Chapter 5
“Rob, I didn’t expect to see you for a while,” Dr. Shane said when she saw Rob walking into her office. “Is everything alright with the modifications?” she asked, a look of concern on her face.
“Everything is great, Doc. It’s working really well,” he assured her. He had just been in to see her a few weeks ago. He and his teammates didn’t make a habit of coming too often.
Usually, it was their yearly checkups for readjusting or changing out sockets. They only came in sooner when they needed modifications for missions and such.
“Oh, good.” She relaxed in her seat. “Then to what do I owe the pleasure? I didn’t take you for a social caller.”
Rob scratched the back of his head feeling nervous. He hadn’t felt like that since junior high when he’d asked Courtney Miller to the school dance. “I was actually looking for June.”
He hadn’t seen her when he’d come in, and Dr. Shane was the only other person in the building that he could think of to ask where she was.
“Oh.” She perked up at that. Rob didn’t want her to get any ideas, but he didn’t want to share what had happened to June if Dr. Shane didn’t know about it. It wasn’t his place to tell her story. “Do you know where she is? I had a question for her.”
“Is there anything I should be concerned about?” she inquired pointedly without saying fully what she was asking. Dr. Shane didn’t know the full extent of their operation, but she knew enough.
“No.”
“Alright.” She nodded, not pressing him for more details. “She should be upstairs with one of her patients in the exercise room. If not, check her office which is the room next to it.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
“You’re welcome.” She waved him away, already dismissing him.
Rob took the elevator up to the next floor and went down the hall looking in every room, not sure where the exercise room was. He hadn’t thought to ask the doctor, and it was too late now. The building was only so big with three floors. It couldn’t be that hard to find.
“I told you, I can’t do it,” a male’s voice snapped, coming from the room up ahead.
“Yes, you can,” a calm, sweet voice responded. One Rob now knew: June.
Rob stopped when he saw a row of glass windows looking into the exercise room. June and the man were the only ones in there. The man was missing a leg and half of his arm. He had a prosthetic leg but no arm.
The man stood on a mat, surrounded by handrails, June stood right next to him ready to help if need be. The guy looked to be in his early twenties. He was tall and skinny, and he wore a grey shirt with the letters for Army spelled out across the chest.
Rob knew what the kid was going through.
He had been older when he’d lost his hearing but remembered how devasting it had been when his career was cut short because of his injury.
The guys had shared their stories about losing limbs and overcoming the pain and trials of walking again or using their arms.
“I told you, I fucking can’t,” the man barked at her. Her gentle, placating tone wasn’t having any effect on this guy. This kid was hurting and lashing out in anger. Sweet June didn’t deserve his ire.
Rob gritted his teeth and barreled into the room like a thundering storm cloud. After the trauma she’d had the last time he’d seen her, the last thing she needed was this man yelling at her.
“Soldier, did I just hear you being disrespectful to this woman?” Rob roared at the man like a drill sergeant.
The kid’s head snapped toward him. He took in Rob’s appearance. He may have been out of the army and didn’t wear the uniform anymore, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still command respect from fellow soldiers, especially when they were being disrespectful.
Rob could see June looking at him out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his focus on the kid. He hoped June wouldn’t get too upset about him taking over command. “Don’t make me repeat myself, soldier.”
The kid snapped to attention. “No, sir.”
“Didn’t sound like it to me.”
“Sorry, ma’am,” the kid said, staring straight ahead.
“No apology necessary,” she replied kindly.
“As for you, leave.” She didn’t snap at him, but her tone of voice changed from sweet to hard—at him.
Rob blinked, sure she wasn’t addressing him; he had just gotten the kid to apologize.
Surely, she wasn’t dismissing him. She should be grateful, not angry.
“But—” He was struck speechless.
“I’m in the middle of a session. You can’t just barge in here and take over like that.”
True, but he’d saved her. Again. “I need to speak with you.”
“You’ll have to come back. I’m busy,” she stated primly. Nothing at all like the kind woman he had spoken to Friday evening.
“This won’t take long.”
“Then you can wait over there.” She tilted her chin toward the far corner away from them. “Or better yet, come back later.”
Once again, Rob was speechless. Even the kid looked back and forth between them.
A mixture of shock and awe on his face. Rob could relate.
Few stood up to him like this, and never a woman.
