Back to You

by Hunter J. Keane

I offered to help Evan with the dishes, but he refused. He shooed me upstairs with a firm pat on my bottom. After I’d redressed in my own clothes, I went into the bathroom to splash some water on my face and smooth down my hair. The woman looking back at me in the mirror wore a ridiculous smile.

  “Everyone is going to know I had sex with you,” I told Evan as he walked me to the door. “I can’t stop smiling like an idiot.”

  “Honestly, Elle, I think most people assumed we were already having sex.” Evan laughed at my shocked expression. “Well, the guys on the farm knew I was sneaking out of your place every morning. Des and Josh saw us together at the bar. The rest of the town saw us together very early on Saturday mornings.”

  “We were just friends,” I said. “Is that so hard for people to believe?”

  “Honey, we’ve never been just friends.” He gave me a quick hug and then opened the front door for me. I was amazed when he walked me out to my car, though I shouldn’t have been surprised. That was Evan’s style. “Tell Des I say hi,” he said, raising a hand to wave to a neighbor.

  If the town wasn’t already speculating about us, it would be now. Leaving Evan’s house in the middle of the day was hard to explain away. “I’ll be back soon,” I promised, kissing him goodbye. “Don’t go falling in love with any other ex-girlfriends while I’m gone.”

  He gave me an extra-long hug. “There. Now your own shirt should smell like me,” he said, pulling away with a wink.

  “Better than any perfume,” I said as I opened the car door. “Love you, Ev.”

  “I love you more, Elle.” He stepped back as I drove away.

  Desmond had asked me to meet him at a coffee shop close to his company’s main office. The Brew House was a cute, local place and the barista smiled warmly as I ordered my coffee. I had arrived before Desmond, so I selected a seat near the window and watched the locals stroll past. Starlight Valley really was an idyllic town. Evan texted me to let me know that he’d been called to the farm to help out with something and I should plan on meeting him at my place instead of his. I didn’t care as long as I got to see him again.

  When Desmond arrived, we chatted a bit about our lives before digging into work. It turned out that he had a son in Tommy’s class.

  “I have to admit, we were all surprised to see you and Evan together,” Desmond said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Surprised, but glad. The world feels right with the two of you together… assuming you are together?”

  “I actually just came here from Evan’s house,” I admitted. “He says hi, by the way.”

  “You’ve given the town gossips some good material,” Desmond said with a laugh. “We better start talking about business things or people might speculate about the two of us.”

  I laughed and reached into my bag for my laptop. “You’re probably right about that. It feels like someone is always watching in this town.”

  “That’s because they are.” He nodded almost imperceptibly to a table where two elderly women were drinking tea. “Mags and Lianne know everyone and everything. They also happen to be good friends with Norma.”

  “I better be on my best behavior then,” I said with a laugh.

  Desmond and I spent the next hour advising each other on our respective ventures. It felt good to be using my financial knowledge to help someone else and I was feeling better than ever about the decision to start a business.

  “If you are thinking of getting some office space, I know a guy who has some space. It’s right here around the corner, great location.” Desmond glanced at his watch. “I need to get back to work. Thanks so much, Elle. This has been incredibly helpful.”

  “Same,” I said, packing up my things.

  Desmond’s phone rang and he frowned as he looked at the screen. “I need to grab this.”

  “Sure. Of course.” I checked my own phone to see if Evan had texted again. When I looked back at Desmond, his face had gone white.

  “How bad is it?” he asked, mouth dropping open slightly at the response on the other end of the line. “The hospital? Yeah, I’m heading over now. Noelle is with me.”

  A chill ran through my body. Instinctively, I knew something bad had happened to Evan. “What happened?” I asked.

  “See you in twenty.” Desmond hung up and stood quickly. “We need to go. Evan was hurt in an accident on the farm. Josh says he’s in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.”

  “Ev.” I grabbed my bag and jumped up. “Is he going to be alright?”

