Winners (36 page)

“Completely,” she said, with stars in her eyes too, and he kissed her again. She could hardly make herself get out of his car when he got her chair out.

“I love you, Lily,” he said when he kissed her for the last time.

“I love you too, Chris.” She rolled into her house then, waved at him, and gently closed the door behind her. It was late, and she hoped her father would be asleep.

He wasn’t. He was lying in bed thinking how empty his life would be without her. And he was awake long after she drifted off to sleep, thinking of Chris.

They flew into the Mercer County airport the next day, in a Canadian Global Express, and a van and driver met them and drove them to Princeton. Lily was in high spirits all the way, and Bill was quiet, listening to her and enjoying her company. She didn’t say anything about Chris, and he didn’t ask her. He knew. He had been young once too.

Lily went to the orientation desk and got her room and dorm assignment, and Bill was grateful to discover that because of her wheelchair, her room was on the main floor of Whitman College, and the driver helped them get all her bags and boxes inside. Bill worked on setting up her computer while she put away her clothes. The room was small, and she had been assigned a roommate, Chiara from Connecticut, and he was startled to see that she was also in a wheelchair when she came in, with a disability similar to Lily’s. They eyed each other suspiciously for a minute, and then they both laughed and started talking. She had been in a car accident at sixteen, and was impressed by Lily’s story and the fact that she’d been in the Paralympics. She had heard about them but never seen them. And her parents chatted pleasantly with Bill while he set up the computer, and Chiara’s father brought in a small fridge.

By eight o’clock the girls were all set for dinner. Lily said goodbye to her father, and her roommate Chiara hugged her parents. The girls were clearly ready for their parents to make a discreet exit and leave them to the excitement of their new life. The two girls were chatting happily as they left, negotiating the paths easily in their wheelchairs, and talking about what eating clubs they hoped to join one day. Lily had read all about them and already knew she wanted Cottage. Chiara said she wanted Ivy. They were the clubs that were a more distinguished version of fraternities and sororities on campus. But they couldn’t join until the spring of their sophomore year, and could use the clubs only as juniors and seniors.

Bill looked at Chiara’s parents ruefully as he stood up, after hooking up the stereo and computer. “I guess that’s our cue to leave before they get back. We’re no longer needed.” He had a lump in his throat as he said it.

“Looks like it,” Chiara’s father said with a grin and put an arm around his wife. “It’s our first time at college. We’ve got three more at home.”

“She’s my only one,” Bill said bleakly, and with all the dignity he could muster, he left without bursting into tears. He found the driver and headed back to the airport, and two hours later they were in the air, heading back to Denver, and he had a stiff drink. He had never felt so lonely in his life.

They landed at two in the morning local time, and Bill was home by two-thirty. He walked into the house, and the silence was deafening as he gave in to the tears that had been choking him all night. And then he saw that Lily had sent him a text message: “Thank you. I love you, Daddy.” That only made it worse.

Chapter 28

“How was it?” Jessie asked him with a look of concern the next day. She could see the answer on his face. He looked like someone had died.

“It was okay. She was happy as a lark when I left,” he said grimly.

“It was bad when Chris went away last year too. You get used to their being gone after a while.”

“You’ve got three others. My house is like a tomb.”

“You’ll just have to try and keep busy,” Jessie said gently. She could see how upset he was.

She, Carole, and Joe tried to entertain him in the ensuing weeks, and invited him to dinner. He had a good time with them, but it was always the same when he went home. No Lily. And she was so busy, she hardly called him, and he didn’t want to nag her. He was the childhood cocoon she had shed.

Carole and Joe had come out of the closet by then, and Jessie was happy for them about their romance. She didn’t envy them, and didn’t want one of her own. She was happy with her kids. And Carole and Joe always asked about Lily. Bill said she was doing well and having fun—he could hardly wait for her to come home for Thanksgiving. And Jessie knew that Chris felt the same way—she could tell by the way he asked about Lily. He admitted to getting calls and texts from her, but he missed her.

