by Dawn Brower
He snorted. “Not likely.”
But he’d attempt to. Oh he’d try; he had no choice after all.
Chapter One
“Excuse me, Ms. Brosen,” Claire said as she knocked on the door. “You have a call on line one. It sounds important.”
Dani sighed and set down the motion she was reading over. She didn’t have time for interruptions. Her partner, Matthew Price, had been a no-show at the office. The case they were working on was both high profile and potentially career making. It could make or break their practice. He knew how important the motion was. He was late. It both irritated and worried her. Matt was usually reliable.
She lifted the receiver and placed it against her ear, and then pressed the button for line one. “Daniella Brosen, how can I help you?”
“This is Lana Kelly. I’m calling from Envill East.”
“Yes?” Why was someone from the hospital calling her? They didn’t deal with Malpractice cases...
“Matthew Price was brought in. You’re listed as his emergency contact. Could you come to the hospital?”
Panic seized her heart. Matthew was her only friend and if something had happened to him... How would she go on without him? He’d been her rock for so long. This couldn’t be happening. She’d finally managed to feel safe and content with her lot in life. Without Matt, it might fall apart all over again. She reminded herself to breathe. It’d do no good to suspect the worst before she had all the information. The hard question needed to be asked, even if she was afraid of the answer.
“Is he...”
Lana interrupted her, “He’s fine—or well—as okay as he’s going to be for now. The doctor can explain more when you get here.”
Dani gulped. She could handle this. She dealt with more complicated problems in court. Her friend needed her and she would go to him. The case could wait. It was minor in comparison. She wasn’t about to lose another friend. Leaving her best friend behind in high school had devastated her. An image of him floated through her mind, and she brushed it away. Thinking about him would only make things worse. She couldn’t let her old doubts fill her now. Matt’s condition was an immediate concern. The things she couldn’t change had to stay firmly where they belonged...in the past.
She shook her head clear and focused on the call. “I’ll be there shortly.”
“Come in through the emergency room. They can direct you where to go. Mr. Price isn’t in a room yet.”
“Who should I ask for?” She hated to go into a situation with little to no details. The least she could do was figure out who to direct her questions to. This woman wasn’t being forthcoming at all. Dani was on the brink of becoming pissed off.
“Ask to be taken to Mr. Price. When the doctor has time, he’ll come by and speak with you,” she replied briskly.
Dani reluctantly agreed and set the phone back down on the receiver. She stood and realized she forgot to ask who Matt’s doctor was. She would have to remember to do so when she arrived at the hospital. Information was power, something she learned the hard way in law school. The more she had, the better equipped she was to handle a situation. If she was going to take care of Matt, she had to learn everything she could about his circumstances.
“Claire, hold all my calls and reschedule any appointments for either Matt or myself for next week.” She paused and revised her statement, “Wait, for Matt don’t reschedule at all. Cancel them and let them know we will call them back when we are able to reschedule.”
She lifted her head to meet Dani’s gaze. “Is everything all right?”
“I’m not sure.” Dani bit her lip. A rush of anxiety filled her. “Something happened to Matt. I don’t have the facts yet. When I know more, I will let you know. I’m heading to the hospital now.”
Claire nodded. “I will handle the office. Please tell Matt...” She frowned and shook her head, appearing to rethink her words. “Call me when you get a handle on the situation.”
Dani didn’t have time to figure out what that little slip meant. Claire seemed to be even more anxious than she was. What was going on between Claire and Matt? When she had the chance she’d have to ask him. It could be her imagination.
It took her twenty achingly long minutes to get to the hospital. She ran into the emergency room after she parked her car. Tears burned at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill freely. She fought them. They were a sign of weakness and she refused to give into them. Matt would be fine. He would. If she kept telling herself that she might actually believe it.
“I got a call from a...” What was that woman’s name? Damn it, she forgot. The woman hadn’t been helpful, and she had a name that wasn’t easy to remember too. “It started with an L. Lisa... Laura...” She was usually much better with details. Dani waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. Matthew Price was brought in. I’m his emergency contact.”
The nurse handling admittance in the emergency room typed away at her computer. She was probably used to frantic people in search of their loved ones. She didn’t appear fazed at Dani’s inability to remember the other woman’s name.
She stood up and gestured. “Follow me. I will take you to Mr. Price.”
