted. “We’re already past so much of the social niceties that people would put on when you first meet. It’s different here. There’s no energy for that surface level. We are already down to the nitty-gritty of our inner selves here.”

“I guess it gets right down to the heart of what really matters, doesn’t it?”

They were sitting outside on the deck, both with lunch. She had chosen pasta, whereas he had some Chinese dish.

He nodded. “Here you’re already dealing with really deep issues. You’re dealing with healing, with the reality of what your current world looks like,” he said. “And that means all that other stuff—how you look, how you present yourself—changes. It’s different from just putting on makeup and going out to a dance, where you get to be somebody else for a night, and it takes time to get to know who people really are. Here, right now, we know who people are. We see it in our work, on a day-to-day basis.”

“I never thought of that,” she said, “but it’s true. An interesting way to look at life too.”

“And it’s real,” he said. “I think that’s why so many of the relationships that have developed here have done so well.”

“Well, it gives me hope then,” she said with a cheeky smile.

He grinned at her. “The thing is, you need to make sure that whatever is going on between us doesn’t negatively impact whatever it is that you need to do for your health, physically and emotionally,” he said. “So if you ever find me getting in the way, tell me to butt out.”

She chuckled. “If anything, you’re showing me that something normal is possible.”

“Of course it’s possible.” Then he smiled. “But that’s one of the realizations that you had to come to. That’s part of the whole growth process.”

“And that’s not an easy process to get to,” she said, “because, as the patient going through all this, I don’t see it. I don’t realize that it’s a milestone. I’m just focused on working forward until it hits me, and I realize that I’ve crossed it.”

“And I think that’s why so many of us can’t really tell you what it is you need to do to heal, outside of giving you general guidelines, because that milepost, that realization, is different for every person.”

“I guess I just hadn’t even considered it,” she said honestly.

“Well, now you have,” he said with a smile. “So life is … good. You can work toward the next milestone.”

She rolled her eyes at that. “Can’t imagine how many milestones we’ll have to work toward.”

“In some cases, there are a lot,” he said. “But I can tell you, it’s worth it. Every single day, it’s worth it.”

And she thought about his words for the next week, as it seemed like their friendship deepened, and people around them started to see them as a couple. And something was very special about that. The world was built for couples, as if a bubble were around them. And nobody else seemed to matter. She didn’t know for sure that she was falling in love, but she was definitely experiencing feelings for him that she hadn’t expected. At breakfast that following Wednesday, they were eating together. Several people were whispering about them a few tables over.

She dropped her gaze to her plate.

“Problems?” he asked, in that very perceptive tone of his.

She smiled. “I’m just … I’m unfamiliar with this,” she said.

“Does the talk bother you?” he asked, his gaze searching hers.

“No, not so much that it bothers me,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it, and I’m not used to it, but I can’t say that it’s a problem. I don’t know if it’s a problem.”

“Right,” he said. “Why don’t we just take it as not a problem, and we’ll carry on.”

She smiled. “Like, not borrow trouble before it happens?”

“Exactly.” He nodded.

She laughed. “Sounds good. I have a session this morning