by Lexi Whitlow
I’ll never forget the bright smile on her father’s face when he clapped me on the back and asked me if he could be part of the ring shopping I did for his daughter.
How the hell could I say no to him for that?
“Mrs. August? Everything alright?” I asked.
“Oh God, Axel. It is you. I didn’t realize you and Julie were still in touch like this.”
“I’m not sure what you mean…?” I asked.
“I’m calling from Julie’s phone, Axel.”
She said it like a fact. Like I should’ve known who was calling. I had no idea what she thought, but my gut reaction was that Julie was up to her old antics again. Creating lies and spinning webs so no one would backlash on her when they found out she was bed-hopping with her college sweetheart on a whim because she was bored and home. I needed to give her more credit, though. When she started crying on the couch in my trailer about how sorry she was, she seemed sincere.
And then, she uttered five distinct words that ripped me from the rush of questions running through my head that shivered me to my core.
“Axel, there’s been an accident.”
“Where’s Julie?” I asked lowly.
“She uh… she's... we’re-... at the hospital. She’s-”
Julie’s mom started sobbing on the phone, and that’s when I heard rustling on the other end. A gruff voice, one I’d never forget so long as I lived, picked up the talking on the phone while I rushed around and grabbed everything I needed to get to the hospital in town.
Something has happened to Julie, and I felt a protective need to get to her.
“Axel? It’s Barber.”
“Hello, Mr. August. What the hell’s happened? Where’s Julie?”
“Julie’s in a medically-induced coma. She, uh… came to the stables in town and Bradley set her up on a ride.”
“Why is she in a coma!?” I roared into the phone. I unlocked my truck and ripped my door open, and it was then my neighbor came running up to me. News traveled fast in a small town, and she mouthed something about going inside and taking care of the dog while I was away. I nodded quickly and unwound the key to my house from my key ring and sent her on her merry way while Barber continued talking into my ear.
“The horse got spooked by a snake and started buckin’ her every which way. Bradley heard the commotion and got on his horse and went runnin’ towards her, but by the time he got there, she’d already been thrown. The snake that spooked the horse bit her neck, and then the horse came down onto her shoulder.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered to myself. I sped down the road and ignored the stop sign at the intersection before I got on the main road into town. Of all the times, I had to be fifteen minutes outside of town, this had to be it.
My parent’s home would’ve been a hell of a lot closer…
“When did this happen?” I asked as I took a hard-right turn.
“‘Bout three hours ago. They set her shoulder, but the venom from the snake is taking a while to work through her system. No one saw the snake, so a basic anti-venom is all they got until they pinpoint what’s in her system. They are doing tests on her now.”
“And it’s been three hours since the doctors did that!?” I exclaimed. What the fuck were these doctors doing?! Standing around with their thumbs up their asses!?
“Julie’s mom told me she’d seen you at the rodeo, and when we found your number in her phone, we figured y’all had reconnected.”
I’m still not sure how she got my phone number or why she would’ve needed it, but if she was at the stables Bradley was still running, then there was a good chance she asked him for it. I’m not sure why, and right now I didn’t care. All I knew was I was still eight minutes away from the hospital, and Julie was unconscious and alone in a hospital bed.
“Thank you for callin’ me, Barber. I’m eight minutes away. Get a doctor. I wanna talk to one when I get up there.”
“See ya soon, son.”
That was the thing about Barber, it was always so comforting when he called me son. Even though I hadn’t seen or spoken to them since Julie up and left, I still considered them family. They were just those types of people: they imprinted on your life, and they just didn’t leave. Throughout the whole conversation, I could hear Mrs. Mrs. August sobbing in the background, and something told me I was walking into a very dark scenario that would shock Julie when she came to.
If she was ever gonna come to.
I sped into the hospital parking lot and whizzed by a police officer. He whipped on his lights and followed me to the spot I picked, and when I got out of my truck, he paused when he realized who I was.
“I’m so sorry, Axel,” he offered.
That’s when you know it’s bad. When a police officer won’t arrest you for buzzin’ around in a hospital parking lot, things are never as good as you want them to be.
I busted through the hospital doors and made my way over to the nurse’s desk. I rattled off Julie’s name, and their faces got dark, and my stomach began to churn and the bile I was trying so hard to fight off rose to the top of my throat. I sprinted to the stairs and took them two by two, and when I shoved the door to the fifth-floor open, I started looking around frantically for the room numbers.
But a familiar voice caught my ear, and when I whirled around, I saw Mrs. August runnin’ to me down the hallway.
“Oh, Axel,” she breathed. I cloaked my arms around her trembling body and slowly walked her back into the waiting room, and that was when I saw Barber. His pale face was in his hands, and I could tell by the way his shoulders were shaking that something had happened. Between the time I cut that phone call ten minutes ago and now, the doctor had news I hadn’t been privy to yet.
“Where the hell is the doctor?” I glowered.
“Right here, Bullhead.”