Dani trailed behind her until they reached a set of double doors. The nurse lifted her identification card and held it against an electronic panel. The doors slid open to let them on the other side. Dani followed her down a few halls and into an exam room. Loud steady beeps from monitors filled the entire area. Matt lay upon the bed, still and silent. What was visible of his body appeared to be an immense bruise of various shades of purple and blue. His eyes and the entire top of his head were covered with white gauze, and his left arm was splinted and wrapped.
“What happened?” Dani turned to the nurse. It hurt to look at him. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat and asked, “What’s wrong with him?”
The nurse shook her head. Her mouth was set into a firm line. “I’m not at liberty to say. I’ll let the doctor know you’ve arrived.”
She hated not having answers. It was a simple question. The nurse should be able to tell her what happened to him. She might not be able to disclose his exact condition, but surely she knew how he came to be injured in the first place. Dani reined in her frustration. It wouldn’t do any good to interrogate the nurse. The answers would be given to her as soon as the doctor came to see her. Until then, she would remain patient.
“Will Matt regain consciousness?” Dani could feel tears threatening to fall again. “He looks so...is he in pain?”
“He is sedated and has been given something for the pain. He’s comfortable.” The nurse shook her head again. “I can’t give you any more details. I promise I’ll let the doctor know you’re here. He can explain it in more detail and tell you what we need from you.”
Dani grabbed a chair and pulled it up to his bedside. She lifted his uninjured hand into hers and held it against her cheek. “Please have the doctor come in as soon as possible. I need to know what is wrong with my friend.”
The nurse nodded and left the room.
“What’s going on Matt?” She rubbed his hand with hers. She wanted to hug him tight against her and not let go. “What mess did you get yourself into?”
Matt had been her friend since the early days of college. They even went to the same law school together. After leaving her hometown of Hope Beach, and a foster family she’d been happy to forget, Matt had been a breath of life she’d not realized she needed. She’d been so lonely until she met him. He’d been her rock, the center she’d been craving to keep her balanced. Dani had grown up in a series of foster homes and never had a stable home life. Her last set of foster parents were not the loving sort, and she’d been ready to run as soon as she graduated. Only one person would have kept her in town, and he’d found someone else to build a family with.
It was her fault. She’d loved him and gave him her heart the moment she laid eyes on him. He was kind, generous, and oh so handsome. He was her first friend and the only ma
n she would ever love. But he wasn’t hers. Not anymore, and never in the way she’d dreamed of. It was her fault. If she hadn’t been afraid to lose him... In the end she lost him anyway. She thought if she had him as a friend it would be enough.
Until he fell in love with someone else...
Dani hadn’t factored that part in. How could she remain friends with him and get in the way of his relationship. It was clear the other woman in his life didn’t like or trust her. A part of Dani didn’t blame her. It had to have been obvious how much she loved Ren. If their roles had been in reverse, she’d have acted the same way. So, for him, she left. She never looked back and wished him all the happiness in the world. He was nothing but a memory now, albeit a painful one.
Matt was her present. A friend she didn’t fear losing her heart to. It had been given away to someone she never planned on seeing again. Matt had a much more stable and special place in her life. “Please be all right,” she whispered. She loved Matt, but not as a woman loved a man. He was the one person she cared about, and she would move Heaven and Earth to make sure he would pull through the hell he now found himself in. Matt was all that mattered. Sometimes she wished she still had a heart to give him. Loving Matt could be so easy if she didn’t still love another man.
The man who would always be in her heart, the one she’d love until the day she died. Dani believed soul mate’s existed. There were different kinds for different reasons. She met the love of her life when she was a teenager. In a different time or place maybe they would have had a chance. Circumstances and her bad decisions separated them forever. She was lonely until she met Matt. He was another version of her soul mate. The true best friend she could lean on. She loved him in a different way, but never in the romantic sense.
“So the nurse tells me you’re Mr. Price’s emergency contact.”
A voice filled the room. It was as familiar as breathing. She would have known it anywhere. It haunted her dreams and sneaked into her thoughts when she least expected it. For a brief moment she thought she might be hearing things. Had she conjured up his voice because she’d been thinking of him earlier? No, that was silly. There was no way he could actually be behind her. Dani turned slowly and blinked several times. She could feel the color draining from her cheeks. This couldn’t be happening to her. “Ren?”
“Dr. Sousa, I forgot to give you Mr. Price’s chart.” A nurse with dark auburn hair and soft brown eyes bustled in and handed him a file.
