So, just you today, huh?” Cole’s physical therapist, Mike, scanned the waiting room.
Scowling, Cole gripped the handles of the infernal warm-up bike and gritted his teeth. One more minute of the ten Mike had programmed in. He nodded. “Just me.”
Serena had been disappointed about her sister eating into her time with Max last week, but it had turned out to be bloody convenient. Parent-teacher conference season had come upon her out of nowhere, and both today and tomorrow, she had meetings scheduled well into the evening. Penny had basically had to look after Max.
And Cole had had to take a cab.
He rolled his eyes at himself as he pedaled out the last few seconds. It hadn’t been that difficult. He probably should’ve done it weeks ago, only Serena had kept insisting, and he’d given up on trying to resist her. When she offered him something he wanted these days, he took it with both hands and held on.
The final second ticked over, and Cole slumped back against the seat.
Mike slapped his shoulder. He scarcely recoiled at all.
“See, that wasn’t that bad.”
“No.” It was never that bad, but he hated it all the same. Before the injury, he’d been one of the masochists who ran outdoors even in the winter. He wanted to go places; he had no need for standing still.
“All right. Well, let’s see if we can’t make that girlfriend of yours proud today.”
Cole leveled him with a look, swinging his leg over the seat of the bike to dismount and reaching for his crutch.
Except Mike grabbed it first and held it out of reach.
“Excuse me,” Cole said.
Mike gave him a smirking grin. “Let’s see how you do without it, yeah?”
Cole leaned back like he’d been burned.
Oblivious, Mike soldiered on. “You’ve been depending on it for too long. Go on. Take a couple of steps.”
It was the most innocent of invitations, and it felt like a slap to the face. He hadn’t been depending on it. He’d needed the bloody thing. Even switching down to just the one a couple of weeks ago had left him sore and exhausted. To go without any kind of support now—he felt naked. Like he could totter off into a free fall at any moment, alone, unmoored.
He shook his head. “I don’t think—”
“Come on. At least give it a try. I’m right here.” When Cole hesitated, Mike heaved a sigh. “Seriously, I can’t believe you haven’t given them up already. The first time you came in here, you were champing at the bit to get done with them as fast as you could. Now suddenly you’re dragging your heels?”
And he had, hadn’t he? He practically begged the orthopedic doctor for exercises, he’d been so eager to get better on his own. The crutches had been shackles, and they’d tied him to his apartment. He hadn’t been able to do anything or go anywhere, hadn’t been able to run or lift; he’d been stuck in his own damn head and those four square walls. He hadn’t been able to breathe.
Until Serena.
His heart stuttered hard inside his chest. Was that the answer, then? Was that the reason why he’d stopped pushing himself?
He’d lost his independence that day on the train. He’d bent his will to getting it back, right up until the moment it had become a reason for Serena to take care of him.
The back of his throat tore open.
She needed so desperately for people to need her. The worst thing in the world to happen to her in all the time he’d known her had been being told she wasn’t needed or that she couldn’t help.
What would happen when he didn’t need her help? He was still an emotional cripple—and he’d use all the ableist language he wanted to, thank you very much. But when he got his body back under control, when he could manage on his own...
What on earth would she do with him then?
“Cole? Hey. Buddy. It’s okay, if you’re really not ready. We can wait—it’s cool.”
Cole’s gaze refocused. He found himself still sitting on the edge of the seat of the bike, the leather giving beneath the clench of his fist. A couple of feet in front of him, Mike stared at him with concern in his eyes, holding out his crutch.
Cole shook his head. He waited until Mike backed off. And then, with his jaw clenched, leaning hard into the seat, he pushed himself to standing.
Nothing happened. No fanfare and no cannons. He stood of his own power for the first time in months.
“You’re doing great, man.” The voice came from terribly far away.
Bracing himself, he took a step. His knee twinged, but it was a bare flicker. Nothing he couldn’t ignore—nothing he couldn’t have been ignoring for days or maybe weeks. The second step was just as easy, and his head spun, his ears rung.
He could make it on his own, much the same as he had been for years and years.
He didn’t want to. But he could.
“Remember that you can check his assignments online anytime. I’ll let you know if he starts getting behind, but it’s up to him to stay on top of things.”
“Thank you so much, Ms. Hartmann.”
Serena held out her hand to shake. “Don’t you worry. We’ll get him through.”
After a couple more pleasantries, she got yet another concerned parent out the door. She glanced at the clock, then let her shoulders slump. Parent-teacher conference season was great for a whole host of reasons, but it left her wiped, and she still had a few hours left to go.
Well, at least that last meeting had been an easy one. With a solid ten minutes until her next appointment, she headed back to her desk and collapsed into her chair. She twirled back and forth in it a handful of times, then dug into her pocket for her phone. Jeez, when was the last time she’d had a chance to check it?
The whole screen was blinking with alerts. Her pulse immediately ratcheted up a notch, only kicking higher when she saw she’d missed a call from Penny about an hour ago. There was a text from her, too, but all it said was to call her back. Her stomach did a somersault as she hit the button to dial.
Penny answered the instant it started to ring, her voice filled with relief. “Oh, thank God.”
“What?” Serena’s heart beat straight through its cage. “What’s going on? Penny, are you okay—”
If she wasn’t, what was Serena going to do? She was stuck here all afternoon. Maybe they could call their mother, or if she really had to she might be able to reschedule—
“Serena. Rena! I’m fine. I swear. Calm down.”
