Free Welcome Home by Emily Mims

Chapter One
    Christi Bailey
parked her old Chrysler van in the parking lot of the sprawling San
Antonio Military Medical Center and squinted up into the bright
winter sun. It’s all going to be all
right, she promised herself as she took a calming breath and
stepped from the van. Tommy Joe Reece is coming
home today. You’ve looked forward to this for so long, and it’s
finally happening. Your sweetheart’s coming home to you. You can
marry him now and have the life you’ve always dreamed of with
him.
    Taking another deep breath, Christi strode
briskly across the parking lot, her tall, tooled Western boots
clacking against the asphalt, and marched determinedly into the
huge medical facility. She waved and nodded as she passed the busy
nurses station and was just about to open the door to Tommy’s room
when Sergeant Gail Holbrook, Tommy’s kind but no-nonsense physical
therapist, flagged her down.
    “Christi? Can I have a word or two with you
right quick?”
    “Sure.” The apprehension Christi felt earlier
roared back with a vengeance. From the look on Gail’s face,
whatever she had to say wasn’t going to be good.
    Sergeant Holbrook pointed to a small
visitors’ room at the end of the corridor. The women sat down
across from one another, the smallish, curvy blonde in stiff new
jeans and a Western shirt a sharp contrast to the middle-aged
therapist with an Afro and DCUs.
    “Thanks for taking the time to talk to me,”
the therapist volunteered. “I know you’re eager to claim Tommy and
get on the road.”
    “No, I thank you,” Christi said. “Something
has you concerned or you wouldn’t want to talk to me.”
    The sergeant nodded. “You’re right. Christi,
I’m worried about Tommy. He’s not in a good frame of mind right now
and he hasn’t been for a while.”
    “Tell me something I don’t know,” Christi
said. “He hasn’t been in a good frame of mind since the euphoria of
actually surviving the shooting wore off and the reality of what
happened to him over there set in.”
    “He’s talked about this to you? He swore to
me he hadn’t said anything.”
    “He doesn’t have to, Sergeant. We’ve been
together since our senior year in high school. Tommy’s an open book
to me. I know what the man’s thinking almost before he thinks
it.”
    The therapist looked curious. “Most patients
come in despairing but leave on a happier note once they learn how
to function from a chair and see just how much they are still
capable of doing. Tommy’s just the opposite. The longer he’s spent
in rehab, the more despondent he’s become.”
    “Well,” Christi said dryly, “so far he hasn’t
regained a single skill he needs to function in the world that’s
waiting for him in Verde.” She held up her hand when Sergeant
Holbrook started sputtering. “Yes, I know you folks taught him to
take care of his own needs and how to get around and live an
average sedentary life in that chair, and goodness knows he needs
all that, but Tommy’s life as a cattle rancher isn’t your typical
sedentary city dweller’s life. Did you talk about how he’s supposed
to gather up a cow and calf and load them into a trailer? Did you
work on how he’s going to give a kicking calf a vaccination or
castrate a little bull or put out feed in the winter? Sergeant
Holbrook, that ranch is Tommy’s life. He promised his grandfather
on the old man’s death bed that he’d keep Reece Acres a working
ranch. He’s worried that he can’t do that.”
    “I see.” Sergeant Holbrook thought a minute.
“Christi, I wish I had words of wisdom to impart in that area, but
I don’t.” She paused again. “Just don’t let Tommy get too down. Do
what you can to keep up his spirits.” She reached out and clasped
Christi’s hand, adding, “The other will come. Somehow, it will
come.”
    Christi nodded and murmured thanks. But how
it would come, she had no idea.
    She plastered a smile on her face, retraced
the steps to Tommy’s