Happily Ever Afters Guaranteed (7 page)

But today he wasn’t going to offer her
something to drink. Today he was going to ask her out.

Maybe.

Brody released the handbrake on his
wheelchair and maneuvered through the house. The tile floors common
to this area of Florida were easy enough to navigate, and it hadn’t
taken long for him to rearrange the furniture once he realized the
wheelchair was going to be a permanent fixture in his life.

Two years after the accident, just in time
for Valentine’s Day, he was finally getting his confidence back.
Mostly.

He paused just inside the double
sliding-glass doors that led to the patio and pool area. He
glimpsed Kate’s slim figure rounding the house to where the hot tub
controls were located. The old Brody wouldn’t have hesitated to ask
Kate on a date. She was everything he’d liked. Beautiful. Most of
the time she wore her long blond hair in a neat ponytail or braid.
Her blue eyes were filled with warmth and often, humor. She was
quick to smile.

The post-accident Brody noticed the quiet
strength that permeated her attitude. And the changed—hopefully,
improved—Brody also noticed her fearless mentions of her church
family, her faith.

It was funny how the things he valued had
changed along with his body in two short years. From shallow to
what really mattered. Coming face-to-face with your own mortality
could do that to a man.

Brody inhaled deeply and slid the door open.
Kate looked up from where she crouched next to the pool, a warm
smile lighting her eyes.

He could do this. Maybe.

“Hey, Mr. F—I mean, Brody.” Her cheeks
pinked. He’d been asking her since her third appointment to call
him by his first name.

“New wheels?”

He glanced down at his chair. “Yeah.
Therapist says I can use this all-terrain chair anywhere. Grass,
gravel. I’m really hoping to get down to the beach, but we’ll
see…”

It was the thing he missed most about his
loss of mobility. Having to be carried out like a child just to
touch his toes to the waves was worse than dreaming about surfing,
his favorite pastime. He needed to get back to the water. Had
to…

“So you’re… erm, practicing?”

Brody jerked back to the conversation,
silently berating himself. Today was not the day to lose his train
of thought!

“Yeah. Therapist recommended I get used to
the chair’s movement in a familiar environment.”

She nodded and “hmmed” as she extracted the
little tube that would show the chlorine levels in his pool. He
hoped he wasn’t boring her. If he couldn’t make it through one
conversation to ask her out, how could he expect her to believe
he’d be a charming dinner companion?

His hands started to sweat.

“Listen, Kate. I was wondering… umm…”

Does Brody ask Kate out?
GO TO PART 2

Does Brody wait for next time?
GO TO PART 3

PART TWO

Kate flipped her ponytail over her shoulder
and looked up at Brody as he hesitated.

She hadn’t heard him sound so uncertain since
the first time she’d encountered him after his accident. Brody was
a take-charge kind of guy, even without the use of his legs.
Someone she could admire.

She wiped her chlorine-wet palm on her
uniform khaki shorts and straightened the collar of her red polo.
Wished she wasn’t quite so aware of how she looked.

Okay, so she had a huge crush on Brody! Where
he’d been tall and fit before the car crash, now his shoulders and
upper arms were defined through his t-shirt. She knew he worked his
legs as well, even though he couldn’t stand.

His dark curls and ebony eyes had been
haunting her dreams for months.

Too bad he was way out of her league.

She’d been born into a middle class family,
but things had changed when her father had left. Kate’s mom had
done the best she could, but without any education or work history,
supporting two kids meant she’d had to work three jobs for them to
get by.

Kate had grown up mothering her younger
brother, something he still complained of, until she’d gotten her
first job at age fourteen.

Then her mom had gotten sick. Really sick.
Cancer. And Kate dropped out of high school to take over as
provider for the family.

She couldn’t regret it, not when her mom was
still alive and ornery. Even if it did mean Kate was still working
her way through night school at age twenty-five.

But it was a little hard to bear when she was
faced with a man she’d love to invite to her mom’s for Sunday
lunch. One who was a wildly successful author, had two degrees hung
on his office wall, and whose eyes sparkled with intelligence.

