Page 3 of The Baxters
But Ryan didn’t move at all.
He was driven off in an ambulance, and when the announcers revealed which hospital he was taken to,Kari and her father packed their bags and set out for Chicago.
After an almost silent four-hour drive, they met Ryan’s mother in the lobby of intensive care. Ryan was in surgery for a fractured vertebra in his spine and there was only the slightest chance he would walk again.
Kari remembered falling to her knees right there in the waiting room, begging God to heal the boy she loved. But even if Ryan were paralyzed, she had been sure she would never leave him. She would drop out of school and help him rehab. And whatever remained of Ryan Taylor, she would stay by him till the day she died.
That was her plan. Even when nothing was certain about the next few hours.
But in the morning everything changed. Ryan’s nurse told Kari something more shocking, more devastating than the report of his broken neck. “You can go see him in a little while.” The woman raised her eyebrows. “Right now his girlfriend is in the room with him.”
His girlfriend.
Adrenaline pushed through Kari’s veins and the floor beneath her feet turned liquid. Ryan’s mother had said nothing about a girlfriend. How dare the woman welcome them after their long drive and not tell Kari the awful truth? Ryan was seeing someone else. One of the girls from those parties, no doubt.
And that was that.
Without waiting to see Ryan, Kari and her dad leftthe hospital and drove home. From what his mother said, Ryan was still rehabbing, even now, years later. But he could walk and run. Last fall he’d even made another brief attempt at playing in the NFL.
Yes, God had granted Kari the miracle she had prayed for regarding Ryan’s healing. But that’s where her answered prayers ended.
A week after his injury, Ryan called. But Kari refused to talk to him, and so Ryan tried harder. Several calls a week in the beginning. A few times he even sent letters to her.
Her mother thought she was being coldhearted. “Talk to him, at least,” she had told Kari more than once. “Hear his side of the story.”
“Hisside?” The idea had seemed outlandish. “Mom, what side could there be? He’s seeing another girl behind my back.”
Her determination to avoid him never wavered. If Ryan could cheat on her after all they’d been through, then she was finished.
Kari glanced at her wedding dress again. She could still see Ryan sprawled out, motionless on the field. Playing football had been his life. Lying there on that cold Chicago grass, he had to have known that his playing days were over.
But since then Kari had often wondered who suffered more that day. Ryan had moved on, obviously. He was healthy, coaching in the NFL now, home for the summer. So maybe Kari had been the one truly paralyzed that day. Not her legs or her spine.
Her heart.
When Tim had asked her about Ryan that night at dinner, Kari had told him everything. How she had loved Ryan since she was in seventh grade, and how they had fallen in love his second year of college, after the sudden death of his father. And how his mom still lived three doors down. Kari even told Tim about that terrible morning at that Chicago hospital. When she found out Ryan was seeing someone else.
Tim listened and sympathized and his kindness warmed Kari’s heart. She had wondered if maybe she was falling for the professor.
A few weeks later at Kari’s graduation party, her mother found her in the kitchen. “I need to tell you something.” She looked worried. “Ryan Taylor is coming by tonight. I just found out.” Her mom hesitated. “Apparently he wants it to be a surprise.”
Kari would have none of it. How dare Ryan come by her graduation party as if nothing had happened? An idea hit her. Tim was already at the party. She pulled him aside and asked him the craziest question. “Would you pretend to be my boyfriend? When Ryan comes by?”
“Why?” Tim had looked unsettled at first.
“Because… I don’t want him to think I’m waiting around.” The request was her desperate attempt to come against Ryan’s surprise visit. As if he could come by her house like he’d done nothing wrong. She narrowed her eyes. “Ryan cheated on me. I want him toleave me alone. If… if he sees us together, he’ll know I’ve moved on.”
“Got it.” Tim nodded slowly.
Then he stepped up to her, put his hands alongside her face and kissed her. A kiss that took her breath and made her jump back—not sure whether to laugh or yell at him. “What was that?” Her heart skipped a beat.
“That’s yes.” He grinned at her. “Just getting ready for my role.”
They held hands the rest of the night, and when Ryan showed up, Kari introduced Tim as her boyfriend. Ryan looked like he’d been hit in the gut. He made polite small talk and after a brief stay, he left.
Only Tim never let go of her hand.
Sometime later, he admitted that his acting that night had been nothing of the sort. “I’m in love with you, Kari. I’ve been in love with you since the day I met you.”
