Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,102

home soon?”

Ryker shook his head. “I think he’ll be in the hospital for a while yet. He’s improving a little bit every day, but he’s still in the PICU. Hopefully, he’ll be moved to a regular unit early next week. Lani could probably visit then.”

“I’ll let her know.”

He ran his fingers along the edges of the envelope. “I think she’d enjoy a visit from Lani. I’m pretty sure they haven’t had many visitors.”

Michael frowned. “I thought she had a large family.”

“She does,” Ryker said with a shrug. “But they haven’t been able to get to the hospital to see her very much.”

He had hoped that her family would be by to visit, and that had been part of the reason he’d agreed to Sophia’s request that he not come for a couple of days. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear that anyone else had been to see her and Bryson aside from her parents, which made him angry.

What kind of family didn’t circle around one who was sick?

His mom would have been up at the hospital in a heartbeat if Sophia had been her daughter. Frankly, even now, he had a feeling that his mom would gladly go up to the hospital to see Sophia if he asked her to.

“That will make Lani even more determined to visit if it’s okay.”

“Thanks, Michael,” Ryker said. “This means a lot.”

“I’m glad that I’ve been given the opportunity to pay it forward.” He leaned against the counter, taking the weight off his broken leg. “I know it’s hard to accept help, but I’m so glad that you and others reached out and persisted when I needed it.”

Ryker nodded, remembering conversations they’d had when Michael had struggled to accept the help Ryker, Lani, and others had offered him. No doubt Sophia would feel the same way. But for Bryson’s sake, Ryker figured that she would accept the help.

“Well, I’d better go, or Lani is going to think I stood her up,” Michael said as he zipped up the bag on the counter.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Ryker said as they walked out of the house.

Michael opened the door of his truck. “You don’t have to work tomorrow.”

“I know, but I think I need to.”

His friend and boss gave him a curious look, but he didn’t say anything, just nodded.

After Michael had driven away, Ryker sat in his truck for a moment, contemplating what the next couple of days held. He couldn’t wait to get back to the hospital to see Sophia and Bryson.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ryker shifted in his seat, but it wasn’t because the chair was uncomfortable. Heaven forbid a therapist would have an uncomfortable chair.

“I’m glad you made the decision to come back,” Nick said from where he was seated in a matching plush armchair.

“This doesn’t mean I’m going back to work as a doctor,” Ryker warned him.

“I’m not here to convince you to do something you don’t want to. We wouldn’t make much progress if I tried that.”

Ryker wasn’t sure that Nick wouldn’t try to convince him to do things he didn’t want to, but he knew that it would take small efforts…baby steps…in order to move him forward in his life.

“Why are you back in counseling?” Nick asked.

The question was one Ryker had expected, but he hadn’t been able to come up with an answer. Or at least not an answer that he was really willing to consider just yet.

“I’ve been confronted by the very thing I’ve dreaded ever since returning from Syria.”

“A sick or hurt child?”

Ryker wasn’t surprised that Nick guessed correctly. Before he’d bailed on therapy, they’d spent plenty of time talking about his reaction to the children in Syria and the helplessness he’d felt at the time.

“Yeah.” Ryker rubbed his hands on his thighs as he stared at the carpet. “It started with my boss unexpectedly ending up with a newborn baby. His sister gave birth without Michael knowing she was even pregnant, and then she left the child with him.” He looked up at Nick. “I couldn’t just not help him when I had the experience to make life a bit easier for him.”

Nick nodded. “Of course you couldn’t. You didn’t lose your love and desire to care for children after what happened in Syria. It might have made life easier if you had.”

Wasn’t that the truth? “Then the woman he hired to babysit Vivianne had a little boy. At first, he was scared of me when I would drop by to pick up the baby. His mom asked me to