Way out of her league.

Kate finished the pH test and stood up.

“Sorry,” she said, face blazing. “I kinda
wandered off there. Did you want to ask me something?”

“Yes. Umm…” Brody closed his eyes for a brief
moment, almost as if he was bracing himself for something. “Would
you have dinner with me this weekend?”

Does Kate agree to the date?
GO TO PART FIVE

Does Kate decline?
GO TO PART SEVEN

PART
THREE

Was that an engine? Brody shifted in his
wheelchair, half-hidden behind a bush in his neighbor’s yard.

A glance through the almost-bare branches
showed his across-the-street neighbors approaching their home.
Brody hoped the person he waited for arrived soon—it was getting
dark and he didn’t want his neighbors thinking he was crazy.

Even if he was loitering in their yard.

He had to find out if Kate was his delivery
fairy. People from his church had brought home-cooked meals once
he’d come home from the hospital, but they’d tapered off after a
couple of months. All except Thursday nights. An anonymous donor
continued to drop off meals—lasagnas, chicken casseroles, even a
delicious rack of ribs once—but he’d never been able to catch the
culprit in the act. The meals always showed up on his front step
between five and six pm, usually boxed.

And something Kate had let slip last week—a
comment about a Thursday afternoon appointment—had made him
suspicious that his delivery fairy might be her.

So now he’d been hiding behind this bush for
nearly an hour and he was starting to feel foolish. What if he
secret benefactor wasn’t Kate, but an elderly widow from his
church? If it was so important for the person to preserve their
anonymity, maybe there was a good reason.

But he really wanted it to be Kate. He’d
chickened out on asking her out for a date last week, but he was
determined to ask her to stay and share the meal with him. If it
was Kate.

What if it wasn’t?

Waffling, Brody started to wheel himself down
the sidewalk toward his home; he was half-exposed when a familiar
white pickup crawled to a stop two houses down.

Kate’s truck.

She got out, blond hair tumbling loose around
her shoulders. A pair of dark jeans hugged her slender hips as she
hustled over the grass to deposit a cardboard box—his dinner—on the
step. She didn’t wait around, was hurrying back to her truck when
Brody realized she was going to get away if he didn’t do
something.

He had two choices. He could ease back behind
the bush and she’d never know he’d seen her. Or he could catch up
to her and persuade her to share dinner with him.

Does Brody catch up to Kate?
GO TO PART FOUR

Does Brody wait for next time?
GO TO PART EIGHT

PART FOUR

Kate froze with her foot on the truck’s brake
pedal and her hand on the gearshift.

Was that…? It was.

Brody wheeled his chair right down the center
of the residential street toward her.

Had he seen her make the food delivery? His
waving arm and wide smile certainly indicated he’d seen something.
Embarrassment swamped her. She felt a little like a teen spying on
the object of her secret crush.

For a moment she considered stomping on the
gas and racing away, but that wouldn’t solve anything.

Keegan, her mutt of a dog, shifted on the
bench seat next to her and groaned a doggie groan.

“I know,” she soothed him. “We’re caught.”
Well and truly caught.

She started to roll down the window, then
realized Brody would have to stretch halfway out of the wheelchair
to reach the pickup window. She got out of the car instead, Keegan
following her out. The dog approached and sniffed Brody, who
accepted the welcome with a rub and a soft, “Hi, fella.”

“Didn’t your mama teach you not to play in
the middle of the street?” Kate teased gently.

“Yeah.” Brody grinned up at her, one hand
buried in Keegan’s ruff. “But I was in a hurry.” He glanced
pointedly at the front step. “I guess I should thank you for making
sure I get fed once a week.”

He had seen her. A flush heated her cheeks.
“It’s no big deal. You don’t have to thank me.”

She hadn’t done it for recognition. It had
started as a way to support him when he’d been unable to do much
for himself. Then it had morphed into a secret connection between
them. Even if he never found out she’d brought the meals for him,
she knew.

