A Part of Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

forever.  Her skin looked soft and pail in the light. She was, in every way, my angel.
    I reached for her and she moved quickly toward me.  “My leg hurts.”  I croaked, not even feeling bad for how weak I sounded.
    “Where?”  She asked pulling the sheet down to see.
    “I’m losing it Talia.”  I shook my head. She was going to think I’d lost my mind.
    “Where does it hurt Tom?”  She looked at me, waiting patiently for my answer.
    “My foot.”  I whispered.  “The fucking foot that isn’t even there anymore!”  I watched her face, waiting to see her reaction to my crazy admission.  She just nodded and began to rub my leg, slowly moving down toward my knee.
    “Close your eyes Tom.  I want you to listen to me and visualize everything I’m doing.”  I laid my head back and closed my eyes.
    “I’m going to rub over your knee and down.  I want you to visualize your healthy leg, as it was before, and me massaging it.  I’m moving down your calf now, just like on the right side.”  I felt her other hand, warm and soft, on my right leg rubbing the same motions over my knee and down.  She continued to move her hands down until she was at my ankle, still talking about both of my legs.  It was so weird, but somewhere in my mind I could almost feel her rubbing both of them.  She moved to my foot and slowly I started to feel better.  The pain felt like it was gradually going away. 
    “How did you do that?”  I asked, slowing my breathing down.
    “I don’t know.  I just did it in hopes that it would work.  Today I went to talk to one of the doctors I work with about everything, and he mentioned that it wasn’t unusual to have some sort of sensation like you are, especially when the last thing you felt in that leg was pain.”  She shrugged.  “I just hoped it might work.  It seems to be something the brain does.  You aren’t going crazy Tom.  It happens.  This is new to me too.  We just need to find what works.”  She stood up and got me another pain pill.  “Do you need to go to the bathroom?”  She raised an eyebrow at me.
    “No, I’m good.”  I shook my head.  I probably could have gone, but not bad enough to deal with more humiliation.
    “Do you want me to stay until you fall asleep?”  She asked softly.  Hell no! If she stayed, I could guarantee that I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep.  I could smell her and it was doing weird things to my senses.
    “Really, I’m better now.  Thank you so much.”  I squeezed her hand.  She smiled as she stood.
    “Holler if you need me.”  I watched her walk out of the room, finally exhaling when the hall light turned off.  She was going to be the death of me!
     
     

 
    Chapter 7
     
    Talia
    I was so far out of my element here.  I was in the middle of a struggle between Talia the nurse and Talia the woman.  Here Tom was lying in a bed trying to recover from a horrific accident and all I could think about was kissing him.
    I did just that last night.  Thank god I managed to pull myself back before freaking him out.  The man was beautiful.  Even after spending two weeks in bed, he still had retained the strong muscular planes of his chest.  His stomach now bore a long scar down the middle, above his bellybutton, but nonetheless still had the corrugated leanness of his flat abdomen.  His legs were a beautiful sight all on their own.  Even after the amputation, he had long powerful legs, thighs as hard and muscled as any professional athlete.  I’m sure it was all the years of playing soccer.
    I was in so much trouble!
    I needed to get out of bed and check on Tom.  Last night after he had gone to sleep, my friend Sheila brought by a few things that I’d asked for.  One was a shower seat.  I was going to have to convince Tom to allow me to help him shower.  Was it so wrong of me to get a little bit of a thrill at the idea?
    The other thing was going to be very helpful. I had asked for a knee walker that