Road to Recovery (6 page)

Lucas grinned. “Have a good evening,
ladies. Brooke, I’ll try to get back to you this weekend regarding
some of your questions and set up a time for us to meet next week.”
With that he strode away.

“
Wow, the vibes coming off
of the two of you almost knocked me off the bike. What gives? And
don’t leave a single bit out. I mean, geez, you’ve been here less
than a month and the Legal Hunk, which is what most the ladies
refer to him as by the way, was flirting with you. And if you think
you pulled off that calm and cool pose of yours, well, you failed
miserably.”

“
What? What do you mean?”
Brooke asked, horrified.

“
Oh, honey, you can fight it
all you want, but it’s written all over your face. You would love
nothing more than to know how bad he can be. Don’t lie, because
that little one-minute skit between you two was hot! The sparks
flying between you two was enough to turn me on!” Cori said
excitedly, verbally putting an exclamation at the end of each
sentence.

“
You’re wrong. There is
nothing there. He was joking with you. It had nothing to do with
me. He was only being friendly,” Brooke tried to
explain.

Snorting, Cori said, “You really can’t
be that naive, can you?”

“
What do you
mean?”

Shaking her head, Cori explained, “That
very hot hunky piece of a man was most definitely flirting with
you. You can’t tell me you didn’t know that. And he wasn’t joking
with me, never even looked at me. He was staring at you the entire
time.”

“
Well…” Brooke stammered a
bit, cleared her throat and added, “I know what flirting is,
obviously. I just didn’t think he was with me. That would be
totally inappropriate. I have to work with him, closely
too.”

“
So what? All the more
reason to be friendly with each other. You know, being
close and all.
” She used
her fingers to make quotation signs.

“
You’ve got to be kidding
me. I can’t do that. I won’t do that. I have a job to do, and part
of that job is dealing with work conduct. You can see the irony
here, right? That is why I know he was joking. You’re reading too
much into it. He was being friendly,” Brooke repeated, trying to
convince Cori.

Deciding to drop it for now, Cori
grinned and shrugged. “Whatever you say, but I’m telling you,
you’re wrong. So you keep thinking those pure thoughts of yours.
For now.”

***

Brooke thought long and hard about her
conversation with Cori two weeks ago. And all it originally did was
make her suspicious of Lucas and his motives. She never used to be
this suspicious, but she refused to let the past repeat itself. In
the end Brooke realized she was totally wrong about him. Yes, he
was flirting with her, it was obvious, but it wasn’t done in a way
that could be considered inappropriate at all, even at
work.

He always seemed cautious with her,
considerate even. Waiting out her replies and moods before his own
mood changed, before his tone would take on another
meaning.

All their encounters were professional
and above reproach, with him always smiling at her, always asking
her if she needed any help or assistance with something. Always
there when she needed a hand, without even knowing she did.
Underneath it all, she concluded he was a good guy at
heart.

Aside from her brother, Mac, she never
really spent a lot of time with a man so gentlemanly. She didn’t
even think that trait existed much anymore.

She wasn’t sure what the turning point
was, when she started to see Lucas as something other than a
coworker, as someone other than a man that might be hitting on
her.

Maybe it was the day she saw him
helping an elderly patient on the first floor trying to find her
way to an appointment. He didn’t have to stop and give the elderly
woman directions, could have pointed her to the information desk.
But instead he ended up walking her right into the elevator, then,
Brooke assumed, to the awaited destination safe and
sound.

Another time she saw him in the
cafeteria sitting with a few doctors when a little girl in the seat
behind started to stare and flirt with him. He turned his attention
to the child, smiled and waved, got a big grin in return. Brooke
watched in awe as the toddler proceeded to bat her eyelashes and
flirt some more. It didn’t embarrass him in the least to be playing
a simple game of peek-a-boo with a strange child while sitting at a
table full of colleagues.

As much as Brooke held back, she had to
be honest. She was starting to look forward to seeing him. She
enjoyed her time with him. Enjoyed seeing that side of him, the
side of him that was so generous with others. Not with money, but
with time, and patience, and humanity.

She tried to avoid work relationships
at all costs. They ended badly, as she knew from personal
experience. But Lucas actually had her reconsidering that, which
scared her.

More concerning was her past
relationship experience, or lack of them. Her first real boyfriend
was in college. She was a late bloomer, not that she hadn’t been
asked out earlier, she just wasn’t interested in high school. Nor
was it allowed, anyway. Plus she was too focused on her
future.

Besides, most of the boys that asked
her out were too immature and crude for her. And she didn’t handle
casual well. Watching all the girls her age go from one guy to the
next, never caring or concerned that everyone was dating each other
at one time or another. She wasn’t like that. She wanted something
more. Wanted something special, not to be another notch to
someone.

Her first boyfriend in college was
similar to her, shy, and as an inexperienced. A sweet relationship.
One that started out as friendship and then turned to something
more, something slow and calm and peaceful at times. They were each
other’s first sexual experience, which was also slow and
sweet.

But looking back now, Brooke could say
it lacked passion. The real make-your-toes-curl passion. Which was
why after dating for three years then graduating from college, they
drifted and went their own way. No hurt feelings, nice and
tidy.

Her second relationship was the
opposite. There was love and passion all right, at least on her
part. But the lying, cheating and scheming was all him. Enough so
that Brooke told herself that love and passion really wasn’t all it
was cracked up to be. Better to keep things simple and calm, to
know where you stood at all times. Better than running the risk of
being hurt in the long run. Or worse yet, humiliated.

So even though Lucas was wearing her
down, it wasn’t enough. She wasn’t ready. Not ready to take that
step with someone else right now. And not ready to do it with a
coworker either.

