In This Life (Sequel to 'In Another Life')

24

He pulled back from me, his hands framing my face now. His eyes darkened as they burned into mine. "Tessa Brooks, you have no idea how happy this makes me. I've known for a long time that you were the one. No other girl felt like you, no other girl touched my heart like you." He pressed his lips to mine again, letting the fire burn, making me really fucking frustrated with the fact that I couldn't move that well. The days passed, everyone from my friend group, including Justin, and Colby's friends. all sparing their time to help me out every day. When Jake and Tara spent the day with me, physical therapy had never been more fun. "Terra, Terra, Terra. It isn't hard. Watch," Jake said, before sauntering down our entrance hall, like he was on a catwalk, hand on hip. "See, easy," he replied, coming back to Tara and I standing there watching him. Tara laughed and shook her head, her small hand on my arm to help steady me. "Jake, just get her other side." He saluted to her, then linked his arm through mine. "Yes ma'am. Ready." I was doing much better by now, and I didn't really need their help this much but just in case. I didn't want to face plant. I was still a little unsteady on my feet but not much. The doctor's said that it should pass soon, and that my strength and balance would come back with more physical therapy. Some days, I was just done. I didn't want to do anything but lie in bed and throw a pity party for myself. Other days, I was more determined that I had ever been, and pushed myself to do everything that I was supposed too, plus  more. It really sucked when Colby and Denise were with me on those days. They would just bitch at me about pushing it, and hurting myself more. They didn't understand that sometimes I NEEDED to push myself. I needed my body to hurry the fuck up and get better. The ones that seemed to understand that better than anyone were Sam and Sarah. They would let me push myself but stop me, if it seemed like I was doing too much. The amount of times that I had snapped at all of my friends, but mostly Denise and Colby, was ridiculous. Colby and I had officially been a think for about two weeks by this time. I was frustrated with myself, with him, with the fact that I needed him in a physical way, but was unable to do anything about it. I was just plain frustrated with everything at this point. "Come on baby, you got this," Colby encouraged me. I was sweating horribly, using the big rubber band type things that the physical therapist had given me to take home. My appointments were only twice a week, so the other days, that's when my friends would help me. "Will you shut up?" I muttered grumpily. He just smiled at me, and it pissed me off more. "I'll shut up, when you do the stretches three more times, deal?" I glared at him, then shot the big rubber band thing at his face. His hand shot out and grabbed it right before it smacked him. Damn him and his amazing reflexes. Guess it's a good thing they were so good, with all of the dangerous exploring things he had done. "Okay, okay, I get it," he said, smirking at me. Fucking asshole. "How about three more stretches and I go buy you a blizzard." I was right. He was an asshole. Bribing me with a damn blizzard when he knew I couldn't say no to that. "Whatever," I grumbled, taking the rubber band from his outstretched hand. He grinned, and leaned over, pressing his lips to mine. Just for a moment, I forgot that I was irritated with him, and let myself melt into him as his lips worked mine over. "I'm gonna go call PostMates. I'll be right back," he said, his voice husky as he pulled away from me. I nodded, and went back to doing my stretches. Three more shouldn't be that hard, but honestly, it was. I had already wore myself out doing my walking, my leg stretches, my core exercises, and all of the other ones that I couldn't remember. This was my last one, and my arms were burning with the exertion. I should be proud since I remembered not being able to do most of this when I first came home from the hospital, and I was...but I was more irritated today because I wasn't back to normal yet. I pushed through two more, then let myself relax for a minute. He wouldn't know if I didn't finish it. I mean, damn, one stretch wasn't going to affect me all that much, right? "T, you aren't finished," I heard Denise's know it all voice come from behind me. When I turned to look, I found her standing in the doorway, watching me. "Spying on me Neece?" I asked, scowling at her. She laughed, and nodded. "Yep, Colby asked me to make sure that you finished these last three stretches. Said he had a feeling that you'd try not to finish them. So, come on with it. One more and you're done." I rolled my eyes and picked the stupid ass rubber band back up. "I hate you both," I grumbled, straining against the pull back of the rubber band. "We love you too T," she replied, laughter in her voice. I managed to finish the last damn stretch then, threw the rubber band across the room. "There, done," I replied, turning to look at Neece. "Happy?" She actually had the audacity to laugh at me. "Yep, very. Now I think Colby has something special coming here for you, so do you wanna go to your room, or the couch?" "The couch," I answered automatically. I was so sick of my room, I could scream. She came over to me, helped me stand, and gave me my cane.