Fair Chances (Fairshore Series Book 3)

by Christina Butrum

  She took a deep breath and fought back the tears as they tried to escape. She did not want to cry. Why are you going to cry?! Don’t cry! She fanned her face with her hand. She could not believe how hard it was for her to explain how she felt about herself to Zach.

  After a few minutes, Zach turned her to face him. He said, “I’m not sure what you’re thinking or how you feel right now, but I want you to know that you’re beautiful. You’re everything I need and want in this life. My feelings haven’t and will never change. The way I feel about you will always be the same as the day I first met you.”

  Amelia wiped her eyes with the blanket. There was no need for her to tell him how she felt, he already knew.

  Chapter Nine

  Startled awake by the ringing of the phone, Amelia glanced at the clock – 7:37. Her eyes were blurry. She rubbed them and sat up on the couch. She must have fallen asleep after her conversation with Zach. She wondered where he was. She got off the couch and walked to the kitchen counter. She reached for the phone and answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “Amelia, it’s Mom.”

  Amelia could hear the fear in her mother’s voice. Her mother was on the verge of a panic attack or a meltdown or something.

  “Mom, what’s wrong?” Amelia asked.

  She paced the kitchen nervously. She walked as far as the cord would allow her to.

  “It’s your dad, Amelia,” her mother said. Her voice trembled with emotion.

  Amelia’s stomach knotted and fear overwhelmed her. She stopped in her tracks and gripped the phone. “What happened?”

  Through her sobs, her mother tried to explain what had happened. Amelia was not sure what could have happened. It was difficult to understand her mother.

  “Mom, I can’t understand you,” Amelia said. She was on the verge of losing it. She tried to stay calm, but her emotions had her near explosion. “Mom, do I need to come there?”

  Her mother cried and gasped between sobs. Amelia could not figure out what was going on. She wondered what had happened and if her father was okay. “Mom, are you at home?”

  Silence filled the phone as her mother calmed down long enough to explain. There was a pause from the sobs. “We’re at the hospital. We need you here now.”

  Amelia’s stomach knotted and twisted. Fear and worry flooded her thoughts. She could not think straight. She looked around the kitchen. She wondered where Zach had gone off to. She wondered how she was going to find him. She wondered if her father… “Mom, is Dad okay?”

  After a minute, her mother answered, “Your father had an accident at work.”

  Amelia’s heart sank and her head spun. “What kind of accident? Is he okay?”

  “Just get here. We’re at the hospital in Bellford,” her mother informed her. “Be careful on your way here and hurry. Love you.”

  Amelia slammed the phone down. Panic slammed through her body as she searched the house for Zach. She hollered for him. When she did not find him, she grabbed the phone and called the furniture store.

  After ten rings, she hung up the phone. Fear had turned into anger and annoyance. She was not mad at Zach, but frustrated she was unable to find him. She wondered where he had gone off to.

  She picked up the phone and dialed the deli’s number. She was not sure if Courtney would be there or not. She usually stocked the shelves after hours at the store.

  No answer. Amelia slammed the phone down and screamed out in frustration.

  She called Bailey. Bailey answered on the third ring. “Hello?”

  “Bai, it’s Amelia.”

  “Amelia, what’s wrong?” Bailey asked.

  Amelia was distraught and a complete mess. She was about to have a meltdown. Between being pregnant and this, Amelia was about to have an emotional breakdown.

  “My dad,” Amelia bit her lip in an attempt to stop it from trembling. She fought back the sobs that struggled to escape. She continued on, “My dad had an accident at work. My mom just called me. She told me they’re in the hospital in Bellford.”

  Bailey gasped into the phone. She hollered to Benny. “Amelia’s dad had an accident at work and he’s in the hospital. Get ready, we’re going!” She tamed her voice level and said into the phone, “Amelia, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “Thanks, but I’m not even there yet,” Amelia stated. She was frustrated and felt helpless.

  “What? Why? Where’s Zach?”

