“I wondered about that too,” Dani said quietly. “His doctor has okayed it though.”
“But then how much of that is because they’re short on space?”
“That’s always a problem we’re up against, isn’t it?” she said with a heavy sigh. “I’ll contact the doctor again to make sure it’s still a go.”
“We do have a good medical staff here too,” the doctor said. “If traveling here so soon after his surgery is a problem, it just means his progress will be slower as we get him stabilized.”
“And that’s really not what our role here is,” she muttered. “But it seems like, in some cases, some of the treating doctors are just fobbing their patients off early, putting them in our hands.”
“And sometimes I think it’s for the best too,” Shane said with a wry tone. “Here, at least, we can work with them on a one-to-one basis, and they can progress at a much faster rate than they would if they were still back where they aren’t wanted.”
“It’s always a fine balance, isn’t it? We can’t bring in everybody because we just don’t have space or the facilities or the staff to handle it,” Dani said. “But maybe it’s time I had a little bit deeper conversation with him.”
“Has Nash been told he’s coming?”
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “I haven’t spoken to him directly though. I’ll add that to my list today.”
After that, they moved into a series of different conversations, and, by the time Shane walked out, he felt better than if he’d walked out earlier.
Dani caught him as they were leaving. “May I speak with you for a few minutes?”
He nodded and headed to her office. He didn’t know exactly what the conversation would entail, but always something was going on in Dani’s world. He sat down in the visitor’s chair and said, “Thank you for stepping in to talk to Melissa.”
“And I need to talk to you. Melissa’s had a pretty rough go-around in many ways,” she said. “So, as a friend, I also don’t want her hurt.”
He looked at Dani, frowned, then nodded. “Right. You’re caught in between, aren’t you?”
“She is a friend of mine. She came here at my persuasion,” she said. “I figured we could do an awful lot for her, and I’ve been proven right. You’re a fantastic therapist.”
“But,” he said, waiting for the pin to drop.
She smiled. “The only thing I want to say is that I just want to make sure that she’s not hurt in all this either. Some hurt comes along with life, and we can’t protect everybody from everything. But I do need to know how you feel about her.”
“All I can tell you at this point is,” he said, “I’ll be devastated when she leaves.”
She sighed and sat back. “I guess that’s partly why I’m asking. Are you leaving with her?”
She surprised him once more, and his instinctive reaction was to shout no across the room. But, of course, she was concerned. He was the head of the physiotherapy department, and replacing him—while he didn’t have a large-enough ego to think it would be difficult—it would be trying, and training would be involved. He shook his head and said, “No, I’m not planning on leaving at all.” He watched the relief whisper across her face.
“You know all this stuff really does bring up emotions and problems for everybody else, doesn’t it?”
He stared off in the distance and said, “I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t try to go in this direction.”
“Good,” she said. “That sounds wrong to think of somebody even attempting to do that. It’s always better when it happens naturally. At one point in time, I suspect you do want to move on,” she said. “I can’t force you to stay. I can’t persuade you to stay, but it’s good to know that you’re not looking to leave.”
“No, I’m not. Do you know if she has any plans?” he asked her.
“I think she’s still figuring out her options. I know she’s always had a love of animals, but I don’t know if she’s up for going back to school or not. I don’t know how her body would handle that yet either.”
“I’m not exactly sure,” he said. “Obviously we can get her to the point where she can go. Whether it’s a viable option, considering how tiring it might be for her, I don’t know.”
Dani nodded. “It’s one of the things that I want to talk to her about.”
“I’m hoping you don’t discuss our relationship,” he said carefully.
She smiled at him. “I’ll bring up what I need to,” she said. “I just need to know where her thoughts are about you, so I know if we’re dealing with something that’s professional or personal.”
“Dear God,” he said. “I would really hate for her feelings toward me to be solely based on anything other than deep and profound personal reasons.”
“And that’s partly why I want to talk to her because you’re special to us too. I don’t want you hurt. I don’t want her hurt. I’d like to head off something before it becomes a problem. But I can see that it’s already something that should have been brought up before.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “We weren’t really there. In truth, I don’t know where we are.”
She laughed out loud. “And that’s perfect,” she said warmly. “Nobody should really know where they are at this point. Life is for living, so stop trying to plan it. Just get out there and enjoy it.”
And, on that note, he got up with a silly grin on his face, walked out, and, of course, he headed for Melissa’s room, just to check in and to say hi because something about seeing that smile of hers made every day all that much brighter.
Chapter 11
Melissa looked up several days later to see Dani walking into her room. “Hey,”
