Chapter Thirteen
D ana tried every tile shop she knew but none of them could get the amount of tile needed for at least three days. Which did them no good at all. Finally, she looked online at one of the giant chain home improvement stores and found both a large and small tile that looked similar to the others they’d chosen. She showed the pictures to Levi.
“Looks good to me. Do they have enough?”
“One way to find out.” She called several stores within a reasonable distance but no one carried enough of the tiles. They would all have had to order from their warehouses and that would take time Dana didn’t have. Just when she was beginning to despair she called the store in Kerrville, and struck gold. She spoke with the manager and then hung up.
“Well?” Levi said.
“They have it. As much as we need with extra.”
“That’s great. Isn’t it? Why don’t you look happier?”
“I’m happy. I’ll be happier when we have it in our possession. I think we should pick it up. Today. It feels like tempting fate to wait for it to be delivered. Besides, I want to see it in person.”
“Not a problem. I have a pickup.”
“Of course you do.”
“Every Texas boy needs to own a pickup at least once in his life. Let’s go.”
Dana followed him out to the car barn. Before when they’d been together, Levi only had five or six cars. In fact, when he moved to Florida with her he’d left all but one of his cars in Whiskey River. Which should have alerted her to the fact that Levi wasn’t happy with the move. But there was no sense beating herself up about something she’d done when she was young and, quite frankly, stupid. “How many cars do you have, Levi?”
“Here? Only about twenty-five.”
“ Only twenty-five? You have more?”
“Yes. Most of them are in a garage that’s out in the country. Near the airport, actually.” He opened the side door and let her go in first.
Cars. Lots of cars of different colors, makes, models, and ages. It looked like a dealership, maybe a used car dealership of classic cars, except these cars were in pristine condition. “Do you drive all these cars?”
“Sure. What’s the point of having them if you don’t drive them?” He stopped at a white pickup. “Here we go.”
“It’s huge.”
“Betsy will carry a lot and pull a heavy load.”
“I bet. Betsy? You name your cars? ”
“Yes. Betsy’s a truck, though. She’ll be insulted if you call her a car.”
Who knew Levi had such a whimsical side? She wasn’t at all sure she could get into “Betsy” without help. There were no running boards and it was pretty high off the ground.
Levi opened her door and waited for her to get in. “You should’ve named her Wonder Woman. Maybe I should take a running start.”
He laughed. “Put your foot up there and I’ll give you a boost.”
With Levi’s hand boosting her butt she managed to get in. Levi walked around to the driver’s side, got in and the truck started with a roar. He put it in gear and pressed a button, opening a wide roll-up garage door. He drove out, closing the door with the same electronic control.
Soon they were driving down Highway 290 to Kerrville. She admitted “Betsy” was a nice truck. Quiet, luxurious, with leather seats and as smooth a ride as any truck she’d ever ridden in. The glimpse she’d had of all the cars had given her a rabid curiosity to see them up close and ride in them.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t find the tile at a closer home improvement store but I was beginning to worry that none of them would have what we needed.”
“That’s all right. I like to drive.”
Clearly, she thought with a smile. “Will Asher be able to drive? ”
“He should be able to. Once he’s off pain meds, anyway. He lost his left leg below the knee so he should be easily able to drive an automatic.”
“That’s good. I imagine he won’t want to be dependent on someone to drive him around.”
“Probably not. Although he’ll need someone to drive him to and from San Antonio until he can find doctors and a prosthetist closer to home.” He frowned but didn’t add anything.
“Is something else wrong? I mean, I know you’re worried about him but is there more?”
“I’m not sure how much help Asher will accept from me once he’s out of the hospital. Probably not as much as he’ll need.”
“His life has changed drastically. I can’t imagine how difficult this has been for him.”
“He doesn’t complain, at least to me. He swears he’s not depressed and doesn’t have PTSD but he’s not…he’s not Asher. It’s like he doesn’t really care about anything anymore.”
Dana put her hand on his arm and squeezed. “I’m sorry, Levi.” Fairly certain of his answer, she asked her question anyway. “Have you thought about going to a support group for veterans’ families and friends?”
“Yes,” he said, surprising her. “I went to a couple of meetings after he first came back to the States.”
“And?” she asked when he didn’t continue .
Levi shrugged. “I don’t think I’m a share your feelings in a big group kind of guy.” He glanced at her then back to the road. “Or maybe period.”
Well, that didn’t surprise her. Levi was about as guarded as anyone she’d ever known. Of course, she’d been guarded too. Which had been one of their problems. “Has Asher been going to meetings?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t talked to me about it.”
