Page 29 of There I Find Happiness

The hospital chair wasn’t super comfortable, but once Peter’s breathing had evened out and Sally was sure he was asleep, she settled down more comfortably and put her hand on Peter’s. She didn’t thread their fingers together, but she held onto it, sliding the chair so she could lay her head on the back and still hold his hand.

It was late when she finally fell asleep, wondering how they could work this whole situation out.

Chapter 10

Peter woke slowly,groggy, and didn’t remember at first why his head pounded and his leg sent sharp pain up his hip and out both elbows.

As he tried to turn, his ribs yanked sharp pain back down, as though answering his leg.

He would rather not have his body parts fighting with each other, but it helped a little bit to swim out of the groggy, drug-induced sleep, and he was able to remember that he’d been run over by a bull, and he couldn’t expect to not feel pain from that.

He was going to be laid up for a while. That was frustrating.

But it might be a lot less frustrating if Sally could be convinced to be his nurse.

Except, the problem was, even if he could convince Sally to do it—she seemed receptive to the idea last night if he remembered correctly—there was still Norma Jean between them. And he hadn’t quite figured out what he was going to do about that.

Norma Jean was loud, brash, bold. She wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted, and while he appreciated Sally telling him about her life and her childhood, and he could appreciate the fact that she needed to become that way in order to be successful, it didn’t make it any easier for him to try to figure out how to handle her.

He didn’t want to hurt her, especially now that he understood where Sally was coming from. He appreciated the fact that she was so sweet and gracious with someone that most people would have been completely annoyed with and ditched long ago. Maybe that would have made Norma Jean grow up, but it was like Sally said, every time a person gave in to someone else, they were growing their own character. Which is why Sally had really matured spiritually, while Norma Jean had been stunted.

As he lay there thinking about that, he slowly realized that Sally was still curled up in the chair, which made him smile, but his heart did a loop when he also realized she sat in such a way that she could reach to hold his hand. She had her hand hooked around his, and he hadn’t even realized that he squeezed her fingers, not in a death grip exactly, but nice and tight. Like he didn’t want to let go. Which was exactly right. He didn’t want to let go.

She looked just as beautiful to him in slumber as she did when she was awake, and he took a few minutes to just admire her.

She probably wouldn’t like the way she looked. In his experience, women typically didn’t. But he wasn’t used to waking up with one either.

Still, her hair was messy, her cheek all bunched up where it rested against the edge of the chair, and unless he was mistaken, there was a little bit of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth.

But she was beautiful to him.

The way she treated Norma Jean, the way she allowed herself to be put aside, the way she didn’t get angry but thought of the other person first. He didn’t really know anyone else like that and appreciated the fact that Sally hadn’t tried to pull any punches with him. She hadn’t beat around the bush, and she’d been right in her assessment of the Bible.

She was putting into practice a verse that he knew but conveniently did not recognize in the situation they were in. Funny how a person could know what the Bible said but either forget it or rationalize it away.

As he watched, she stirred a little, and he waited, wondering how she would react when she realized where she was and what she was doing.

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