Read Online The Proposal at Siesta Key by Shelley Shepard Gray - Free Book Online

you haven’t worked until now. I’m sure your parents really care about you.”
    â€œThey do. Maybe too much.”
    Just as he was letting that sink in, Penny surprised him again. Curving her lips, she said, “I guess, Michael Knoxx, I should be thanking you. After all, you are the real reason I have a job today. So even though I am mighty sorry you are ailing, I do owe you a great deal of thanks.”
    He shook his head in wonderment. “That’s really something. Are you glad about this?”
    â€œAbout having a job? Certainly!”
    He laughed. Talk about a girl putting him in his place. Her complete insistence that he was nothing more than an obligation to her should have pinched his ego. Instead, he found it amusing.
    â€œWell, you’re welcome, then. I am glad my bad leg is going to bring you some good.”
    Immediately, embarrassment filled her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that I was glad you are going to have surgery.”
    â€œOf course you didn’t. Don’t mind me. Sometimes I try to make a joke and it falls a little flat. I think that’s what happened here.”
    Looking serious, she leaned forward. “Are you scared about the operation?”
    He couldn’t lie. “I’m not as much scared as I am dreading it. It’s come at a bad time.” He didn’t know how else to describe his feelings. They were too complex even for him to try to analyze, let alone explain to a stranger.
    â€œThere’s probably never a good time, I wouldn’t think.”
    She was right, of course.
    But he’d been worrying about fulfilling his family’s obligations. Determined to keep on their schedule, and do what was expected of him.
    Penny was staring at him with such genuine sympathy, it humbled him. “I hope your recovery won’t be too terrible. I truly am sorry about you needin’ another surgery on your leg.”
    â€œYears ago, when I had the first of the operations, the surgeons told me that my surgery was a difficult one. I had secretly wondered if I was going to wake up from it at all. There was even talk of them amputating above my knee. That would have been a far harder adjustment.”
    Ignoring the way her posture stiffened in the face of his candor,he continued. “So, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve been living on borrowed time for quite a while now. No one has mentioned that they’re going to do anything very drastic, but it would be foolish of me to imagine that I could live my life talking about my accident and injury and think that the Lord was never going to give me another hurdle to jump over.”
    â€œBut still, it must be hard.”
    He paused, gazing into her blue eyes again, realizing that it had been a mighty long time since anyone had dared to be so honest with him.
    It had been an even longer time since he’d been honest with himself about his fears. As the years passed, and he’d become more adept at retelling his story, he’d unintentionally begun to gloss over his feelings, preferring instead to act as if he didn’t have any problems. As if he was constantly grateful. Maybe it was Penny’s sympathetic look, or maybe it was because, for the first time in a very long time, he was being made to sit still and reflect on the journey he’d had. Whatever the reason, he was feeling inclined to be completely honest.
    Taking a deep breath, he nodded. “It is. But at least now I know what is going to happen. The questioning and wondering is over. I won’t fear the worst.”
    â€œI can understand that. It is a difficult thing, I think, to always be fearing the worst.”
    Something in her tone compelled him to stare at her more closely. Shadows filled her eyes and a bit of color had drained from her face, making him guess that she was thinking about something far more difficult than his lost leg. He wondered what it was. For a second, he