A startling realization prickled Megan’s scalp with goose bumps. “Zander, who else knows the truth?”
He shrugged. “No one.”
She couldn’t believe it. “Not even Cara?”
“I couldn’t tell her. My father made me swear not to. He said he’d go to jail if the truth came out about my mother, and Cara and I would be split up in foster homes.”
“How long have you kept this secret?”
“Ten years.”
Megan shook her head, completely at a loss as to how Zander had managed to carry such a burden. He was twenty-two. That meant he’d been alone with this nightmare since he was twelve. No wonder he was terrified to let anyone in.
She placed her hands on either side of his face. “Zander, I need you to hear me. You’re not alone anymore. I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere. We’re gonna get out of here and we’re gonna get you help.”
33
Zander
Zander blinked as the first light of dawn broke through the mist, lighting their shelter. They’d somehow made it through the night. Their fire had died out long ago but Megan refused to let Zander give up. She proved him wrong, time and time again. He was humbled by how fiercely she fought to protect him against the elements and his own dark thoughts. She had so much faith in him. And maybe it was time he had some too.
Zander’s heart ached as he watched Megan prepare to hike back down to the road again. Though he knew it was their only chance of survival, he didn’t want to let her go. He felt so much stronger when he was with her. The prospect of spending the day alone was eating at his resolve.
“Okay,” she said, leaning in to kiss him lightly on the lips. “I guess I’m ready.”
He nodded, holding her to him for a moment longer. “Megan . . .” he started, his forehead pressed against hers. “I need to tell ye—”
“No,” she said, pressing a finger to his lips. “You can tell me when I come back.”
He bit back the strangling ache in his throat and nodded.
“I’ll come back, Zander. I promise you.”
She kissed him once more and then disappeared into the mist.
Megan
Megan finally stumbled out onto the service road, collapsing to her knees. Her lungs were burning and even her inhaler didn’t seem to help, but she had to keep going. She told herself she’d only rest for a minute, but as the seconds ticked by, it became harder and harder to find the will to climb back to her feet. She ate the last of the chocolate bar she’d been saving, hoping the sugar would give her the last bit of strength she needed.
It was still raining and the cold wet drops mixed with her tears as she sent up a silent prayer for strength.
“Just a little bit further,” she told herself heaving to her frozen feet.
She took two faltering steps and pictured Zander waiting for her. It summoned strength from some unknown reserve. Megan trudged forward, picturing everyone she loved—her mom and Stan, Sam and Devon, Zander . . . She couldn’t give up. “Just keep going,” she begged her frozen limbs. “Just a little bit longer.”
All at once the forest filled with the roar of an engine. Megan screamed when she saw headlights splitting the mist. Salvation! Her lungs crackled as she screamed and waved her arms, running toward the vehicle like a crazed banshee. It came to a halt feet from her and the doors of the muddy truck sprang open.
Two rangers ran toward her.
“Miss Fields?” the one with the flashlight asked.
“Yes!” she yelled shaking with relief.
“We’ve been looking for ye.”
“You have?”
“Yer friends said they received an SOS from you and Mr. O’Leary?”
Sam and Devon had come through.
“Yes! Yes! He’s injured. I can take you to him.”
When Megan caught sight of the last scrap of red sock hanging from the tree outside their shelter she wept. She’d made it. They were going to be okay.
She led the two rangers to Zander’s lean-to, shouting his name as she pulled back the tarp. He lay just where she left him, clutching a single yellow daisy in his hands.
“Zander! I came back,” she said, kneeling to shake his shoulders.
He didn’t move and panic stabbed her in the heart, stealing her breath. She touched his ice-cold cheeks and recoiled with fear. “No! Zander! Zander?”
The rangers rushed passed her as the world blurred.
No! It couldn’t end like this. She’d made it. She’d found help and made her way back to him. Zander didn’t get to give up now. She’d done her part and she needed him to be okay. She rocked back and forth on her knees praying for a miracle as her tears traced lonely paths down her frozen cheeks.
Megan’s chest burned with excursion and fear. Her breaths came fast and shallow as she whispered Zander’s name over and over again like a prayer.
A rasping cough brought Megan back to reality and she froze with disbelief when she saw Zander flinch away from the smelling salts the rangers held under his nose. He was alive!
She crawled over to him, unable to believe her prayers had been answered. Zander’s eyes looked wildly around, finally settling on her. Megan reached out and took his hand. “I came back,” she whispered, finally letting exhaustion pull her under. She slumped against the wet earth, gasping for breath and then the world went black.
34
Zander
Zander only had flashes of memories from their harrowing rescue. Foil blankets. Yellow backboards. Paramedics. Flashing lights. Sirens. The shrill beep of medical equipment. But the one thing that was crystal clear was Megan, returning for him, moments before she collapsed.
