by Abbi Glines
We were almost to the curve that I knew was going to lead back to the parking lot when Slate’s hand slipped around my upper arm. Stopping, I looked at him, confused.
“You hear that?” he whispered.
I went very still and listened, but I didn’t hear anything. So I shook my head.
He tugged me closer to his chest, then bent his head down close to my ear. “Listen. You sure?”
I was beginning to get a little nervous. I knew there were bears out here and I didn’t want to meet one up close and personal. But as hard as I listened, I didn’t hear anything other than the water from the stream and a few birds.
“I don’t hear anything unusual,” I finally said as quietly as I could.
He nodded. “Good. Me, either.” Then he settled his hands onto my hips and pulled me tightly to him before covering my mouth with his.
The smile that tugged at my lips was reciprocated by his own smile. He’d tricked me, but I liked this kind of trick. Kissing Slate was something I thought about often. Today it had crossed my mind at least every thirty seconds. He had the kind of mouth that made you think about kissing.
When he pulled back, his heated gaze was locked on mine. “You trust me?”
I did. Completely. So I nodded.
Then he reached for the hem of my shirt and pulled it up and over my head, leaving me standing there in my sports bra. “I want to see all of you.”
The way his voice went all deep and thick when he said it made it impossible for me to think that getting naked in a public place was a bad idea. Again, I followed his lead. Because I wanted it, too.
I slipped the sports bra off and tossed it to the leaves at our feet. I couldn’t meet his gaze again, though. I felt my chest flush as my hands went to my leggings. He didn’t let me get that far, though, before his hands were cradling my face and he was kissing me again.
I leaned into him and my breasts brushed his chest, causing me to shiver from the contact. The only thing that could have been better was if he was also shirtless. I reached for his shirt, and grabbing handfuls, I began to pull it up until he stepped back just enough to let me take it completely off him.
This time, when I pressed against him the warmth of his skin sent delicious tingles through me. His groan of pleasure made me try to get even closer. This was so much more than I had ever imagined. Being with Slate was exhilarating. It felt right. Like nothing else could ever be this perfect.
His hands went to my pants and began tugging them slowly down my hips, until we had to break the kiss for me to slip off my boots, let the leggings fall to my ankles, and step out of them. I was only in my panties now, and Slate stood back. His nostrils flared as he took me in.
“You’re too good for me. I’ve known it since the moment I laid eyes on you. Too perfect, too beautiful, too untouchable.”
No. I wasn’t. I wasn’t perfect at all. I reached a hand out and began to unsnap his hiking shorts. “I disagree,” I said simply.
His hand covered mine and he said my name in a sigh. “If you do that, I’ll want more. It’s taking all my self-control not to grab you and press you against that tree and lose my fucking mind just from being inside you.”
The way he said it wasn’t pretty, but they were real words. Descriptive words—and I wanted it. My body was pulsing for it. “Please,” I said without any fear. Because I didn’t fear Slate. I trusted him.
“Vale,” he whispered in a choked voice. I continued with his shorts until they were at his feet. Then I began tugging my panties down as I watched him. I was being brave. I was being more wanton than I’d ever been in my life. Even with Crawford I’d never been this brave. When we’d had sex, it had been shy and almost awkward at times.
I was naked outside with a man and I wanted it. This was different.
He finished undressing himself, then paused. He reached for his shorts and pulled out a condom from his wallet. I didn’t question that. This was Slate Allen. And I was thankful he was prepared. Protection had been the last thing on my mind, but knowing he was trying to keep me safe meant something.
He scooped up his discarded shirt, and then picked me up as he began kissing me again, walking us back to a picnic table. When he set me down on my feet, he placed his shirt on the table, then put his hands on my hips and lifted me onto the shirt. “I imagined this. A million fucking times. Each time, you were somewhere special. Not on a picnic table in the woods.”
His words made me smile. I couldn’t think of anywhere more perfect. I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips. “This is exactly what I imagined,” I teased, making him chuckle.
“God, I want you.” His voice was harsh as he pulled me tightly against him, pressing my breasts flush against his chest. My thighs opened, and I could feel his erection pressing exactly where I needed it to be. “Please,” I begged, lifting my hips.
He slipped inside me then, and I knew my world would never be the same. I grabbed his arms and threw my head back as he filled me over and over again. The sweet friction and heat from his body made me crazy for more.
“Fuck,” he groaned as I rocked my hips hard against him, needing it all. That was the only invitation he needed to make his thrusts deeper, with more power. Exactly what I needed. I told him so and he said my name in a hoarse whisper.
I lifted my legs to press my knees against his hip bones and he slid even farther inside me, making us both cry out.
“Fucking heaven,” he said, grabbing my hips and getting rougher with me as his eyes dilated to the point that the green was gone. He looked like a man lost to his own pleasure, and that sent me over the edge. I fell back on my hands and lifted my hips as I screamed his name, and I’m pretty sure God was mentioned too as my body was racked with wave after wave of euphoria.
