Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
211
* * *
His words seemed to resonate deep in her heart, and
she absorbed them there. He was right. Absolutely right.
She thought of her nightly climb up those steep stairs
to her bedroom, of how many nights she’d wanted to
give up and curl up on the couch.
But she’d gone.
She’d started walking much faster than the doctors
at Walter Reed thought prudent; she’d gone on when the
physical therapy exercises had left her exhausted and
shaking; she’d forced herself to do things around the
ranch that were probably beyond what she should have
been doing.
On the physical side, she had been pushing herself
from the first time they helped her out of bed at Walter
Reed.
But emotionally, mentally, she had retreated from
anything that posed a risk. Nursing, for instance. All this
time she’d been telling herself it was the physical challenge
she couldn’t handle anymore. But as she sat there
in her mother’s hideaway, she realized her real block
against returning to medicine was her own fear of failure.
She loved being a nurse-practitioner. As careers go,
it had been rewarding and challenging and she had never
wanted to do anything else.
But because she loved it so much, she had been
deeply afraid of failing at it, that she wouldn’t be able
to handle the physical and mental strain of it anymore.
That terrible fear of failure was holding her back, preventing
her from even daring to attempt the things that
used to provide her with such satisfaction.