  “I don’t know,” Desmond said. “Josh just said it was a bad accident. We need to get to the hospital.”

  I nodded and followed him outside. He insisted on driving me and I knew I was too shaken up to be behind the wheel of a car. Starlight was too small to host its own hospital, but we weren’t far from a bigger city that had a top-notch hospital. Desmond got us there in record time and we raced through the halls looking for someone to help us.

  “Des! Noelle!”

  Josh waved to us from a waiting room. I was surprised to see him wearing a police uniform. That explained how he had known about the accident. “They are working on him right now,” Josh said. “He needs surgery right away.”

  “What happened?” Desmond asked.

  “I don’t know all the details, but a tractor flipped over. Evan was pinned underneath.” Josh grimaced. “I don’t know how he’s even alive.”

  I’d been keeping it together until then. I’d forced myself to take deep breaths and repeat the manta that everything was going to be fine. I had done my best not to picture a worst-case scenario. But I couldn’t hold back any longer.

  The tears started to fall and Desmond put an arm around my shoulders. “Hey, he’ll be alright. Evan is the toughest guy I know.”

  “Officer Reynolds?”

  We all looked toward the door in time to see a worried-looking doctor step into the room. Josh led the way over. “How is he?”

  “We’ve taken him upstairs for surgery. He’s bleeding internally and we can’t find the source. He has some other injuries, but stopping the bleeding is our top priority.” The doctor glanced at me and Desmond. “I’ll have someone escort you to the surgical waiting room, but you should know that they will only give updates to family.”

  “Thanks, Doc. His aunt is on her way,” Josh said. “I’ll wait down here for Norma, but you two should go on to the waiting room.”

  We had been sitting in the waiting room for almost thirty minutes when Josh arrived with Norma. She took one look at me and gave me a big hug. “It’s going to be alright, dear.”

  “I know,” I said, even though I didn’t know that it would be alright. “Oh my gosh. The kids! I need to pick them up from school.”

  “Emily can get them. I’ll call and let her know,” Desmond said. “Call the school and the principal will make sure the kids know that you’ve approved them to be released to her. She’s planning to come here anyway after she drops our kids off with their grandparents. She’ll bring the kids here for you.”

  I nodded, grateful that I’d found such good friends so many years ago. After calling the school, I felt a little better. At least I knew that they would be in good hands with Emily. We were still in the waiting room when Emily walked in, flanked by two worried-looking children.

  “Aunt Noelle!” Tommy rushed forward and threw himself onto my lap. “Is Evan okay?”

  “I don’t know, kiddo.” I put my arms around him and buried my face in his hair. “He is still getting fixed in surgery.”

  “But he’s going to be okay, right?” Madison asked nervously.

  I pulled her into the chair next to mine and put my arm around her. “The doctors will do their best. Evan is a fighter, so I’m sure he will pull through.”

  “Good,” Tommy said, lifting his head. “I like Evan.”

  “I know.” I forced a smile. “I do, too. We just have to wait until the doctor comes.”

  “I hate waiting,” Madison grumbled.

  I knew she w
as remembering her parents’ car accident. Stephanie had been killed on impact, but David had been flown to the hospital for surgery. We’d waited for hours to hear whether the surgery had been successful and ultimately, we’d just been waiting to be devastated.

  “I have a great plan,” I said. “Why don’t you guys start working on your homework? That will be way more fun than waiting.”

  Madison glared at me. “You are a masochist.”

  “If you do your homework, you’ll learn even more fun words like that,” I said.

  They both eventually settled at the table in the corner of the room with books in front of them. Emily had been standing with Desmond, embracing sweetly, but now she came over and took the seat that Madison had vacated.

  “They are good kids,” she said as she looked at them. “You’ve done a great job with them.”

  “No, I can’t take credit for them. I’ve only had them for a year,” I said.

  “Noelle, don’t you see what you’ve done for them? Those kids lost their parents. You gave up your life to raise them and you packed up everything to move here and give them the kind of life their parents would’ve wanted them to have.” Emily smiled at me. “I think you can take a little credit for how well they are doing.”