Slate’s roar of release was the sexiest thing I’d ever heard. His fingers bit into my skin and I hoped they left marks. To remind me how beautiful this was.
When my breathing finally slowed, I was being gathered into his arms as he slowly pulled out of me. I wrapped my arms around his back, and we stayed like that for several seconds. I couldn’t imagine anything ruining this moment. It was even better than I’d expected.
“I’m in love with you.” Slate’s words should have shocked me. But they didn’t. Not after that. I had felt it. This was the change in my life I never saw coming. It was the gift I didn’t know I wanted. My path had just turned into something different. And I was happy.
If only this moment could last forever.
But eventually, like with all good dreams … you have to wake up.
PART TWO
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
—Theodore Roethke, “The Waking”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
VALE
IT WAS BLURRY. What was blurry I don’t know, but I had a hard time focusing. There were noises around me I didn’t understand and I felt strapped down. Opening my mouth, I tried to say something, when I heard a voice shout loud enough to leave a ringing in my ears.
“She’s awake!”
Who’s awake? I wondered. Then, in my vision, I saw someone I knew. A face that gave me reassurance. My mother.
“Vale? Sweetheart?” Her voice was becoming clear and she was talking softer now. I liked the way her voice made me feel.
I was Vale McKinley. I knew that, too. So why didn’t I know where I was or what was happening?
“Jonathon, go call the boys,” my mother said. Jonathon was my dad and the boys were my brothers. There were four of them. Dylan, Michea, Jonah, and Knox. Why was she calling them?
“Mom,” I said finally, and my throat felt raw as I said the words.
“Shhh, don’t talk just yet,” she said as she looked down at me with tears in her eyes. I noticed her face was thinner, with dark circles under her eyes. Was she sick?
I started to ask, when two women and a man moved my mother out of the way and began working aro
und me. Talking to me and calling me by name. It took me a moment to realize they were nurses. Turning my head, I finally noticed my surroundings and realized this was a hospital.
Why am I here?
The screeching of tires and my own scream suddenly replayed in my ears, and I saw the terror on Crawford’s face before everything went black. Then I remembered nothing. Crawford. Where was Crawford? I had to find him. He was hurt.
“She’s trying to get up,” a nurse said, as another one put her hands on me and eased me back down. “Not so fast. You can’t move just yet.”
“Crawford,” I said in a raspy whisper, and began struggling against them to get free. I had to find Crawford.
The nurses holding me down were talking gently to me in words I wasn’t listening to. Where was my mom? I had to get to Crawford. The truck was coming straight at us. I remembered that. He had been so scared.
“Honey, sweetheart, please.” Mom’s voice was there again, leaning over me, and her hand was on my forehead as she caressed me in what I knew was her calming manner.
“Crawford,” I said again.
She glanced up at the nurses.
“The doctor is on the way,” one nurse assured my mother.
What did the doctor have to do with this? I had been asleep. I was awake now and I needed to see Crawford. I knew he was hurt.
“He needs to hurry,” my mother said, sounding upset. She looked so sick. Why was she here with me when she needed to be in bed?
“Mom,” I said.
“Baby, please don’t try to talk yet. Just wait on the doctor.”
“The boys are on their way.” My father’s voice, then he was there over me, too. “Hey, baby girl. It’s about time you woke up. I’ve been missing you something fierce.”
Those words made my eyes tear up and I wasn’t sure if that was because I missed him, too, or because I was scared. Scared of what I was about to find out. Scared of what I didn’t know.
“Daddy,” I said, and he bent down and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“You’re okay. God took care of you and you’re gonna be okay.” He said the words like he was reassuring himself and not me.
“Crawford,” I said, and like my mother had done, he lifted his eyes to look toward her, then the nurses.
“Sleeping Beauty is awake,” a new, deep voice said, and both my parents took a step back. I wanted them near me. They were all I knew. All I remembered.
“She’s asking about Crawford,” my mother said, and he nodded with a smile.
“She has her memory. That’s something to be thankful for. Does she know who she is?”
“Yes, and she knows us,” my father said.
“She’s been asking about Crawford and trying to talk,” the blond nurse added.
The doctor was a young man with red hair and kind eyes. I felt at ease with him, but I wanted answers … and if someone didn’t give them to me I was getting up out of this bed. I moved my legs and watched as they both shifted under the covers. That was good.
The doctor looked over at the machines I was hooked up to, then back at me. “I’m Dr. Haufman, but so is my father, so I prefer to just go by Dr. Charlie with clients I’ve been working with for an extended period of time. And you would qualify as such. Now let’s check some of that memory. Do you remember your phone number?” Dr. Charlie asked. Why would he ask me something like that? It wasn’t important.
But as I started to speak, I realized I didn’t know it. But I knew my address. So I told him that instead.
“She’s going to have some gaps in her memory. That’s normal, but it appears she knows the big things.”
I pushed up with both my arms again and looked at my mother. “Where is Crawford?” I asked, my voice getting more strength.
“Get her some ice and a little water to sip on,” the doctor told a nurse. Then he glanced back at me. “This is Nurse Everly. She and Nurse Mae have been your two most frequent nurses over the past month. You’ll be seeing a lot of them.”
