Keith (Hathaway House #11) - Dale Mayer Page 0,41

with her, but then had heard from Dennis that the kitchen was under siege with so many people out sick, and Keith figured that either she was one of the sick or she was just working constantly, trying to keep up with her kitchen. And that had to be tough, since clearly she was already dedicated, arriving first thing in the morning, staying until everybody else was gone. The fact that she lived on the property and had access to go home and have a midday break helped too, but it said much about her life, that she was here cooking all the time. It appeared that she didn’t have a lot of time for a life outside of her work. And that was something he worried about. If he were to leave, how would he maintain a relationship with her if she was always working? Surely chefs typically had morning shifts or evening shifts, didn’t they?

He wasn’t sure what to think of that. But, as he was spending all his time healing and doing all the work he had to do, she was spending all her time doing the work that she had to do. It’s just that he was doing it for himself, and she was doing it for a paycheck. Not that he wanted to undermine her passion and what she was doing because it was obviously very valuable and because she was good at it too. But he did wonder what she would be like if she had a full-time relationship but was so busy all the time at work too.

His morning was slow, but he was off slightly on his sessions with Shane, even though he tried hard to pick it up now that he knew that Ilse was around again. But Shane was frustrated with him.

“What’s wrong with you?” he snapped. “I said a hundred percent effort. Not sixty-five and that’s all I’ve seen out of you today.”

“No, you’re right,” he said, rotating his shoulders and easing his head back. “I’m not sure what’s wrong with me. I’m just off a bit.”

“Well, get back on again,” Shane said. “We’re done for the day.” He waved his hand. “Go home, go for a swim, and work some of that out of there.”

Keith nodded and quickly made his way to the wheelchair and left. He didn’t like Shane being pissed off at him either. It wasn’t a state that he was used to seeing, but Shane was usually trying to get Keith to do his best, and no way was he doing that today. He wasn’t even sure what was wrong because he’d been upset before, when he didn’t know why Ilse hadn’t been around. But he’d found out she was back, so why wasn’t he “back” as well?

It was frustrating when you couldn’t come up with a reason why something was off. It was just off. Only that wasn’t good enough when you were here for however long; you had these people’s talents and skills available to help you get from point A to point B. Just because Keith wanted to dawdle somewhere in the middle didn’t mean that the staff had the time for it.

Feeling upset at himself, he headed back to his room, where he quickly washed up and changed his T-shirt. He grabbed his crutches and slowly maneuvered his way to the cafeteria. He wasn’t even sure that he’d worked up enough of an appetite. Shane had told him to go swimming, but he hadn’t realized what time it was. Still, he had on his swim shorts, so he should either go swimming first or he could go later.

When he took one look at the long line in the dining room, he decided he’d eat later, and he took the elevator down and made his way to the pool. Stripping off the T-shirt, he jumped into the water.

As soon as it closed over his head, he could feel some of the stress and the confusion in his world floating away. This is what he needed. Just a chance to veg out and to get down here, not be ordered around, not be told what to do by anybody, and just have the time to do for himself. And what he really wanted to do was just swim, and that’s what he did, heading from one side to the other mindlessly. Blindly trying hard to keep his form, he just worked steadily, back and forth.

When he finally broke through the water and eased