Читать книгу A Man Apart - Ginna Gray - Страница 12

He was getting stronger. He could feel it.

Matt hobbled along the path through the woods, determination and a feeling of satisfaction driving him on.

Every day he pushed himself a little harder than the day before, walking farther, forcing himself to depend less and less on the cane, and the effort was beginning to pay off. Mostly he used the walking stick for balance, leaning on it only now and then when he stepped wrong and received a jab of pain in his leg.

He went around a bend and through the trees saw the lodge up ahead. Matt chugged down the last of his water, and when he emerged from the woods, he headed for the back steps. On the veranda he paused to do a few cool-down twists and stretches.

He took these walks in the mornings, and in the afternoons he did the exercises and stretching that the hospital’s physical therapist had recommended, only Matt did more than prescribed, and he was gradually stepping up the pace and intensity. The pain was still there. So was the limp, but both were gradually lessening.

It had been two weeks since he’d started applying himself to getting back in shape, and already he could walk half a mile or more without undue suffering. Jane’s excellent cooking had put back some of the weight he’d lost, and the color had come back to his skin. If he continued to improve at the same rate, he figured he could switch from walking to running within a couple of months.

When he reached that goal, he would get Hank or one of the other guys on the force to bring his set of weights to the lodge so he could begin some strength training.