Nurse Everly had long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. She reminded me of a Barbie doll. I wanted to ask about Crawford again.
My throat was so dry.
“It’s best that she know everything now. She remembers,” the doctor said, then looked at me.
“Sip on some water. You’ve had tubes in your throat until last night when you began moving and moaning. We have been expecting you to awaken. Your throat will be raw for a while. Taking small sips of water through a straw will help ease it. If you feel like it later, we will send up some ice cream.”
This was not the answer I was wanting. Wait … tubes?
“Why tubes?” I asked.
The doctor walked around and sat down on the edge of the bed like he was an old friend there for a chat. “You’ve been in a coma, Vale. For one month and three days. You were in a car accident that I think you might remember,” he said, pausing for me to respond.
The redheaded nurse handed me a plastic cup of ice water with a straw. I took a sip. I needed it to help me talk. The cold liquid shocked my throat, but eased the pain some. I took a few more sips. Then I put the cup down.
“Crawford. The truck wasn’t stopping,” I said, thinking about the truck that looked like it had lost control, barreling straight at us. It had come over on our side of the two-way road, and I remembered Crawford jerking the wheel so that the truck would hit him, not me, or the front of the car. But just his side. Then he’d looked at me, and the terror in his eyes was all I remembered.
“The truck you remember was because of a truck driver who had fallen asleep. The truck was coming at you, and Crawford turned the car to the right. In doing so, he saved your life.”
“We’ll call him. He’s fine. He just visited a few days ago. Right now, though, you need to calm down, baby.”
He visited a few days ago? That sounded odd. Not like Crawford at all. Where was he?
“I called Crawford.” Knox’s voice filled the room. “He’s at practice. I left him a message.”
Practice? I was confused. Practice where? For what?
Mom nodded as if that made sense, and she ran her hand over my head to soothe me. “It’s so good to see your eyes.”
Knox came up beside her. “Hey,” he said simply, and his eyes were instantly filled with tears.
“Hey,” I repeated, now worried about him. I had never seen Knox cry. Not even when he broke his collarbone in middle school.
“About time you woke up. First year of college starts soon. Can’t have you missing that. Not after all the planning and preparing you’ve done for it.”
College. I was going to college. I tried to remember more, but my head began to pound and I winced.
“Looks like that’s enough stimulation for now,” Dr. Charlie said.
“Let’s give her some quiet time to adjust and rest. The other family will be in here soon, I assume.”
Mom nodded but didn’t move from my side. “Is it safe for her to close her eyes so soon?” She sounded panicked.
“Yes. She’s awake now. The coma is over.”
Those words replayed in my head as I drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
VALE
THE NEXT TIME my eyes opened, my room was full. Dylan, my oldest brother, stood by the window looking out. Michea, the next oldest, was sitting on the edge of my bed with a remote control in his hand, watching TV. Jonah, who was supposed to be on active duty in the military, was here standing with his arms crossed over his chest, also watching TV. Knox was staring at his phone as he sat on the sofa beside my dad.
It was my mother who saw my eyes were open and stood from her chair to come to me. “Hey, honey,” she said gently.
Her face was so thin it worried me. She seemed to have aged ten years since my graduation. I wanted to ask her about it, but then I remembered.
“There she is,” Dylan said, walking over to stand on the other side of me. “You went back to sleep before I could get here an
d see those baby-blue eyes.” His hand covered mine and squeezed. He had dark circles under his eyes, too. I took in the room and the people I loved in it and saw tired faces. They had suffered. Because of me.
“How are the girls?” I asked, my throat raw again.
My mother reached down and pressed a button to sit me up more before bringing the ice water back to my mouth without my even asking.
“Both Maddy and Malyn miss you terribly. They know you’re awake, and they may drive Catherine crazy until we bring them here. I just didn’t think you were ready for all that excitement just yet.”
I wanted to see my nieces. And my sister-in-law, Catherine. “Tell her to bring them.”
Dylan nodded and bent down to kiss my head. “Never been so happy to see you awake in my life. Scared us, little girl.”
I managed to smile.
“Stop hogging her. Hell, I’ve been gone for six months. It’s my turn,” Jonah said, moving our older brother out of the way. The last time I had seen Jonah was Christmas, when he got to come home for two nights. His buzzed haircut was so hard to get used to. He’d always had a head full growing up. Wearing it to his shoulders most of the time.
“I missed you,” I told him.
His eyes seemed glassy, like he had unshed tears, and my heart hurt for him. For all of them. If one of them had been in the hospital, I would have felt the same way. We were all so close.
“Missed you, too,” he said as he squeezed my hand.
“Turns out they give you an excused leave when your baby sister is in a coma.”
Coma. That word seemed so foreign, yet familiar. I’d been in a coma.
“When was the wreck?” I asked.
Jonah looked up at our mother, who still stood on my other side.
“The night of graduation.” Her voice was soft.
I remembered that. “So it’s July now?” I asked.
