Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses

“You think I’ll walk again?” she prompted, her eyes wide and full of fear.

“I think so,” he said. “I won’t lie to you, there’s a possibility that the injury may result in permanent disability.” He held up a hand when she seemed distraught. “If that happens, you have a wonderful support group here. Your family. They’ll make sure you have everything you need. You’ll cope. You’ll learn how to adapt. I’ve seen some miraculous things in my career, Miss Lane,” he added. “One of my newest patients lost a leg overseas in a bombing. We repaired the damage, got him a prosthesis and now he’s playing basketball.”

She caught her breath. “Basketball?”

He grinned, looking much younger. “You’d be amazed at the advances science has made in such things. Right now, they’re working on an interface that will allow quadriplegics to use a computer with just thought. Sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it? But it’s real. I watched a video of a researcher who linked a man’s mind electronically to a computer screen, and he was able to move a curser just with the power of his thoughts.” He shook his head. “Give those guys ten years and they’ll build something that can read minds.”

“Truly fascinating,” she agreed.

“But right now, what I want from you is a promise that you’ll do what your doctor tells you and work hard at getting back on your feet,” he said. “No brooding. No pessimism. You have to believe you’ll walk again.”

She swallowed. She was bruised and broken and miserable. She drew in a breath. “I’ll try,” she said.

He stood up and handed the chart to the nurse with a smile. “I’ll settle for that, as long as it’s your very best try,” he promised. He shook hands with her. “I’m going to stay in touch with your doctor and be available for consultation. If I’m needed, I can fly back down here. Your friends out there sent a private jet for me.” He chuckled. “I felt like a rock star.”

She laughed, then, for the first time since her ordeal had begun.

“That’s more like it,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of recovery is in the mind. You remember that.”

“I’ll remember,” she promised. “Thanks for coming all this way.”

He threw up a hand. “Don’t apologize for that. It got me out of a board meeting,” he said. “I hate board meetings.”

She grinned.

Later, after she’d been given her medicines and fed, Odalie and Cort came into the private room she’d been moved to.

“Dr. Parker is very nice,” she told them. “He came all the way from the Mayo Clinic, though…!”

“Whatever it takes is what you’ll get,” Odalie said with a smile.

Maddie grimaced as she looked at Odalie’s beautiful pink dress, creased and stained with blood and dirt. “Your dress,” she moaned.

“I’ve got a dozen pretty much just like it,” Odalie told her. “I won’t even miss it.” She sighed. “But I really should go home and change.”

“Go home and go to bed,” Maddie said softly. “You’ve done more than I ever expected already…”

“No,” Odalie replied. “I’m staying with you. I got permission.”

“But there’s no bed,” Maddie exclaimed. “You can’t sleep in a chair…!”

“There’s a rollaway bed. They’re bringing it in.” She glanced at Cort with a wicked smile. “Cort gets to sleep in the chair.”

He made a face. “Don’t rub it in.”

“But you don’t have to stay,” Maddie tried to reason with them. “I have nurses. I’ll be fine, honest I will.”

Odalie moved to the bed and brushed Maddie’s unkempt hair away from her wan face. “You’ll brood if we leave you alone,” she said reasonably. “It’s not as if I’ve got a full social calendar these days, and I’m not much for cocktail parties. I’d just as soon be here with you. We can talk about art. I majored in it at college.”

“I remember,” Maddie said slowly. “I don’t go to college,” she began.

“I’ll wager you know more about it than I do,” Odalie returned. “You had to learn something of anatomy to make those sculptures so accurate.”

“Well, yes, I did,” Maddie faltered. “I went on the internet and read everything I could find.”

“I have all sorts of books on medieval legends and romances, I’ll bring them over for you to read when they let you go home. Right now you have to rest,” Odalie said.

Maddie flushed. “That would be so nice of you.”

Odalie’s eyes were sad. “I’ve been not so nice to you for most of the time we’ve known one another,” she replied. “You can’t imagine how I felt, after what happened because I let an idiot girl talk me into telling lies about you online. I’ve had to live with that, just as you have. I never even said I was sorry for it. But I am,” she added.

Maddie drew in a breath. She was feeling drowsy. “Thanks,” she said. “It means a lot.”

“Don’t you worry about a thing,” Odalie added. “I’ll take care of you.”

Maddie flushed. She’d never even really had a girlfriend, and here was Odalie turning out to be one.

Odalie smiled. “Now go to sleep. Things will look brighter tomorrow. Sometimes a day can make all the difference in how we look at life.”

“I’ll try.”

“Good girl.” She glanced at Cort. “Can you drive me home and bring me back?”

“Sure,” he said. “I need a change of clothes, too. I’ll drop you off at Big Spur, go home and clean up and we’ll both come back. We need to tell our parents what’s going on, too.”

“John will be beside himself,” Odalie said without thinking. “All I’ve heard since I got home is how sweet Maddie is,” she added with a smile.

She didn’t see Cort’s expression, and she couldn’t understand why Maddie suddenly looked so miserable at the mention of her brother’s name.

“Well, don’t worry about that right now,” Odalie said quickly. “But I’m sure he’ll be in to see you as soon as he knows what happened.”

Maddie nodded.

“I’ll be right out,” Cort said, smiling at Odalie.

“Sure. Sleep tight,” she told Maddie. She hesitated. “I’m sorry about your rooster, too. Really sorry,” she stammered, and left quickly.

Maddie felt tears running down her cheeks.

Cort picked a tissue out of the box by the bed, bent down and dabbed at both her eyes. “Stop that,” he said softly. “They’ll think I’m pinching you and throw me out.”

She smiled sadly. “Nobody would ever think you were mean.”

“Don’t you believe it.”

“You and Odalie…you’ve both been so kind,” she said hesitantly. “Thank you.”

“We feel terrible,” he replied, resting his hand beside her tousled hair on the pillow. “It could have been a worse tragedy than it is. And Pumpkin…” He grimaced and dabbed at more tears on her face. “As much as I hated him, I really am sorry. I know you loved him.”