“I’ll wait.” He had seen that she was fully recovered and could have just left, but for whatever reason, he wanted to stay and talk to her.
“Alright,” she nodded and turned her focus back to the kid, “Ready to try again?” Once again, her voice turned gentle. It wasn’t a condescending voice as if talking to a child. But it was calm and serene. Like the peaceful sound of a stream.
The kid glanced over at him before nodding. “Alright, let’s do this.”
Rob watched them from his designated corner. The kid looked over at him from time to time, but June ignored him completely as if he wasn’t even there.
He took the time to study her. He was learning a lot about her just by watching how she communicated with the kid. She never pushed him, was always considerate of his limited mobility, but tried to challenge him as well.
When the kid got frustrated, she walked away to give him a few minutes to recoup before they tried again.
After their session, the kid nodded toward him and was placed in a wheelchair and pushed out of the room. June looked at him as if she had just remembered him then approached him with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Rob, I apologize for being harsh with you earlier, but you were out of line,” she commented in a firm and chiding tone.
He was the one out of line? She had berated him as if he had been the one yelling at her. “I was only defending you. You looked like you needed rescuing.” Again, he left unsaid.
“There is a time and place for rescue; this was not it. I don’t need your help.
This isn’t the army or whatever you did before, Rob.
This is my career. He’s not the first to yell, nor will he be the last. When you step in like that, it undermines my authority.
” She pointed at herself with her thumb.
Rob felt chastened. He had misread the situation. He thought he’d been helping but had actually made it worse. He could see that now. “I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” She nodded at him in gratitude.
“Just like that? No groveling?” Weren’t women known for holding a grudge? His sister always had.
“No,” she chuckled, and all of the strain she had been carrying when she’d come over melted away. “It’s not in my nature to hold onto things. Life’s too short for that.”
Truer words couldn’t be spoken. He’d had so many close calls in his life. Any moment could have been his last. “How did you know I was in the army?”
“That’s what you came to ask me?” She raised an eyebrow in question.
“No, but now I’m curious.”
“I come from a military family, you act like a military guy, and the way you addressed my client all tells me you were military. He was army, so I just guessed.”
“It was a good guess. I was in the army for ten years.”
“What did you do?”
“I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.” He was only joking. Kind of.
June rolled her eyes. “Military men and their secrets. Fine, keep them.” June checked her watch. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Do you have another client coming?” he asked instead.
“More interrogation?” She giggled.
“I just didn’t know if I was going to be interrupting again.” No reason to get scolded if he didn’t have to.
“No, it’s my lunch break. I don’t have an appointment for an hour, but I need to run and get something to eat since I didn’t bring anything.”
“I haven’t had lunch. Mind if join you?” He found himself suggesting it before he thought better of it.
“Worried I’ll find trouble between here and the deli?”
“Well, it would save me the trouble to be with you instead of having to track you down.” June was doing her best to look stern, but he could see the hint of a smile on her face. “I’m only joking. I’m starting to see now, you can handle yourself just fine.”
“Not in every situation, but just about. I’m not afraid to ask for help when I need it.” She emphasized the point.
“Noted. So, lunch?”
Rob could see the wheels turning in her head. June had a very expressive face, but he couldn’t read what she was thinking. He had always been able to read people, and she was proving difficult. That wasn’t a bad thing. It was just different.
He could tell she wasn’t averse to going out with him. Otherwise, she would have flatly told him no. Or maybe she was trying to think of a polite way of turning him down. Was she dating someone, and he was encroaching?
Rob didn’t know why he was pushing to hang out with her. He didn’t make it a habit to hang out with people outside of his team, but he found himself intrigued to learn more about June. Even if it was in a friends-only way.
“Fine,” she finally responded. “You may accompany me to lunch.”
Rob smiled broadly like he had just won a war instead of just getting her to agree to lunch with him. He held out his hand for her to precede him. Humor danced in her eyes as she walked ahead of him until they were side by side in the hallway. “Do you have a normal place you go to for lunch?”
“I usually pack lunch, but at least once a week, I go to one of the local places. Today is the deli a couple of blocks up. They make the best chicken parmigiana heroes in town.”
“Sounds good.” Rob didn’t eat out a lot, so he didn’t know many of the restaurants and places in town and would have to take her word about it. He preferred to cook his own meals, and now Luke’s girlfriend Shay brought in her home-cooking a lot. They were all spoiled.