“Whatever,” she said and forcibly turned her head back to the screen.
Jessica watched her for a few moments and then returned to her own work. It was an odd thing in life that some people were so happy around music, and others were just cranky about it. She suspected that Bridget’s entire world being sucked into the whole music thing, yet feeling excluded herself, was the reason behind her bad reaction, but Jessica didn’t want that to affect Lance’s progress.
By the end of the day she stopped in to see him, but his door was closed, and he wasn’t answering.
She checked in on him twice the next day, and he looked tired.
“I’m fine,” he said, “really.”
She nodded slowly. “Maybe, but, hopefully by tomorrow, everything will be looking better.”
The next day he was perked up and looking much better again.
“You’re looking a bit better.”
“Maybe,” he said. “I’ll be doing my therapy work today, so we’ll see how that goes.”
“Just don’t overdo it,” she cautioned. Then she had to go because they had several patients leaving today and several new ones arriving, so she was rushed off her feet.
As it was, it was two days later before she had a chance to stop in and to really talk with him. “How are you doing?” she asked, bustling in, delighted to see some color on his face. “You look much better,” she said warmly.
“Then I must have looked like death warmed over before,” he said, but his smile was bright, his color healthy, and his gaze clear.
Even his disposition appeared a little more bouncy in her eyes. She checked his vitals and nodded with satisfaction. “Definitely an improvement all around.” She watched as he slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, shaky but absolutely upright. She stood back and admired. “Don’t you look fine,” she teased.
He flushed but gave her a brilliant smile back.
“How’s the music going?”
At that, the smile dimmed slightly. “Have to find a way to get outside because apparently, Dani has gotten some complaints.”
“Oh,” she said. “Isn’t that typical.”
“It is,” he said, “but you have to expect, when you’re in a place like this, that not everybody’ll have the same relaxed attitude to music.”
“Well, with any luck we can get you out at lunchtime.”
“I was thinking maybe after work,” he said, “like around four o’clock.” He looked at her hopefully. “Want to join me?
“Absolutely,” she said. “Where do you want to meet?”
“How about down by the pool?” he said.
“It’s a date.” And she skedaddled off. It just seemed like everything was so busy right now. But her heart was singing at the thought of meeting him this afternoon, even if the guitar was silent. And she barely had a chance to think about it again throughout the day until, all of a sudden, four o’clock came, and she dashed to the pool. When she got there, he was here with the guitar in his lap. Waiting. She smiled and said, “I’m here. I’m here.”
He looked over at her and said, “No rush,” he said. “I know you just finished work. I should have made it for fifteen minutes afterward to give you a break.”
“Not a problem,” she said. “I’m just grateful to be here,” she said. “Let’s go down and play some music to the animals.”
He laughed. “Not sure they’ll like that too much.”
“You never know,” she said. “I think all animals like a certain amount of music.” And she walked with him, checking out that he was strong enough to do the actual rolling, so she asked, “Do you want me to carry the guitar?”
“No,” he said. “I’m fine.”
“If you say so,” she said.
He just smiled and said, “It’s all good.”
“Great. So, whereabouts do you want to go?”
“Far enough away that I won’t be upsetting anybody.”
“I think the fact of life is that it’s a little hard to please everybody.”
“I just don’t want to piss off anybody.”
“Got it,” she said. She pointed out where Midnight, Dani’s horse, munched grass at the fence line. “How about down here?” she said.
He looked at the pathway and said, “How about we roll down a little farther away. I don’t want anybody disturbed.”
Surprised, she carried on walking with him, and, when he got to a spot he thought it was good enough, he stopped and said, “Dang, we should have brought coffee.”
“We should have,” she said with a laugh. “Next time we will.” And she sat down on the grass and waited for him to get settled in. As soon as he did, she lost herself to the music. He ran through a full litany of what was probably old favorites, she didn’t know, but she was stretched out in the green grass, her face to the sun, letting the breeze waft over her, as the music surrounded her and filled her heart with joy. When he finally fell silent, she said, “That sounds so lovely.” She looked up at him. “Does it tire you out?”
“No,” he said. “If anything, it’s just the opposite. I feel better than I have all day.” He shot his arms out. “The shoulder won’t take too much more though.”
“Are you still doing okay?”
“Yeah, I’m doing fine,” he said, “but working with Shane is exhausting sometimes.”
“It’s all the time, from what I hear,” she said. “You’re not the first to complain.”
“Well, you think that you know your own body, and then he shows you something that makes you wonder if you ever knew it at all,” he said. Then he strummed away again on the guitar.
She followed his lead and just let the music rise up around them. She noticed that all the horses were coming to the corners of their pastures to get closer. And, even as she turned to look, Helga, the big Newfoundlander on three legs, was walking toward them.
“Well, it seems you’ll have an audience, whether you like it or not,” she teased.
He looked startled for a moment, then stopped playing and glanced around and saw
