Hard Love (Wild Hearts, Contemporary Romance Book 3) Read online

  “So,” Julie said, “are you ready for this trip to Cincinnati on Friday? I know that's probably going to be hard on you, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to go along. I'll be there if you need me.”

  Robbie shrugged, but nodded his head. “Yeah, I think I'm ready. I mean, sometimes you have to accept the way things are, and let's face it, I'm never going back to live there again. When I think about it, I really don't feel like there's anything in Cincinnati that I need, other than some of our things from the house. I feel like I’ve got everything I need here in Maxwell, now. I mean, I've got Aunt Kay, and you and Anna and Linda, and there's just—my life is here now. I've even got some friends here, and school starting in just a couple more weeks. Yeah, I think I'm ready for this.”

  “Well, like I said before, you amaze me. I'll be there with you, so don't be bashful about telling me if there's anything I can do.” She picked up the menu and flipped it open. “So, what looks good on here? Oh, look, lobster!”

  Aunt Kay was giving Robbie a substantial allowance, and because she knew he'd want to be the one to pay for things on his date with Julie, she had given him extra money to spend while they were out. Robbie grinned at her and said, “Order whatever you want, it's on me.” He looked at the menu in front of him, then flipped it open and began scrolling over the different dinners and entrées. He saw several that looked delicious, even though he wasn't sure what some of them were. “I think I'm going to have this London broil. Looks like some kind of steak, and I'm a steak lover.”

  “Oh, good,” Julie said, without even looking up from the menu. “If we ever get married, then at least I'll know what to cook you for dinner.” She glanced up then, just to see his reaction, and burst out laughing when she saw his mouth hanging open. “Relax, Robbie, I'm just kidding,” she said. “At least, at the moment. If you keep being such a charmer, I may just decide that you're a keeper. No rush, you've got a few years of safety yet.”

  Robbie grinned and winked at her. “Who says I want 'em? I figure a guy could do a whole lot worse than to marry a girl as pretty as you.”

  “Oh, oh, here we go. Really going to turn on the charm, right? Listen, Robbie, there's a lot more to deciding who you want to marry than whether she's pretty or not. I'm not saying that we might not be good for each other, if and when that day ever comes, but if it does, I wouldn't want you to marry me just because you like how I look. Can you understand what I'm trying to say?”

  “Yeah,” Robbie said. “I know what you mean, and I didn't mean it to come off so, I don't know, like I was joking or something. I wasn't, and I didn't mean it to sound that way.”

  “It's no problem,” she said. “I guess that was more just something I needed to say, not really anything important. So did you decide on the London broil?”

  Robbie nodded and smiled. “Oh yeah,” he said. “Listen to the description. It says you get 14 ounces of prime beef, cooked to perfection and served with your favorite side dishes. Now, you tell me, what could be better than that?”

  Julie shook her head, grinning. “Yeah, that does sound awesome. The only thing I want to know is where you are going to put it. I think 14 ounces is more than you weigh, isn't it? I think I'm going to go for the shrimp salad, that's more my speed.”

  They ordered their dinners, and both of them were soon moaning with delight. The food was among the best they'd ever tasted, and when it was added to the movie they had just seen, Robbie thought he was having the best night of his life.

  But soon the evening was coming to an end, and they drove home. When they pulled up into the driveway, Julie nodded toward the house and smiled. “See the light in your aunt's room? She waited up to make sure we got home at a reasonable hour.” She sat there and looked at him for a moment, and then leaned toward him. “Okay,” she said, “it's entirely up to you, I'm not pushing or anything, but if you want that kiss we talked about, then I think you better take it now.” She stayed close enough to be within reach, but closed her eyes and slightly puckered her lips.

  Robbie swallowed hard, and licked his lips, then leaned over and pressed them against hers. The kiss lasted only a few seconds, but it was one of the most exciting moments of his entire life.

  Friday morning came early, and all five of them climbed into the new van that Aunt Kay had bought. She still had her car, and drove it now and then because it had sentimental value, but with Robbie's wheelchair and the fact that there were now five of them all together, the van made it easier to go places as a family. With such a long trip, it would just be much more comfortable than to be crowded into the car.