He reached out and clasped her hand in his
larger, warm fingers. “I want to. Come in and eat with me, will
you?”

She shouldn’t.

He tugged on her hand, gently, and winked.
“I’ll even invite Kujo here in. I don’t have anything breakable at
his level anyway. Saves me from knocking knickknacks off with my
elbows.”

Kate allowed him to tug her forward. She
waited momentarily as he navigated the incline at the bottom of his
driveway.

She was really going to do this. Have dinner
with Brody.

GO TO
PART SIX

PART FIVE

Kate took a deep breath on Brody’s front
step. Her finger rested on the doorbell but she hadn’t pressed it
yet. She shouldn’t have come.

What had prompted her to say “yes” to his
dinner invitation?

He out-classed her.

A light flicked on behind the door and the
knob rattled. Brody appeared, a welcoming smile on his face. No
turning back now.

GO TO
PART SIX

PART SIX

Kate followed Brody into a well-appointed
kitchen. The granite countertops and fine woodwork were so much
nicer than the Formica and buttercorn yellow cabinets at home.

A reminder that she and Brody came from
different worlds.

Brody wheeled up to one of the cabinets and
pulled out a couple of plates and then extracted silverware from a
drawer.

“This is… really nice,” Kate said, looking
around.

“After the accident, I had to have the
counters lowered and then rearrange the whole kitchen,” he said
with a self-deprecating smile.

She’d never really spoken to him about his
disability. It hadn’t seemed appropriate when she was simply his
pool-girl. She didn’t really know if it was proper now, but the
words were already coming out of her mouth.

“I hope you won’t think this is rude, but you
haven’t seemed to have that hard a time adjusting to… to…”

“Not having use of my legs anymore?” he
finished for her. “You want to set the table?”

She took the plates and silverware from
him.

“I’ve had my moments,” he went on, removing a
dish from the box he’d set on the counter when they came into the
kitchen and pulling away the foil that covered the top. “Some
things have been harder to bear than others.”

Brody put a folded towel across his lap and
settled the dish on top—a pasta casserole that was her mom’s
recipe. He motioned her to a doorway on the right. “The dining
room’s there. You probably noticed I’m a little nervous tonight. I
haven’t dated since the accident. I’m afraid I might be rusty…”

His words ringing in her ears—he thought this
was a REAL date!—Kate moved on autopilot toward the doorway. One
glance into the formal dining room brought her out of her stupor.
The heavy, long table and expensive floral arrangement were so
fancy… It looked like it seated twelve! How could she be herself
when faced with this reminder of the differences between Brody’s
circumstances and hers?

Thinking as quickly as possible, Kate called
over her shoulder. “Could we eat out on the patio? It’s a nice
night.”

And it was. February in this area of Florida
averaged highs around seventy degrees, but today had been a bit
warmer. Beautiful, really. And she didn’t want to eat in that
stilted, formal dining room.

“Sure, the patio’s fine,” came Brody’s voice
behind her. “Just go back through the living room.”

She did, Keegan’s nails clacking on the floor
behind her. She’d almost forgotten that her canine companion had
been invited on this date with her. With any luck, he’d behave
himself tonight and not beg for scraps too much.

Kate moved out onto the patio. Her territory.
She spoke as she set out the plates and arranged the cutlery, aware
that Brody wheeled out the door right behind her, pasta balanced on
his lap.

“So… why’d you pick me? To do this… date, I
mean—” Kate cut herself off, embarrassed that she couldn’t get the
words out right. She closed her eyes, praying he wouldn’t say,
because you were the only woman around.

Brody’s warm hand enveloping hers brought her
eyes open. His serious, dark gaze showed sincerity. “I asked you to
dinner tonight because you captivate me. I want to get to know you
better.”

“Oh.” Kate knew she was flushing. What a nice
thing to say. But would he still feel the same when he found out
about her background? She was a high school dropout, after all…