  Amelia tried to calm her panic, but failed. Her voice climbed and she shrieked, “He’s not here and I can’t find him!”

  Bailey hesitated. Amelia was sure she was thinking of a plan or a place where Zach could possibly be. It wasn’t like Amelia hadn’t already thought of every possible place.

  Amelia took a deep breath. “I need him here, Bai,” she said. Her desperation clouded her voice. “I need him to go with me. What if my dad…”

  Bailey interrupted her. “Your dad will be fine. Don’t worry until you get there and find out for yourself. He’s a strong man. Whatever happened to him, I’m sure it won’t keep him down long.”

  Amelia nodded. She swallowed hard. She fought back the emotion from escaping. She needed to stay calm. She told herself to calm down. She knew getting worked up wouldn’t help anything. “Okay.”

  “Amelia, we’ll be there soon, okay?” Bailey calmly said. “We’ll see you there. We’re leaving now.”

  Panic filled Amelia once again as she thought of not arriving at the hospital in time to see her father. Horrible thoughts clouded her mind. She shook her head in an attempt to dismiss them, but they stayed.

  “Amelia, go find Zach,” Bailey demanded. “I’m sure he’s around there somewhere.”

  “Okay,” Amelia whispered into the phone. She was on the verge of having a breakdown.

  “I love you, Amelia,” Bailey said. “I’ll see you at the hospital. Be careful.”

  “Okay, love you.”

  Amelia hung up the phone and stared at it in shock. She paced the kitchen and then grabbed the keys off the kitchen table. She prayed Zach would be close to home. She wasn’t sure how much time they had and if time was on her father’s side.

  * * *

  Amelia walked quickly down the front steps to her car. She unlocked the door and got inside. She started the car and backed the car out of the driveway. She wondered where Zach could be at eight o’clock at night.

  She drove to Gallagher’s Furniture. The open sign was off, but there was a car in the parking lot. She squinted her eyes to see it, but her blurry eyes failed to focus on it. She pulled into the parking lot and parked next to it. The street light was too dim for her to see much of the car’s detail. She opened the door and walked around her car.

  She walked around the back bumper of her car and looked at the car she had parked next to. Sure enough, it was Zach’s. She turned and looked at the building. Inside, it was dark with no sign of activity. She walked to the door. She wondered if Zach was there and why he would not have answered the phone. Panic swarmed through her once again as she approached the door. Her stomach knotted. She reached for the handle and turned it. The door opened.

  “Zach!” she hollered into the darkness. “Zach, are you here?”

  No response. A light shined under the backroom door. She wondered where Zach was or if he was there at all. She walked into the entryway and flipped on the lights. “Zach, answer me! Are you here?”

  The back door swung open and Zach walked out. He wiped his hands on a rag from his pocket. He looked up and their eyes locked. “Amelia, what are you doing here?”

  Amelia stopped in her tracks. She jabbed a hand onto her right hip. She sneered at him and said, “I should ask you the same thing.”

  His face dropped his expression of surprise into guilt. His jaw fell open and he tried to reply to her remark. “You were…”

  Amelia shook her head. “That’s beside the point. We need to go.”

  Zach raised an eyebrow. “What? Go where? What’s going on?
”

  He walked up to Amelia and wrapped his arms around her. He held his dirty hands away from her clothes for fear of staining them.

  Amelia looked up at him. Tears stung the rims of her eyes. Zach looked down at her. “What’s wrong, Amelia?” he asked, his voice calm, almost a whisper.

  She shook her head. She would not allow herself to break down - not now, anyway. “We have to go to the hospital in Bellford. My dad…” she tried to explain, but she struggled to hold back her emotions. She tried to continue on, “My dad is there.”

  Zach wrapped an arm around her and brought her close. A quick hug from him comforted her. Even the moment she saw him, she felt relieved. She had been upset and had wondered why he had been at the furniture store, but none of that mattered now. The only thing that mattered now was her father and getting to the hospital. She handed Zach her keys and said, “You’re driving.”