  Robbie liked it because it had big bucket seats, and he usually got to sit up front. Once he had gotten over being afraid of riding in vehicles again, he began to enjoy it even more than he had before. His aunt was usually happy to have him in the shotgun seat, and when they were all in the van together, Julie needed to be in the back with Anna and Linda. Robbie liked it that way, because then he could sit up there and watch the scenery go by, but he could also look ahead of them to see what was coming down the road. Riding in the vehicle still made him a little nervous, but not so much so that it could take away from his enjoyment of the ride.

  Of course, sitting up front didn't excuse him from the attention of the girls in the back. If he dared to pretend he didn't hear Anna calling out, she would simply keep it up until the hairs on the back of his neck were rising and he had to respond just to keep from losing his mind. Linda, who was three times his sister's size, was also three times as loud when she wanted to be. That meant that when she got in on it, everyone would be after him to give in and answer, so they would stop. It didn't take him long to figure this out, so he didn't ignore them very often.

  Julie could often keep them occupied with sing-alongs. Of course, that meant that everyone in the vehicle had to sing along, but that was okay with Robbie because he liked to sing. That was fine until Anna would decide that they all needed to sing the theme song from SpongeBob SquarePants. Robbie hated that song, but before he would let her get truly upset, he would sing it at the top of his lungs.

  The world slid by outside the windows, and Robbie enjoyed watching the wilderness go by. When they passed through some of the bigger towns, like Lebanon, he would sometimes see things that caught his attention, but in general, he preferred to watch nature, in the form of the rocks and trees that made up the majority of the scenery alongside the Interstate. Every now and then, he would catch sight of an animal and would think about the hunting that he could no longer do. When those thoughts and feelings hit him, he would simply remind himself that the doctors expected good results from the upcoming surgeries. Sure, he knew he might never get all the way back to normal, but he was darn well going to give it everything he had. If there was one thing everyone knew about Robbie Christopher, it was that he didn't know how to give up.

  The trip was long, and made even longer by the many bathroom stops. It didn't make a difference that Linda was actually in her 30s; as soon as Anna yelled out for a potty break, Linda would suddenly have to go just as badly. Julie had explained that this was a common occurrence, and that just about anything Anna felt she needed or wanted, Linda would echo. Robbie merely shook his head, and was glad it was Julie's job to take care of them, and not his.

  Although they had left Maxwell early in the morning, the many stops meant that they arrived in Cincinnati quite late, after 10 PM. They were all very tired, so rather than bother with going into the house that night, they checked into a nice hotel. Aunt Kay got Robbie's wheelchair out of the back, and once he got into it she began loading him down with their luggage.

  Meanwhile, Julie took hold of Anna's and Linda's hands and led the two of them up to the room. Aunt Kay pushed Robbie along as he held onto their luggage with both arms. “Well,” he said, “at least this shows me a potential new career.”

  “What, as a bellboy?” Aunt Kay asked him.

  “Nope. But I could be a heckuva wheelbarrow.” He grinned, and Aunt Kay s
nickered.

  “Your little sister told me the other day that she thinks you make a good skateboard,” she told him. “I think she likes the fact that she doesn't have to steer.”

  Robbie chuckled at that. “Yeah, probably. Back before everything happened, she used to try to ride on my skateboard by sitting on it and pulling herself along with her feet. She had some toys that she could ride on that way, but they had steering wheels or handlebars. She always complained that my skateboard didn't.”

  They got into the room, which had two big beds and a couch. Robbie pointed at the couch. “Dibs!” he said, and Julie laughed at him. She would be sharing a bed with Anna, while Aunt Kay and Linda took the other.

  Robbie waited politely while everyone else took advantage of the bathroom, then took his turn. He wanted to have a bath, but of course, this bathroom wasn't set up like his was at home. He looked it over, trying to decide whether he could manage to get in and out of the tub with just the grab bars that were mounted on the wall. Unfortunately, they weren't positioned in a way that would allow him to pull himself up and sit on the side of the bathtub. He came out of the bathroom, grumbling to himself about how hotels should be required to have handicapped-accessible bathrooms.

