Free Love in Bloom by Karen Rose Smith Page A

reaction had been the same as the reaction of friends he'd supposedly had before the accident.  They didn't want to make the effort to make friends with the different man Clay had become.  Like his father, they wanted the old Clay.  He couldn't pretend to be someone he wasn't.
    And then, more recently, there had been Clare...enough.  This was what Clay didn't want.  The rehashing.  The memories of struggle, and, God forbid--the nightmares.  He wouldn't let them terrorize him again.  The best way to keep them at bay was to forget everything to do with the accident and his recovery.
    When Clay got back to the picnic table, Paige looked upset.  "Ben wants to go home."
    "Running away won't help, Ben."
    Ben gave him a glare that could have knocked a giant flat.  "I'm not running anywhere.  I'm tired.  What's the point of sticking around here--"
    "Dr. Conrad went to a lot of trouble to get this picnic together.  The least you can do is eat the food she prepared."
    "Clay, it's all right.  The fried chicken will keep."
    "Ben?"  Clay's tone held challenge.
    "All right.  We'll eat.  But forget the canoe ride."
    Clay opened the cooler and started lifting out the containers of food.  "It's forgotten."
    They ate, but they didn't talk much except for "Please pass the potato salad."  Clay tried and so did Paige, but Ben's sullenness was difficult to ignore.
    Clay drove Ben home.  After the teenager had gone inside and Clay drove toward Doc's, he asked Paige, "You think I handled him all wrong, don't you?"
    "I don't know.  I just don't want him to become isolated."
    "He is isolated.  Recovery's a lonely process because he has to do it on his own.  Others can help, but they can't do it.  He has to break out of his self-pitying haze.  And he might need some plain talking for it to sink in."
    "Did someone do that for you?"
    "Trish.  She was always there holding up a mirror, making me see the truth, telling me what I didn't want to hear."
    "She sounds special."
    "She is.  Full of laughter and hope and honesty."
    "Did your recovery take long?"
    "Much longer than I would have liked."  He'd considered himself healed when the nightmares ended.
    "Longer than Ben?"
    "Longer than Ben."  He couldn't say how long without telling her more than his shoulder was involved.
    "You hurt your shoulder when you wrestled Shep, didn't you?"
    Clay pulled into Doc's driveway.  "I jarred it."
    "But we went canoeing--"
    "If I don't use it, it gets stiff.  I put ice on it that night.  The next day it was fine."
    She laid her hand on his arm.  "Would you tell me if it wasn't?"
    His blood heated up.  He knew her touch was only meant to give comfort, but instead it sparked dormant fires.  "I don't know."
    She shook her head.  "Macho attitude."
    He laughed.  "Run into that often?"
    "More often than I'd like.  It prevents me from helping."
    He covered her hand with his.  "Ah, Paige.  Out to heal the world.  The time isn't always right."  His thumb caressed the top of her hand.  He wanted to stroke more than her hand.  He took his fingers from hers and leaned away.
    Paige folded her hands in her lap.  "This afternoon didn't go the way I'd planned it."
    "Does it ever?"
    She smiled.  "Maybe not."
    The lights of desire in her eyes told him she remembered their embrace in the lake.  He did, too.  Much too well.  He'd almost kissed her.  But getting involved would be sheer stupidity.  They'd both get hurt.  It was a good thing Ben had interrupted.
    "Clay, no matter what happens with Ben, thanks for trying today."  And before he knew what was happening, Paige leaned toward him.  Her lips were warm on his cheek, as gentle as a butterfly's landing but as disturbing as the embrace in the lake.
    She slid toward the door.  Without another word, she opened it and climbed out.  As she walked up the path to Doc's door, Clay put his fingers to the place her lips had kissed.
    ****
    The cold.  Freezing, insidious cold burned his face,