  The drive to Bellford seemed to take forever. She was thankful she had found Zach right away. She hated that it had taken her as long as it had to find him. She should have known where he’d be.

  Zach reached across the console and grabbed her hand. He squeezed it and she looked at him. She was tired and scared. She shook her head. “It’ll be okay,” he said as he squeezed her hand and brought it to his lips. He lightly kissed her hand and set it in her lap. “Your dad’s a strong man, Amelia.”

  Amelia nodded. Tears threatened to escape her eyes. She did not fight them. They streamed down her face. She looked out the window. Darkness surrounded their car as they drove back roads to Bellford. “It sucks not knowing. Not being there right now,” she explained. “It sucks.”

  Zach looked at her. She could tell he struggled to find the right words to say. “I’m sorry I wasn’t at home.”

  She shrugged her shoulders. She had mixed feelings about the situation. She had no idea what would have made him leave the house at night.

  He gently squeezed her hand. “You fell asleep on the couch. I had things that were on my mind and needed taken care of, so I went to work.”

  She turned her attention from the window onto him. “You don’t need to explain.”

  “I think I needed to,” Zach said.

  He was right, she needed the explanation. “What was on your mind?”

  He shrugged and said, “Mostly just work stuff.”

  Amelia laid her head back against the head rest. Her stomach had settled, but she still had a fear everything would not be okay. She wondered what had happened and if her father was okay.

  “Did your mother tell you what happened?”

  “Just that there was an accident at his work,” Amelia said. It pained her to think of everything that could have possibly happened to her father. Her worst nightmare had played out in real life and she did not like it one bit. She laid her head back against the head rest and closed her eyes. She said a silent prayer and drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Ten

  Amelia jolted awake when the car came to a complete stop and Zach turned the car off. He looked at her and said, “We’re here, hon.”

  She nodded and opened the door. Zach reached out and grabbed her arm. She looked back before she stepped out of the car.

  “I’m here for you,” he said. He spoke softly and with concern in his voice. “He’ll be okay.”

  He rubbed his hand over her shoulder and smiled. She saw the uncertainty they both felt in his smile. She nodded and climbed out of the car.

  The quicker she walked her heart beat faster. She felt like it was going to explode out of her chest. She slowed her pace and bent over. She panted and reached out to Zach. “I need a minute.”

  He stopped and hung onto her. “Are you going to be okay?”

  She got her heart rate and her breathing under control. She straightened and nodded her head. “Yes, I think so.”

  The nurse guided them to the emergency room. The nurse pointed to the room Amelia’s father was in. “Is he okay?” Amelia asked.

  The nurse looked into her eyes and said, “He’s fighting a good fight.”

  Amelia felt her heart sink. The nurse’s words were not enough to satisfy her. The words the nurse had spoken made her uneasy. Panic raced through Amelia as she reached for the door knob and turned it. She felt Zach’s hand on her back. She pushed the door open and took two steps into the room. She quickly scanned the room. Machines beeped and wires from them were attached to the person who laid in the bed. The person looked nothing like her father. She looked back at Zach. Fear climbed inside her and she said, “We have the wrong room. That’s not my father.”

  A curtain was pushed to the side and her mother’s face peeked at Amelia. Amelia could see the worry lines on her mother’s face. Her mother’s eyes were bright red. She had been crying a while. She rushed to Amelia and hugged her. Amelia stood in shock. Her father laid in the hospital bed with white wrap and machines hooked up to him. He had an oxygen mask on his face. His eyes were closed and his breathing was deep. A fluid hung on the pole next to the bed and dripped slowly. Amelia spaced out and counted the drips until her mother interrupted her.

  “Amelia,” her mother’s voice was low and shaky. “Let’s go into the hallway. I need to talk to you.”

  Her mother grabbed her hand and lightly dragged her out of the room. Amelia could not pull her attention away from the man who laid still in the bed with his eyes closed. “Is he okay?” Amelia asked as she walked out behind her mother. “Will he be okay?”

