Page 150 of Pumpkin Spice Promises

Fence broke?

Pops.

Mother didn’t show up?

Pops sat beside me until dark and told me some people didn’t understand what they were missing.

Everything broken eventually reached Pops.

This would too. He would find a doctor. A specialist or a surgery, just…something.

He would fix it.

The hospital room door opened. Pops stepped inside carrying two coffees. He looked older than he had two days before. His gray mustache hadn’t been trimmed. His shirt was wrinkled.

He looked at me. Then at the blanket pulled away from my body. The coffees slipped from his hands. One hit the floor and burst. Brown liquid spread across white tile. Pops didn’t notice as he crossed the small space that separated us.

“Oh, Sunshine.”

I started sobbing again and reached for him. Pops held me while I cried hard enough to hurt my ribs.

“Fix it.” I asked, but his arms only tightened around me. “Please.” He buried his face against my hair. “Fix it, Pops please,” I sobbed.

For the first time in my life, he didn’t tell me he would.

Chapter

Twenty

CARSON

Present

“Carson.” Hannah’s voice pulled me back and I blinked as the physical therapy room returned slowly. My hands were trembling. The Velcro strap remained half-fastened.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled in embarrassment.

“You don’t need to apologize to me.”

“I’m fine, I promise.” The lie came automatically.

Hannah sat on the stool across from me. “It’s okay to have bad days, nobody expects you to be perfect every day.”

I looked toward the mirror. My reflection stared back. Twenty-five. Blonde hair tied loosely behind my head. Not twenty. Not in a hospital. Not freshly broken open.

Sometimes memories forget to respect time.

“This place makes me remember every hard moment,” I admitted softly. Hannah nodded and didn’t ask which memory I referred to, probably because she knew there were more than enough.

Learning to walk again.

The first wound dressing.

The horror of seeing the scar uncovered for the first time.

My first prosthetic fitting.

The first time someone told me I might ride again, and I wanted to punch them because might felt more insulting than never.