I held Mrs. August close to me while I turned towards the familiar sound, and I recognized the woman walking towards me. Ashley Lawson, a girl I attended high school with, had a smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Hey, Ash,” I breathed.
“We got her venom tests back, and it’s not good. A rattlesnake got hold of her and bit her right in her main artery. She’s got a great deal of brain swelling, so we’ve just got done inserting a tube underneath her skull to help drain off some of the fluid while the anti-venom takes hold in her system.”
“Her… her brain is…”
I couldn’t think straight. Just last night I was thrusting into those beautiful hips and dreaming of her juices on my tongue. Just this morning I cursed her for leaving her scent behind without her body, and all day I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind that maybe-- just maybe-- if I tracked her down I could have her thighs squeeze around my hips one last time before she left.
Because we all knew she’d eventually leave and go back to wherever she came from.
“We have her in a medically-induced coma to try and reduce the amount of stress her body is under, and she’ll be like that for the next few days. She’s had that venom in her system for a while, so leeching it from her muscle tissue is gonna take some time, and her body needs to rest, so she had the energy for it.”
I heard Barber’s sobs from behind me, and it was all I could do to keep my composure. My Julie, the woman I dedicated my life to, the must for my riding-- the woman I realized I never wanted to let go of ever again-- was lying in a hospital bed for no other reason than happenstance. She was an expert horse rider, everyone knew that.
But nothing can prepare you for an animal randomly turning into a rodeo bronco.
“Can I stay with her?” I asked. I felt Mrs. August look up at me while my eyes connected heavily with Ash’s. I knew her parents would want to stick around the hospital, and I knew there was a good chance she would have many different visitors for the past couple of days. I could already feel Mrs. August tensing underneath my grasp, and I could tell that everything within Ash was about to tell me ‘no’. But, I saw something
flash for a split second behind her eyes before she looked around at the people that loved Julie August as much as I did, and she took a step closer to me and lowered her voice.
“Don’t let anyone catch you,” she said.
I nodded and pulled Mrs. August away from me before I wiped her tears away.
“Your husband needs ya to be strong for a little bit. Why don’t you go sit with him, and I’m gonna go get some clothes from my car.”
“You came with a bag?” she asked.
“I always carry clothes with me. Got into the habit in college when-”
I caught myself and the memories I was dredging up. I was about to say, ‘in college when Julie traveled the road with me,’ but all it did was bring tears to my eyes before I harshly blinked them away.
“I’ll be right back,” I choked out.
Julie
Julie - Chapter Ten
My head hurt, and my mouth was dry. The smell of disinfectant hung strong in the air, and I honestly felt like I was about to puke. I heard beeping noises and people talking in the distance, but when I panned my head over all those things faded into the background.
“Oh my God, Julie.”
His rugged voice hit my ears like waves crashing against the rocks. My soul was desperately dry, and he was wetting my existence. My eyes felt heavy, but his hand descending over mine felt warm and comforting, and I didn’t want to fall back asleep and risk having this moment with him.
“Fl-... -ynn?”
My vision was pounding with my headache, and my shoulder was burning and itching. What the hell was Axel doing here? I felt something dance along my lips as my eyes fluttered closed, and then I heard that same low voice in my ear.
“Drink. You’ve gotta be thirsty.”
I leaned my head into those pillowy lips, and when Axel pressed a light kiss to my temple, I knew everything was going to be alright. I wasn’t sure where I was, or how I’d gotten there-- I think-- but Axel was here, and that always told me everything was going to be alright.
Then, I heard a stampede of people flood the room. It reminded me of those times at the rodeo when the horses came out and competed in the racing tournaments. People were poking me and prodding me, a doctor was peeling my eyes open, and someone else was sticking my feet with something sharp. I heard the beeping in the background speed up, and I felt the vomit rising in my throat.
“Back off,” I heard a voice in the distance.
“Julie…?”
“Oh my God, my little girl!”
All the voices melded together, and my ears started to burn. Someone was massaging my aching shoulder, and another person was toggling with something at the back of my head, and when I felt a pinch at the base of my neck, I reared up and heaved all over the side of whatever it was I was laying in.
“I said, ‘back off’!”
I’d know that roar anywhere. Over all the chaos of a place I didn’t recognize and above all the motions that were frightening and foreign, there rose one particular voice I’d always latched onto. I always heard him when he shouted from the rodeo pin, and he always heard me when I would shout back. I felt someone slick my hair back as I continued to vomit all over the side of my bed, and when I was finally done all I could do was sob.
“What's... ha-... happening, Axel?”
I felt panic waft into my system and, slowly but surely, things began to fall back into place. I remember a horse in a beautiful pasture, and I watched that horse get spooked. I tried to run over to the horse, in my mind, but all of a sudden, I was lying on the ground under the horse.
“Oreo…” I whispered.
“Julie, latch onto the sound of my voice.”
I felt a light kiss on the temple of my head, and all of a sudden, a pair of fingers interlaced with mine. I felt someone take my other hand, but the poking and the prodding had stopped, and the beeping I had heard in the distance was just a slow, rhythmic dot in the barrage of sounds that were slowly disappearing.
