Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Oh, hell. It was worse than he had thought.
Not only had he made his lust and longing for her perfectly cleat, he had actually brought up his father? Good God. He was never doing drugs again.
It explained Josie’s showing up at his condo day after day, though. He had confessed feelings for her, and Josie was a nice person. She cared about him, wanted to take care of him.
Only he couldn’t have her taking care of him, because that was a complication in his life he didn’t need. Life was challenging enough without having to guard his heart against a Josie invasion.
Starting with simple tasks like cleaning up his own clumsiness. Trying to mop up the spilled coffee on his left hand without use of his right was damn near impossible. He ended up turning his hand over and rolling it back and forth across the napkin, which ripped and stuck to his skin.
He cursed under his breath in frustration.
Every day since the accident had been a constant struggle.
Total hell. He couldn’t even zip his pants without three or four attempts and ten minutes.
Forget about buttoning a shirt. Or cutting food with a knife and fork.
Showering was like participating in a comedy act, with all the stops and starts and slips and spills.
And wet underwear was impossible to deal with.
That’s why he had to come back to work. He couldn’t sit around his condo one more day and discover all the things that he wasn’t capable of doing anymore. And maybe never would be.
He stopped his thoughts there ruthlessly.
He would get better.
It was out of the question not to.
Where would he be if he couldn’t be a surgeon?
It was just time, that’s all. He needed time to heal. In two weeks he could start PT, and then he would regain the majority of his mobility, enough to do his job as well as he always had.
In the meantime, he was going to have to learn to use his left hand if he wanted to function without the help of his mother. At thirty-three, he was a little old to have his mother buttoning his shirt for him. And Josie couldn’t touch his underwear again and expect to keep her own clothes on.
And that wasn’t going to happen. Because most important of all, he had to learn to ignore his ridiculous feelings and his overactive hormones and pretend that Josie Adkins was just another orthopedic resident.
That’s all.
Which was about as likely as Houston going back in time and beating that shark off with his board.