A few of Cole’s more colorful phrases came to mind, but she bit them back as she slumped in her chair. “Don’t scare me like that.”
Penny sighed, and Serena immediately felt guilty. She and her mother had both been using that phrase a lot of late. If they didn’t want to chase Penny away again, they could probably stand to lay it on a little less thick.
“Sorry,” Penny said, “but listen. I need a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Can you please, please, please watch Max today after all?”
Serena groaned. Crap. Anything but that. “You know I would.” She’d always take Max if she could. “But I can’t today. I told you, I have conferences.”
“Shit.” There was the vague sound of impact like her sister hitting something. “Fuck. I forgot.” She drew in a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“I just ran into Becca. You remember Becca?”
“Vaguely.” One of Penny’s friends from back in high school maybe? Serena scrunched her face up.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Just, she works at this place downtown, and they’re hiring a new admin, and it might be an in for me, but they have to make their decision by tomorrow. She said she can sneak me in between a couple of other interviews, but it has to be today—”
“Okay, okay, slow down.” Serena almost didn’t want to slow her down at all. This was the most animated she’d heard her sister in years.
Penny sucked in a long, deep breath. “I just...I think it could be really good.”
The problem was, Serena did, too. Penny needed things to keep her occupied, and apparently losing her last job in New York had been a big factor in things spiraling even further out of her control. Getting back to work again would probably make her feel a lot better about herself.
A tiny niggle of doubt hummed at the back of her mind. If she could keep the job, it would make her feel a lot better about herself. Her illness was unpredictable, and while she was doing so much better than she had been a couple of weeks ago, she was still fragile.
And if Serena brought that up to her now, it really, really wasn’t going to help.
“Okay,” she scrambled. She really couldn’t sneak out of these conferences for anything less than an absolute emergency, but there had to be something she could do. Someone she could turn to...
It came to her in a flash.
She had someone in her corner. Someone who’d been trying over and over to prove that he was here for her for anything. This was asking a lot, but...
She combed a hand through her hair and tugged. “I may have an idea. Give me three minutes.”
The hope in Penny’s voice echoed out across the line. “Okay. Thank you.”
Hanging up, Serena clasped her phone against her chest, squeezing her eyes shut tight. This was probably a terrible idea, but for Penny she’d try anything.
Cole picked up on the second ring. “Serena?”
“I have a huge favor to ask.”
“Okaaay...?”
There was something off about his voice. It made her pause for half a second, but she shrugged it off, rising and starting to pace. “Penny’s got a job interview, and I’m still stuck in conferences for another couple of hours. You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important, but...”
She trailed off, because it was obvious what she needed, right?
Dead silence rang across the line. A pit of dread opened up in her gut, and she gripped her phone so hard she feared she’d crack the screen.
Crap. This really had been a terrible idea. From day one, when she’d basically conned him into offering to tutor Max, he’d been hesitant. He might have warmed to the kid in the time since, but he’d never lost that deer-in-headlights look around him.
And why would he? The man blamed himself and his unreadiness for children for his wife going off the road that night. The pain in his voice came back to her, a shallow knife slicing cleanly across her ribs.
Still, she had to ask. “Please. I know it’s a lot, but I don’t know who else to call.”
“I don’t...Serena...” Desperation leaked into his voice.
“Just pretend I’m there. Take him to my apartment and get set up at the table the same way you always do. There are cookies and milk in the fridge. Just...do some math stuff with him. The same as always.”
“And after?”
Right. He’d never spent more than an hour or so working through problems with Max. Serena stabbed out wildly. “It doesn’t matter. Let him play video games if you want, or turn on some cartoons.” Max never got screen time until he was done with his homework, but she wasn’t going to bring that up—not when Cole was doing her a favor. When he was stepping about a million miles outside his comfort zone for her. “Please.”
She held her breath.
But then, finally, he sighed. “Bloody hell. Fine.”
All the air rushed out of her lungs in a whoosh. “Thank you, thank you. I swear I will make this up to you.”
She’d make him a whole set of china, or take him out to dinner, or—well, she had a variety of ways of showing her appreciation these days, didn’t she? He seemed unreasonably fond of her mouth in particular...
Before she could go on about all her plans for paying him back, a knock sounded on her door. She jerked her head up, stilling her pacing. Oh man, she hated when parents were early. Tilting the phone away from her mouth, she smiled at them, welcoming them in. “I’ll be with you in just one second.” Returning to Cole, she said, “Sorry, I need to go. You’ve got this, though, right?”
“Have them ring me when they’re here.” It came out strangled, and her heart panged.
Fervently, she said, “Thank you.”
Without another word, he ended the call. Something was still off there, but he was doing this for her. It was all she could ask.
Hoping for the best, she fired off a quick text to Penny to let her know what was going on. Then she pocketed her phone and put on her best, most reassuring smile as she moved to shake her next set of parents’ hands.
She had a job to do, and she would focus on that as opposed to the drama that might be playing out at her apartment any minute now.
Besides, who knew? This could be good for everyone. Penny might get the job, and Cole might see that hanging out with a kid alone wasn’t really that bad. He’d see she trusted him.
What was the worst that could happen?