Inside, she quickly heated up some leftovers and forced herself to finish reading the newspaper. She liked being up to date on current events, especially as the length of her commute didn’t provide any time to watch the news.
When she opened the entertainment section, she stared in shock when she recognized her sister, Sally, and boyfriend, Mike, smiling together in a huge photo announcing their engagement.
Sally and Mike were engaged? Since when? And why hadn’t anyone called her?
She couldn’t seem to drag her gaze away from the beautiful, happy couple. Her sister was as dark as she herself was fair, making it even more noticeable that they weren’t bonded by blood. Molly had been adopted by the Shrivers when she’d been four years old, but shortly thereafter her adoptive mother had discovered she was pregnant.
When Sally was born, Molly had been thrilled to have a younger sister to play with, but as they’d grown older, it had become clear that Sally, as the biological daughter, had been the favorite and she herself had too often been simply an afterthought.
Nothing had changed in the years since they’d both grown up. No matter how hard she tried to belong, when it came to her family, she remained the outsider, looking in.
Seeing her sister’s engagement photo soured her appetite, so she shoved the newspaper aside and carried her dishes to the sink. She shouldn’t be so upset at how Sally had gotten engaged without telling her, but she was. She knew her family hadn’t done this to her on purpose, they weren’t mean-spirited, it was more that they often forgot about her.
If she called her mother now to ask about Sally’s engagement, Jenny would profusely apologize and offer some weak excuse to try to cover the fact that Molly hadn’t been included.
For a moment, a deep sense of loneliness weighed down her shoulders like a heavy blanket. All she’d ever wanted was to be a part of a family. She’d thought her prayers had been answered when the Shrivers had adopted her, but over time she’d become less and less a true member of the family.
And since she’d graduated from college her one attempt to have a family of her own had backfired. James had been several years older than she was, a divorced father with two young boys. She’d met him when one of his boys had been injured playing soccer and she’d performed his therapy. They’d dated for five years, and she’d been sure he’d propose marriage, but instead he’d called off their relationship, claiming he’d fallen in love with someone else.
He’d broken her heart, although now, a year later, she could admit she’d loved his two young sons more than she’d loved him.
Not seeing James’s boys anymore had left a huge, aching hole in her life. In her soul.
Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest. She didn’t belong, not with the Shrivers and certainly not with James. On a professional level she belonged at Angel’s, and working there had been the best decision of her life.
It was too bad that on a personal level it seemed she was destined to live her life alone.
Dan swallowed a curse as he wrestled to get Josh’s wheelchair back into the trunk of his car. Josh didn’t seem to like the stupid chair, despite Molly’s insistence that having it would give him more independence. And Dan hadn’t appreciated the sympathetic stares aimed at his son when they’d ridden down in the elevator together. One of the reasons he had balked at using the chair had been to save Josh from being teased about it.
Although maybe if he’d used the wheelchair with Josh from the very beginning, his son would be that much further along with his therapy.
More to feel guilty about. As if everything Josh had been through, the prolonged hospital stay and multiple surgeries, hadn’t been enough. With an effort he shoved his dark thoughts aside.
“Ready, Josh?” he asked, as he slid behind the wheel.
“Yep.” One good thing was that Josh hadn’t been upset about going to therapy this morning. And he hadn’t clung to Gemma, his nanny, begging her to take him. Dan knew part of the reason was that Josh was looking forward to seeing Molly again. However, he hoped there were also tentative bonds forming between him and his son.
Yesterday, when they’d gotten home, he’d fired the tutor who’d been mean to Josh and had called the school to arrange for a replacement. This time a young college freshman by the name of Mitch came to the house and Josh seemed to flourish under the kid’s fun and somewhat laid-back approach.
As he’d watched them together, he couldn’t help thinking Molly would approve.
After Josh’s lessons they’d played the ball game again and the entire time Molly’s parting words had played over and over in his mind. Don’t worry, you’ll get better with practice.
His gut still burned with the memory. He hadn’t felt that inadequate since his internship year.
Despite being seriously annoyed with her, he had to admit to feeling some grudging admiration for Molly. No one had ever dared to stand up to him the way she had. And what was that she’d said? Something about how she wouldn’t stand over his shoulder and tell him how to do heart surgery? Earlier in the session she’d called him Mr. Morris, but she’d obviously known who he was the whole time.
He supposed it was possible that she’d only figured it out after spending more time together. While he often referred patients to her, based on her reputation for being the best, it wasn’t as if they’d worked together side by side. He simply wrote the order and then asked his patients and their parents how things were going when they came in for their routine follow-up visits. They’d always given him rave reviews about her care.
As far as his own opinion of her went, the jury was still out. She might be a pretty woman, with a bright, sunny attitude, but he wasn’t going to be happy until Josh was walking again. And despite what she claimed, he had trouble believing these games of hers would really work.
The traffic was heavier this morning, and he drummed his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as they waited for yet another red light. This time, when they arrived at Angel’s physical therapy clinic, they only had five minutes to spare.
Five minutes that was taken up by wrestling once again with the stubborn wheelchair. Once he got the thing unfolded and the footrests put back together, he lifted Josh out of the car and placed him in the seat.
This time Molly was waiting for them when they arrived. “Wow, you look awesome in that wheelchair, Josh.”
His son brightened under her admiration. “Really? You think so?”
“Absolutely. And today we’re going to practice getting in and out of it, okay?”
“Okay.”
“This way,” Molly said, gesturing for them to follow her into the large therapy room. Dan pushed Josh’s wheelchair forward. “If you wouldn’t mind stopping right there,” she said, when he reached the center of the room, “I’d like to see what Josh can do on his own.”
Letting go of the chair and backing off to watch his son struggle to move the large wheels forward was difficult. Josh’s small arms seemed far too skinny to be of much use, although he did manage to wheel the chair all the way over to Molly.
“Excellent.” Once again she knelt before Josh so they were at the same eye level. “I need you to practice wheeling yourself around, Josh. I know your arms will get tired, but you still need to practice. It’s the only way to get your arms stronger, all right?”
“All right.”
“Good.” Molly’s smile was bright enough to light up the whole room. For the first time Dan wondered just what her life was like to make her so happy all the time. He’d noticed that she wasn’t wearing a wedding or engagement ring, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t seeing someone. He couldn’t imagine a woman