  “David and Stephanie were amazing parents. I mean, they helped raise me. I could never pretend to be anything like them.” I often found myself comparing my parenting style to theirs and never being satisfied with the comparison.

  “They adore you,” Emily said, patting my hand. “That’s really all we can hope for as parents.”

  I’d never considered myself a parent. I thought of myself as their guardian who was occasionally forced to do some parenting. “I don’t want to keep doing this alone,” I said quietly. “I was really looking forward to sharing this part of my life with Evan.”

  “You will,” Emily said firmly, putting an arm around my shoulders.

  The doctor didn’t come with an update for another hour and we were all on edge. When he stepped into the room, all of us rushed forward.

  “Whoa. I need to speak with family only,” the doctor said.

  “These people are family,” Norma responded firmly.

  He sighed. “Fine. Evan is out of surgery. He suffered a very severe injury and lost a lot of blood. We were able to stop the bleeding, but we really won’t know the extent of the injury until he’s had a chance to heel a bit.” The doctor wouldn’t quite look any of us in the eye. “There was some damage to his spine. It’s possible that he may be paralyzed.”

  Norma gasped loudly and her knees buckled. Desmond swooped an arm around her and Josh pulled over a chair. As they got her situated, I asked. “Can we see him?”

  “We’re moving him to the intensive care unit. Once he’s settled, we’ll allow a visitor to sit with him. Usually that would be a family member.” He looked at Norma.

  “No. It should be Noelle. Evan would want it to be her,” Norma said, giving me a firm look that left no room for argument.

  Emily came over to me. “Let me take Norma and the kids home. There’s no sense for them to sit in this hospital all night.”

  “I can’t send the kids home alone,” I said.

  “They won’t be alone,” Norma protested. “They’ll be with me. We’ll take care of each other while you take care of my Evan.”

  Madison nodded. “You should be here in case he wakes up.”

  “Okay then. Promise me you will be good for Norma. Go to bed early tonight.”

  “I’ll swing by and pick them up when I’m taking the kids to school,” Emily said, giving me a tight hug. “Don’t worry about them.”

  “Yeah right,” I said.

  A nurse stepped into the room and asked me to follow her. I gave the kids and Norma each a long hug and then headed down the hall. I was ushered past a lot of sterile rooms.

  “He’s still mostly out of it,” the nurse said. “He may open his eyes for you, but it will likely be a while before he’s full awake.”

  I was frozen in the doorway. Evan was lying stiffly on the hospital bed, looking far too fragile and broken with wires and tubes running everywhere. I took slow steps toward the bed and reached out tentatively to cover his hand with my own.

  “Ev,” I said, leaning closer. A tear slipped from my eye and landed on the pillow next to him. I brushed my hand over his forehead and pressed my lips against his cold skin. “I’m right here, Ev. Take whatever time you need, just promise you’ll come back to me. I’ll wait for you.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  E ventually, I pulled a chair next to Evan’s bed and sat watching him for most of the night. His fingers twitched a few times in my hand and his eyelashes fluttered, but he didn’t wake up. Just before sunrise, exhaustion overtook me and I fell asleep leaning forward in the chair with my head on his chest. In my dazed sleep, it felt like someone was stroking my head. When I finally opened my eyes again, I realized it hadn’t been a dream.

  “Ev?” I turned slowly. His hand was moving slowly over my head. “Honey, are you awake?”

  “Elle.”

  I shot up straight and nearly cried out when I saw that his eyes were open. His beautiful, amazing blue eyes were staring right at me. “Evan, thank god. I’ve been so worried.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “You’re in the hospital, Ev. There was an accident on the farm and you were badly injured.” I touched his cheek. “You almost died, love.”

  He looked at me blankly. “You should’ve know I’d never leave you like that, Elle.”