Apparently, Asher was as bad as Levi about sharing, if not worse. “Does Asher have a prosthetic leg yet?”
“Yes. He just got it. I think I told you, he had to wait a little longer than he’d planned. Something about the way his leg was healing. Or it wasn’t healing as fast as they expected. Anyway, there’s a prosthetist who works out of Last Stand General Hospital. It’s only about twenty minutes from here, so it will be a lot more convenient for him to go for adjustments and things like that there than have to travel to San Antonio frequently. From what I’ve read about it, fitting a prosthesis correctly is a long process.”
A short while later they arrived at the home improvement store. The manager had pulled the tiles and arranged for them to be loaded quickly. Dana and Levi thanked him and they both made a note to use the store in the future.
“How did you become interested in accessible housing?” Levi asked Dana on the way home. “Don’t I remember that you made some of the units in the Wildcat Tower accessible? ”
“Yes, the Kellys set aside several units that could easily be converted for accessibility.”
“So you’ve been doing it a long time now.”
She nodded. “But when I designed the Tower I knew very little about designing accessible housing. I had to learn in a hurry.” She sighed, thinking back. “That was my first big project and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was that the Kellys wanted me. They’d seen some of my work in San Antonio and liked it.”
“You’re very good at your profession.”
“Thank you,” she said, a bit surprised. She didn’t remember Levi complimenting her much on her work before.
“You realize the quality of your work was never the problem when I objected to you designing the airport remodel, right?”
“I didn’t think it was. You made your objections and the reason for them clear when I first came back.”
Levi laughed. “Yeah, after we had sex.”
“That decision was as much mine as yours.” She never had been good at resisting temptation, and Levi had always been a huge temptation.
“I was wrong to try to get you to refuse. It was a good opportunity for you.”
“Water under the bridge. Why are you bringing all this up now?”
“I wanted to apologize for being such a prick around you. ”
She smiled. “You’re forgiven. Besides, you really weren’t around me much.”
“True and it was damned hard to keep away from you.”
“For me too.”
“I’m really glad you’re helping me with the remodel. It’s important to me.” He picked up her hand and held it. “You and Harlan are doing a great job.”
“It certainly makes it easier when you’re working with a builder like Harlan. His construction company is the best.”
They pulled into town and stopped at the light. Levi leaned over, put his hand in her hair and kissed her. “What was that for?” she asked.
“Do I have to have a reason?”
“Good point,” she murmured as he kissed her again. The driver behind them laid on his horn.
“Yeah, yeah,” Levi said. The car pulled up beside them and Levi rolled down his window. “What?”
“Get a room,” Zack said and drove off.
“I believe we have one. Several, as a matter of fact.”
Dana laughed. “We should check them out.”
“All of them?”
“That might be hard. I don’t have a clue how many rooms are in that house.”
“A lot. But I’m totally willing to try.”
*
At first Asher dreamed a lot. Dreamed of Afghanistan. Of Iraq. Dreamed of his buddies. Dreamed of the explosion. Men screaming. Men dying. Blood. God, blood everywhere. Then he’d wake up, in agony, his leg on fire. He’d reach down and…it wasn’t there. And he’d remember. Fuck. I’ve lost my leg.
The hospital in Germany was a blur. Thankfully. By the time he’d come back to the States he was feeling a little better. Physically. Mentally, not so much.
Yeah, he was alive. Which, at the moment, didn’t seem like any great shakes. Because the reality was, he had no fucking clue what he was going to do with his life. He’d been in the army since he was seventeen years old. His entire adult life. He didn’t know how to be a civilian. A veteran. A wounded veteran. A veteran with one lousy leg.
But the dreams came less often now. The phantom pain was still there. But not as bad. Not constant. The doctors hoped he’d gradually stop having it completely. They told him it was a good sign that the phantom pain was lessening so soon after the amputation. It didn’t seem like soon to him.
Levi was doing everything he could to help him. But Asher didn’t want to need help. He couldn’t think of one damn thing he really wanted to do. Saturday he was going “home.” To Levi’s house. Asher had only seen the house once, when he’d been on leave and come to see Levi not long after he bought it. He remembered it was big and there was a pool and it sat on a huge piece of land near downtown Whiskey River. He knew Levi had remodeled it some, but from what he’d heard he’d only done what he thought necessary.
*
Levi hadn’t known what to expect when he brought Asher home with him, but he’d hoped that the prospect of getting out of the hospital would give Asher something to look forward to. If it did, his brother didn’t show it.
