A Bed of Roses

A romance about the love-hate relationship between patient and physical therapist, and the tragedy that keeps them apart.

Chapter One

Dana felt like a defenseless animal about to walk into a trap as she stood in the open doorway of East Ridge Hospital's Physical Therapy Center Monday afternoon. She gripped the walker she needed for support, aware of the throbbing in her left knee. The equipment along the off-white walls gleamed at her. The small room's low ceiling and worn bottle-green carpet was a far cry from the enormous facility she'd grown accustomed to at St. Jude Hospital in southwest Portland. Hardly the place where a specialist in sports injuries – the best Oregon has to offer, according to her doctor – would choose to work, she thought with apprehension. But then she suspected Dr. Stewart would have told her just about anything to get her back into therapy after the last of three operations four days ago.
(Read chapters 1-14 free at Booklocker!)

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After three surgeries on a knee injured in a car accident, Dana would give anything to be able to walk normally again, but facing yet another physical therapist and his torture chamber made her feel like a defenseless, trapped animal. Michael Gordon terrified her because he expected her to do things she wasn't capable of doing. Yet, giving up would be to mock the independent, strong-willed woman she had fought so hard to become.

Physical therapist Michael Gordon knew his latest patient's dark sunglasses and sharp attitude were defense mechanisms to keep people from seeing how she really felt. The willful tilt of her delicate chin challenged...and charmed. But he wasn't looking for a relationship. Especially with a patient. And especially when that patient was a journalist. He'd dedicated his life to helping people regain the use of their bodies after injury or illness. He would treat Dana Whitaker like any other patient, and forget for the time being that a reporter had damn near destroyed his career.

A Bed of Roses was first published in the U.S.A. by Silhouette Books, October 1993, under the pseudonym Elyn Day. Over the next two years, the paperback was released in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Japan. Not bad for a first book. In preparing the story for download, I considered updating it. The story was written at a time when dial telephones and dot matrix printers were still in use, and people listened to their music on cassette tapes. CDs, DVDs, even Windows™, didn't exist yet! But, ultimately, I decided to retain the novelty of the story by leaving it as a late 80s "historical." I'm calling the PDF download a revised Second Edition simply because I've learned a few things about writing techniques since penning my first book. I've cleaned up some of the passive voice and repetition, and I corrected a couple of typos that have bothered me from day one.

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