And Jessie was aware how much Teddy missed her too. He had convinced his parents to let him transfer to The Lily Pad, and after they researched it, they agreed. Jessie had spoken to them at length, and they were intelligent and thorough. He had moved into The Lily Pad right before Halloween and had arrived in a bumblebee costume he had painted himself and delighted the younger children.

There were two boys his age in residence and one girl, and one boy slightly older. Teddy was enjoying hanging out with them when he wasn’t at school, working in the art room, or playing rugby. He was busy at DU. And The Lily Pad was booming. They had twenty patients at the moment, and were expecting more in the coming weeks. They were almost ready to open the second residence hall, as soon as they hired more staff. Teddy was helping with the art program with the younger children on weekends, and they all loved him.

Everything was going smoothly on all fronts. And Jessie had invited everyone to dinner for Thanksgiving, Joe and Carole, Teddy, Phil Lewis who had nowhere to go, Bill and Lily, and all four of her children. She was planning a festive meal and going to cook it herself, even though she was on call. And Carole promised to fill in for her as chef and hostess if she had to go to work.

When Lily came home on Wednesday night, she was treated like a returning movie star. Her father had sent a plane for her, which she had admitted to no one at school—she pretended she was taking a flight from Newark.

Chris came to see her at the house late that night, and her father couldn’t get enough of her the next day before they went to Jessie’s house for turkey dinner. And all of Jessie’s children were happy to see her, as were the adults. Everyone had missed her. She announced at dinner that she had decided on her major. She was going to take psych, and wanted to go for a Ph.D. afterward and become a psychologist like Carole, to work with SCI kids, hopefully at The Lily Pad. Her father was proud of her when he heard it, and hoped she’d find somewhere closer to home to get her Ph.D. But that was still a long way off.

They were talking about it as she held hands with Chris under the table, when Jessie’s BlackBerry rang, and they called her in. They had a new intake they needed her to see and assess.

“Well, that’s the end of me,” Jessie said with a big smile, looking at Carole. “You can take over from here.” They had had turkey, but not yet dessert, and everyone had enjoyed the meal so far. Jessie had set a beautiful table and prepared a delicious meal with Heather’s help. She and her mother were back on good terms now. She still missed Squaw, but loved her new school and had a boyfriend who was making Denver fun for her, and she was making lots of new friends and keeping in touch with her old ones.

The desserts were already lined up on the kitchen table. It was easy for Carole to serve them once Jessie left. Heather and Lily helped her, as did Chris. And while they cleared the table for dessert, Heather told Lily how much she loved her school. Lily was happy to hear it. And then she turned to Chris and asked him if he wanted to go skiing the next day, and he was thrilled. There was already snow in Winter Park, and Lily had been aching to ski.

There were a million things she wanted to do while she was home, most of them with Chris, and a few with her father. He realized as he listened to her how grown up she had gotten. Things had already subtly shifted. She wasn’t his little girl anymore. She was her own woman, and Chris’s to some degree, but mostly her own. Chris could see it too, but he was growing up too. They seemed more like a couple now than they had before she left, and Bill wondered if it was “official.”

They all left before Jessie got back, and Bill had invited everyone to Christmas dinner at their house. And the whole group looked pleased with the invitation. He and Lily went home then and chatted about what a nice Thanksgiving it had been. And she yawned as soon as she got in. The house felt different to him, just knowing she was there. With Lily at home, it was a much warmer place to be. Without her, he felt lost, but he didn’t say it to her. He was trying to grow up too.

She went skiing with Chris the next day, and they went out to dinner after she visited with Teddy. And on Saturday Bill took Lily and Chris to dinner with Jessie. Her other children had other plans, and sleepovers, and Heather was out with her boyfriend. So the four of them went out for a quiet dinner, and then Chris and Lily sat in the den at her house, talking. And on Sunday morning, she left. It was all over much too quickly, as Bill said to Jessie on Monday.

“How does it end so quickly? One minute they’re babies, and the next they’re grown up. I feel like I missed the whole movie.”