  Her mother guided her and Zach down the hallway and into an empty waiting room. She pointed to a chair. “Sit there, please,” her mother instructed her.

  Amelia and Zach did as they were told. Amelia’s mother sat across from them. Amelia could see her mother’s hands shake. Amelia focused on her mother. She waited for her to explain what happened and what the outcome of this would be.

  When her mother did not initiate an explanation, she asked, “What happened?”

  Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. She opened her mouth, but words mixed with emotion choked her into sobs. Amelia scooted to the edge of the chair and reached out for her mother’s hand. She could barely reach it. She stood from her seat and walked to her mother’s side. She squatted down and hugged her mother.

  A few minutes, along with many tears, passed before her mother could explain what had happened to her father.

  “I’m not sure how it happened, or why it happened,” her mother said. “But I know he was just walking into work.”

  Her mother hung her head and cried some more. Amelia reached beside her and grabbed a few Kleenex. She handed her mother a couple and kept one for herself. She waited patiently for her mother to explain. She fought back tears that tried to escape. It was her time to be strong for her mother. Amelia hugged her mother tightly and rocked her gently back and forth.

  Within a few minutes, which seemed like hours, Amelia’s mother explained what happened.

  “The grain elevator exploded,” she explained. “It exploded and burst into flames. They said the explosion threw him and the flames engulfed him.”

  Her mother wiped tears from her face and tried to control her lip as it trembled. “His co-workers said they heard the explosion and rushed to help him. They said they extinguished the fire that covered him and called 911,” her mother said. She looked up at Amelia with tear-filled eyes. “They kept him alive until the ambulance got there.”

  Amelia covered her mouth as she gasped. She shook her head. “That’s horrible.”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. Zach wrapped his arms around her and her mother and held them close. He whispered words of comfort to them as they cried.

  “What’d the doctors say?” Amelia asked her mother for the second time. “Did they say he’ll be okay?”

  Amelia’s mother shrugged. “They don’t know yet. They won’t know until morning, if he makes it through the night.”

  Amelia turned and buried her face into Zach’s chest and allowed herself to finally break down. He wrappe
d his strong arms around her and held her up. She felt her as though her whole world had crumbled down around her.

  * * *

  “The doctor would like to have a word with you,” the nurse said as she stood in the entryway of the waiting room.

  Amelia opened her eyes and realized they had slept overnight in the waiting room. Amelia’s mother sat across from her with heavy bags under her eyes. She wondered if her mother had gotten any sleep. She doubted it. Her mother stood and walked out into the hallway with the nurse.

  “The chances of recovery are very slim,” the nurse explained. “They moved him into ICU last night.”

  Amelia got to her feet. She wobbled, but steadied herself. She walked into the hallway. She interrupted their conversation. “Can we see him?”

  The nurse frowned and said, “It’s best to let him get his rest. He’s highly medicated so he can rest comfortably. The doctor wants him to rest as much as he can today. He’s hoping that will allow his body to start the recovery process.”

  Amelia bit her tongue. Anger flared through her body, but she hid it the best she could. She nodded. She knew the nurses and doctors knew what they were doing. She needed to allow them to do their job. She needed what was best for her father.

  “When will we be able to see him?” Amelia asked. She was persistent in an answer. She wanted to see her father at some point. She needed verification he was okay. She wanted to tell him she loved him and that he couldn’t leave her. She watched the nurse shake her head and shrug her shoulders.

  “It’s kind of hard to answer that right now,” the nurse explained. “It all depends on how strong he is and if he can handle the company.”

  Amelia fought back tears. The thought of her father not being able to pull through crossed her mind several times within the last few minutes of this conversation.

  She thanked the nurse and returned to her seat in the waiting room. She silently prayed. She prayed her father would pull through this with the help from above and make it. She refused to think of a world without her father in it. Not now – not ever.