  “What's the matter, Robbie?” Aunt Kay asked.

  “Well, it just hit me that it's going to be a few days before I can get a bath. I mean, the bathroom here isn't set up for me, and neither is the one at our old house. That's all.” He rolled over to the couch and began laying out the extra blanket on it.

  “Robbie,” Julie said, “I could help you, if you want. Get in and out of the tub, I mean.” Robbie's face turned bright red as he turned to look at her, and she suddenly began laughing. “Wait a minute,” she said, “don't get all embarrassed. What I meant was, I could help you get in the tub with your shorts on, and when you get done you could drain the tub and put them back on, then call me to help you get out. I didn't mean to embarrass you.”

  Robbie sat there and looked at her for a moment, and then grinned. “Yeah, I guess that could work,” he said. “But it's pretty late tonight, so we can wait and try that at the house, tomorrow. I appreciate it, though.”

  Julie shrugged and smiled. “Hey, just trying to do my part to help out.”

  It was late, as Robbie had said, so they all piled into bed a few minutes later. Robbie lay there trying to get to sleep, but after a little while of listening to everyone else breathing softly—except for Aunt Kay, who snored—he finally admitted to himself that he was scared of going back into their old home. He had not seen it since that fateful morning, and he wasn't sure how he was going to react when he walked inside.

  He knew that worrying about it wasn't going to do him any good, but he just couldn't seem to shut down his thoughts and relax, so he sat up and leaned back on the couch. He thought about turning on the TV, but he didn't want to wake everyone else, so he sat there in the darkness, all alone.

  He heard the rustling of a blanket, but it was so dark in the room that he couldn't see who might be moving about. The sound came a little closer, and then he felt a small hand touched his arm.

  “Robbie? You awake?” It was Anna, and it amazed Robbie that she had managed to feel her way to him in the darkness.

  He reached over and pulled her up onto the couch beside him. “Yeah. I couldn't get to sleep. You can't go to sleep either?”

  He could sense her moving, and realized that she was shaking her head. “Huh-uh,” she said. “I'm scared.”

  Robbie put his arm more tightly around her, pulling her closer to him. “Scared of going back in our old house?” She nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “I'm a little scared of it, myself. I mean, I know it's safe for us there, but it's going to be so different from when we left. Without mom and dad there, it just won't seem right.”

  Anna nodded, and Robbie could visualize her long red hair bobbing in the darkness. “Yeah,” she said. “I miss mommy and daddy.”

  Robbie held her close, and felt a tear leak from his eye even as he heard Anna sniffle. “Yeah, me too.” They sat there like that for a little while, and then Robbie felt Anna drift off to sleep leaning against him. He carefully lay down and held his baby sister while she slept. Her soft, even breathing slowly lulled him to sleep, as well.

  When he awoke, the sun was coming in through the window and everyone else was awake. Anna was up on the bed with Linda, and someone had turned on the TV with cartoons for them. Julie looked at Robbie and smiled.

  “Well, well,” she said. “It's about time the sleepyhead woke up. We were just talking about going downstairs for breakfast, do you want to come along?”

  Robbie rubbed his eyes and stretched, then managed to nod his head. “Yeah,” he said, “just give me a couple minutes for the bathroom.” He pulled his wheelchair close, then swung himself into it and rolled off into the bathroom. A few minutes later, hands and face freshly washed, wearing clean clothes and with his hair slicked back and wet, he rolled out again.

  “Okay,” he said, “I'm all set. Somebody mentioned breakfast?”

  The hotel was one of those that offers a fairly comprehensive breakfast to its guests, including scrambled eggs and bacon, waffles, cereal, fresh fruit, and other things. The five of them went to the elevator and rode down, and joined several other guests in the breakfast room.

