Chapter Eighteen
REX
Two weeks after Biagi’s visit, I was finally released from the hospital.
I was still in the wheelchair but after ten long weeks, the VA had finally upgraded me to an electric version.
It felt amazing to buzz down the corridor, wishing my nurses and therapists goodbye.
Theo walked out from behind the nurse’s station and came over.
She stopped in front of me and grinned, then bent down to give me a tight hug.
I held her slender body close and thanked her for all the work she’d put into my recovery.
Such as it was. I didn’t want to make her feel bad because she was a genuinely nice person.
“Keep up with your exercises, Rex.” She lightly kicked at one of the wheels as she screwed up her face.
“I wish they’d have sent you home with the other chair.
” She pulled out a couple of stretchy resistance bands, handing them to me.
“These will help work your upper body, but there’s nothing like that chair for a cardio workout. ”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “They never did have to put in a requisition for the electric chair, did they? They had it all along.”
She smiled innocently. “Is that what I told you?”
“Yeah, the same day you brought me that damned dinosaur from the basement.”
“Oops.”
“Bitch.”
She laughed. “Bastard.” She leaned forward and squeezed one of my biceps. “Look at it this way. You’re one buff dude now.”
“I was buff before,” I grumbled.
She laughed, leaning over and hugging me again.
She pointed at me as she straightened. “I expect to see you back here at least three times a week.” She reached into the pocket of her scrubs and pulled out a folded sheet of paper.
“You’ve already got appointments for the first month.
Don’t miss any, Rex. They’re really important since I won’t be riding your ass every day. ”
I waggled my eyebrows. “I could think of better things to ride.”
She threw her head back and laughed. The expression made her eyes twinkle. “See you back here on Wednesday, Rex.”
“See you then, boss.”
Mars and Candy got off the elevator as I was wishing everyone goodbye and getting hugs all around.
I’d gotten really close with all the people who worked at the VA.
They were chronically understaffed and overworked, but each and every one of them put their hearts and souls into their work and the military men and women they served.
“Ready to go?” Candy asked as he and Mars came over.
“I can’t wait to go home and see Lola,” I said, shaking the hands they offered. “Thanks for comin’ to get me.”
“Wouldn’t ‘ave it any other way, mate,” Mars said.
When we got outside, I spotted our BearCat parked at the curb.
Along one side of it, someone had taped a giant banner that read “Welcome home, Rex!” in huge red letters.
Red, white, and blue balloons were taped to the paper at each end and the second I saw it, I felt myself tearing up.
The only thing better would have been seeing Cachi waiting there to greet me.
“Thanks, guys. You have no idea how much I’ve missed all of you.”
Candy walked up behind me and rested a hand between my shoulder blades. “Cachi made the sign. I picked it up from him at the safehouse last night.”
At the mention of his name, my eyes blurred. Dammit. I swallowed the tears back. “That was real nice of him.”
“He’s a hell of a nice guy, Rex,” Candy said. I looked up at him, knowing my expression must look tortured from the way his face fell. Candy shrugged. “Sorry. He insisted.”
“It’s okay. You’re right. He’s a hell of a nice guy.” I cleared my throat, waving at the truck. “Anyway. How we doin’ this?”
“I think it’s best you sit in the passenger seat,” Mars replied. “The vehicle doesn’t ‘ave a lift, but Candy and I both thought the BearCat would be better than a rideshare bus.”
“Oh, hell yeah.” I maneuvered the chair close to the curb as Mars opened the passenger door and with the help of him and Candy, I was belted into the seat a minute later.
In the rearview mirror, I watched them take the balloons and the sign off the side, thinking the whole time about what a sweet, welcome home gesture it had been.
Candy had been right, Cachi really was a hell of a nice guy.
Mars took the chair around to the back and they lifted it in, shutting the doors with a bang as I waited.
As Mars pulled up to the front of my house, parking behind my car which someone had retrieved from the bar’s parking lot, I was shocked to see the newly constructed wheelchair ramp someone had built leading up to my front porch.
It took me a few seconds of staring before I felt my eyes watering again.
“Shit. You guys did this?”
Candy nodded. “It was Cachi’s idea, but we all pitched in. There’s one out back too. He wanted to make sure you could take Lola outside to the yard.” I felt numb. Every time I heard about Cachi’s thoughtfulness, it tore me up inside. “Rex? You okay?”
