The next day Carol didn't arrive until after 7. She had told me that she had a busy day and that she'd be late. I told her that I'd be fine and for the most part I was.
"Hi dad I'm here!" I heard Carol call as she came through the front door.
"Hi honey, I'm where you left me of course."
Carol came into the living room and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "How're you doing today dad? How's your leg?"
"It's okay, better now. I took a pill for the pain last night and it took the edge off." I saw her bite her lip and her eyes looked a little moist. "What's wrong honey?"
"Oh daddy, I feel so guilty about yesterday. What we did yesterday is wrong and I shouldn't have done it. I'm so sorry."
"Oh honey, you have nothing to be sorry about and besides, I'm the parent in this equation and if anyone should be sorry it's me."
"But daddy, it's not just that we did it, it's that even while thinking that it was wrong to do I couldn't stop thinking that for that very reason I really wanted to do it and I didn't care that it was wrong, know what I mean?" She wasn't waiting for me to answer and so I nodded as she continued, "I mean, one second I'd look at you and think you're my father and I can't do this and the next second I'd feel, well, that I wanted you and it didn't matter but it does matter doesn't it?"
"Honey, don't get yourself all wrapped around this. We are, after all, both adults and we made a joint adult decision which means we are equally responsible for it so I have to share the guilt or blame in this okay?"
Carol sniffed like she used to when she was a little girl and then sat down next to me, hugged me and said, "Okay daddy I guess."
"No honey, don't just give in. Talk to me about this until you feel better okay? You know, like we did when you were going out on your first dates and that hot guy you wanted to kiss?" The "hot guy" she wanted to kiss was actually a joke between us and it never failed to make her smile and I'd used it at times like this before. It didn't fail me this time either. And the "hot guy" joke was her looking back at him and saying "oh my gawd what was I thinking!"
Carol smiled up at me and I kissed the top of her head and said, "That's my girl. So talk to me more about it."
"No, I'm okay now dad but thanks. Let me go make you some supper."
"You don't have to honey, I made myself a sandwich about an hour ago so I'm good."
"Okay, well, shall we get your shower out of the way?" She said a little hesitantly.
"Um, well, you know that's what's gotten us into trouble before so you might want to reconsider."
"I know but you can't do it by yourself yet can you?"
"No, I still have to use my good arm to hold myself up so yeah, washing's still a problem."
"Well, I take a shower with my jogging shorts on. I've used them as a bathing suit anyway so why should this be any different and as far as getting myself clean there, well, I don't have an answer for that right now but it's not like I'm particularly dirty there anyway. So how does that sound?"
Carol agreed and we both stayed on our best behavior for that shower and for every shower for two weeks following. Neither of us said a thing about our sexual encounter and after a few showers it seemed to be pretty much forgotten. Almost three weeks had gone by since my accident. All pain in my arm had long since disappeared and I was slowly able to put more weight on my leg. Carol took me for my check up visit to the doctor and despite my telling him how much progress I seemed to be making he assured me that I had a good six to eight weeks more before we could even consider changing the size of the casts let alone taking them off. That was still several months in the future where my leg was concerned cautioning me that I could easily injure my leg all over again if I weren't careful.
My appointment with the doctor was at 5PM. I had purposely made it late so Carol would experience the least inconvenience possible. She had told me any time would be good. It was after six when we got back to my house and Carol scurried off to the kitchen to make supper as soon as I was settled on the sofa. Carol isn't the greatest cook but she makes a killer quiche and so I asked her to make one for supper.
I was now able to get around with the aid of just crutches. I would have happily disposed of the wheelchair but Carol insisted I keep it in the garage just in case. We were sitting in the living room watching t.v. when I had excused myself to go to the bathroom. When I returned I was settling into the sofa when I got a charlie horse in my good leg.
"Ow ow ow shit ow!" I screeched.
"What's the matter?" Carol asked very concerned.
"I got a charlie horse in my leg!"
