Chapter 5

Shelly woke bright and early the next morning; the pain in her knee nearly caused her to scream out as she tried to get up to go to the bathroom. As Shelly carefully got out of bed and slowly made her way to the bathroom, she heard a knock on her door. "I'll be there in a minute" Shelly responded hoping that whoever it was could be patient, for she knew it wasn't Jennifer, Jennifer knocked three times and would slightly open the door knowing full well Shelly shouldn't be getting up to answer the door. As Shelly opened the door, there was Cassie looking irritated like she always does when around Shelly. "Hi Cassie, is there something you needed?" Shelly moved aside indicating to Cassie that she could come in.

Cassie looked uncertain as to what to do, but knew after talking to Jennifer last night that she would never have a chance to get Justin now. Not that Cassie hadn't been trying she had ever since she started working at the ranch; Cassie had worked here for over a year and still was unable to get Justin to do more than acknowledge her presence. "Miss Shelly, I came to apologize for being so rude to you since you came here, you see I have had a crush on Justin since I started here over a year ago, but those feelings were never mutual. It's not your fault that he chooses to care for you and not me. I am really really sorry; I hope you can forgive me?" Cassie was nearly in tears as she finished her little speech.

Shelly went to the girl and gave her a big hug. Then Shelly asked her to sit down so they could talk. "Cassie, you are still young and have plenty of opportunities to find true love and happiness. There is a 14 year age difference between you and in his eyes he probably still sees you as a child even though you are a young woman." Reaching across the open space between the side of the bed and her night stand, Shelly got Cassie a tissue before continuing on. "Cassie I don't know how much you know about me, but when I came here, I wasn't looking for love, I was still so hurt by everything I had lost in the last year, my mother, my son, and my unborn child to a drunk driver who end up being my unborn child's father. Pain like that can kill you inside even if your body continues on. Justin was the only one who saw the despair in my eyes, for he had fallen in love with me at first sight. For me it took a little longer, but once I realized that I still had something worth living for, everything changed and continues to change every day." Shelly paused for a bit to let the truth of what she just said sink into the young woman's brain. "Now that I think about it last night was the first night I didn't have the dream of the accident waking me from my sleep. Justin's love for me, knowing he wants to spend his life with me and have a family, is helping me to slowly heal on the inside."

"Cassie have you ever noticed how Chris looks at you?"

"No, I never really noticed why" was Cassie's innocent reply.

"Cassie he looks at you like Justin looks at me and how I look at Justin; I think Chris is in love with you, why don't you ask him to go swimming with you at the pond tonight after 9pm and see what happens." Shelly could see the shocked look on Cassie's face as she thought about it. "Yes, I will, and your right he does look at me the way you and Justin look at each other, he is kind, helpful, and like Justin has one hell of a body, opps sorry" Cassie giggled.

"It's okay Cassie, your right Justin has one hell of a body, one I can't believe I am going to be lucky enough to have by my side for the rest of my life. But Chris's is pretty close to Justin's; I guess I never looked at it like that, considering how much older I am then both of you."

"Well, I better get going I need to eat breakfast before getting to work, is there anything I can get you?" she asked.

"If you could get me a glass of milk so I can take my pills I would appreciate it" Shelly said as she slowly got up to get her pills."

"Sure, I will be right back with it, and thank you Shelly, I really appreciate it and the talk we had" Cassie quickly gave Shelly a hug and ran to get her the milk so she could take her pain meds.

Jennifer was shocked to say the least at how happy Cassie looked as she saw her leaving Shelly's room, Jennifer knew that Cassie really liked Justin, but was hurt that he had chosen Shelly over her. "Jennifer, Shelly is up and she and I had a bit of a talk, I will be right back with the glass of milk she asked to have to take her pills, she is really in a lot of pain."

With that said Cassie ran off to the kitchen to do as she had been asked and Jennifer pulled her phone out and called Dr. Carter. Hey doc, Shelly's knee is swollen to about 3 times its normal size she is in a lot of pain ... Well she went for a bit of a run yesterday out to the beach and by the time Justin got her back it was in bad shape ... Thanks doc I will let her know you will be here soon."

Jennifer knocked on Shelly's door as she slowly opened. "Shelly"

"I am in the bathroom Jennifer and will be out shortly!" With as much pain as she was in Shelly wondered how in the world was she going to be able to get up and get back to bed? With determination she forced herself to get up and slowly move towards the bathroom door. As she opened the door there was Jennifer waiting to help her back to bed. One look at Shelly's face and Jennifer knew that Cassie was right; she was in a significant amount of pain despite her attempts to hide it. Jennifer had just got Shelly into bed when there was a knock on the door; it was Cassie and the glass of milk as well as some fresh fruit.

"Cassie I need you to go wait for the doc and as soon as he arrives show him up here. This takes priority over your other tasks today. Mr. Wilson will authorize the change in your schedule."

"Is it that bad" Cassie said.

"Yes it is really bad; I wish Justin was here to help get her mind off the pain." It took no time at all for Dr. Carter to get there, and was he ever going to give Shelly a talking, she should know better than to push herself that hard. Cassie was waiting in the lobby of the main house when he arrived and promptly showed him up to Shelly's room. Jennifer and Cassie both left the room while Dr. Carter looked at Shelly's knee, scolded her quite a bit, and listened to some of the events of yesterday and Shelly's concern that she was pregnant. Dr. Carter was shocked about the events of yesterday, but then he thought to himself, the way Justin looked at her last time I was there was of a man in love with his wife. Dr. Carter agreed to change Shelly's prescription to something that would have less potential effects on the fetus and stated that if in 2-3 weeks Shelly had not had her period that he would have a routine blood test done to confirm it.