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

She laughed. “Glad to hear that,” she said in a teasing voice. “I’m also happy to know that you care enough to wait for her.”

“It’s just … I hate the doubts.”

“And that’s only because you’re in the process,” she said, “and it’s lovely to see.”

He stared at her in outrage. “It’s lovely to see me all churned up like this?”

“Well, that’s not quite what I meant,” she said with a girlish giggle. “But you know what? I’m not totally against it.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “That’s just mean.”

“No,” she said with a gentle smile. “That’s love.”

“It sucks,” he said, calling out as she walked away. But her only answer was that lovely peal of laughter. And he grinned, fully aware that everybody in the place was watching his relationship with Melissa, seeing if it would go the way of all the other relationships. He wanted it to, but Dani was once again right. It had to work its way through in its own time frame; otherwise he would feel like he’d cheated Melissa and maybe rushed her.

And that wasn’t what he wanted either. He wanted her to be fully aware, fully happy to be with him as he was to be with her. He’d already asked himself the deep questions about whether he could handle somebody who could have an extreme physical disability all her life, and his only answer had been: Who was better qualified than him? As long as his heart was engaged, he didn’t give a hoot about the rest. She was beautiful inside and out, and her body wasn’t an issue. It was about the soul on the inside.

But somehow he had to convince her of that. And that wouldn’t be easy. It’s not that she was against it; she was just not 100 percent for it yet. And, as much as he wanted to give her time, he was the impatient sort, and he wanted things a little bit more locked down than they were, and somehow he was supposed to wait to make that happen. And that sucked.

Chapter 10

Several days later, it felt like a week later, Stan came up to Melissa with a tiny dog sporting a tiny set of wheels on his back end. “Have you met Chickie?”

“Nope,” she said, reaching up a hand to touch the little Chihuahua. “He’s so tiny.”

“He is, indeed. He’s got a touchy tummy, and he’s been down with me for a couple days, but he’s safe to bring back up.”

“I can’t believe I missed seeing this guy,” she said, stroking the tiny head.

“He often stays behind the front desk, so you can usually find him there.”

“He’s gorgeous,” she whispered, loving the delicate small head and the bright eyes as he stared at her. “It’s quite a life he’s got here, isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s a whole lot better than the life he would have had if he wasn’t here,” Stan admitted.

“How do you let them go?” she asked.

“It’s hard, unless I know that they’ll be in a better place,” he said with a smile. “But then I’m a little bit harder to convince than a lot of people. I want to make sure every animal is safe and okay. So we end up keeping way more than we probably have to,” he said, laughing, “but Dani has been great about that too.”

“It seems like Dani has really forged a path for herself here.”

“She has, but it was originally a path of adversity that she finally found a way forward to make her own.”

“I guess that’s the trick, isn’t it?”

“It is, but also you are not on some deadline either,” he said. “Nobody said you had to figure out everything in your life right now,” he added. “And sometimes it’s not that easy to figure out anyway, so it can take months to years.”

“I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. “Everything’s changed now. I’m at a crossroad, where I get to make a new decision.”

“Oh, I like that,” Stan said. “You get to make new decisions, change directions, make new directions. Those are really positive words,” he said, “You’re not at a point where you have to, but you get to.” He nodded. “Good way to look at it.”

Even after he left, she frowned at him, considering his insights into her use of that term, and he was right; it was a good way to look at it. She hadn’t realized that she had moved from “have to” onto “get to.”

When Shane sat down in front of her, she beamed. “Hey, you.”

He laughed and said, “Hey. How’re you doing?”

“Well, I just had a fun conversation with Stan.” She told Shane about it and said, “But what really got me was how he reacted to my words that I get to make a new decision about where I want to go in my life.”

“And that’s because Stan, like the rest of us, is aware of how much change and turmoil, chaos even, is in everybody’s life here. You’re all here for a reason,” he said. “So, when you get through that, we all care and are interested in seeing where you all end up, where you go, what choices you make. It’s fascinating for us because we invest all for your care and then wonder about what you’ll do after this.”

“No, I get that,” she said. “And I can see how that would be somewhat of a challenge, if you care about somebody.”

“A big challenge,” he said. “But, so far, I haven’t found anybody I’ve cared about quite the same way as you.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “And I haven’t figured out what I want to do from here either.”

“And nobody said you had to figure it out today.”

“And that’s what Stan just said.” She stared off in the distance. “I don’t want to just do nothing.