“You didn’t,” Jessie reassured him. “You’re still in it. You just don’t know it. It’s not over yet.” And then they talked about The Lily Pad and her intakes over the weekend. Bill was aware of each child that was there. They discussed every aspect of the center with each other. Jessie had her Colorado license by then, but she had done nothing about entering another practice. She hadn’t had time yet. The Lily Pad kept her too busy.

The next weeks flew by, and three weeks after Thanksgiving, Lily was home for Christmas vacation, and this time Bill knew she’d be home for two weeks, so he was more relaxed about being with her.

And on Christmas Eve, they all sat together at Bill and Lily’s table. She and Chris had put a tree up, under Teddy’s artistic direction, and they all shared a Christmas feast. Bill thought, as he sat there, that it had been the fastest year of his life. So much had happened. Lily had won the silver medal, The Lily Pad had opened, Jessie had moved to Denver, Carole and Joe had fallen in love, Chris and Lily were a couple, Lily was at Princeton. It had been an amazing year.

Chapter 29

If the year before had gone quickly, the months between December and June virtually flew by. They opened the second residential house, and had thirty-two patients at The Lily Pad. Jessie gave up the idea of joining a local practice, she had no time, although she wasn’t sure she wanted to give up surgery. By June, Chris had finished two years of college, Teddy and Lily their first year, and Heather was about to graduate and attend UC Santa Barbara in the fall. And Carole was planning a gala to benefit The Lily Pad, in October, with Joe’s help. She had given up her apartment and moved in with Joe. All of their lives seemed to be moving at dizzying speed, and Bill was slowly getting used to Lily being away, and the idea that she was growing up, painful as it was.

She had helped them organize their annual sports competition, from Princeton. They had five coaches under the direction of Phil Lewis, and the event was planned for November, on the Thanksgiving weekend, so people from out of town could easily attend. There would be medals given in every category.

The Monet water lilies looked spectacular hanging at the entrance to The Lily Pad, and Teddy’s painting hung near it. And Bill had had a black granite wall installed, also near the entrance, with the names of their biggest donors, to honor their contributions. He had called it “The Winners’ Circle,” and Steve Jansen had just finished it. In time, they planned to put their sports medal winners on the wall too. Bill went to look at the wall with Jessie, and they listed donors from platinum to bronze. Jessie stood looking at it with awe, and Bill was pleased.

“Your name should be up there,” she said to Bill as she smiled at him.

“No, it shouldn’t. I’m not really a donor, in that sense,” he said modestly. “All these people have given us money to do something very special here. I’m the founder. That’s not the same.”

“You made us all winners,” she said gently. “Without you, none of this would have happened.”

“And without you, it couldn’t exist.”

“Yes, it could. You’d have found some other neurosurgeon, overpaid him or her, offered them a fabulous house, lured them to Denver, and given them the opportunity of a lifetime to do something wonderful for SCI kids and help them lead amazing lives when they leave.” It was what had happened to Lily at Craig, and now it was happening here too. And Lily was off to a great life. But so was everyone there, loving what they did. “You gave us the greatest gift of all, purpose, passion, joy.” She was still smiling when they walked back to her office, and she turned and saw that he was looking at her strangely as she glanced up at him.

“Jessie …” His voice was very gentle as he walked toward her and stood close to her. “Don’t you think we’ve waited long enough?”

“For what?” She looked confused.

“For passion and joy, what you just talked about. We’ve helped everybody start their lives over, better than before. Maybe it’s our turn now. We’ve been doing this together for a year, longer if you count all the times you came to Denver before you moved here. I’ve been waiting for you for all this time.” Tim had been gone for two and a half years. “I don’t want to wait anymore.” He touched her face gently then and kissed her. Her eyes opened wider, and she kissed him back as he pulled her closer into his arms and held her. He had wanted to do this for so long and had known it wasn’t the time then, but now he knew just as surely that it was. “I love you, Jessie.”

“I love you too,” she said softly, leaning against him. She didn’t have to fight anymore. She wasn’t alone. They were together. They were winners, just like the others. The Lily Pad had blessed them all.

By Danielle Steel