The Paralyzed Dream (COMPLETED)

Chapter Seven

     Lacey headed up to her room that night in a good mood. She was still flying high from her day with Slade. Sure, she hadn't seen or talked with him since before supper, but she didn't let that get her down. Everything had been so perfect today.
     Lacey dumped out the clean basket of clothes that her mom had placed on her bed and began folding them, getting them ready to put away. Smiling, Lacey noticed that she was humming to herself. A ringtone randomly playing in her quiet room almost made Lacey jump. Turning to her left, Lacey snatched her phone from her bedside table. She tried not to let her disappointment show when she saw the call was not from Slade. "Hey, Brooke. I was just about to call you." Lacey said to her best friend. Her and Brooke talk every day. Brooke has been Lacey's moral support throughout this last year during Lacey's recovery.
     "Well whatcha up to?" Brooke asked Lacey.
     "Just puttin' away some clothes. You?" Lacey responded, putting her phone on speaker and setting it down on her bed.
     "Nothin much. On my way home from work." Wind whistled in the background, telling Lacey that Brooke was driving with her windows down.
     "Yeah? How is work goin', by the way?" Lacey asked, folding a t-shirt.
     "Same old same old. But it's whatever." Brooke sighed. "So tell me, what's new with you?"
     "Nothin..." Lacey said, trying to sound convincing.
     "Mhm. And how's Slade?" Brooke said Slade's name in a funny way. Almost singsongy or playfully.
     "He's good." Lacey drew the words out as she put away the t-shirt.
     "Just good? I need details. You told me this morning that he was takin you to physical therapy. How'd that go?"
     "It was fine." Lacey relived the memory in her head. In reality, it was amazingly awesome. From the second Lacey got into Slade's truck, when he told her there's no air conditioning and that you have to bang the dash to make the radio work, to the singing contests. It was all good...definitely the most fun car ride Lacey had had in a long time...maybe ever.
     "Dadgum...you're not very talkative tonight. Do you want me to go and I'll call you tomorrow?"
     "No no it's fine." Lacey grabbed more clean clothes off her bed.
     "Okay...then tell me more. Did y'all do anything after physical therapy?"
     "Yeah. He took me out for lunch at Amarillo's."
     "Really?! That's good! So you took my advice, you got out of the house and did something."
     "Yeah. Well, and also because Slade said he was starvin' and he was pretty persistent, so I didn't have much of a choice." Lacey said, rolling over to her dresser, clean, folded clothes on her lap. She took her cell phone with her.
     "But you're stubborn. I know that you could've talked him out of it easy. No doubt in my mind."
     "That's true. Oh, and Paige says hi by the way. She's still workin' at Amarillo's."
     "Oh really? Yeah. I haven't seen her in a while. All four of us need to hang out sometime soon. It's been too long."
     "Four? Who's the fourth person?" Lacey asked, slipping a pair of jeans into her dresser drawer.
     "Well, I mean...you, me, Paige, and uh...maybe Slade..."
     "Brooke..." Lacey groaned.
     "What?" Brooke asked defensively.
     "Are you still goin' on about tryin' to set Slade and I up?"
     "Maybe...but what's the harm in that? Y'all had fun today, right?"
     "Yeah..." Lacey tilted her head side to side. She didn't know why she was denying it.
     "Okay. So what's the harm in havin' fun?"
     "No harm, I just..." Lacey started. She rolled back over to her bed to fold more shirts and jeans.
     "So get out there girl! Go have some fun."
     Lacey chuckled. "Okay. I will. I promise." After all, she did have more fun with Slade today than she had had since her accident.
     "Good. So what did y'all do after Amarillo's? It can't stop there. I know that y'all did something else."
     "Well, we got back home and he needed help lookin' for a set of keys in the barn, so I went out there to show him and-" Lacey was speaking fast, especially when she said "barn" because she knew that Brooke would freak out, in a good way, but she'd probably make a huge, unnecessary deal about it.
     "You went out to the barn?! Lacey, that's great. I like this Slade guy, he's good for you. Sorry sorry. Finish the story."
     "I know that he was fakin' it though. He knew where the keys were, he just wanted to get me out to the barn."
     "But it worked though, didn't it?"
     Lacey sighed. "Yeah I guess."
     "Okay, so then y'all came back in from the barn. Then what?"
     "We watched a movie. End of story." Lacey said quickly. She knew how much Brooke would love it if Lacey told her about what happened, or almost happened, after the movie, so Lacey kept it short.
     Brooke hesitated. "Why do I get the feeling that you're not tellin me everything?"
     "Because I'm not..." Lacey said honestly. She set down the pair of jeans she was folding.
     "Oooo. Okay girl, dish. I want all the details." Brooke said excitedly. Lacey could almost see her bouncing up and down with excitement.
     Lacey stopped putting away clothes to fully retell the memory. She tried to hide her smile, but found she couldn't help herself. "We didn't get any dessert at Amarillo's, so we split a carton of Connie's ice cream, and he put his arm around my shoulders and by the end of the movie, which he picked out, Slade was sitting really close to me. So close that his arm was now around my waist, and we were essentially cuddling. Oh, and the movie was a comedy one and it was hilarious, so naturally, I laughed a lot during it. Well, after the movie, I told Slade that I had fun today, and told him thank you, etc. He then went into this spiel of how happy I looked when I was in the barn blah blah blah. Then I smiled and blushed and he..." Lacey was smiling so hard, she didn't realize it. She also didn't realize that she was talking really fast until Brooke told her to slow down. Lacey took a breath and continued. "He took two fingers, put 'em under my chin to bring my face up and then he said I was beautiful..."
