All the air left Chad’s body. He hadn’t let himself think about Josie or the cruel way she’d broken off their engagement. Her disregard hurt far more than the constant pain in his leg or the healing bruises and scrapes on his body.
“Fuck that bitch,” Chad said. He spun his chair around, using his anger to turn the
wheels and launch himself along the sidewalk at a speed that had Owen jogging to keep up with him.
“You know I hate to pry as much as you do,” Owen said, huffing slightly as Chad wheeled faster and his own jog became a run. “But what exactly happened between you two?”
“She said she wasn’t prepared to deal with this.” Chad took one hand off the wheel to point at his leg, and the chair skidded sideways. Owen stopped just short of plowing into him.
“She said what?”
Chad shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about it. He wanted to forget about the breakup and move on. “You know she never wanted me to join the military,” Chad said, grabbing both wheels and maneuvering the chair so he could head straight up the sidewalk again. “That’s why I decided not to reenlist a second time even before the accident.” But if he’d been of sound body, he probably would have signed up for a third tour of duty after she’d dumped him. He loved being a Marine. He loved serving his country to protect it from threats.
“Fuck that bitch,” Owen said.
“I have.” Chad snorted, then added, “I’ve had better.” Earlier that day as a matter of fact.
Owen’s scowl was replaced with a smile. And Chad reminded himself for the thousandth time that the best way to move forward was by never looking back.
“I wonder what Lindsey is up to,” Chad said when she returned to the forefront of his mind. He wheeled forward at a more sedate pace. Just thinking about Lindsey calmed him, until his thoughts shifted to the release that she’d offered him that morning and his calm turned to arousal. He preferred that constant burning ache of need over the way Josie’s rejection ate at him. Was it possible to heal deep emotional wounds by fucking someone new? He hoped to soon find out. “I need her to help me as soon as we get home. I could use a postworkout sponge bath.”
“You do stink,” Owen said.
And it had felt great to work up a sweat, even if he had been self-conscious with everyone in the gym staring at him. Or trying not to stare at him. Somehow, their quick glances were harder to take then the outright gawking. At least if they were staring, he didn’t feel like he was being dismissed.
“You smell pretty bad yourself.”
“And I have to bathe all on my own,” Owen said. “Unless I ask Lindsey to help me shower.”
“You’d better not.”
“I guess we’ll see who manages to ask her first,” Owen said. He took off, sprinting up the sidewalk, and Chad wheeled himself in hot pursuit. Chasing after Owen and knowing that he wasn’t slowing his speed to let him win elevated Chad’s competitive spirit and his mood. He wasn’t going to let the world get him down. He had a life to rebuild, and something deep in his soul told him it would start with that so-called hovel. He wasn’t sure what came after that, but for now it would be enough.
Owen beat Chad back to the house and collapsed on his back at the bottom of the wheelchair ramp, tossing his arms wide into the neatly trimmed grass. He was still lying there trying to catch his breath when Chad used momentum to boost his chair up the incline. His upper body muscles strained to keep driving the chair forward when the forces acting against him overtook his head start. He could really feel his morning workout now. He’d concentrated on upper body strength at the gym, because he wasn’t quite sure how to work around having only one leg yet. He’d need to perfect a few common exercises in private—like squats and deadlifts—before he could brave carrying them out in public, but he could still bench press with the best of them. His shoulder felt better than it had in weeks. He’d known immobilizing it wasn’t helping. It had needed a good workout to get the joint loosened up again.
Because he’d worked his chest and shoulders to fatigue, he wasn’t sure he could push himself up the last few feet of the ramp until Lindsey opened the back door and beamed at him.
“How was your workout?” she asked.
His heart thudded with happiness on top of exertion—the poor overworked organ—and another deep part of his soul told him that this woman was part of how he’d rebuild his life. He wasn’t sure how she’d fit or if she even wanted to, but just seeing her angelic face suffused him with pure joy. He didn’t have much joy going on in his life at the moment, but he was smart enough not to push it away when it presented itself.
“I’m all sweaty, angel,” he said, his arms and chest protesting but cooperating as he wheeled himself to the threshold and bumped over it. Soon he vowed to be doing wheelies up the ramp and hopping that threshold like it was nothing. “Do you think you could—”
“Want to help me with my shower, Lindsey?” Owen called from his prone position in the yard.
“I don’t think Caitlyn would appreciate that,” Lindsey said as she followed Chad into the house. She pulled the door shut behind him and then squeezed around his chair in the tight mud room so they were face-to-face.
“How did the ultrasound go?” he asked. “What did the doctor say?”
