by Jill Sanders
“True,” Laura agreed. “You two have fun decorating your nursery.”
“If we need any help, I’ll call you,” Amber said as they started walking out.
“I bet you could have your own business up and running in no time. All you’d have to do is hang around the furniture store and advertise,” he joked as he helped her into the car.
“I’ve already talked to Logan briefly about it. He agreed that if I do start my own interior design business that he would make it a requirement that each sale that RMR closed would get my information.”
He chuckled. “I guess it does pay to have friends or family in the right places.”
Chapter 15
Changing out of her painting clothes and trying to find a dress suitable for a snowy evening out, she thought about her own future.
For the first time since Simon had returned, she hoped. Dreamed. Thought about what her own family could be like in a few years.
She’d always dreamed of having a life with him, at least she had when she’d been younger. Then he’d left and her future had been a big black hole.
Now that he was back, that spot was starting to fill in again. The more time they spent together, the more she hoped.
She pulled on a cream-colored sweater dress and added dark brown stockings, her high tan boots, and a matching belt to the ensemble. She double-checked her reflection in the long mirror in her small bedroom.
She’d moved a few necessary things over to Simon’s place, but still, most of her clothing was at her apartment. Looking around her small space, she realized she hadn’t even taken the time to turn her one-bedroom apartment into anything close to resembling a home. Sure, she had a few items here and there, but if anyone looked, they would see that her heart hadn’t been in decorating her own space.
Simon had agreed to pick her up in an hour, which gave her plenty of time to finish changing. She even had time to pull out the Christmas present that she’d started their last year together. She hadn’t worked on it since he’d left.
It was funny bringing the large thing out of storage after he’d returned. Now, it sat tucked in the back of her closet, hiding from him in case he ever visited her place.
Pulling out the heavy wood board now, she stared down at the many images of their faces pasted together on the large board.
Maybe she should have thrown the thing out years ago, but every time she thought to do so, something had stopped her.
She’d put too much into it. Into him. Somehow, she thought of the massive board with more than three dozen pictures of them in various ages as more than just a gift she’d made for him.
It was their life. A history of their love. It showcased every step they had taken in life, from friends to lovers. She couldn’t have thrown it away any more than she could have given up on the hope that one day he’d return to her.
When there was a knock on the door, she shoved the thing back into her closet and rushed to open it.
A dark figure stood in her doorway, and she was about to slam the door when the figure turned towards her and she realized that it was a woman in a suit.
“Miss Miller? Mr. Berg sent the car for you. I’m your driver for the night.” The woman smiled and motioned towards the parking lot where a large dark limo sat waiting. Simon stood just outside the car, holding a large bundle of cheerful yellow daisies in his hands. Her favorite flowers.
She grabbed her long black coat, gloves, and purse and followed the driver down the stairs to the parking lot.
“You look beautiful.” Simon smiled and held out the flowers for her.
It had been snowing since noon that day and now the flakes had turned bigger and wetter. His dark hair was slicked back, and white specks melted in it and dampened it even further. He wore a thick wool black coat and his black leather gloves. He was wearing black slacks and shoes but she couldn’t see if he was wearing a sweater or a dress shirt under the thick wool coat.
“Thank you.” She buried her face into the flowers and enjoyed the scent of spring during the chill.
“Shall we?” He opened the door for her himself.
She slid onto the leather seats and held onto the flowers while he climbed in beside her.
“There’s a vase.” He grabbed up a glass filled with water beads. “This should hold them over until we get back.”
She set the flowers in the vase and set them down on the seat next to her. “They’re beautiful. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you’d remembered my favorite flowers until you brought me some at the café.”
He chuckled. “Some things I’d forgotten, but it’s all coming back to me.” He took her gloved hands in his as the car started moving.
“Where are we going?” she asked, feeling slightly nervous all of a sudden.
“I thought we’d head up into the mountains. I remembered how much you liked that place in Idaho Springs.”
She laughed. “Beau Jo’s?”
“That’s the one. I know it’s not a fancy—”
“It’s perfect. I haven’t been there in years.”
In fact, the last time she’d been up there had been a month before he’d left. Somehow, even the restaurant had been tainted after he’d left.
“Good. If you want to go someplace else…” he started.
“Simon, it is perfect. I haven’t been back there since the last time we were there together,” she admitted.
“Really?” His dark eyebrows went up slightly.
“Yeah.” She smiled at him. “Some things just didn’t seem right… alone.”
“Didn’t you have anyone else?”
She laughed. “No, no one. Just you.”
He hugged her. “Me too. I know it’s probably terrible of me to say so, but I’m thankful.”
She laughed. “I am too.”
“No one seemed compelling after you,” he admitted, and she realized she felt the same way.
None of the men she’d tried to date after he’d left had seemed interesting. Not that she’d tried very hard. She’d been focused on classes and work.
