Love Inspired January 2016, Box Set 1 of 2 Read Online Free Page A

creating an unwelcome shiver of awareness. She gave him a nod, her cheeks warming as he made his way around the bed. He wavered, catching the rail of the bed to steady himself. He wasn’t wearing his brace today, she noticed.
    â€œAre you okay?” his grandmother asked.
    â€œI’m fine.” His curt voice and the clench of his jaw told Chloe he wasn’t fine at all. She guessed his hip was causing him trouble, as was his knee. From what she’d read in his file, he’d been shot in the thigh, damaging many muscle groups and compromising the ligaments of his knee. “Do you want me to hold Cody?” Grady asked.
    â€œHe’s okay. And Chloe said we could stay while she does therapy with Ben,” Mamie said in a falsely bright voice. “It’s interesting to watch her work. She’s very capable.”
    â€œI understand from Dr. Schuster that you’ll be coming to visit me in the physical therapy department,” Chloe said, piggybacking on what Mamie was saying.
    â€œI doubt it,” Grady muttered, the tightness around his mouth another indication of the pain he dealt with. “I don’t have time with everything at the ranch falling on my shoulders now. And this little guy.” He glanced down at Cody, touched his chubby cheek with one finger, and Chloe’s heart hitched at the warmth of his smile. This man would make a good father.
    Was a good father, she corrected herself.
    â€œPlus I’ve got Ben and the Future Ranchers program he started at the ranch to keep me busy,” he continued. I don’t have time to run around for appointments that won’t make a difference.”
    â€œBut if you don’t take care of the low mobility in your knee and hip, you could be facing chronic pain later on,” Chloe suggested.
    Grady shot her a frown, as if he didn’t appreciate what she had to say.
    â€œAs a physical therapist, I feel I must warn you the pain you are dealing with now will only worsen with lack of treatment.” Chloe manipulated Ben’s fingers, half her attention on helping the one brother while she tried to convince the other to accept what she could do for him.
    â€œThe pain isn’t that bad.” He dismissed her comment with a wave of his hand. “I know my dad managed through his. Your dad, as well. Just have to cowboy up.”
    Chloe kept her comment about that to herself. She didn’t know everything about his father and care. However, she still maintained that, in the case of her own father, if he had received proper care and treatment, he would have been better able to do his work. “Being tough only gets you so far,” she carried on. “Your injuries will, however, only cause you more problems with lack of immediate care.”
    She stopped then, sensing she was selling herself too hard. Grady looked as though he didn’t believe her. Didn’t or wouldn’t—she wasn’t sure which was uppermost.
    â€œAre you working here full-time?” Mamie asked, stroking a strand of hair back from Ben’s forehead, shifting to another topic.
    â€œI am here as a part-time, temporary worker.” Speaking the words aloud made her even more aware of her tenuous situation.
    â€œWhere will you go after this?”
    Chloe shrugged, working with Ben’s fingers, stretching and manipulating, not sure she wanted to talk about her hopes and dreams to start up a dedicated physical therapy clinic in town. Finding out how little was left after settling her father’s estate had put that dream out of reach.
    â€œThere are other opportunities in Denton or Fort Worth, I’m sure.” Opportunities she had passed up when she’d taken this job. She wasn’t a city person. Coming back to Little Horn had filled an emptiness that had grown with each day she was away.
    â€œI see.” Mamie held her eyes, nodding slowly, as if her mind was elsewhere.
    â€œI need to work on