Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
The crosswalk light changes, giving me the go-ahead, and I do my best to navigate the curb as I wheel onto the street. People walk around me, but I keep my eyes forward and focus on maneuvering my wheelchair.
This is good. This is normal. This is…invigorating.
I’m doing this completely on my own, without the assistance or guidance of anyone, and I’m doing it because of my own longing to do it.
I’m living. I’m happy. I’m Scottie.
I get across the street and onto the sidewalk, and a few drops of rain fall onto my face. I can’t believe how good they feel—how good they could feel. And to think, on that first day of class, I was doing a shrieking run to get away from them. I tilt my head up to the sky to savor it, and the pace of their timing picks up, pinging me quickly from the dark storm cloud above.
If it weren’t for getting my chair soaked, I think I’d stay out here forever.
Thunder rumbles in the distance, and I decide that now would be a good time to head back to the hospital. I’ve had my fun, but there’s no need to go overboard. Being a rod for lightning would really put the icing on this year’s cake.
I have to wait again for the crosswalk, and as the seconds tick by, the raindrops come faster and harder. By the time I cross the street and reach the sidewalk, it’s pouring down from the sky. My hands slip against my wheels, the water making it hard to get a good grip, and people on the sidewalk are running around me as I try to head back to the hospital entrance.
I stop in the middle of the sidewalk to try to wipe my hands on my T-shirt, but it’s no use. I’m soaked—my hair, my shirt, my sweats, even my bra and underwear and socks and shoes are drenched. And the rain doesn’t let up or give me a break.
I start to laugh maniacally, the dam of every emotion I never thought I’d feel again bursting inside me.
I don’t have my phone. I don’t have my wallet. I have nothing but myself, my wheelchair, and my hospital bracelet. And I can’t move. It’s not funny, but for some reason, it also is.
I may have convinced myself I don’t need anyone helping me, but I sure could use a knight in shining armor right about now.
“Scottie!”
The sound of my name urges my eyes forward, and I see Finn running toward me.
“Scottie!” he calls out, and it only makes me laugh more. I call out to the universe for a knight in shining armor, and it sends me one. Maybe my luck has finally taken a positive turn for a change.
“What are you doing? The nurses are looking for you,” he says when he stops right in front of me. The rain has drenched his hair and white T-shirt and jeans, and his brown eyes implore mine as he kneels down in front of me. His face is gentle, as gentle as I’ve ever seen it, and another flashback to our first encounter in the rain steals any decorum I have left.
“Man, this is something!” I say, my laugh almost hysterical now. “You and me, meeting in the rain like this.”
“Let me help you,” he says, and I shake my head. I don’t want to go. I know it’s dangerous, and I know I’m soaked, but I’ve never felt more in a moment of kismet than I do right now, and I don’t want to let it pass me by.
“You remember the day we met, Finn?” I ask, looking up to the sky again and putting my arms out to my sides to soak in the rain.
“Of course I do.”
I nod, a run of tears joining the rain on my face now. They’re not sad, though. They’re just me. “Here we are again, the damsel in distress and the mysterious man of her dreams.” He smiles, and I reach out to touch his handsome face. “I didn’t know anything about you that day and I don’t know where you came from now, but I don’t care. I love you. And I know I should let you go, but—”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t let me go.” His voice is the most determined I’ve ever heard it, and his eyes never break contact with mine as he shoves to standing. “I don’t want you to, Scottie. Can’t you see that?”
“Finn—”
“I love you, Scottie. I choose us. I choose you. Do you hear me?”
Between one breath and the next, he lifts me out of my chair and up and into his arms. Rain pounds from the sky but all I can feel is the warmth of his skin as he cradles me close to his chest. “I love you. I love you more than anything in this world, and I refuse to let you push me away.”