  Linda and Anna were delighted to see their favorite cereals, so Julie made them each a bowl and got them glasses of milk and orange juice. Aunt Kay, in the meantime, had managed to catch the waffle maker free and was happily making waffles for herself, Robbie and Julie. Robbie rolled up and snagged himself some eggs and bacon, as well, and then asked Julie to get him a cup of coffee.

  “Since when do you drink coffee?” Aunt Kay asked him.

  “I used to drink it with dad, sometimes,” he said. “I like it, but I put more sugar in it that he did. You don't mind, do you?”

  “Mind? Well, I guess you're old enough to drink coffee if you want to. I was just surprised because you never mentioned it before. Heck, if you want, I can dig out the coffee maker and you can have it at home.”

  Robbie looked at her, and it suddenly dawned on him that she hadn’t been treating him like a child, the way he always felt his parents had done. She had been treating him more like an adult, including him in all the major decisions to be made regarding himself and his sister and mother, and it hit him all at once how much he appreciated her. He felt his face grow hot, and knew that tears were about to come, so he turned away and started shoveling eggs into his mouth. That simple act allowed him to regain his composure, and he looked back at her a moment later.

  “I'd like that,” he said, simply.

  Julie set the coffee down in front of him. “Yeah, me too,” she said. “I love coffee, but when I saw you didn't drink any, or have a coffee maker, I just sort of didn't worry about it. I'd just grab me a cup at the coffee shop whenever I went out for something.”

  Robbie grinned at her. “That'd be cool,” he said. “We could drink some coffee together in the mornings.”

  Julie smiled and winked at him. “Yeah, if this keeps up, we're going to turn into an old married couple, someday. We'll be out sitting in our rocking chairs on the front porch, drinking coffee and waiting at the people who walked by.”

  Robbie laughed and shook his head. “Sometimes you're goofy,” he said, and she chuckled and poked him in the ribs.

  “Yeah,” she said, “but I'm cute and sexy, so you'll put up with me, won't you?”

  “Of course he will,” Aunt Kay said. “Like you said, you're cute and sexy. He's male, that's all it takes to keep his attention.”

  Robbie turned red.

  They finished breakfast, then went back up to their room to get everything packed so they could check out. Once again, Robbie did his wheelbarrow impersonation and held all their luggage while Aunt Kay pushed his wheelchair, and Julie kept track of Linda and Anna. They made it down to the van without any major incidents, unless you would count the mome
nt when Linda started laughing at a man who stepped out of a room with shaving cream still splotched on his face. She pointed, unable to help herself, and the man was startled. It only took him a second to realize that she wasn't all there, but when he muttered a slur about people with mental problems, he suddenly had furious Julie in his face.

  She lit into him about being insensitive and crude, and the man was so shocked at her anger that he found himself backed against the wall while she told him off. The whole thing only lasted a few seconds, and that it was over. As soon as Julie backed away, the man ran back into his room and slammed the door.

  The hotel was on the outskirts of Cincinnati, and it took about 20 minutes to get from there to the house Robbie had grown up in. He watched all the familiar sights go by, all the different buildings and landmarks that he'd known all his life. When they came into his neighborhood, he saw many of the houses of friends that he had visited, and they passed Janine's house just as she was coming out the door. She didn't seem to see Robbie in the van, but she only lived two blocks away, so it was likely that she would find out he was there.

  He didn't really worry about it. Julie had promised to lay it on thick if she came around, and even in front of any of his friends. Aunt Kay had been let in on the plan, so that she wouldn't think something strange was going on if Julie happened to call Robbie by some name, or maybe bend down to plant a kiss on his cheek.

  Robbie thought it would be fun to let Janine think that he had replaced her with an older, hotter girl, but he was even more delighted with the idea of letting all his buddies there think so, too. He planned to make sure that some of them came by, just so he could enjoy the looks on their faces when they thought Julie was his girlfriend.

  Of course, if he was going to be honest with himself, he was really just going to enjoy her attentions, and having an audience was just a bonus.

  They pulled up into the driveway, and Robbie was surprised to see that the grass had been recently mowed. When he asked, Aunt Kay explained that she had hired a lawn service to keep it neat. He appreciated it, and let her know that.