“You remember Oreo?” Axel asked, and all I did was nod against his lips.
“Do you remember the pasture?”
And again, I nodded into his touch.
“Good girl. Do you… remember th-”
He couldn’t say it. For as strong and stubborn as Axel had always been, there were times when his words alluded him. Axel played up a strong and unwavering facade, but deep down he cared with a burning passion about anyone who wriggled their way into his heart and soul. He’d open his doors for anyone who needed a place to stay, and he’d give his own shirt off his back if it meant someone else would be better off.
Hearing the catch in his voice scared me while bits and pieces of the accident slowly came flooding back to the forefront of my mind. I felt small circles being drawn on my other hand by someone while a hand descended onto my leg, and when my searing headache ricocheted across my vision, that’s when I remembered.
The snake.
“Snake…” I whispered.
“Yes,” Axel managed to choke out, “there was a snake. You, uh… fell off Oreo when he began to buck because-”
“-he was spooked by the snake,” I croaked.
“The snake bit you while you were lying on the ground, and the shock of the bite paralyzed you long enough for Oreo’s hoof to come down onto your shoulder.”
Holy god, I could’ve been killed. By all accounts, I honestly should be dead.
“Oh God. Bradley,” I groaned.
“He got to you just as Oreo came down onto your shoulder. I guess the pain caused you to black out, and he threw you across his lap and was the one that got you to the hospital.”
And then, everything else started rushing back. The reservations for dinner, how I’d gotten his phone number, the confessions I was going to make…
“Oh, god. Axel. I-I-I… I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything,” he said lowly.
“I need you to call that steak restaurant in town and cancel our reservations.”
When he didn’t say anything, I slowly lobbed my head over and opened my aching eyes again. He was staring at me darkly, but I knew Axel well enough to detect the hint of confusion wafting behind his eyes. I could see so many unsaid things that he wanted to blurt out at that moment, but my Axel was calculating what to say.
And that made me nervous.
“Julie… you-”
I felt my heart began to race and it timed itself with the erratic beeping in the background. I felt someone clamp down onto my foot and start massaging it while the person drawing circles on top of my hand slowly brought it to their lips to kiss.
“Axel?” I urged.
“You’ve been out for three days, Julie. Whatever reservations you had…”
Three days? I’d… been unconscious for three days!? My heart began to flutter, and I felt my hands begin to shake. There were so many things I had to do: I had to call the restaurant and apologize and explain to Axel why I had them. I had to call work and tell them why I hadn’t come back yet. Jesus Chri-... I was due back to work yesterday!
“Calm down. Calm down. I’ll call the restaurant and explain to them what happened. No one will be mad at you there,” Axel soothed.
And then? I felt his lips by my ear again.
“You’ve been in a medically-induced coma so your body could use the anti-venom the hospital had to filter out the venom from your brain. The snake, it bit you in your neck and seeped pretty quickly into that intelligent brain of yours.”
I snickered, and a light smile bloomed across my cheeks. Even in the most desolate moments, Axel could always seem to make me smile.
God, how I had missed that about him.
“But, your brain still has some swelling, and you’ll have to stay in the hospital a couple more days until it’s completely gone.”
“I-... I-I-I can’t, though. I, uh, was due at-... at work tomorrow, Axel.”
The last few words came out like a whispered plea. Like I was ready for someone to wake m
e up from this nightmare. I was ready to wake up and be in my own bed in Paris after kissing my parents goodbye.
I wanted out of this hospital.
“I’ve taken care of it.”
I turned my head towards the voice holding my other hand, and my eyes landed on the most comforting face I could have conjured in that very moment.
“Mom,” I whispered. I felt Axel let go of my hand, and for a split second I reached out and grasped his forearm. I didn’t want to let him go, and I didn’t want him to leave, but my mother nodded him out of the room, and I didn’t have the energy to fight. I watched him give me one more glance from the doorway, and then he slunk out of the room and shut the door behind him.
“I already called your work,” I heard my Mom say.
“Are you the reason Axel is here?” I asked.
“Julie, when I-”
I heard my mother swallow hard, and that’s when my father took over the conversation.
“Hey there, honey bunny,” he soothed from my feet.
“Who called Axel?” I whispered.
“Well, when it all happened, Bradley called us after an ambulance had shown up. We met you here, at the hospital, and when they started taking your belongings off you, they handed your phone to us. Your mother went to work scrolling through to find your boss’s number, but along the way, she found that you had Axel’s in your phone.”
“Bradley gave it to me,” I croaked.
“It’s good you remember that sweetie,” my mother cooed with tears in her voice.
“We figured if you had his number, maybe the two of you were at least kosher, so we called him,” my dad finished.
“And yes, I called your work and told them what was happening,” my mother took over. “They’ve given you the month off to recuperate and heal. Apparently, someone doesn’t like taking vacation time very often.”