Ren stared at Dani and didn’t say a word for several seconds. He studied her in awkward silence. He was almost exactly as she remembered him. His hair was a bit shorter, and his blue eyes stole her breath. It was Ren. Having him near always had that effect on her. He turned toward the nurse, took the file out of her hand, and dismissed her with a nod. “Thank you, Lana.”
Lana...that was the woman who’d called her office. Dani filed her name away for future reference. She was pretty, petite, and had a no-nonsense attitude. Something Dani appreciated. The nurse nodded and left the room. Leaving Ren alone with her. He set the file down and walked over to her side. The silence in the room was palpable. She had no idea what to say to him and still wasn’t completely convinced he was real. Hallucinations had never plagued her before, but there was always a first time for everything...
“Dani, I didn’t realize...I should have asked Lana for a name.”
Real. Definitely real. She gulped down a lump in her throat. Hell how was she supposed to deal with Ren, and Matt’s situation at the same time? This was an overwhelming emotional circumstance, and she wasn’t entirely sure she was up to dealing with it. She sent up a silent prayer for strength.
She shook her head. “There was no way for you to know.” This was all too much. Matt was hurt and Ren was his doctor. How could life have set her on this path? Her two best friends—one’s life depended on the other.
Was this the fate’s way of making her face her past?
She cleared her throat and turned away from him. It hurt to look at him. He looked as amazing as she remembered. A golden-brown haired god with ocean blue eyes, pain stabbed in tiny pinpricks against her already aching heart.
“What do you need from me?”
Ren didn’t answer her. Had he remained in the room with her? She didn’t want to turn around and look, but he was forcing her to face him. Why did she have to deal with this? Normally she could handle anything... This was too much in one breath of time for her. The tears she’d been holding back were about to come crashing forward.
Her breath hitched as she turned to look at him. All the love she had been carrying around for him—it was still there. He was a walking reminder of what she didn’t have. His gaze held such concern for her.
“Dani, perhaps we should go to my office to discuss this.”
Hearing her name spoken in his voice was almost her undoing. They’d stepped into an easy pattern of familiarity, but they knew next to nothing about each other anymore. They had a past. That was it.
“Does it matter where we talk about Matt?” She looked down at her friend. “The nurse said he was sedated. I doubt he will hear any of it.”
What she didn’t say was she needed the buffer. She didn’t know what she would say or do if she was completely alone with him. Sure Matt wasn’t about to jump into the conversation, but he was better than talking about the elephant in the room. Her feelings for Ren, his lack of them for her, and the fact she’d disappeared from his life so many years ago. She hadn’t even said goodbye. It would have been too difficult to face him and explain why she couldn’t be in his life anymore. Jessica needed him to devote all his attention to her. Dani would have been in the way. Leaving was the only decision she could have made.
“I think you will be more comfortable there discussing his condition,” he replied softly. “I have a lot to go over with you.”
Ren had always been kind. This wasn’t about her. Matt’s condition had to be more important. It was time for her to suck it up and deal with her emotional overload. Ren wasn’t going to bite her head off. It wasn’t who he was.
“Fine, lead the way, Dr. Sousa.”
Dani had to put up barriers and ignore her rampant emotions. He couldn’t be Ren anymore. He was Matt’s doctor and nothing more. Her feelings on the matter were irrelevant.
About the Author
Dawn Brower holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a Master of Arts in Education, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Arts with concentrations in Literature, History, and Sociology. She works as a substitute teacher and enjoys the flexibility it gives her to concentrate on her other endeavors.
Growing up she was the only girl out of six children. She is a single mother of two teenage boys; there is never a dull moment in her life. Reading books is her favorite hobby. While she loves all genres she focuses most of her writing on historical and contemporary romance.
There are always stories inside her head; she just never thought she could make them come to life. That creativity has finally found an outlet.
For more information visit her website at: http://www.authordawnbrower.com/
Books by Dawn Brower
Broken Pearl
Deadly Benevolence
Don’t Happen Twice
A Wallflower’s Christmas Kiss
Marsden Romances
A Flawed Jewel
A Crystal Angel
A Treasured Lily
A Sanguine Gem
A Hidden Ruby
A Discarded Pearl
Novak Springs
Cowgirl Fever
Dirty Proof
Unbridled Pursuit
Sensual Games
Christmas Temptation
Linked Across Time
Saved by My Blackguard
Searching for My Rogue
Seduction of My Rake
Surrendering to My Spy
Spellbound by My Charmer
Coming Soon
Stolen by My Knave
Heart’s Intent
>
One Heart to Give
Unveiled Hearts
Coming Soon
Heart of the Moment
