Try - The Complete Romance Series (7 page)

“It’s okay,” she said, laughing a little
bit. “I don’t mind being asked about it. Kids are always curious. I’d rather
have kids asking me than adults anyway.” She turned back to pay attention to
Landon. “I don’t have a boyfriend right now,” she told him. “Can you hop on up
here for me?” Landon did as he was told, and in minutes they were back on task,
the question of Mackenzie’s love life forgotten.

Except by me. I wondered why Mackenzie was
single; was it by choice? She was a beautiful woman, and obviously patient and
kind, as well as smart. If I had ever really thought about it, I would have
probably just assumed that she was seeing someone—maybe someone in medicine
like she was, who would understand her stress and her lifestyle. A guy would
have to be really special to deserve a woman like that. If she wasn’t single by
choice, then what was wrong with her? She didn’t seem to have any red flags—no
crazy vibe to her, nothing awkward about the way she talked to either me or
Landon. She seemed fine.

I made myself forget about the question
and focus on what Landon and Mackenzie were doing. I thought she might be going
through some evaluation of him even while they went through the exercises
together; she kept looking at a clipboard and marking things off on it that I
couldn’t see. I couldn’t help but wonder what verdict she was coming to.

Landon was full of energy, and he got
through the exercises easily; even the stretches that normally bored him. He
asked Mackenzie about a wide array of subjects as they went through the
session—but thankfully he didn’t touch on the subject of her single status ever
again. In spite of what she’d said, I couldn’t imagine that Mackenzie was
really all that okay with the fifth degree about her love life. I knew I’d get
irritated if it came up for me.

Instead, they chatted about movies and
video games.

“I don’t really play that much anymore,”
Mackenzie admitted. “But I was a total champ when I was in school.”

“What kind of games do you like to play?”
Landon had only liked video games a little bit before his broken leg; but I’d
bribed him with a few new games when he’d had to keep off of his leg for a few
days, so I could get him to stay on the couch with his leg propped up to help
it heal. Ever since then he’d been more and more into them.

“I like puzzle games,” Mackenzie said.

“Dad likes those! Don’t you dad?”

 
I
laughed, standing up and joining them at one of the machines. “I like all kinds
of games,” I said. “I even like card games.”

“Dad is so good at Uno,” Landon told
Mackenzie. “I can only beat him sometimes, not all the time.”

“Well that’s pretty impressive then,”
Mackenzie said, glancing at me. I could see she was fighting back the urge to
laugh. “I could never beat my dad. But my mom was always really easy to
beat—she hated to make people mad at her by making us draw four or anything
like that.”

“I love those cards,” Landon said
excitedly. “I win by using them every turn for like, five turns!”

“That will definitely help you out,”
Mackenzie agreed. “Not a bad strategy. Maybe I’ll use that the next time I play
against my dad.”

Eventually the session came to a close and
Mackenzie gave Landon permission to use the restroom as she went back to her
desk. “I’m really pleased with Landon’s progress,” she told me, sitting down.

“He seems to be doing well,” I agreed. I
felt weirdly awkward and didn’t know why; I’d been attracted to many women
before, it wasn’t like Mackenzie was any different.
You’re awkward because Landon asked the weird question. That’s the only
reason.

“I don’t want to get your hopes up too
much,” she said slowly, “but he’s actually beating my original expectations. He
may finish PT early by a few sessions.”

“That would be great,” I said, smiling. It
occurred to me that if Landon did recover completely ahead of schedule, that I
wouldn’t have an excuse to see this woman several times a week anymore; part of
me thought that was for the best, while the rest of me hated the idea.

“Dad! We have to go home! We’re going to
miss the show!”

I turned to see Landon hurrying as much as
his still-weak leg would allow him, coming up to me from the restroom.

“Did you wash your hands?” I asked him.

He held his hands up for inspection; they
looked clean, but of course I didn’t have a positive way to know whether they
were or not. “I’m going to trust you this time,” I told him, and Landon dropped
his hands at his sides, swinging them a little bit. I turned back to Mackenzie;
she had picked up a bottle of water and was in the midst of taking a sip from
it. “Thank you so much for the good news,” I said, at a loss for anything else
to mention.

“It’s my job,” Mackenzie said with a
little smile. “And with a patient like Landon it’s a lot of fun.” She set the
bottle down and stood, gesturing that she would follow us to the door leading
into the lobby. “I’ll see you guys again soon; I think maybe tomorrow, right?”
She looked at the woman in charge of the front desk.

“I think that’s right,” I said, nodding.
“Let’s get going, bud. Mackenzie has more work to do.”

I helped my son up into the back seat of
the car and made sure his seatbelt was buckled properly before climbing into
the driver’s seat to start back from home. I had a lot of shopping ahead of me;
in addition to Landon’s Christmas list, I had other families I had to buy for,
and I thought I would probably order most of it off of Amazon if I could—that
way I could have it giftwrapped and make sure I got it on time.

“Dad, I want to add something to my
Christmas list,” Landon told me from the back seat.

“Is that so? You know I’ve already started
shopping for you,” I said. “But maybe Santa can work something out, depending
on what it is.”

“I don’t think Santa can do it,” Landon
said, his voice surprisingly serious. “It’s not a toy.”

“Sometimes Santa makes things that aren’t
toys,” I pointed out. “Remember last year he got you that fish.”

“Yeah,” Landon said. In the rearview
mirror I saw him nodding thoughtfully. “But this is different.”

“What is it?” Landon pressed his lips
together.

“I’ll ask Santa.”

I frowned. If there was something my son
really wanted, I definitely wanted to know what it was—and if I could get it
for him, then I would. Anything that Landon was this serious about, if it was
really possible, I wanted him to have.

