by Anne Jolin
Two hours pass painfully slowly before the phone rings and John jumps up to get it. “Hello,” he answers quickly. “I’ll be right there.”
When he hangs up, I sit upright from my spot on the couch, eager for any news on Jami. So far, there’s been nothing. It’s getting late, which also means that it’s getting colder and darker on the mountain.
John sees the look in my eyes and slowly shakes his head. “That was Patti’s sister. Her flight will be arriving in the next fifteen minutes. I’m just going to pick her up and then I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay. Drive safely.” I stand, wrapping him in a hug.
“I will. I’ll be right back.”
It doesn’t matter that I’ve known him a few days. Jami’s dad feels like family. He radiates the same warmth as his son.
“He loves you, Lennon. I’ve never seen my son look at anyone the way he looks at you. There’s not a chance in hell he’d leave this Earth without growing old with you,” he whispers gruffly, kissing me on my hair again before walking out the front door.
I manage to hold it together until he’s gone, but then I burst into tears again. “I waited too long,” I croak out, looking at Hannah. “I always thought we had time. That I’d have time to tell him.”
She stands, wrapping me in a hug before pulling me back over to sit down on the couch. “You need to eat something. Lennon.”
I shake my head at her. “I can’t.”
She knows better than to argue with me, so she lets it go. I can’t think of food right now. All I can think of is the man I love, the man who healed me and put me back together again. All I can think of is him. Where is he?
Twenty minutes pass from the time John left and Hannah’s phone rings again. “It’s Greyson,” she says before putting it to her ear. “Hey,” she answers softly. “Hold on.” She brings the phone away from her ear and hits the speaker button. “You’re on speaker.”
“Lennon? It’s Greyson. Are you there?” he asks.
“Yes,” I whisper back into the phone.
“I wanted to be the one who called you so you could hear it from me.”
I put a hand over my mouth as I wait for him to finish.
“They found him, Lennon,” Greyson tells us. “He’s alive. Search and rescue is bringing him down the mountain now.”
A sob escapes me, but this time, it’s followed by a flooding relief.
“Can you meet us at the hospital? They’ve already contacted his parents. They are going to come straight from the airport to meet you there.”
“Is he okay?” I cry into the phone.
“I won’t know anything until I have him in the bus, Lennon, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to keep him safe. I’ll see you girls soon. Love you,” he says before we hear a click and the line goes dead.
It takes us less than a minute to leave the house and only another ten to get to the hospital. Hannah slams the car into the closest parking spot at the emergency entrance and we rush inside. I run to the desk, gripping the edges with my hands.
“Jamison Henley please,” I beg her, looking from side to side, trying to see if I can find him myself.
“The ambulance is on route now. He’ll be here shortly,” the older nurse, whose name tag says Suzanne, says to me.
“Can I see him when he comes in?” I plead with her.
Suzanne shakes her head softly at me. “I’m sorry, miss, but you won’t be able to see him until the doctors can take a look at him. Please have a seat over there.” She points to the waiting area of chairs. “The doctor will come out as soon as he’s made an assessment.”
“Come on, Len. Let’s sit,” Hannah says, tugging the sleeve of my coat.
We’re just sitting down when the electronic emergency doors open and a rush of people come with it.
“He has got hypothermia! Vitals, core temp, and cardiac rhythm monitored during transportation!” Greyson shouts to an attending doctor as they disappear again behind a set of closed doors.
“Oh my god,” I gasp, dropping my head between my legs as I struggle to breathe. I barely saw him with all the people surrounding him, and he was covered in blankets.
The doors to emergency burst open again. Patti and John Henley rush towards the front desk. “Jamison Henley,” he tells Suzanne.
She’s in the middle of giving them the same spiel when I walk over, touching Patti lightly on the shoulder. “They just brought him in,” I tell them, trying to stay composed for his mother’s sake. I can tell that she’s been crying, and the way she’s clinging to John tells me that she’s very likely to start again.
“The doctor will come out and see you as soon as he’s made an assessment,” Suzanne repeats.
“He’ll be okay, honey,” John coos, stroking his wife’s hair. “Come on, my girls. Let’s go sit.” He puts an arm around each of us and walks us back into the waiting room.
I settle into a seat between Hannah and John. Then we wait.
We wait for what seems like an eternity before the locked doors to emergency open again. It’s not the doctor, but it’s Greyson. He searches the room before his eyes finally land on Hannah and then on us. He walks over quickly, pulling her into his arms and kissing the top of her head. I stand, unable to wait any longer for someone to tell me something.
“Is he okay?” I ask, pleading with him to tell me something.
“The doctors are with him now. I can only tell you what I know. Are you sure you don’t want to wait for what they have to say?” he questions, looking between me and Jami’s parents.
I realize then that they have no idea how Greyson fits in to the entire story. He must sense the same thing because he reaches past me to shake John’s hand.
“I’m Greyson, Hannah’s boyfriend,” he tells them. “I was the paramedic on site when they found your son.”
“Oh,” Patti says, her knees buckling slightly.
“We want to know anything you can tell us,” John says firmly, wrapping his arm around my shoulder again. “What happened?”