“Have you heard anything more about the permits?” she asked, trying to fight off the nerves.
He sighed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Not yet. As far as anyone down at the office knows, we’re on track.”
“That’s good. When can we start setting everything up?”
“Laura.” He took her hands in his, then slowly removed both of their gloves. “Let’s not fill our free time with work talk. Tell me something about yourself that I don’t know.” He reached up and brushed a finger down her chin. “Something new. Pretend this is our first date.”
She chuckled nervously. “Somehow, it already feels like it. Even though I know everything there is to know about you, I’m nervous.”
“Don’t be,” he said softly, taking her hand in his. “Remember our first date?”
She thought about it and laughed. “You were nervous then.”
He smiled. “I was so nervous that I think I sweat through three shirts before I showed up and knocked on your door.”
She smiled and relaxed. “I had changed outfits twice myself. Not because I sweat through them, but because I was nervous about where you were going to take me.”
“How many outfits did you go through tonight?” he asked, running a hand over the soft sweater dress.
“Just one. You?”
“Same,” he said with a smile. “Now, it did take me at least half an hour to do my hair.” He reached up and ran his fingers through the now-dry locks.
She laughed and realized she was completely relaxed now.
“God, I missed you,” she admitted with a sigh. “You were my best friend. The only person who could make me feel nervous and relaxed at the same time. The only person I could tell everything to.”
“You still can. I’ve missed you too. Growing up in foster care could have been very lonely for me, but I had you and your family every step of the way. The best day of my life was when yo
u walked into Mrs. Humphrey’s classroom.”
She smiled. “I lucked out when the only empty seat was right next to the cutest boy in class.” She touched his cheek.
“Now I want to turn this limo around and head back to my place,” he said against her lips.
“Too bad, you already said the magic word. Pizza.” She smiled and pulled away from him. “Besides, I’m starving.”
“Yeah.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair again, a move that meant he was frustrated, she remembered. “Tell me something about you that I missed while I was gone,” he said, and she could tell that he was trying to change the subject.
“I graduated college with a four-point three.” She knew she’d throw him off.
His eyebrows shot up. “You did?”
She nodded and smiled. “Logan claims it’s because I took all the easy classes.”
He chuckled. “He’s just jealous. If I remember correctly, you were always smarter than he was.”
She chuckled. “I’ve been telling him that since first grade.”
He took her hand again and lifted it to his lips as the limo weaved up the snowy mountain roads. “I’m so thankful I had you. It’s my Christmas wish to give that to other kids that are going through what I went through back then.”
Her hand tightened on his. “You are amazing.”
“No, I’m selfish. If I were amazing, I’d adopt every kid out there.”
She laughed. “You’d need a bigger house.”
He smiled. “Yeah. Someday we’ll have a house full of kids and maybe some dogs running us both crazy.”
Her smiled doubled. Just hearing him say those words warmed her heart beyond anything else he could have said to her.
“I like dogs,” she said, and he laughed.
She couldn’t remember having a more perfect night with Simon. They ate their pizza as they overlooked the snow-covered main street of the small mountain town of Idaho Springs. After, they took a stroll down the street and enjoyed all the Christmas lights and the massive, decorated tree in the center of town. There were people huddled around, singing carols and handing out hot chocolate.
When they became too cold to stay outside any longer, they headed back.
By the time they climbed into the limo to take them down the hill, she was exhausted and happily numb from the cold.
She rested her head on his shoulder as they started down the mountain slowly, and she realized that she had never had a more perfect time in her life.
“This was a perfect night,” she said with a sigh. “It was a good idea to get a driver. I remember the last time we drove in the mountains on a snowy night.” She held in a laugh.
His chest vibrated with a chuckle.
“I’d only driven a handful of times back then,” he admitted.
“You did great. It was all the other crazy drivers that I was worried about.” She glanced up at him, enjoying the sight of his strong profile shadowed in the dark car.
“Laura.” He lifted her chin with his finger until their eyes locked. “I—”
His arms quickly tightened around her when they heard the high piercing sound of tires squealing and then a loud bang of metal against metal.
Laura was thrown around the back of the limo as she screamed and tried desperately to hold onto Simon. The back of her head connected with something solid, which shattered, cutting into her skin. Ice-cold water washed over her entire body. Moments later she was jerked into complete darkness as she lost consciousness.
Chapter 16
Simon’s grip on Laura tightened as he fought for a way out of the back of the sinking limo. He was thankful she was unconscious so she wouldn’t panic. There was only room enough for one of them to lose their shit in the back of the dark limo.
The best he could figure, the driver had lost control on the snowy roads and had gone over the edge, landing them in the Clear Creek, which ran along the highway at parts.
His eyes moved up to the front of the limo, where the dark glass separated the back section from the front. He didn’t know if the driver had gotten out or if she was even still alive.
