I’ll Be There (16 page)

“I'd like to think that even if you weren't a patient or a client, we'd be friends,” Alex said, shaking Zach's hand. “I'm looking forward to playing racquetball with you when you're better or doing one of those bike tours you were talking about the other day.”

Zach laughed. “That would be cool. Definitely.” He pulled his hand back, his expression a little more serious. “Thanks, Alex.”

“Have a good weekend, and tell Gabriella I said hello.”

* * *

It was after nine when Zach finally sat down on the sofa and was able to relax. After Alex had left, Zach had taken the time to shower and shave and even made himself something to eat. Well, he had reheated some chili his housekeeper had made and left for him, but it still required a little effort on his part.

Now he had nothing left to do. He wasn't particularly tired but he was restless. With no one around, he decided to do something he had tried a couple of nights ago: seeing how long he could move around without his crutches.

Most of the time he didn't feel as if he really needed them, but because his legs were still weak, it was smarter to use them and prevent any further injuries. Taking a deep breath, he rose from the sofa and took a minute to just confirm he was steady on his feet. Once he felt confident, he began to walk around the room. His pace was slow—slower than he would have ever walked before the accident—but it was a pace he was comfortable with, and he reminded himself of the importance of taking things slow.

After three laps around the living room, he walked into the kitchen. Looking around, he decided to load his dinner dishes in the dishwasher and even took the trash out.

“Not too shabby,” he said as he shut the back door to the house. Normally he would have left the bag by the door and asked Gabriella or Alex or whoever happened to stop by to take it out for him. But he'd done it on his own—maneuvering up and down the two outdoor steps to get to the pails. He figuratively high-fived himself.

Next, he walked out of the kitchen and across the house to his bedroom. He had spent a majority of his recovery time in this room and the sight of it was starting to depress him. Looking around the room, it felt more like a glorified hospital room rather than the retreat it once was.

A wheelchair was folded up in the corner from his early days at home. There was a weight bench in another corner that he and Alex used for therapy sessions, along with mats for floor exercises. Bars had been attached to strategic spots along the walls to help him get around.

He wanted it all gone.

This wasn't the room of a man who was recovered. It was the room of a man still struggling, and Zach no longer wanted to be that man. It was time to take away all of the crutches—literally and figuratively—and do something about making his surroundings something that inspired him, rather than enabled him to stay in recovery mode.

Inspiration hit.

Walking back out to the living room, he found his cell phone and pulled up Gabriella's number. It might be too late to call, but she was the only person he wanted to talk to.

“Zach?” she said as she answered the phone. “Is everything okay? Are you all right?”

He longed for the day when her immediate reaction to him wasn't to inquire about his health. “Yeah, everything's fine. Great, actually. I was just walking around the house and decided I need to do something with it.”

She was silent for a moment. “Wait…what? The house?”

“Yes,” he said with a nod. “I want to start with a makeover on the bedroom. It reminds me too much of a hospital room. I want to get rid of the equipment and move it to one of the guest rooms. I'm going to talk to Alex on Monday about doing our sessions someplace else.”

“Okay. Wow,” she said. “I don't think it should be a problem. Maybe we can call Ethan and ask him to come over and help move the furniture. I'm sure Summer will come with him and between the three of us, we can get it done. You can tell us where to set everything up.”

“That won't be necessary. I'll call professionals to do the heavy lifting. Ethan has enough to do without having to come here and do manual labor. But it's more than that, Gabs.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to get rid of all the hospital equipment. The wheelchair can definitely go. Donate it to the hospital or maybe I'll give it to Alex to use at the rehab facility, but I want it gone. Then I want all the bars removed from the walls.”

“Hmm…that will require the walls being patched up. I can find a contractor to come in and do it.”

“Good, good,” he said. “And while he's at it, I'm going to want the entire room repainted in a new color.”

“What's going on, Zach?” she asked suspiciously.

