Blessings by Lois Richer

Author:Lois Richer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2003-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Perhaps the children should wait outside?”

Nicole saw fear make the three little girls cower and she shook her head. They’d lost one parent and were afraid they’d lose another. She had to put a stop to that.

“No. They stay here. Joshua is their father. Good or bad, they need to hear the truth. Please tell us.”

The specialist shrugged, then explained his findings.

“He’ll live and I’m quite certain he will walk again, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work. He’ll be here for at least a week, probably two. He can go home when I say, but only if the home renovations he’ll need are completed. He’ll also require constant monitoring and regular physiotherapy. Most of all he’ll need grit and determination.”

“Daddy wants to get better. I know he does.” Rachel blinked away the tears. “He wants to come home and be with us.”

“Of course he does, honey.” The specialist smiled, squatted down to their level. “But your daddy’s going to be in a lot of pain for a while, so he won’t be able to hold you—not at first. Later, when he comes home, you can help him get better by doing exactly what Dr. Brandt tells you to do.”

The girls nodded. Ruthie threaded her fingers through Nicole’s. “And Auntie Win,” she added solemnly.

Winifred smiled and nodded. “Good girl.”

“Can we see him?” Nicole knew she needed to see for herself, every bit as badly as the girls, that Joshua Darling was going to recover.

Dr. Long frowned. “He won’t be awake. The surgery was long and intense.” He glanced at the girls, then lowered his voice. “His lung collapsed again. Won’t the machines scare them?”

Nicole smiled. “They don’t scare easily. They just want to make sure their daddy is alive. I told them he’ll be asleep for a long time so his body can get better. They understand.”

He nodded. “You seem very close to this family—like a part of it.”

“I wish I was.”

Only after he’d left and they stood around Joshua’s bed, watching his chest rise and fall under the white sheet, did Nicole realize what she’d said. She played with it, tested the sound of it. She wanted to be part of the Darling family? Yes, the idea was very appealing. To be there for the girls, to tuck them in every night, to watch Joshua mend and grow strong, to push him when he was ready to give up, to encourage him and help him and watch him return to life—yes.

She cared about him.

Nicole stared at his battered face as the reality of her feelings washed over her in a wave of blinding truth.

Despite his cranky remarks, his niggling complaints, his lack of compliments and cool reserve, she’d become personally involved in the Darlings’ lives. Worse, she’d fallen in love with Joshua Darling.

When had it become so important that he find new meaning for his life, that he act like the loving father she knew he was? When did it start to matter whether he praised

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