8
Jason
Derrick shows up on his own to bring me home back to the Keller Ranch, and I’m glad.
“My little brother’s getting out,” he says with a slap to my back. “I bet you’re ready to get home.”
I have my clothes packed, and I’m gathering my books and stuff. “Yeah, I’m excited to get out of here, but I want to continue my PT, and if you don’t want to drive me here every day, we’ll have to pay for it out of pocket for home health care.”
Derrick is a great brother, and he doesn’t bat an eye that it’ll be an extra cost coming out of the ranch profits.
“Sounds good to me. I can put out an ad for one. I’m sure we can find someone in Knox or Forest Grove.”
But I’m already shaking my head. I’ve thought about this all night, and I’m not ready to say bye to Karly. If I’m going to get better, I need her. And only her. “I want you to offer the nurse that works in the PT gym here at the hospital the job. Her name is Karly Berry, err Nurse Berry.”
Derrick is quick to grin and chuckle. “Nurse Berry, huh?”
“It’s not like that,” I’m quick to say. “She’s a great nurse, and she knows how to push. I happen to know she could use the money.”
Derrick appears disappointed. “You sure there’s not anything more to it than that?”
“I wasn’t making much progress before she took over my PT. I really don’t want to have to use this damn cane for the rest of my life.” I barely resist throwing the fuckin’ thing against the wall.
Derrick sobers to that statement. “You won’t. Leave it to me. I’ll go and talk her into it if I have to.”
Good, because brother, you’re going to have to. After everything, I know Karly’s going to need convincing.
Karly
I’m tired, but that’s not what has me feeling so stressed out. I’ve received paperwork as a final warning that if I don’t catch up my car payment within a week, they’ll be coming to take it. After I read my mail on my break, I asked the other nurses if they needed me to cover any shifts and didn’t get any bites. At first they were all about getting extra time off. But if I’m guessing, they’ve received a paycheck that is considerably lower and although they want the time off, they don’t want to keep losing the pay. I can’t say I blame them.
If I lose my transportation, I won’t be able to take as many shifts, I won’t make enough money to catch up on my student loans in time to avoid fines as penalty. The penalties will just keep adding up, and I’ll lose my apartment. My whole life is about to be repossessed.
“Excuse me.” A man I don’t know startles me from my thoughts. “Are you Nurse Berry?”
I’m outside of the hospital on a bench by myself eating dinner from the hospital cafeteria thanks to the hookup of food my friends provided for me. I’m not sure what he wants and consider denying who I am in case he’s a bill collector or a tow truck guy who’s there to repossess my car, but he spots my nametag.
“Oh good, I found the right nurse. I’d like to hire you to continue working with my brother on his physical therapy.”
I recognize the similarities between the man in front of me and Jason Keller and let out a sigh. “Jason Keller is your brother?”
“That’s right,” he says with a curious expression on his face.
“I’m sorry, but I work a lot of hours here at the hospital,” I say.
He nods as if he already knows, which has me curious about how much he knows. “My name is Derrick Keller. I probably should’ve begun with that, sorry. Anyway, I asked after you at the nurses’ station and they of course didn’t want to direct me to you, so I told them why I was looking for you. They mentioned that you’ve been working a lot of hours but that the hours available for you to work are about to be cut in half.”
How helpful my coworkers are.
“Regardless, I don’t provide private physical therapy.”
“I’ll pay you time and a half, and you can do your sessions with him where it fits into your schedule as long as we agree upon a minimum number of sessions per week. That way you can continue to work at the hospital here as well.”
“That’s a really nice offer, but Jason really needs daily therapy, and there’s no way I would be able to do his care, work here and drive two hours a day roundtrip.”
“Okay, then I’ll pay whatever you make here, plus twenty percent, plus room and board. You and Jason can come to any schedule you need to.”