Free Winners by Danielle Steel Page B

see them. Jessie knew by then just how stubborn he was. They had had several showdowns in the past six weeks, when he continued to assure Lily in no uncertain terms that she would walk again. Jessie felt it was irresponsible of him to do so. Two days before they left, Lily brought it up with her.
    “This is it, isn’t it, Dr. Matthews?” Lily had asked her quietly, while sitting in a wheelchair in her room. She had already begun therapy at Squaw, and Jessie had agreed on a treatment plan with the therapists at Craig Hospital when she got back to Denver. That was crucial for her now, to help her adapt to her new life. Her old life was gone forever, despite what her father said.
    Lily had begun calling and texting her friends at home once she felt better. She had called Jeremy and Veronica, both of whom were horrified by what had happened to her, and she had called some other friends. But suddenly there was a vast chasm between them and Lily, and everything they talked about was something she would no longer be able to engage in, like their Olympic training on the ski team, and all of her friends were on the team. And just as it had been for her, it was their whole life. With her accident, she had become an outsider instantly. Even their recreational pastimes would be difficult or impossible for Lily now, dancing, skating, skiing, sports. And for three or four months after they got home, Lily would be in rehab, and they would have to visit her there. They promised Lily they would, but she already felt left out of their activities when they called her, and without training for the Olympics, there would be a huge hole in her life. Her coach had called to encourage her, after talking to her father, and assured her that she would not be too old to win the gold in five years, if she missed the Olympics the next year. Her father had assured her coach that she would make a full recovery. Bill had told no one that her spinal cord injury was complete or that she was paralyzed from the waist down and would stay that way. Given what her father said, her coach was sure that she would recover, and Lily hadn’t told her friends the full extent of her injuries either. Her father had told her not to. Her eyes looked sad as she put the question to Jessie, who didn’t understand immediately what she meant when she asked her if “this was it.”
    “Here in Squaw? Yes, it is.” Jessie smiled at her after her morning visit. She had grown attached to her, more than she usually did with her patients. Lily was a lovely girl, and the blow of what she was facing would weigh heavily on her for a while, Jessie knew, particularly with her father’s attitude. He still had reality to face and hadn’t yet. Jessie hoped that for Lily’s sake he would soon. It would make it easier for Lily once he did, and they could move forward into the business of leading life in the best possible ways. For now, he was still clinging to the past, and urging Lily to do the same, which wasn’t good for her.
    “You’ll be busy once you get home,” Jessie said to her. “At Craig, with school, with your friends. You’ve got college ahead of you too.” She was trying to get Lily to look forward instead of back.
    “I didn’t mean that,” Lily said sadly, with a look of resignation. “I meant, this is it,” she said again as she pointed to her legs, strapped into the wheelchair so they wouldn’t slip off when the chair moved. She had no control of them whatsoever, as though they belonged to someone else, and she felt nothing below her waist. Jessie paused for a long moment after she asked her the question. Bill had given her strict instructions not to tell Lily she would never walk again, but Jessie was a responsible physician, and she knew what the other doctors were going to tell them, particularly the one in Boston, whom Jessie knew and had called herself. He agreed with her prognosis to the letter and had sensed Bill’s refusal to accept it. Jessie had