Read Online Road to Redemption by Natalie Ann - Free Book Online

didn’t make it, either. But somehow she lucked out and got a whole whopping two smiles out of him. Well, one was a grin, but she was counting that as a smile.  Even if she didn’t actually mean to make him grin, he still did it when he was watching her. So she would count it.
    Yesterday morning—her last day—she had been in the supply closet restocking while she sang Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” silently in her head.  She didn’t even notice Jack’s approach. The door was slightly ajar and she was swinging her hips to the music in her head while munching on her morning bag of M&M’s.  She caught a movement out of her eye, causing her to jump in the air, throw her arm across her chest and, in the process, send the open bag of M&M’s she was holding all over the floor.  “Hey, you made me spill half my snack,” she accused him with her hands on her hips.
    “Sorry,” he grinned ruefully.  “But at least you’re happy.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “The song. The one you were just singing now,” he replied, then leaned in past her, grabbed some bandages off the shelf and walked back out.
    She’d thought she was singing in her head, but obviously not.  But that grin, the one she wasn’t even trying for, when it came, ended up being a shock to her system. And what a shock it was. His face softened, his eyes crinkled a bit, and to her surprise he had dimples. Who would have known? And of course, at the sight of those dimples, the pounding started in her chest, followed quickly by the heat.
    The actual smile came when she was in with her last patient before her lunch break. Mrs. Gutler, a feisty grandmother of ten. Cori knew that because she had asked. Seemed Mrs. Gutler liked to come in and dictate what she wanted done, when she wanted it done, and demanded that Dr. Reynolds fix the nagging pain in her hip.
    After looking at her chart, Cori could see that Mrs. Gutler had already had hip replacement surgery. She seemed to be recovering well but ended up in the office several times a month.  Cori started to sense that Mrs. Gutler was lonely. 
    They were going through her vitals with Cori asking general questions, but also answering all of Mrs. Gutler’s prying questions. How old was she? Was she single? Did she have any grandparents? Did she visit her grandparents? If so, how often? Everything started to add up, so Cori let Mrs. Gutler continue to ask questions while she happily answered each and every one of them.
    In Cori’s eyes there was no harm done. Mrs. Gutler was a lonely person who wanted some company.  Going to the doctor’s seemed to be the only way to get any of her grandchildren to come visit her since she couldn’t drive herself.
    “You wait, Cori,” Mrs. Gutler said. “I’m going to show my grandkids how we danced in our day, once my hip is completely healed.  All they do now is stand in place and swivel their hips rubbing up against each other like cats in heat.  That’s not dancing. That is like sex on your feet.”
    Cori couldn’t have been more shocked to hear that come out of Mrs. Gutler’s mouth. She threw her head back and laughed hysterically.  An image of little old Mrs. Gutler with her new hip, dancing on the floor like she described popped into Cori’s head. Enough for her to wrap an arm around her own waist and laugh until she couldn’t catch her breath. 
    Mrs. Gutler joined right in with the laughing. And that was when Jack walked in.  His startled look caused her to bend over and laugh even harder.  He must of have thought she was nuts, but she didn’t care. Because for that one moment, he looked at her and he smiled.
    And the heat traveled from her chest right to her face. She was pretty sure he noticed, because almost immediately his smile disappeared. But she was confident now that he did know how to smile. Maybe, just maybe there was a chance he did want to be happy.  He only needed help getting there.  And she was the person to help him with