She lit up. “I’m due September fifteenth, and the baby is healthy.”
“That’s great!” Unable to keep from touching her for a minute longer, he took her hand. God, she was beautiful when she smiled. When she lit up with happiness, those big blue eyes of hers turned him to warm butter.
“But I was wrong again.”
His thundering heart skipped a beat. Wrong about him? “About what?” he asked cautiously, not sure he could take her rejection.
“It’s not a boy,” she said.
His entire body felt lighter, as if he’d suddenly been filled with helium and was in danger of floating to the ceiling.
“A girl? That’s fantastic!” Chad wasn’t sure why he was so excited by the news. It wasn’t his baby. Lindsey wasn’t really his girlfriend either. Sure, she’d had pity sex with him, but he was sure she wasn’t experiencing the same level of attachment that he was. He knew he was falling for her fast because she made him feel good about himself—worthwhile—so soon after his trauma, and also because he’d been dumped hardcore, but that didn’t explain why he was happy to find out she was having some other dude’s daughter.
“I think maybe it’s better that the baby’s a girl,” she said. “I wouldn’t know how to raise a boy as a single mom. At least I know how girls work from personal experience.”
“What makes you think you’ll have to raise her as a single mom?”
“Even if Jacob or Adam want to be part of her life, neither of them will want anything to do with me, so I’ll still be single, right?”
Chad tugged her closer, looking up into her eyes, hating again that he was always looking up at people now. “They aren’t the only two men alive, you know.”
She ducked her chin. “I know. But any man who finds out how she was conceived—what I did—will think less of her, less of me.”
Her bottom lip wobbled, and he reached up to cup her cheek. “You shouldn’t give that kind of man the time of day, angel.”
She bit her lip and nodded slightly.
“What time is it?” he asked.
“Around two, I think,” she said.
“I’m glad you know I’m not that kind of man.” He winked at her, and she laughed.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.” She pulled her hand free to shift behind his chair.
“I’ll do it.” He grabbed the wheels before pushing himself forward.
“Sorry.” She lifted both hands off the chair grips and splayed her fingers wide. “I forgot you don’t like help.”
“But you’re about to help me with my bath,” he reminded her, though he knew full well that he could bathe himself just fine. He just wanted her hands on him. Wanted her to look at him as she had that morning with desire and admiration and attraction.
“And you’re going to help me with something too,” she said.
“What’s that, angel?”
She leaned close to his ear and whispered, “I’m horny again. Do you think you can lend your aid?”
His belly tightened with instant need. “That can be
arranged.”
“I’ll meet you in the bathroom. I need to grab a few things.”
“Shouldn’t we go upstairs?” he asked, drawing in his elbows as he wheeled through a particularly narrow doorway. He was going to make sure all of the doors in his house were wide enough for a wheelchair. Not for his sake—because he didn’t plan to stay in the fucking thing much longer—but to potentially save another person from the frustration he felt every time he was confronted with a tight space. “There’s no bathtub in the downstairs bath.”
“We won’t need a bathtub,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring lots of towels so we don’t make too much of a mess.”
He wasn’t worried. He was excited. The messier they got, the better.
Chad wheeled himself through the house into the small bathroom. His entire body was taut as he listened to the sounds of Lindsey moving around the house, collecting what she needed to make him clean. Or dirty. He wasn’t sure which. A few minutes later, Lindsey brought in a stack of towels and a handy tote full of toiletries and sponges. She winked at him as she set them on the toilet lid.
“Should I strip?” he asked.
A soft blush flushed her smooth cheeks. “I was hoping you’d allow me to undress you.”
He nodded and sat on his hands. Nervous energy flowed through his body as he watched her leave and a moment later return with a bucket of water she must have filled in the kitchen sink. The tiny sink in this bathroom couldn’t accommodate a bucket. He was ready to get down to business, but she left again. He glanced down at the spectacle his overexcited cock was making out of the front of his gym shorts. Fuck, that woman made him hard. And she hadn’t even touched him yet.
He could hear her voice in the kitchen, and the deeper rumble of Owen’s answer. Chad didn’t have the patience for the two of them to carry on a conversation. “Lindsey?” he called, adjusting his shorts to better accommodate his arousal.
“Be right there!” she answered. But he could still hear her talking to Owen. What were they discussing that was more important than his uncomfortable need for her?
A long moment later she entered the room with even more towels. Chad watched her curiously as she unfolded them in the only bare spot left on the floor, and then cringed when Owen entered the room and popped open a white plastic folding chair and set it in the center of the collection of towels Lindsey had spread out.