I know he’s not supposed to be telling us anything, but I’m thankful that he is.
“Jami was snowboarding in an out-of-bounds area.” His words make me wince because we all grew up here. We all know how dangerous that can be, but so many of the guys do it anyway. “We aren’t sure how exactly it happened. He was unconscious when they found him, but somehow, he ended up in a tree well,” Greyson says, stopping when both Patti and I sob again.
We all know what those are. Tree wells are hidden holes in the snow. They form around pine and fir trees because their branches collect falling snow and that keeps it from reaching the ground underneath the tree. As snow accumulates outside the area protected by the branches, it eventually reaches the snow-covered branches and hides the holes. It’s a common hazard that comes with snowboarding or skiing out of bounds. You can’t even tell how tall a tree in the snow is most of the time. It’s like only seeing the tip of an iceberg and having no idea how big the iceberg is underneath.
“It’s likely that he was going in between the trees and fell in before he even knew what had happened,” Greyson explains. “He was extremely lucky. It was a shallow well and he landed in it feet-first.”
To someone who doesn’t know about them, that doesn’t sound lucky, but it is. At least a few people die every year on our mountain from tree-well deaths. A person can fall all the way to the ground in a tree well and not be able to get up because when they fall in, the snowpack around them follows them. Most people who fall into tree walls are unable to rescue themselves and they suffocate to death. Buried alive in the snow.
Just as he finishes explaining what happened, a doctor comes through the doors. “I’m looking for the family of Jamison Henley,” she says, scanning the waiting room.
John steps forward, his arm around his wife. “That’s us.”
“Is he okay?” I ask her.
She looks at me over the rim of her glasses. “Are you family?”
Before I even get a chance to reason with her, John steps between us. “Yes, she is family.” I wish I could hug him in that moment, but I don’t. He’s been my rock today, and I am so grateful for him.
“Okay,” the doctor says, obviously not really buying it but going ahead anyway. “Jamison suffered a concussion from his initial fall into the tree well. He required stitches to a few cuts on his head during the fall. We are monitoring him, but there looks to be no permanent damage. We are giving him warmed IV fluids to treat the mild hypothermia. All in all, your son was very lucky.”
“So he’s going to be okay?” Patti asks softly from beside her husband.
“Yes, ma’am. Your son is going to be just fine. If you would come with me, you can see him now.”
I kiss Hannah goodbye and envelope Greyson in a massive hug. “Thank you,” I tell them before following the doctor into the emergency area.
We let her lead us past rows of curtains before she finally stops at one and pulls the curtain back. “We are still waiting for him to wake up, but you can go inside.”
The tears pool in my eyes, slowly fall over, and run down my cheeks. I wait, letting his parents walk in before me. I want nothing more than to climb up into bed with him, but I know they need to see him. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, so I grip the bar at the base of the bed and look him over. My handsome guy is lying in the middle of a hospital bed, his beautiful lips still almost blue from the cold and blankets covering every inch of him.
His mother runs her hands through his hair as she bends over to kiss his forehead. “My sweet boy,” she whispers, a tear sliding down her cheek.
I’m completely overwhelmed in the small room. Now that I can see him, now that I know I never want to wait for a single thing with him again, I can’t stop the words from coming out. “I love you,” I say out loud—loud enough for both his parents to hear. I don’t care though. All I want is for him to hear it. For him to finally hear me say it.
Patti and John both turn towards me, her with tears in her eyes and him with a grin that matches his son’s.
“Come here, sweetie,” he says, opening his arms, and I walk right into them, crying the moment his arms fold around me.
“Are you trying to steal my girl, Dad?” a gravelly voice says, and I open my eyes to see those perfect chocolate ones staring back at me.
His father pulls away from me, chuckling. “Not when I already have the love of my life,” John says back, wrapping Patti in a hug from behind.
I stare at him, unable to pry my eyes away from his handsome face.
“We will give you two a minute,” Patti says before they walk out of the room.
I feel another tear slide over my cheek. “I love you,” I say again.
“I told you so.” He grins cheekily from the bed. “Come here.” He moves over as I walk over to the side of his bed. “Lie with me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I croak out.
“You won’t, beautiful. I want to feel you. Come here.”
I climb into the bed beside him, placing an arm around his waist and tucking my head into the crook of his arm. “I was so scared,” I confess, my body shaking again with soft cries.
“Shhh. I’m okay, baby,” he says, stroking my hair. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“I never should have waited,” I confess. “I never should have waited to tell you I love you. I always have.”
He lifts my chin with his finger, tipping my eyes up to meet his. “See? You just needed a little push.”
“Don’t you dare make a joke out of this.” I smack him with my hand and he groans. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” I panic, feeling his chest all over with my hands.
He grabs my hand, pressing it over his heart. “I love you, Beatle.”
“I love you, Jamison Henley.”
MY HEEL CATCHES on the paving stones and I curse out loud. I have no idea why the girls insisted on this weird ladies’ night out. About a week ago, they declared that we had all been ‘downright knockouts’ in our New Year’s Eve dresses and should take them out for another spin. Normally, we would have all gotten ready together to go out, but I had a late appointment who’d personally requested me at the salon. I had to get ready at the salon and meet them there.
