Always Only You by Chloe Liese (z-lib.org).epub

of my imagination and it wouldn’t completely disconcert Ren’s dad.
“Please don’t apologize,” I finally manage hoarsely, bringing a hand to my
throat and rubbing uneasily.
Dr. B grins at me, and it’s another dead ringer for Ren. “If it makes you feel
any better, you’re not the first person I’ve surprised. I think sometimes my kids
forget it’s not normal to everyone else. It’s all they’ve ever known.”
“How was that? Being in a rigorous profession, married, having kids,
with…”
“With a physical limitation?” He glances out to the field and sighs. “Hard
sometimes. Discouraging others. Always healing.”
“Why? Why ‘healing’?”
Dr. B drums his fingers on the arms of his chair. “Well…when it happened,
Freya was a toddler, Elin was pregnant with Axel. I was devastated. I thought I’d
never be able to give my wife and children what they needed. Not as I’d
envisioned, at least. I’d never be able to practice medicine again how I’d hoped.
I felt like my life was over.
“But then Axel was born, and I held him, those eyes just like mine staring up
at me, and something clicked. I realized he loved me. Already, he loved me, just
how I was. I’d made him with his mother, and he was my flesh and blood and
not having most of my leg didn’t change that. Finally, I understood my life
wasn’t over, only my idea of my life was.
“That’s when I fully released my old expectations, how I thought my life
should be, and instead loved my life for what it was: a gift. A heart beating in
my chest. Breath in my lungs. A wife and children who loved me as I was.”
My eyes blur with tears. I dab my face as they spill down my cheeks. “That’s
very…encouraging,” I whisper. “Thank you for telling me.”
He nods, holding my eyes for a long moment, before our gazes shift together,
toward the field again. Dabbing my eyes, I search the grass until I see Ren’s in
goal. Right as Oliver takes a penalty shot, he dives, completely missing. All five
brothers fall into various postures and volumes of hilarity, and Dr. B laughs,
watching them. As if he knows I’m watching him, Ren glances up as he stands
and catches my eye. His laugh dies away as our eyes lock. My heart skips inside
my chest.
Suddenly, the door slides open again, and Ziggy bounds out, practically
throwing herself at her dad and landing in his lap. He catches her with an oof,
before she kisses his cheek and wraps her arms around his neck. I’m relieved to
see their easy affection. It means that her parents have stopped keeping so much
distance between them and Ziggy, that she feels more comfortable with physical
closeness again.