Working It Out (25 page)

T
he warm and
beautiful summer days started speeding by, and Seth’s therapy sessions became
fewer and farther between. He used to dread the day that happened, but not
anymore. Now that his evenings and weekends were filled with Grace, the time he
spent in her clinic as a patient became a perk.

Seth took her paintballing
again and again, and Grace attended all the games he coached. They helped to
tutor those kids involved with summer school and doubled with Lanna and Alec. They
jogged, hiked, sailed, kayaked, Grace cooked for him, and Seth cooked for her.
Other than Seth’s contract work and Grace’s job, they were practically
inseparable.

At the six-month post-surgery
mark, Seth arrived home from a consulting session completely exhausted. He
wanted nothing more than to snuggle with Grace on the couch and watch whatever
movie she wanted to put on. But as Seth walked inside his house, shouts of
“Congratulations!” greeted him. Surrounded by all their friends, Grace stood in
the center, holding a cake shaped like a mountain. A tiny skier stood at the
top of a run with the words, “Way to go, Seth! You made it!” Then she kissed
him on the cheek and officially pronounced him all better. No more therapy
sessions were needed.

Seth set the cake on the
table, wrapped his arms around Grace, and hooted as he spun her around until
they were both dizzy. His knee was healed, Grace was officially a part of his
life, and the mountain biking season was still in full swing. Life couldn’t get
any better.

Later, after everyone but
Grace had left, Seth came up behind her as she rinsed the dishes and turned her
to face him, pulling her close.

She lifted bubble-covered
hands and laughed. “I’m all wet.”

“I don’t care.” Seth
lowered his mouth to hers. In no time at all, her arms wound tightly around
him, dampening the back of his shirt as she responded with the same enthusiasm she
always did. Over the past couple of months, Seth had learned that when Grace
opened her arms to someone, she did so whole-heartedly.

A raw and tender emotion
tugged at Seth’s heart. Her beauty, charm, kindness, humor, and goodness had
thrust their way into his heart and took over. Seth found himself falling more in
love with her every day.

“Marry me,” he murmured
against her lips.

Grace pulled back, her
hands resting against his shoulders as she stared up at him with startled eyes.
“What did you say?”

“I said marry me.” Seth
had never been more sure about anything. Grace had become part of him, and he didn’t
want a life without her in it. He wanted to come home to her every day, or be
there when she came home. He wanted to see her wake up, watch her curl her hair
with those haphazard ponytails, and go to sleep with her every night. He wanted
to walk down the aisle and commit himself to her forever.

“Are you serious?” Grace
breathed, still staring at him.

“I’ve never been more serious
about anything,” Seth said, his voice sounding hoarse and emotional. “I love
you, Grace. More than I ever thought possible.” His fingers closed over hers,
and he moved her hand to cover his heart. “Like it or not, this belongs to you
and always will.”

Tears pooled in her eyes
at the same time her mouth lifted into a smile. She bobbed her head up and down
in quick, jerky movements.

“Is that a yes?” Seth
asked.

“Yes, it’s a yes.” She
laughed and sniffed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I love you,
too.”

Seth’s smiling mouth lowered
to hers, sealing their agreement with a long, drawn-out kiss. No matter how
many times he kissed Grace, it was never enough. The warmth of her lips and the
way her body felt against his was like an addictive drug.

“Want to go ring
shopping?” Seth murmured against her lips.

She pulled back. “Right now?”

Of course right now. Seth
wanted every current patient, future patient, or guy on the street to know that
Grace was taken. “No time like the present.”

Grace stood in her front
room, half listening to the Today show on TV as she looked out her front
window. The Saturday morning skies were bright and blue, promising a beautiful
day. Seth would drive up any moment, and she couldn’t wait to see him—or
discover what he had in store that day. “It’s a surprise,” he’d said. “Dress in
something comfortable that can get dirty.”

So Grace had donned some
old workout capris and a t-shirt. Then she’d carefully, and regretfully, slid
off her beautiful new diamond ring and placed it back in its box in her top
dresser drawer. She’d only had the ring two days, and her finger already felt
naked without it. But she wasn’t about to risk losing it during a hike or
paintballing, or whatever Seth had planned.

Which was what?

Anticipation filled her
stomach as she waited impatiently for his car to appear. When it finally
rounded the corner, carrying two bikes strapped to the rack on top, Grace
smiled. They were going biking—something she hadn’t done in years. The prospect
thrilled her. She could already feel the wind lifting her hair and smell crisp humid
air as she pictured them cruising around on one of the many biking trails
Seattle had to offer.

Seth had chosen well. This
would be so much better than getting pounded with a bunch of paintballs.

But when his car pulled to
a stop in front of her apartment, Grace took a closer look. The bikes weren’t
beach-type cruisers. They had large beefy tires, dual suspensions, and
uncomfortable-looking seats. They were mountain bikes.

 Grace should have known
that Seth would try to convert her to the sport, especially now that she’d
proclaimed him fully recovered. But in the back of her mind, she’d secretly
hoped that his ACL tear would make him want to choose the less-dangerous paved
or graded dirt trails. Looking at those bikes, Grace knew he was here to take
her on a “real” mountain biking expedition—one involving large rocks and uneven
ground.

A nervous pit filled
Grace’s stomach. How many patients had wound up in her office because of an
injury resulting from falling off a mountain bike? Whether it was recovering
from a broken leg, arm, or torn meniscus, she’d treated too many to count. It
was a dangerous sport.

Too bad Seth happened to
love it.

“Surprise,” Seth said when
she opened the door for him. “We’re going mountain biking.”

“Yeah, got that.” Grace
hesitated, not wanting to pull the plug on his enthusiasm. “Um, you do know
I’ve never done it before, right? I’m not sure I’ll be any good.”