It’s been a little over five months since Jami’s accident. He made a full recovery and moved me in a week later—Greyson-style. I still kept my half of the condo I share with Beth and continued to rent the room to Peyton. I was worried about leaving her with her nightmares. I was the only one who knew about them and Beth was never around to hear them.
Beth is still seeing that slimy asshole and has become more and more distant. Every time we try to talk to her about it, she gets defensive and the conversation ends up going nowhere. Even if this night is totally ridiculous, I am happy that she’ll be there.
I cross the courtyard to Bill’s, noting that the lineup seems nonexistent for a Saturday night. The bouncer at the door smiles and lets me inside. That’s odd. They always check our IDs even though we’ve been coming here since we turned nineteen. I shrug it off, slowly climbing the stairs in my glittery heels.
Being that it’s summer, I don’t have a coat to check, so I make my way straight down towards the entrance to the bar. I hear the music playing loudly and stop dead when I take in the bar. It’s like complete déjà vu.
It looks exactly the same as it did on New Year’s Eve except that it is completely empty. There are black and white balloons covering every square inch of the ceiling, their strings dangling down. Twinkle lights are wrapped around every beam, and in the middle of the dance floor, in the same outfit he had on that night, is Jami. He looks just as breathtaking as he did that night in black slacks and a black button-down dress shirt.
Suddenly, the song changes over and “I Need You” by The Beatles starts playing through the sound system.
You don't realize how much I need you.
Love you all the time and never leave you.
Please come on back to me.
I'm lonely as can be. I need you.
He sings the lyrics to the song as he walks toward me, and I grin. He’s always been cheesy like this. He grabs me by the hand, leading me out onto the dance floor, and wraps my arms around his neck as he slowly moves to the beat of the old classic. I can’t help but smile at the fact that he chose a Beatles song. We dance like that in the empty bar as the last lines of the song play through the speakers.
And feeling like this, I just can't go on anymore.
Please remember how I feel about you.
I could never really live without you.
So, come on back and see just what you mean to me.
I need you. I need you. I need you.
He dips me low to the ground, kissing me softly on the lips before whispering, “Happy New Year, Beatle.”
“What?” I ask him, chuckling. “It’s July.”
“Not tonight it isn’t.” He grins, pulling me back up against his chest. “Do you remember what I told you on New Year’s Eve?” he asks, and I nod. “I told you that, when the clock counts down a year from then, you’ll be mine for good.”
I smile up at him. “I don’t think I could forget that memory even if I wanted to, handsome.”
“Well, I couldn’t wait,” he says.
I furrow my brow in confusion as he slowly drops to one knee in front of me.
“Oh my god!” I gasp, covering my mouth with my hands.
“You are the love I never saw coming until you’d already stolen my heart. You are who I want to go to bed next to every night and wake up next to every morning. I want to spend every day for the rest of my life making you smile. I want our children to have your laugh and I want to love you until the day I die. Lennon Montgomery, will you marry me?”
I wrap my arms around his neck while he is still kneeling on the floor. “Yes. Yes. A million times yes!” I gasp through the tears streaming down my cheeks.
“I told you th
at you were going to love me,” he teases, sliding the perfect princess-cut diamond ring onto my finger.
“And I do,” I say, dropping to my knees in front of him. “I love you, Jami.”
“I love you too, Beatle.” He kisses my lips softly.
We make love that night on the floor of our favorite bar.
I know I said that fairytales are best suited for books and other people’s lives. That you have to believe in them for it to come true. But I’ll be damned... Call me a believer because it looks like this girl will be living her happily ever after.
The End.
“HURRY UP!” KYLE hisses, yanking my arm to pull me out of his silver Porsche, slamming the door behind me.
My boyfriend’s grip around my bicep tightens as he drags me farther down the dimly lit alley. I stumble in my heels as I try to keep up with his long stride. “You’re hurting me,” I mumble, glaring up at him while making a feeble attempt to release my arm from his hold.
He stops, turning to look at me, and a Cheshire cat grin spreads across his face. It’s scary as fuck. Then he leans down towards me, suffocating my small frame with his large one. “You like it when I hurt you,” he growls into my ear.
“Not like this.” I scowl at him, tugging my arm again before he releases it. I start to rub my hand over the stinging skin when he roughly grabs the back of my neck, dragging me forward.
“You love it, Betty. Don’t pretend like it doesn’t make you wet,” he purrs, cupping my sex over my dress.
“Don’t call me that!” I seethe, challenging him with my eyes.
He runs his hand up my side, painfully gripping my breast in his large hand. “You’re mine. I can call you whatever I want,” he declares.
“Kyle, you’re scaring me. Stop,” I state firmly, shoving his hard chest with my hands. He’s always been controlling, but something’s changed in these last few weeks. There have been more and more moments like this. Moments where he absolutely terrifies me.
His eyes soften and he releases the hold he has on my neck. “I was just playing around, doll.” He chuckles.
The haunting grin he was wearing is quickly replaced by his brilliant eligible-bachelor smile. The one that did me in, I recall, watching as he slowly morphs back into the man I met six months ago.