     "Aww. Seriously? Lacey, that is the sweetest thang. He totally has a thing for you."
     "I'm not done yet." Lacey said, her smile never fading.
     "Really? Okay. Go on."
     "So he started to lean in to kiss me and he asked the most sweetest thing in the world." Lacey started.
     "Uh huh. What'd he ask?" Brooke was so eager to know, it made Lacey's smile even bigger.
     "He asked, 'Lacey, are you okay with this?'" Lacey said in an almost starstruck voice.
     "As if he was askin' for permission to kiss you?" Brooke asked.
     "Yeah." Lacey breathed out.
     "That is the sweetest thing." Brooke stated. Suddenly, she quickly inhaled. Lacey could picture her immediately siting up as straight as a board in the seat of her truck. "Wait a minute. He kissed you?! Why didn't you tell me earlier?! Oh my goodness, I'm freakin' out right now!"
     Lacey had to take the phone off of speaker phone because Brooke was practically screaming with excitement and she didn't want her parents to hear. Lacey chuckled at her friend. "No. We didn't kiss." Lacey tried to not seem too disappointed.
     Brooke paused. "Wait, what? Y'all didn't kiss?" Brooke said, disappointed. Lacey could picture her slouching back down in her seat.
     "No. My parents and brothers came home right when Slade leaned in. We almost did though."
     "Aw man." Brooke sounded more disappointed about it then Lacey was.
     "Yeah. But that's not all."
     "There's more?!" Brooke's excitement returned.
     "Yeah. So after the kiss was ruined, he smiled and said, 'later. I promise.'"
     "Oh my goodness. Lacey, he sounds like such a gentleman."
     "I know. He really is. Oh and he wants to hang out tomorrow."
     "Hang out, like as a date?"
      "No. Well, I don't know. I don't think so...no. He said it was a surprise..." Lacey paused. "It's not a date. I don't even think he likes me." Lacey's voice was sad.
      "Buttercup, he likes you. He almost kissed you." Brooke said to Lacey.
     "Yeah, but he didn't. And I know that when guys say, 'later, I promise,' they don't mean it." Lacey fingered the arm rest of her wheelchair.
     "Lacey, are you hearin' yourself right now? That cowboy likes you whether you believe me or not."
      "I don't know though. Today Ryder got a new lariat and he wanted Slade and I to watch him practice, so we did. Ryder asked Slade if he could rope off his horse tomorrow with a steer in the arena and Slade said that he was takin' me out, so he couldn't. Ryder asked if he meant take me out on a date, but Slade just chuckled and changed the subject, so it's not a date."
     Brooke hesitated on the other end as if choosing her words carefully. "That doesn't mean that it's not a date, it just means that he wants to make sure that it's what you want. He probably doesn't want you to feel like y'all are rushin' into anything yet."
     "That's a good point. And also, before supper, when he was goin' back outside to work with Ryder, he said he was lookin' forward to tomorrow and when I told him I was too, he smiled and said 'it's a date.'"
     "See girl, he thinks it's a date. What is there to worry about?"
     "I don't know. I think I'm just trying to be careful after Jeremy. I haven't gone on a date or even really talked to a guy since we broke up."
     "Exactly. It's time for you to get out there and start doin' stuff again. And this Slade guy sounds like a good guy. He sounds like the complete opposite of Jeremy. At least how he treats you."
     "He's had a really bad past. I don't know what all has happened because he hates talkin' about it and tries to avoid talkin' about it at all costs. And he has a tattoo and a huge scar on his left forearm. I can't see what the tattoo says, but I want to know."
     "Oooo, he's the mysterious type. He's totally perfect for you." Brooke said, a smile in her voice.
     Lacey chuckled. "Yeah, he's pretty great." Lacey said in a dreamy voice. Snapping back to reality, she asked Brooke. "So, he almost kissed me. What was that about?"
     Brooke exhaled. "I honestly think that he likes you. He's takin' you out on a date tomorrow. I believe, from what you've told me, he might honestly be scared of the idea of a relationship because of his past. And also, y'all have only known each other for what, a month?"
     "Yeah...I guess you're right. I'm just not sure because he promised me later we would finish our 'conversation', but I never saw him after that tonight because he was doin' work outside."
     "Okay, so tomorrow is your chance, girl. But let him make the first move; that's his job. He will kiss you when the time is right. He obviously wants to or else he wouldn't've leaned in after the movie, or be takin' you out tomorrow." Lacey heard the sound of a car door close on Brooke's end. "Hey, girl. I just got home from work. I have to go feed the horses and such. Let me know how tomorrow goes."
     "I will. Thanks Brooks."
     "No problem. Talk to you later." Brooke replied and hung up.
     Lacey sighed and finished putting her clothes away. After her room was cleaned up, Lacey thought about her conversation with Trevor: how he told her that she needs to start doing her home exercises at night to help keep the muscle in her legs. But she knew that Trevor would find out if she didn't do her home exercises and he would be disappointed in her. That being said, Lacey carefully slid herself out of her wheelchair and started the exercises. She really hoped it was worth it.