I’ve long stopped asking the universe all the why’s in life.
Why did that drunk driver have to glance at his phone and run the red light? Why did the accident leave me paralyzed from the waist down while he got to walk away, unscathed? Why did Tiffany put my name down in that Wild Card competition knowing the odds were against me?
And why, of all the women in the world, Tyler Drake chose me, asking me to marry him a year after we first met in front of our families at the Aida?
No TV cameras this time, not for the proposal or the wedding.
No, there are no scientific answers to such questions. Sometimes it’s just Fate.
It’s been two years since the day I first rolled my wheelchair on the dock of the Aida, two years since Tyler saw me and something inside him told him I was the one he’d been waiting for. He always tells me that he didn’t even see the wheelchair; he only saw my smile and that it was as bright as the sun.
It doesn’t mean he pretends it’s not there. On the contrary, Tyler is very mindful that I’ll always need it to get around. It did take him some time to get used to the fact that I didn’t need help with everything, like getting in and out of the car by myself or making dinner for him whenever I want to, not relying on the housekeeper to take care of everything.
Instead, we’ve become a team. His company now focuses on making adaptive outdoor gear. Just like the third wheel attachment that Tiffany came up with, we find ways that allow people like me with disabilities to enjoy the outdoors.
Where people see limitations, I choose to see possibilities. I even made it to the Paralympics swim team last year, and some days I can out-swim Tyler who’s really more a surfer than a swimmer. He’ll swim if he has to, but he prefers to be on a surfboard. Maybe one day, we can come up with something for me in that regard but until then, we’ll have to wait.
After all, we’ve got other things to concern ourselves with at the moment—like a baby, Donovan James, who’s the light of our lives from the moment we learned we were pregnant. I never even thought it would happen but my injury hadn’t affected my ability to have children and although I had to be extra careful during the pregnancy and experienced some discomfort, it was a good, uneventful pregnancy. At least, nothing to write home about.
Already, at three-months-old, Donovan does well in the water. We even make it a family affair, all three of us together and sometimes my mother and Tiffany, too, whenever she’s around.
There’s never a dull moment in a household that’s as busy as ever with my mother who lives with us and Tiffany, who’s getting ready for college in a few weeks. Though she was accepted to an Ivy League university, she’s chosen to accept a scholarship closer to home so she can visit me every weekend. Besides, she says she’ll need to do laundry some time.
As for Les, I heard that his latest reality show just got cancelled and so he’s out pitching the studio execs with another one of his bright ideas. No matter what happened, I hold no grudges against him. I just hope that wherever he is, he’s happy.
Marilyn and Archer got married six months ago, and she lives with him in Saint Lucia. They both visit as much as they can and it’s always a blast when they come over, spoiling the baby with presents they bring from the island. They’re also Donovan’s godparents and Marilyn says the whole thing—her and Archer—are technically a packaged deal. Tyler and I won’t be able to get rid of them… not that we’d want to.
Of course, it wasn’t easy getting here. Tyler and I have had our ups and downs, and sure, there are still days when I wonder if there’ll be a day when he’ll want to be with someone with workable legs. But every day he assures me that he doesn’t and we take things one day at a time. It’s all I can do, and no matter the difficulties we’ve faced, we’ve managed to get through every single one of them. We’ve come out stronger and wiser, and even closer than before.
We know there’ll be more challenges ahead of us, but every day Tyler amazes me with his love for me, and I fall in love with him more and more each day. And whether or not I will ever walk again—never say never, as they say—I am happy with everything that I have. Family, friends… and true love.
What more could a wild card ask for?
This concludes Wild Card, a clean and wholesome novella. I hope you enjoyed the story of Daniela and Tyler, one of my favorite couples ever!
Just a little note that while Wild Card is clean and wholesome, my other stories do have steamy content to go with the emotional angst.
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