She was going to have to remind herself
that however much she was enjoying time with him and appreciated
the man that he was, the risk wasn’t worth the price.

“
I looked over all of your
medical records. I know what injuries you’ve incurred and the steps
and surgeries taken to repair them. How you’ve progressed and where
you were the last time you saw a doctor.” Dr. Chen pushed a few
more buttons on the keyboard, read over Brooke’s notes, and went to
a few more screens. “Which was about two months ago. So fill me in
on the last two months. I’m assuming you’ve relocated in that time,
hence the reason you are here?”

“
Yes. It took me a little
time to get situated between work and home, but in the meantime
I’ve been working out five to six times a week, a combination of
low impact cardio and weight bearing exercises. At home, each night
I work on stretches and strength moves I learned in physical
therapy. So though I haven’t been going to physical therapy, I’ve
continued from where I left off.”

Nodding once, Dr. Chen continued to
type. “How is your pain management? How often are you taking
anything for the pain? Whether it’s over-the-counter or
prescription.”

“
Just over-the-counter.
Ibuprofen mainly. A couple of times a week, if needed. I try not
to. Mainly alternate hot and cold therapy when the pain gets to be
too much. By now the pain is more muscle related than anything
else. I probably overdo the workouts, but I’m not used to sitting
idle either.”

“
Hmm.” More clicking on the
keyboard followed. “Okay. I appreciate that you work hard and are
trying to get stronger. That’s exactly what I’m looking to see.
However, you need to work smart, not hard. A little muscle fatigue
is okay. How many ibuprofen tablets do you take at once when you do
take them?”

“
No more than three at once,
and that’s rare. I really try to avoid any type of pain pills. If I
can feel the pain, then I know my limits.”

The typing stopped. Dr. Chen turned,
looked Brooke in the eye. “I agree. But there is a fine line with
unnecessary pain too. I’m trying to determine where you fall. It
seems to me you’ve got a good handle on things, but I would like
you to start seeing our physical therapist at least two, if not
three times a week. For a few weeks, until we can see for ourselves
where you are.”

With eyebrows drawn together and lips
pursed, Dr. Chen added thoughtfully, “You seem like a smart person
to me. So I don’t need to tell you how lucky you were or how lucky
you are right now. A shattered femur sidelines most people for a
good year or so. When you add the fused vertebrae, it’s surprising
you aren’t still in a wheelchair or on crutches right now. Let
alone exercising.”

Nodding, Brooke returned Dr. Chen’s
steady gaze. “I know how lucky I am. Believe me, I do. I’m not
going to say it’s been easy, because the last year has been
difficult. But I’m determined to return to as close to a hundred
percent as possible.”

After a few more questions, and an exam
of her back and leg, Brooke tucked her shirt back into the
waistband of her skirt.

“
Everything looks to be
healing nicely,” Dr. Chen informed her. “I realize you have a new
job, but will you be able to arrange time off for physical therapy,
starting this week? Next week at the latest. How far away do you
work from the hospital?”

Brooke chuckled, realizing that the
doctor hadn’t looked at anything more than her medical records. “I
work here.”

“
Excuse me? Here,
where?”

“
Here, Albany Medical
Center. I can come in whenever there are open slots.”

Dr. Chen smiled brightly. “Wonderful.
When you check out, the receptionist will get you set up for a few
sessions and I’ll see you back here in a month. We’ll go from
there.”

***

Twenty minutes later, holding her salad
in one hand, Brooke set down her iced tea that was in the other
hand and then lifted her lanyard with her ID toward the scanning
gun the cashier was pointing at her. Another benefit, she thought.
Never having to worry about carrying cash. Just scan her ID card
and it came out of her account.

“
Late lunch?” Brooke turned
with a start to see Lucas coming up beside her.

“
Yes, I’m going to eat at my
desk today,” she replied politely, adding a tentative
smile.

“
Can you wait up for me? Let
me go grab a sandwich quick, if you aren’t busy? I’ve got a few
ideas I want to run by you and we can do it while we eat. If that’s
okay?” he hedged, clearly not wanting to push the issue.

A short time later, Brooke stood up to
throw away her empty salad container while she tried to gather her
thoughts. “Can I ask you a question?”

Lucas smiled. The laugh lines around
his eyes evidence of his good nature. Weren’t lawyers supposed to
be serious all the time?

“
Sure,” he
drawled.

“
What was this all about?”
She gestured toward his lunch on the table in the small conference
room where they had eaten. “This meeting. We didn’t really need to
meet for lunch for this. You could have sent me an
email.”

The smile lines deepened more around
his eyes. “Well, if I have to explain it to you, then I guess I
haven’t been doing as good of a job as I thought I was.”

When she continued to look into his
eyes, he sighed and told her directly, “I like you, Brooke. I like
spending time with you. Can you tell me you haven’t noticed, or
maybe you don’t feel the same way? Maybe I’ve been reading this all
wrong. But I’m pretty sure I haven’t.”

No use pretending she didn’t understand
his meaning. “You don’t think it’s wrong?” she asked
cautiously.

“
What? Wanting to get to
know you better? Wanting to spend time with you? Why would it be
wrong?”

“
Well, for one, I work for
you?”

He raised his hand before
she could go any further. “No, you don’t work for me. You
work
with
me,
completely different. Unless you look me in the eye and tell me you
aren’t interested, I’m not too worried about sexual harassment.”
The laugh lines reappeared. When she didn’t speak up, he sighed.
“So what is number two?”

“
I’m not comfortable getting
involved with someone I work with. I’ve worked hard to get where I
am, and I don’t need to put myself in a position where people will
gossip or make assumptions about how I’ve gotten there,” she stated
firmly.