“What’s on your mind buddy?” I changed lanes
to avoid a snarl in the traffic and bit back the angry comment that rose to my
lips at a near miss. I’d made a promise to myself that Landon would never see
me having road rage—I didn’t want him to ever feel afraid in the car, and I
didn’t want him to inherit my tendency in that respect.

“I was thinking,” Landon said after a
moment. “I have a lot of things on my list, right?”

I shrugged; Landon’s list seemed to be
fairly standard to me. He had about five items he had told me he
really
wanted, and a few more that he
“only sort-of” wanted on top of those. It would be pretty easy to get them all.

“It’s a respectable list,” I said.

“I want to bet you something,” Landon told
me.

“Oh? That sounds interesting.” I was torn
between feeling amused and worried about the fact that my son wanted to make a
wager with me.

“The thing I want to add to my Christmas
list is a mom,” Landon said quickly. “But Santa can’t bring me that, can he?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s not
really in his wheelhouse.”

“So you’d have to get it for me.”

I cringed slightly at the unfortunate
phrasing. “You want a mom for Christmas?”

“I want a mom,” Landon confirmed. “If…if
you could find me a mom, I would be willing to not have the rest of my list.”

“Really?” It hadn’t occurred to me that
Landon could be that interested in having a new mom.

“So I want to bet that you can’t find me a
mom,” Landon explained. “If you can find me a new mom by the New Year, then
I’ll…”he hesitated. “I’ll give my toys from my Christmas list to someone else.”

“Like a charity for other kids?” Landon
nodded. “That is a good thing to do. What if I can’t find you a mom by the new
year?”

“Then you have to get me double the toys,”
Landon said quickly.

I laughed. “That’s a fair bet,” I told
him. I thought about Mackenzie without quite knowing why. Her beaming smile and
bright eyes just appeared in my mind. “I’ll take that wager,” I told my son.
“If I can find you a new mom by the
new year
, you
donate your toys to a charity, and if I can’t, I will buy you double your
list—but the second half will be in the new year. Deal?”

“Deal!”

Chapter Nine - Mackenzie

I was the last one left in the office; I’d
stayed late after Landon and Patrick left, and even after the other PT staff
left, so I could catch up on a few things that absolutely had to be done in the
files on the computer—no way to take them home, because of confidentiality
laws. So even as everyone slowly made their way out of the building, calling
out their goodbyes as they made for the door, I sat at my desk and filled in
reports and evaluations and updates to files for each of my patients, including
some information that would have to go to insurance companies.

Even with the pile of extra work on my
plate, I was only willing to stay after hours for so long. I started to think
longingly about getting a hot chocolate from the café one block down from the
building, and drinking it in my nice arm car while I made my way to my
apartment. “Maybe I’ll make some stroganoff for dinner. Or reheat some of that
chili I made last week,” I said to myself in the empty office. As December wore
on it was getting colder, and there was enough snow outside that I didn’t
really want to do any Christmas shopping that night—besides, I was exhausted. Maybe,
I thought, I could make a mug of spiced wine when I got home, and I could drink
it in the bathtub, soaking and getting the cold out of my bones, relaxing until
I was ready to get some sleep.

The thought started sounding better and
better in my mind, and I decided to wrap everything up for the evening and get
into my car before it got much colder out. I started shutting everything down,
getting my things together, making sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. Just when
I was about to pick up my purse and head out of the office, I heard my phone
ringing.

I slipped my hand into my pocket as I
gathered up my purse, yawning slightly. The number on the screen was
familiar—but it wasn’t one of the contacts I had in my phone; there was no name
assigned to it. I decided it must be someone I knew, if the number looked
familiar to me, and tapped accept.

 
“Hello?”

“Hey Mackenzie.”

This time—unlike the first time that he’d
called me—I recognized Patrick’s voice.

“Is something happening with Landon?”

I felt a little flurry of apprehension at
the possibility that the cute little boy who was making so much progress might
have gotten injured.

“No—I mean, he’s fine,” relief from the
worry flowed through me. “He was complaining earlier that his ankles hurt
sometimes.”

“Oh—that’s probably normal,” I said,
sitting down in my desk chair as I thought about Patrick’s almost-question. “In
addition to the fact that he’s working muscles that he hasn’t done a whole lot
with in his life, he is a growing boy. Is it a sharp pain, or is he just achy?”

“I think he’s just achy,” Patrick told me.
“If it happens again I’ll ask him.”

“You can also check and see if you notice
any swelling or bruising around his ankles or feet, if it comes up,” I
explained. “If he injures himself—playing on the playground, or something like
that—we can take a look at it. Otherwise, if the pain is bad enough for him to
notice, get him to rest for a bit, keep his weight off the ankles for a while.”

“That’s good to know,” Patrick said. I
heard a weird sort of hesitation in his voice, and wondered what was on his
mind. “Hey—so, Mackenzie, I just wanted to apologize again for Landon prying
into your personal life.”

 
I
grinned to myself. “It’s no big deal, really,” I told Patrick, shrugging even
though I knew he couldn’t see me. “Kids are always curious about the adults in
their lives, and by now Landon probably sees me the same way he does his
teacher. I’m used to getting personal questions from kids.”

“Then let me apologize for the fact that
I’m kind of glad he asked,” Patrick said, I frowned to myself. “Not—not that I
would prompt him or anything like that, you understand. But since you’re
single, I was wondering: would you maybe like to get some coffee sometime? Or
maybe catch a movie?” My stomach gave a lurch inside of me, and I felt my
cheeks burning.

“I—I—thank you, Patrick, but I’m not
supposed to date patients’ parents,” I said weakly, even as my heart began
beating faster and faster in my chest. “It’s not anything personal, I just—it’s
an ethics thing. I could maybe get in trouble for it.”