At the rate the water was coming into the back of the car, he doubted he would have time to check if they were going to get out with their own lives.
He climbed up to the rear door, holding tight to Laura’s unconscious body, and tried the door handle.
Thankfully, the door popped open easily and almost flew off its hinges because of gravity since the back of the car was in the air. He braced for more water to rush in the opening and when it didn’t, he figured only the front of the car was submerged at this point since the car was pointing into the river.
Climbing out of the back of the limo while holding Laura was extremely challenging.
“Hello?” someone called from somewhere above them. “I’ve called for help.”
Suddenly, a bright light shone on him.
“My god, do you need help?” someone else called out. “I’ve got a rope.”
He shifted Laura in his arms and sat on the edge of the door frame, holding onto her. He felt the cold intensify when the wind blew past him. They’d gotten soaked, and he reached down with shaky hands to feel Laura’s skin. He felt for her pulse and relaxed a little when he felt it under his fingertips but frowned at how cold she was already.
“Here,” someone said directly above him. “Let me take her.” A young man dressed in grey overalls stood on the trunk of the limo, a thick yellow rope wrapped around his waist. “We’ll get her up the hill.”
“I’m going to check on the driver,” he said, handing Laura’s unconscious body over to the man.
“Better not,” the man said. “The front of the car is underwater. I doubt the man survived.”
“It’s a woman,” Simon said as he disappeared back into the limo.
He held himself up by the edge of the seat and shimmied his way to the front window. There was no sound coming from the front of the car and that worried him.
He tried to roll the thick black glass between the two sections down by using the switch, but when nothing happened, he started banging on the glass.
Then he noticed a small crack at the top of the glass and pried his fingers between the space and pulled it the rest of the way down.
Even more icy water rushed into the back compartment until it was up to his waist. He hissed in his breath as he searched the darkness of the front seat.
Seeing the woman’s mangled body and her clear eyes staring back at him under a foot of the freezing water, he decided there was nothing he could do for her. If he didn’t get back out of the car now, he might end up going down with it. Or freezing himself.
It took all his strength to climb back up the inside of the limo. His limbs were numb by the time he crawled out the back door again.
“There he is!” someone shouted.
“Here.” The man in the overalls was back, his hand stretched out for Simon’s.
“Laura?” he asked as he took the man’s hand.
“She’s up there, asking for you.” The man nodded to where all the lights were above them.
“Shit, it’s cold,” Simon said between chattering teeth.
“The driver?” the man asked quietly.
“Gone,” Simon said, feeling his heart sink. “Looks like she died on impact.”
“Shit,” the man said as he helped Simon climb up the embankment.
The moment they reached the mangled guardrail, a thick blanket was tossed over his shoulders.
“Here, come sit in my car until the ambulance arrives,” someone said. “Your girl is waiting for you.”
He was half carried, half dragged to the back of a white SUV. The moment he sat down in the back seat, Laura was there, wrapping her arms around him.
“I thought…” she cried and held onto him. “When I woke up, you weren’t there,” she said, her wet hair plastered to her face.
“I’m sorry,” he said, holding onto her. “I had to try…” He
closed his eyes for a moment.
The car’s heater pumped warm air over them, but not even that and the dry blanket and Laura’s arms around him could chase away the chill he felt, knowing a life had just been lost.
“I’m sorry,” he said again as tears rolled down his frozen cheeks.
The moment the ambulance arrived, they were shuffled into the back of it where they stripped off their wet clothes and were wrapped in heat blankets.
A police officer sat in the back with them and asked them more than a dozen questions, none of which they had answers to. He relayed what he’d witnessed, which matched what Laura had gone through up to the point where the vase of flowers had somehow hit her in the back of the head, causing her to lose consciousness.
He was surprised when a witness knocked on the back door and relayed that a large black truck had sideswiped the limo, forcing it off the road. They didn’t get the license plate number but had a pretty good description of the truck.
They were shuttled in the ambulance to the nearest hospital, which happened to be the one in Golden. Laura had used someone’s cell phone to call her family and by the time they got there, Logan and Amy were waiting for them with a bag of dry clothes.
He sat beside her while the doctor examined her head and then waited as she was shuffled out of the room for a CT scan.
Thankfully, an hour later they were both cleared, and Logan drove them back up to his place. By then, it was close to one in the morning.
“Sorry about this,” Laura said to Logan as she hugged him after they climbed out of the car. The snow had stopped falling, but still Simon couldn’t seem to get warm enough.
“I’m just thankful you two are okay,” Logan said as he hugged Laura. He reached over and shook Simon’s hand. “Thanks for saving my sister tonight.”
“I didn’t…” he started, but the man wrapped his arms around him.
“I overheard the cop relaying the story. You saved her. So, thanks.” He smiled and then glanced at Laura. “We’ll see both of you at our place for Thanksgiving dinner.”