“Are you going to be able to see a prosthetist closer to Whiskey River?” he asked Asher.
“Maybe.”
“And a physical therapist?” He’d probably need to see that person as much as the prosthetist.
“Maybe,” Asher repeated.
“Until you do, you’ll have to go to San Antonio whenever your leg needs adjustments, right?”
“Yes.”
“I can take you to your appointments. I know you’ll be able to drive but if you drive an hour and a half each way you’ll be too tired for therapy or anything else. Plus the doctor hasn’t cleared you to drive yet, has he?”
“No.”
“Can you speak in a sentence that contains more than one word?” Levi finally asked, exasperated as hell as he pulled up to a stop sign.
“Probably not.” Asher held up two fingers.
Well, that’s something, Levi thought, heartened to see a little bit of a smile.
“Is there anywhere you want to stop on the way home? Anything you need that I might not have at home?” Levi asked Asher.
“No.”
Back to one-word answers. Asher had been looking out the window, barely talking on the drive, no matter what Levi said or asked. In the past Levi would have given him shit until he started talking again, but their relationship wasn’t the same now. All Levi knew was that this shit wasn’t going to work. Maybe he was simply in pain. It seemed like Asher had talked more while he’d been in the hospital. But he’d probably been on more pain meds than he was today.
“Muriel has been cooking for days. She’s convinced she needs to fatten you up.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Three words. Whoopee-shit. “Tell that to Muriel.”
Asher simply looked at him and shrugged.
Whenever Levi got irritated with Asher, which unfortunately was pretty damn often now, he tried to imagine how he would react if he lost his leg. He suspected he wouldn’t handle it nearly as well as Asher did. But he didn’t know . He’d never been in the military and he’d never lost a limb. Or lost friends in combat. Or experienced any of a number of things he could only guess Asher had experienced. One thing Levi had learned from the two support sessions he’d gone to was to encourage Asher to find a support group for veterans. There wasn’t one in Whiskey River, but there were some in Last Stand, Fredericksburg, and Marble Falls, none of which were too far away. Asher was probably like him in that he might not be a group sharing kind of guy, but in Levi’s opinion, he’d have to get over that. However, that was an argument for another day.
Levi pulled up to the house into the circular driveway and parked. Today he’d chosen to drive a 1975 vapor-gray Cadillac Seville. It was easy to get into and out of, and the wheelchair fit easily in the trunk. “Do you want your crutches or the wheelchair?”
“I don’t care.”
“I’ll get the wheelchair.” He brought the wheelchair around to Asher and started to help him get out of the car but Asher refused.
“I can transfer myself. Push it up here and put the brake on and I’ll handle it.”
Levi knew Asher had learned to transfer himself from bed to wheelchair and wheelchair to shower chair among other things, but going from car to wheelchair seemed like it would be harder. Asher handled it fine. Even though he’d lost weight and muscle since he’d been in the hospital, he’d started out in great shape. Hell, he was Special Forces. He had to be fit. Once Asher was in the wheelchair, he rolled up the ramp to the front door. Levi opened it and stood aside to let Asher go first.
“Your rooms are down the hall to the right,” Levi said, shutting the door behind Asher. “I thought you’d want to go there first.”
“Thanks. I want to take off this damn leg. I’m not used to it yet.”
“You haven’t had it long, have you?”
“No. A couple of weeks.”
“Are you on a time schedule where you work up to wearing it more and more?”
“Yeah. To a certain extent. It’s up to me whether I want to push it or not.”
“But you’re able to walk on it?”
“With crutches or a walker.”
Asher was talking more now. Maybe he’d just needed a little time to adjust.
After entering the bedroom, Asher stopped and looked around. Still silent, he rolled into the bathroom and sat there, taking it all in.
“There’s another room next to your bedroom. We’ve widened the doorway. I thought you might want someplace besides your bedroom or the den to hang out.”
“You did all this for me?”
“Well, yeah. Who else would I do it for?”
“You didn’t have to do this. I didn’t expect…I figured I’d make do with whatever was already here. You must have sp ent a fortune.”
Levi shrugged. “Money’s not a problem.”
“I know. Not for you. But this…this is above and beyond. I’ll never be able to repay you.”
“Repay me? I didn’t do it expecting you to repay me. The cost was no big deal.” Levi changed the subject. “The bed’s electric. I’m sure you’ll figure out the controls. I’m going to get your bag. Do you want something to drink or eat?”
“No, I’m good.” Levi started to leave but stopped and turned around at the doorway when Asher said, “Levi? Thanks. For all this. It means…a lot.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Yeah. I am too.”