“Fresh start,” he said simply. “I look around here and I see something that reminds me of my limitations. Or I see things I'm tired of seeing because I've been stuck in this house for so long. In all the years I've owned this house, I've never spent this much time confined to it. I'm just ready to freshen the place up. Will you help me?”

“Me? Wouldn't you prefer to hire a decorator? We can call the firm who does the offices if you'd like. I know she does residential design along with commercial.”

He shook his head even though he knew she couldn't see him. “No. I hired a damn decorator when I bought the place and now that I've been stuck here, I realize nothing here really reflects the person I am. I want to pick the colors. I want to choose what goes on the walls. I don't need three guest rooms. I want to convert one to a home gym to use not only for my sessions with Alex but for when I'm better. And I want a home office.”

She chuckled. “Why? I would imagine once you're comfortable with coming back to work, you'll never use it.”

“That was my logic when I moved in here and how I ended up with so many damn guest rooms.” He paused and finally allowed himself to sit down. It wasn't that he needed to sit—he wanted to. And it was a pretty awesome feeling. “With so much time to sit and think about my life, I realized I was only doing two things—working at the office or going on those adventures with Ethan.”

“You weren't that bad, Zach. You went out and socialized. You dated. Spent time with your family.”

“Those things were fairly minute in comparison to the amount of time I spent at the office. From now on, I want to make sure I leave the office at a reasonable time. I want to…I don't know…go see a movie or go to a museum or walk in the park…”

“We did some of those things just this week,” she reminded him, though her tone was light and playful. “I think right now you're excited because you're making progress, but I don't want you to get too far ahead of yourself.”

“Gabs, you know the biggest thing that's been missing from my life?”

Silence.

“Gabs?” he repeated softly.

She quietly cleared her throat. “Um…no. What?”

“A life.”

“Oh.”

“That's going to change.”

“Okay.”

He almost chuckled at the wonder in her voice. “What do you think? Are you up for the challenge?”

“What challenge?”

“Helping me freshen this place up, for starters.”

“Starters?”

“Um…Gabs?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay? You're sort of floundering on your end of the conversation,” he teased. “We usually have a lot more banter going on when we talk.”

“Oh, sorry,” she said with a hint of a giggle. “You took me by surprise.”

“Good. That's good.” His voice turned slightly husky. “I plan on doing a lot more of that, too.”

“Oh.”

It would have been so easy to start seducing her over the phone, but he cared for her more than that. When he did finally seduce her, they would be face to face. It wouldn't be a game. She'd know he was serious. Clearing his head of any sexy images of her, he got back to his plan. “So what do you say we start working on it this weekend? We can maybe spend some time online looking at some design and decorating ideas.”

“Or…”

“Or what?”

“Or we can actually go out to a paint store and look at colors. And then go to the mall and look for furniture or artwork or bedding. We can go to…”

He couldn't concentrate for a moment because all he could think of, all he could see in his mind, was Gabriella sprawled out on his bed. Maybe he hadn't thought this plan through far enough. Having her help redo his bedroom meant she'd be spending a lot of time…in his bedroom.

Dammit.

“So what do you think?”

Think?
Think?
Hell, Zach had no idea what she had even suggested because his mind had wandered down Dirty Lane. “Um…why don't we talk about it tomorrow? What time can you get here?”

“What time do you want me there?” she asked, and Zach had to wonder if she realized how sexy her innocent question sounded.

“How about right now?” he asked silkily and heard her soft gasp.

“Zach…”

“What? You asked me a question and I answered it.”

“Tomorrow. What time should I come over tomorrow?”

“Spoilsport. Um…how about noon? I've got some food here we can heat up for lunch and…”

“How about I pick up some groceries for you? I'll get some stuff to make sandwiches and then we can make our plan and figure out what you need and where we need to go. Maybe we'll grab dinner out someplace?”

