Free More Than a Touch (Snowberry Creek #2) by Alexis Morgan

and picked out a frozen dinner at random and read the label: frozen mystery meat with frozen vegetables smothered with some unidentifiable sauce. Yum. She couldn’t wait. Maybe she should’ve accepted Brandi’s invitation to go out for pizza, but it was too late now.
    After programming the right time into the microwave, she punched the START button and headed for her bedroom to strip off her clothes. Tonight was definitely a time for the comfort of her favorite flannel pajama bottoms and oversized T-shirt.
    After shoving her feet into her bunny slippers, she shuffled back to the kitchen just as the bell pinged, announcing that her dinner was ready. As tempting as it was to stand over the sink and eat it right out of the container, she took the time to set a place for herself at the table. After dumping the steaming mess onto her plate, she opened the fridge and considered which wine went best with a frozen dinner.
    She settled on the red simply because it was sitting in front and easy to reach. At least she had enough class left to drink it from a wineglass instead of straight from the bottle. After all, a woman had to have some standards, didn’t she?
    Before taking a bite, she lifted her wineglass and offered a toast in memory of Mr. Wolfe and his family. “May he rest in peace.”
    Then as an afterthought, she added, “And Leif, I hope you can see past the pain to the possibilities.”
    Because if he could, maybe—just maybe—she could do the same.
    •   •   •
    Monday morning rolled around all too quickly. Making good on his threat, Nick had posted a hand-drawn chart on the front of the fridge. The squares were a bit crooked and the writing nearly impossible to read, thanks to Sarge’s illegible scrawl, but the important part was that Leif had earned four gold stars over the weekend.
    Right after dinner last night, Sarge had produced the chart and then added the four stars to it with great ceremony and a speech that was supposed to be inspirational. To top it off, Callie had presented Leif with a bowl filled with two huge scoops of ice cream with all the fixings.
    Even now, the memory made Leif grin. He would’ve been happier with just the ice cream and no hoopla, but he appreciated the fact that Nick and Callie had made the effort. It had been tempting to bring the chart to his appointment with Isaac, figuring the other man might get a kick out of it.
    Zoe would, too, but Leif wasn’t supposed to see her today. He’d been a bit of a jerk to her on Friday. He regretted his actions, but he’d reacted instinctively. It was hard enough having Isaac hovering nearby.
    Besides, he didn’t want Zoe to think of him as damaged goods. Stupid, he knew, but he was getting sick and tired of even total strangers staring at him with pity and curiosity as he hobbled around.
    He pulled into the clinic parking lot and drove around back, to the door of the physical therapy department. Since he wasn’t seeing Zoe today, he didn’t need to check in with the front desk.
    Isaac looked up and waved as soon as Leif walked in. “Stow your gear and hop up on that table over there. I’ll get Mitch here situated and be right with you.”
    As soon as Leif got himself settled on the table, one of the assistants joined him. After helping him remove his boot, she put some heat on his leg to get the muscles warmed up.
    “Do you want some magazines to read?”
    Leif smiled at the young woman. “Thanks, but I brought a book this time.”
    She left him to read in peace while she moved on to another patient. The place was busier today than it had been on Friday afternoon. Leif tried to focus on his mystery, but all the activity was too much of a distraction. He finally gave up and marked his place.
    Isaac was still sitting with the same patient. Whatever the two men were talking about had to be some serious shit. Maybe Isaac was giving another rendition of his patented “get serious or don’t waste my time” lecture.
    For sure,