I shook myself out of my own thoughts as I stared at him, practically choking on the words. “It was nice of him, that’s all.”
“Do you want to see ‘im, Rex?” Mars asked. “We could bring ‘im to the ‘ouse.”
I thought about it, never feeling more torn about anything in my life.
I desperately wanted to see him. I knew how stubborn I was being, but I just couldn’t do it.
I didn’t know if I’d ever get my legs back, so tying him to my pathetic life, made absolutely no sense at all if feeling never returned.
I slowly shook my head then glanced back at the house when I suddenly heard a small bark coming from inside.
I couldn’t stop my grin. “I gotta see Lola. She knows I’m here. ”
I waited for Candy to open the gate on the picket fence and drove the wheelchair up to the ramp, thanking my lucky stars that I hadn’t been forced to go home without the electric model as it climbed the steep slope.
The second I got to the front door, Candy was at my side, pulling the screen open.
I unlocked the door and drove the chair into the house.
Lola’s chair was parked nearby and I noticed that one of the guys had put the wrap around her body.
She was barking furiously, wiggling madly as soon as she spotted me.
I bent and scooped her up, barely able to hang onto her as she devoured my face with licking kisses.
Someone had bathed her recently. I rubbed my bearded face in her soft, sweet smelling, white curls and cooed to her. “I missed you so goddamned much, Lola girl.”
She howled back at me, making those sounds which she always made as I tried to get her to speak human, all the while, wiggling madly. I laughed, happier than I’d felt in months as I held onto her, waiting for her to calm down.
“You wanna come see the back ramp?” Candy asked.
I nodded, not ready to relinquish my pooch.
I tucked her under my left arm, keeping her on my lap as I navigated the chair through the living room to the slider out back.
I’d never been more grateful to have hardwood floors as the chair rolled across them.
I unlocked the back door and slid it open, driving out onto the ramp and then down to the patio while Mars and Candy followed.
The fact that Lola and I were both paralyzed hadn’t really hit me until just this second.
I put her down and watched her scoot across the patio, out onto the grass, watching—possibly for the first time—just how easily she’d adapted to her disability.
I’d had her for just about a year but since my vet told me that she was probably about five, I knew she’d lived a full life on four paws until some fucker had run her over and left her for dead.
Jumping around the way she did now, happy as hell just to have me home, told me that being paralyzed was really the least important thing in her life.
She had someone to love her just the way she was.
I heard the guys come up behind me, flanking me on either side as the three of us watched her do her business. Candy put a hand on my shoulder, and I glanced up to find him looking down at me with tears bright in his eyes. “She’s unstoppable, Rex. You should take a page out of her book.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“You ‘ungry?” Mars asked.
I glanced up at him and grinned. “I doubt there’s anything in the house to eat.”
“Let’s see,” Candy said. “If not, I’ll whip something up.”
“Thanks, boss.” Lola wandered over to me, and I scooped her up, taking the chair from Mars and strapping her back into it before setting her on my lap as I drove the chair back into the house.
After setting her down, I went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door, dreading what I’d find after almost three months.
I expected there to be a whole lot of moldy food and stinky shelves but of course, there wasn’t.
Instead, I found a pristine, newly-cleaned fridge that was fully stocked with everything I could possibly think of. All I could do was stare.
“Actually, Mickey, Napoleon, Alain, and Patsy came over last night to take inventory and go shopping while Nash and Joshua scrubbed the floors,” Candy said.
My jaw dropped open. “What?”
“Yeah,” Mars replied, “and ya forgot to tell ‘im that Raven and Miguel did your bathrooms and changed ya sheets.” He bent over and pulled a large Tupperware container off the fridge’s top shelf and opened the lid.
Inside were neatly stacked empanadas in rows.
“Cachi made these for ya.” He pointed inside.
“These are chicken and these are mushroom, green olive, and cheese.
‘E says it’s a Puerto Rican recipe. Shall I ‘eat some up?”
I swallowed, unable to say anything since my mouth had gone totally dry. I nodded. “Thanks,” I croaked out.
“While those heat up, there’s something else we wanted to show you,” Candy said.
“Somethin’ else?”