Seth pulled her in for a
quick kiss then said, “You’ll be a natural, trust me. And don’t worry. I’m
starting you off with the easiest trail around. One ride, and I guarantee
you’ll be hooked.”

Grace wasn’t so sure about
that. But she hadn’t been sure about paintballing either, and now she loved it.
Maybe she’d feel the same about mountain biking. Maybe she might even come away
with a better attitude about her brother wanting to give it a try.

“Okay,” she reluctantly
agreed. “Let me grab my shoes, and we can go.”

Less than an hour later,
Grace stood next to her bike while Seth tightened the strap on her helmet.

“These are duel-suspension
bikes,” Seth explained, “so they’ll absorb pretty much every bump you come
across and keep the ride pretty smooth—even the large bumps. So don’t be afraid
to take them head on.” He gave her a few additional pointers before mounting
his own bike and clicking one of his shoes to the pedal.

“Your feet are locked to
the pedals?” Grace stared at his feet, horrified. She knew a lot of street
bikes had pedals like that, but had no idea mountain bikes did too. It seemed
so wrong. Possibly even suicidal. No wonder people broke or tore so many of
their body parts.

“It makes riding easier,
but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner.”

Grace wouldn’t recommend
it for anyone. “What if you hit something and lose your balance?”

He grinned. “You either
get out of the binding fast or you go down with the bike.”

The nervous pit that had
come and gone since Grace had first seen the bikes returned with a vengeance. What
had she gotten herself into?

“Ready?” he asked.

No. Not now. Probably not ever.
She swallowed. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Seth pushed off and locked
his second shoe into the pedal. Grace tentatively followed. The trail turned
out to be pretty smooth, and before long, she found herself relaxing. The peace
and beauty of the surrounding mountains breathed new life into her. It was
nothing like riding on a trail through a crowded park. No wonder Seth loved
this sport so much.

They rounded a bend, and
the terrain suddenly changed. It sloped downhill, and the once-smooth and flat
trail became rough. Ruts, tree roots, and large rocks invaded the path and
slowed their progress—or at least Grace’s progress. Her body tensed as she
maneuvered her way through them, stopping every so often to walk her bike over
a particularly large obstacle. Seth, on the other hand, only stopped to wait
for her to catch up. He seemed so at ease, taking each bump with the fluidity
of an expert.

During one particularly
tricky patch, Grace hopped off her bike yet again and lifted it over the large,
protruding root of a massive pine. Before mounting again, she watched Seth with
both admiration and envy as he surged ahead, climbing a steeper section of the
trail with what looked like very little effort.

His front tire suddenly
jerked to the left, and Seth pitched forward over the handlebars, taking the
bike with him. He hit the ground hard on his right shoulder before his bike finally
broke free from the bindings. It bounced down the hill like a ping pong ball then
clattered to the ground near Grace’s feet.

 “Seth!” she screamed. She
dropped her bike and stumbled forward, leaping over his as she ran toward him. She
was suddenly at the bottom of the ski run again, watching Alec over-rotate his
jump and land on his back. Had Seth injured his spinal cord? Had he broken his
neck? Back? The worries collided in her mind as she dropped down beside him.

“Please tell me you’re
okay,” she said with a shaky voice.

Seth started to sit up,
and Grace immediately pushed him back down. “Don’t move.”

“Relax,” he breathed. “I
just got the wind knocked out of me, that’s all. Look.” Seth raised one foot
and wiggled it in the air. “I can move it just fine. My arms work too.” He
grabbed Grace around the waist and tried to pull her toward him, but she
resisted.

“Oh c’mon,” he joked.
“Don’t you want to kiss me better?”

How could Seth joke at a
time like this? Was he hiding some pain or injury that he didn’t want Grace to
know about? “You promise you’re okay?”

 “Promise.” He rolled to a
sitting position with a groan. “Just a little bruised, that’s all. No biggie.
This isn’t the first time I’ve fallen, and I always walked away just fine.”

Grace didn’t feel the
least bit comforted. After all, Alec could have said the same thing before the
day of his skiing accident. But not anymore. Grace couldn’t help but worry if
the day would come when Seth couldn’t say the same either.

She wanted to tell him to
stop mountain biking, that he couldn’t do this anymore, no matter how much he
enjoyed it. But the words lodged in her throat as if they knew they had no
right to be spoken.

“I’m okay, Grace, really.”
Seth’s hand rubbed up and down her arm as his eyes pleaded with her to not
worry.

From the looks of things,
he
was
okay—this time. But that didn’t mean Grace could turn off the
worry, especially now that she’d witnessed firsthand what could happen on a
mountain bike. And Seth had called this trail “easy.” What were the more
difficult trails like? She shuddered at the thought.

“Would it be okay if we
turned back now?” she finally said, more than a little shaken. Suddenly, a
crowded park trail seemed like a wonderful thing.

With concern etched across
his brow, Seth nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay. You’ve already seen the best part of
this trail anyway.”

It was then that Grace
realized something. Once the terrain had become more challenging, she hadn’t
noticed the scenery at all. She’d been too focused on not falling, and where
was the fun in that? Nowhere.

Keeping the thought to
herself, Grace stood and held out her hand to help Seth up. In no time, they
were back on the trail with Grace taking the lead. Their progress was even
slower than before, with more uphill climbs, but they eventually made their way
back to the car. As Seth finished strapping the bikes to the roof of his car,
Grace sat in the passenger seat and stared through the windshield at a cluster
of dark green pines. While the beauty still surrounded her, the peace was
absent, replaced by an almost haunting foreboding. What if something bad
happened to Seth? How would she handle it?