For a moment, panic began to overwhelm him. Going to a movie and sitting in a dark theater wasn't so bad. Eating at an out-of-the-way diner wasn't so bad. Walking around a mall and eating someplace local and crowded on a Saturday night was definitely taking on more than he was ready for.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“We'll see,” he forced himself to say. “Like you said, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I don't want to overdo it all in one day.”

“Okay.”

“You're not mad, are you?” he asked.

“Me? No, why?”

“You sound disappointed.”

“I'm not. Not really.”

“Gabs…” he prompted.

“It's like a weird balancing act,” she said after a minute. “On one hand we're talking about all the things we want to do and then when it comes time to actually implement them, reality sets in and it just…it makes me sad.”

Well, damn. The last thing he wanted was her pity. He wasn't sure if he was angry or depressed at the thought of her feeling that way. Taking a deep breath, he tried to be optimistic. “It's not always going to be like this. I'm getting better. I really am. I'm just excited about the possibility of changing things up around here. It's a little frustrating that I can't do anything about it right now, but—”

“I guess I could come over.”

Her words were said so quickly that Zach thought he might have imagined them. “What did you say?”

“It…it was nothing. Never mind. I'll just plan on seeing you tomorrow.”

“You said you could come over. Like now.”

“It's late,” she said softly.

“Do you have a curfew?”

She giggled. “No.”

“That's good. Neither do I.”

“But…it's crazy, Zach. It's not like we can get anything done tonight.”

He wasn't so sure about that. “So? We'll watch a movie, or we'll start our online research and make our plan for tomorrow.”

“I'm…I'm kind of in my jammies already.”

Was it too much to hope that it was scraps of silk and lace and she'd kept her stilettos on? “Me too.”

Now she laughed a little harder. “Oh really?”

“Yup. Really. Flannel pants, a T-shirt. Very jammie-ish.”

“I don't even think that's a word, Zach.”

“It doesn't need to be. Come on. I'm not expecting you to come over in business attire, Gabs. I've seen you in jeans and dressed casually. It's not a big deal.”

“I don't normally drive around a whole lot at night.”

As much as he wanted to see her and spend time with her, he certainly wasn't going to be selfish and endanger her by making her drive around late at night. If he were ready to drive on his own, he'd suggest going over to her place, but he hadn't gotten the clearance from his doctor yet.

“It's okay, Gabriella. We'll leave things as we originally planned and I'll see you tomorrow for lunch.” He sighed quietly and got comfortable on the couch. “I don't want you driving around by yourself late at night.”

“You're very sweet.”

He laughed darkly. “I bet it hurt to say that.”

“Oh, stop. We agreed we weren't looking back, right?”

He nodded. “Right.” God, he wanted to keep talking to her but he could hear in her voice that she was tired. “Why don't I let you get some sleep and I'll see you tomorrow?”

“Mmm,” she sighed. “I'm sorry. If it wasn't quite so late…”

“It's all right, Gabs. Really.”

“Okay. I don't want you to be mad.”

“Not mad. Disappointed. I'm finding I really like spending time with you.”

“I like it too.”

She was killing him.

“Go,” he forced himself to say. “Good night, Gabriella.”

She made that purring sound again and everything in Zach hardened. “Good night, Zach.”

Zach sat there for a long time after they disconnected. He was turned on. Confused. Energized. Tired. All rolled in one. There were at least a dozen things he wanted to do—most of them to Gabriella—but being that he was alone, he did his best to push those thoughts aside.

Slowly rising from the couch, he stood and waited for the feeling of instability to come.

It didn't.

“Well, all right,” he said and made his way to his bedroom. There wasn't much he could do on his own to start implementing his plan, but there was at least one thing he could do. Walking over to the wheelchair, he grabbed it and pushed it out of the room and across the house to the mud room. When Alex came to get him on Monday, he'd give it to him, but until then, he didn't want to see it. Didn't want it sitting there in plain sight, mocking him.