Melissa: A Hathaway House Heartwarming Romance by Dale Mayer (surface ebook reader TXT) 📗

she said, taking a good look at her friend. “Don’t you look tired?” Melissa noted, her tone of voice serious.

“Tired, yes,” Dani said. “I’ve been pondering for a couple days how to broach a subject, wishing I could assign it to someone else.”

“Okay,” Melissa said, straightening up slowly. “This sounds serious.”

Dani gave her a crooked smile and said, “Well, that depends. The question really is, how serious are things between you and Shane?”

Immediately Melissa gasped and said, “Oh, my gosh. Is it becoming a problem for him? I just wanted to be … friendly.”

“The thing is, are you being more than friendly just trying to be friendly? How serious is it in your heart?” she asked. “Because I’m in an odd position. Not only are you my friend but Shane’s my friend. I don’t want to see either of you hurt.”

“And yet, as you well know,” Melissa said, “you can’t protect me from every ill in the world, and you can’t save me from all the hurts in the world.”

“I know,” Dani said sadly. “I wish I had that crystal ball that would tell me how you could avoid it all, but I don’t.”

She laughed with a joyous peal of laughter. “No, you sure don’t,” she said, “but that’s okay. Neither do I. It’s not like that’s a mandatory thing as far as Shane and I are concerned,” she said. “I really like him. He’s a sweetheart.”

“As in somebody you want to stay in touch with when you leave here?”

Melissa stared at her in shock. “Are you asking if my intentions are good?”

Dani shot her a cheeky grin. “Yeah, in some ways I am.” She walked over and sat on the bed beside her. “You and I have been friends for a long time, and Shane and I have been friends for a long time. There’s a certain amount of strife just because he’s here and you’re a patient, so it’s up to me to make sure that everybody is happy, healthy, and willing in this joint venture of yours.”

“Absolutely,” she said. “He’s a wonderful guy. I’m not sure how I was ever so lucky to have caught his interest, but I really don’t want to mess up anything and lose it. You know what my relationship history is like.”

“I do,” she said, “and I know that, from your perspective, it really sucks, but I don’t think it’s quite as bad as you think it to be.”

“I think it’s that bad,” she said. “And Shane’s a really nice guy. I really care about him.”

“So, as in a permanent forever-after type of care, or as in Hey, we’ll take it on a fun road trip and see where we go?”

“You know what?” she said. “I try not to make any plans, and I’ve never really been very good at going after what I want or telling people when to stop because I can’t do it anymore, so you’re bringing up some personal issues.”

“Good,” Dani said. “That’s all important too.”

“Argh,” Melissa said. “I just assumed it wasn’t. I hope you’re not having the same conversation with Shane.”

“No. It was brought up in a team meeting a few days ago as to whether the relationship is impacting your ability to improve or not.”

“I can’t see that it has been,” she said. “I can see that maybe people would get the wrong impression about how I feel about him, and that’s not what I would want him to worry about. Obviously a lot of very grateful patients have been in his life, and obviously …” She stopped, confused. She took a deep breath and said, “Obviously I’m grateful. That goes without saying. He’s helped me a lot, and I can see a ton of progress, but I can also see where everybody else is a little worried that my emotions are a bit caught up between thankfulness and actual caring.”

“Maybe other people,” Dani said gently, “but not me. I know you.”

She smiled at her friend. “Well, you do and you don’t. You haven’t known me for a while. I don’t want Shane to pay a price that I wasn’t really counting had to be paid.”

“It doesn’t,” Dani said, cheerfully hopping up. “And it particularly doesn’t if I know that you care about him as a person.”

“Well, that’s a definite yes,” she said with a smile.

“Good,” she said. “Then we’ll leave it that you guys can work your way through this.”

“Is it always this hard?” she asked.

“Well, I didn’t have a great set of relationships in my history either,” she said. “What I have with Aaron is 100 percent different than anything I had ever thought was possible. So maybe take all those expectations and previous history of your past relationships and throw them out the window and just work toward allowing something brand new to come in. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you can create out of this.”

“And should I be trying to create something or just letting something develop naturally?” she asked. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. I don’t want to push him. I don’t want him to feel like, you know, I’m on his case every day or even there all the time. I don’t want to do anything to chase him away either.”

“And, of course, you’re worried about that need to belong again,” Dani said. “And I do understand that.”

“I’m glad you do,” she said with a half smile, “because I’m not sure I do. It could dominate so much in my life right now.”

“Again, maybe decide what you want. Go after it, and then, once you’ve stated your intentions, let things fall into place and see how it develops. It’s all about trust and communication. With those two things you can do so much more in life.” She reached over, gave Melissa a big hug. “I’m so grateful that you came here.”

“You’re grateful?” Melissa said with a big laugh. “I’m the one who’s grateful. I was stuck, and I couldn’t see what you were trying