  “Silly me,” I said, wiping futilely at the tears leaking from my eyes. “I thought I was going to lose you, Evan.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, raising a shaking hand to touch my cheek. “Please, don’t cry. I don’t want you to cry over me.”

  “They are happy tears,” I insisted.

  Evan started to appraise his situation for the first time, noting the beeping monitors and IV’s running to and from his body. “How bad is it, Elle? Be honest.”

  “You had a lot of internal bleeding. They had to operate.” I hesitated, not sure if I should continue, but Evan had asked me to be honest and I didn’t want to lie to him. “The doctor thinks your spinal cord was damaged, but we won’t know how badly until some of the inflammation goes down.”

  He nodded slowly to himself before asking in a clear voice. “Am I paralyzed?”

  “We don’t know.” I took his hand and held it to my chest. “It’s going to be okay though, Ev. No matter what.”

  His eyes drifted closed and I kissed his forehead again. He was clearly still feeling affected by the sedative he’d been given and I had no idea if he’d understood what I’d just told him. Part of me hoped that he hadn’t, but I also didn’t want to have to tell him all over again when he woke up.

  Once I was sure he was sleeping, I stepped into the hall and called Norma to give her an update and check on the kids. The doctor stopped by after that on his morning rounds and Evan opened his eyes again. This time, he seemed more coherent. The doctor explained what I had already told him about the damage to his spine.

  “We’ll be keeping a close eye on it. Once some of the inflammation goes down, we’ll know if you’re going to regain mobility.” The doctor squeezed Evan’s foot.

  “I can feel that,” Evan said.

  “That’s a good sign,” the doctor replied calmly. “Just get some rest and don’t push it. The last thing we want is for you to pull something internally and start bleeding again.” He turned to me. “I’ll stop by in the afternoon, but mostly we’ll just be waiting for him to recover before we do any assessments.”

  I nodded. “Thank you, Doctor.”

  “You really shouldn’t have smiled at him like that,” Evan said when the doctor was gone. “You gave him the wrong idea.”

  “What? Those drugs are making you talk silly.” I settled on the edge of the bed and pulled Evan’s hand into my lap.

  “I’m serious
, Elle. That smile of yours is a deadly weapon.” Evan tried to smile, but it didn’t hide the flash of pain in his eyes.

  “What’s wrong? Am I hurting you?” I hurriedly checked to make sure I wasn’t touching any part of his injured body. I put a hand on his leg, the one place where I knew he hadn’t been injured.

  “No.” He squeezed my hand. “It’s just a general pain from having a tractor fall on me.”

  I sighed. “How can you say that so casually? You could’ve died.”

  “I’m sorry I worried you, love.” Evan blinked a few times, fighting away sleep. “Everything is going to be fine. I promise.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked quietly.

  He smiled as he closed his eyes. “Because I can feel your hand on my leg.”

  Evan remained in the ICU for three more days. In that time, I bounced continuously between home and the hospital. Emily and Desmond helped out a bunch with school drop-offs and pickups and Norma let the kids stay with her at night so I could be with Evan. Once he was moved to the rehabilitation wing, Evan insisted I go home at night to get the kids back on a normal schedule.

  His inflammation had gone down considerably and he was able to start his rehab program. After dropping the kids at school a week after the accident, I got to the hospital just in time to see Evan stand for the first time.

  “Look at you,” I said as a wave of relief rolled through me.

  “It bodes well for me that you’re so easily impressed,” Evan joked.

  His physical therapist was smiling, too. She was a middle-aged woman with strong arms and pretty, green eyes. “Go slow. Don’t show off for the pretty lady.”

  “If I can’t show off for you, Denise, can I at least show off for my girlfriend?” Evan said, giving her a flirty smile.

  “Nice try, Evan.” Denise rolled her eyes. “Your flattery won’t help. I’m still going to make you do all the exercises.”

  When Denise was finished torturing Evan, she helped him get situated on the bed in a seated position. It was good to see Evan sitting up again after laying flat on his back for a week.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.