Good thing she had plenty of patience. Unlike his father.
“Let’s try something else,” she quickly improvised, since he couldn’t kick the palms of her hands. She reached over to lift him up and quickly set him down on the floor before Dr. Morris could jump up to take over. She grabbed the red plastic ball again and placed it between Josh’s feet. “Try and kick the ball sideways toward your other foot, but keep your leg straight like this.” She gently moved his right leg, showing him what she wanted him to do.
Josh did as she asked, shifting his right leg enough to move the ball, although it went barely a few inches before rolling to a stop far away from his left foot.
“Great, that’s wonderful, Josh.” She quickly moved the ball so that it was located near his left foot. “Now, kick it back again.”
He scrunched up his face with the effort to concentrate on doing what she’d asked. He tried a couple more times but only moved the ball scant inches. And suddenly he crumpled into tears. “I can’t,” he wailed. “I can’t kick the b-ball!”
This time she did wrap her arms around him in comfort. How could she not? “Don’t cry, please don’t cry,” she crooned softly. “You’re doing very well, Josh. Remember how I said some of the games were hard? Believe me, very soon you’ll be kicking that ball between your feet just fine. Just don’t give up on me, okay? I promise we’ll keep working on these games together. But I need you to do your part.”
He quieted against her, and eventually nodded his head against her breast. She was relieved that Josh had got over his breakdown quickly—some patients took much longer, even her teenage patients. This type of frustration wasn’t new to her by any means.
When she glanced up at Dr. Morris to reassure him that Josh’s reaction was completely normal, she caught her breath at the starkness of his gaze as he stared at his son. Pain shadowed the brown depths, mixed with what appeared to be guilt and a hint of longing.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Apparently Josh wasn’t the only one who needed help. And no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t turn her back on his father.
She could only hope and pray that she could get through this new challenge without too many emotional scars.
If it wasn’t too late already.
CHAPTER TWO
BATTLING A WAVE of helplessness, Dan clenched his hands into tight fists, wishing he could be the one to comfort his son. But Josh didn’t often turn to his father for comfort.
Because he hadn’t been there enough for him. Not because he didn’t want to be but because his career was demanding. His young patients didn’t just need open heart surgery during the day. He was on call every third evening and every third weekend. And that meant he’d often been forced to leave Josh in the care of his nanny.
At least the nannies were better to Josh than his mother had been. Although that didn’t stop Josh from asking for her, especially when he was stressed. Dan rubbed the ache at his temples. He hated knowing that his son was still suffering for the mistakes he himself had made in marrying Suzy. But despite the awful things she’d done, he couldn’t hate the woman who’d borne him a son. But he sure as hell resented her. He’d been stupid to believe she’d ever loved him.
Thankfully, Josh’s tears had stopped almost as abruptly as they’d started. Dan was glad, even though there was no possible way the ache in his heart would go away as easily.
Watching the light play across Molly’s red-gold hair as she cuddled Josh close was only a partial distraction. He knew it was his fault that Josh was suffering right now. His fault that he’d been too distracted by Josh’s mother, who’d called out of the blue after six years of absence, asking for money, to notice the car barreling through the intersection, straight toward them.
Even now, he could hear the screeching tires, the sickening thunk of metal crushing against metal. The agonizing sound of Josh’s high-pitched scream.
He wanted to put his hands up to cover his ears, but that would be useless as he knew the noise would reverberate over and over in his mind, where nobody else could hear it but him. With a herculean effort he dragged himself out of the dark past to the just-barely-lighter present.
He couldn’t ever make up for the injuries Josh had suffered that fateful night. All he could do was to try and start over. He’d taken a leave of absence from work so that he could rebuild his relationship with his son, at the same time doing whatever was necessary to ensure his son would walk again.
“Okay, Josh, we’re going to sit back on the exam table here, so that I can massage your legs a bit before we use the ultrasound machine,” Molly was saying now, lifting Josh up, despite her slim build, and setting him back on the table, as if Josh hadn’t suffered a meltdown five minutes ago. “Do you know what an ultrasound machine is?”
Slowly Josh shook his head. “Will it hurt?” he asked.
Dan’s heart squeezed in his chest. His son had suffered several surgeries to his injured legs, and every single one of them had hurt him.
He wanted to promise Josh that nothing would ever hurt him again. but obviously that wasn’t exactly realistic.
“Not one bit,” Molly assured him. “I’ll show you how it feels on your hand. And we can try it on your dad first, so that you know I’m telling you the truth.”
Dan roused himself to respond to Molly’s unspoken demand. “I don’t mind trying the ultrasound,” he managed, even though he couldn’t believe that Josh’s first therapy session was almost over. In his mind Molly hadn’t done nearly enough work with his son, and now the session was winding down. He silently vowed to get a few minutes alone with her to find out what sort of exercises he should be doing with Josh at home.
He stood, and helped Molly maneuver Josh into position so that she could massage his legs. Dan had to give her credit, Molly never once stared in horror at Josh’s numerous surgical scars.
“Try to relax, Josh,” she murmured, as she smoothed some sort of paste substance on her fingertips, before gently beginning to massage Josh’s right leg. The leg that had taken the brunt of the crash. “Now, you let me know if I’m hurting you, okay?”
Josh nodded, and he grimaced a bit when she gently massaged the knot in his calf muscle.
“You have a very tense muscle right here,” she said, using her thumb to smooth over the area. “I know it’s a little sore, but you’ll feel much better afterward if I work on it now.”
“I know,” Josh said bravely, and once again Dan’s heart squeezed in his chest for what his young son was going through. If he could have taken the pain for Josh, he would have. But of course he’d walked away from the crash virtually unscathed.
And felt guilty about that part, too.
He tuned out a bit as Molly and Josh chatted about his school, as she asked him what his favorite subjects and teachers were. Since the crash, he’d hired a tutor to work with Josh so that he could keep up with his classes while he attended therapy every day.
But his ears pricked up when he heard his son talking about Mr. Iverson, the tutor he’d hired. “I don’t like him. He’s mean.”
“What did you say?” he demanded, before Molly could respond. “What did Mr. Iverson do that was mean?”
Josh’s lower lip trembled. “He yells at me. He makes me do adding and subtracting over and over again, even though I don’t understand it. But he doesn’t explain anything, just keeps making me fill out the worksheets and yelling at me when they’re not right.”
Dan frowned darkly. How was it that he hadn’t known about the problems Josh was having with his teacher before now? “Well, I’ll get rid of Mr. Iverson. You should have told me sooner, Josh.”
Instantly