Perfectly Matched

“Hey, Grandma, we can do our exercises together,” the little girl said with a grin.

“Speaking of that, we’d better get cracking with the rest of Maggie’s therapy, Nick.” Shay smiled at him. “I have another client to see this morning.”

The rest of the time passed quickly. Shay’s quiet encouragement never faltered though Maggie burst into tears at several points and Nick grew so tense he kept making mistakes.

“Don’t get frustrated, Maggie. You either, Nick. You can’t think of this as something you’ll do and be done with. You have to practice it every day. Maggie, every morning, before you get up, I want you to do ten of those little leg lifts when you’re lying in bed. Your legs will soon get used to working,” Shay assured her. “But only if you keep making them do it.”

“Like ’sparagus,” Maggie puffed as she worked to flex her knee. “Right, Uncle Nick?”

“Right.” He chuckled at her distasteful expression.

“Huh?” Shay glanced at him, her eyes questioning.

“Well,” Maggie said with a deep concentration. “Grandma says ’sparagus is good for you,” Maggie explained to Shay. “Uncle Nick and I don’t like it, but she said if we eat a bit every time, then we’ll get to like it.”

“Grandma is very smart about a whole lot of things,” Nick agreed as he shared a smile with his mom. “Though maybe not ’sparagus,” he whispered in Shay’s ear. She turned to smile at him, a wistful look on her face. He wondered at that look, but it quickly disappeared.

Ten minutes later Shay headed out the door.

“You’re doing fine,” she said. “Call me if there’s a problem. Otherwise I’ll see you in the office next week, Maggie.” With a flutter of her fingers Shay was gone, her small red convertible vanishing in a cloud of dust.

“It’s like a light goes out when Shay leaves,” his mother mused as she lifted her hands off the machine he’d created. “It’s no wonder she was a success at modeling. How could the camera bear to look away from such inner beauty?”

His mother had always loved Shay. In high school she’d never made any bones about the fact that she liked seeing the two of them together. But Nick knew she’d always hoped something else would develop. He wasn’t exactly sure how he was supposed to tell her not to hope for more than friendship. Because he couldn’t offer Shay more.

A moment later she and Maggie began preparing lunch. Nick wandered out to his workshop, his thoughts on that wistful look on Shay’s face when he’d teased about the asparagus. What was that about? She had looked—what? Envious?

Come on, Nick. Shay Parker, envious of you? Get real. You’ve got nothing she’d want.

Nick’s cell phone broke into his train of thought.