He’d wanted to go to her and his body raged against its inadequacy. People were hovering over him, fussing about his injuries, but what about her? What about Megan? She’d been his last conscious thought, and as he blinked the world back into focus, she was his first.
Zander could make out the sterile walls of a darkened hospital room. He tried to sit up but his body resisted. He looked down to see a thick white bandage wrapped from thigh to shin. He felt around gingerly, assessing his pain, but only found a dull ache. He must’ve been pumped full of some powerful drugs.
Growling with effort, Zander gabbed the edges of his hospital bed, tugging himself into a sitting positing.
“Whoa! Steady on, mate,” coaxed Devon’s familiar voice.
Zander turned toward his voice, startled to see his friend rise from the chair stationed at his bedside.
“Okay there?” Devon asked, concern in his eyes.
“Devon?”
“That’s right.” Devon grinned, putting a steady hand on Zander’s back. “Christ, are ye a sight for sore eyes, mate?”
Zander tried shifting his legs.
“Go easy. You’ve got quite a few stitches in that knee a yers.”
Zander ignored Devon, still struggling to prop himself up. “Megan? Where is she?”
“She’s fine. Sam’s in her room with her.”
Panic ripped through Zander and a nearby monitor began to beep. “She’s in the hospital?”
“Yeah, just a few rooms down.”
“I need to see her.”
“Zander, Megs is fine. She’s being looked after.”
“I need to see her!” he bellowed.
Megan
Megan was clutching Sam’s hand, reliving the traumatic ordeal she and Zander had suffered when she heard a roar fill the hall. A group of nurses rushed past her room and Sam jogged to the door and peered after them. When she came back her mouth was in a grim line.
“Zander?” Megan asked, already knowing the answer.
Sam nodded.
“Can you take me to him?”
Sam smirked, already pulling the wheelchair over to Megan’s bed. “I’m pretty sure that’s the only way we’re gonna keep him in that bed.”
Megan felt fine. The doctors were just being overly cautious due to her history of asthma and the hypot
hermic conditions she’d suffered. Her body was depleted from her ordeal. She felt like she could sleep for a month and no matter how many blankets Sam wrapped around her, Megan couldn’t shake the memory of cold from her bones.
The IV she’d been hooked to didn’t help either. It was replacing her fluids but Megan felt like it was dripping pure ice into her veins. Sam expertly unhooked it and helped Megan into a robe before letting her climb into the wheelchair.
As Sam wheeled Megan down the hall, the ruckus from Zander’s room grew louder. She could hear him screaming orders and obscenities at the hospital staff.
“I don’t care about yer God damned policies. I want to see her now!” Zander roared. “I’ll buy this fucking hospital wing if I have to!”
Megan called Zander’s name when Sam finally wheeled her into his room, but he didn’t hear her over his own shouting. Sam let out an ear-splitting whistle that silenced the melee and Zander locked eyes with Megan.
Tears sprang to his eyes and his face cracked with a mixture of agony and relief. Megan was out of the wheelchair in an instant. She ran to his bed and threw her arms around him. Zander pushed the bedrail down and hoisted Megan onto his bed, crushing her to his chest while he kissed her face over and over, whispering her name like a chant.
They’d made it. They’d truly survived. Until that moment, it hadn’t seemed real. And until Zander finally wrapped Megan in his embrace she hadn’t felt whole. But as his warmth poured through her and his heart beat against her chest, she felt hope flood through her. They’d made it out together. And that was enough.
“Let’s give them a minute,” Sam said ushering Devon and the shocked nurses out of the hospital room.
Zander
When they were finally alone, Zander took Megan’s face in his trembling hands, kissing away her tears. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“Zander, stop. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“But I do. I put ye through hell.”
“But we made it out,” she said. “Together.”
Tears slid down Zander’s cheeks and Megan wiped them away.
“Ye say yer not the girl that fixes people, but ye do. Ye fixed me, Megan.”
She huffed a laugh. “I’m pretty sure I broke you. Look where you are,” she said gesturing to his hospital room.
Zander smiled into her raven hair. “Maybe ye did, but I don’t know what I’d do without ye in my life.”
“You might act a little less crazy toward the hospital staff?” she teased.
He grinned. “Ye do make me crazy, woman.”
“You’re really bad at this, you know?” Megan smirked. “I save your life and now you’re calling me crazy.”
Zander pulled her tighter to his chest. “I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. I’m crazy about ye and I should’ve told ye from the moment ye stepped off that plane. Yer stubborn and impulsive and strong and funny and braver than anyone I’ve ever known, and the only thing I know for certain is that I want ye in my life. I need ye in my life.” Zander took a deep steadying breath. He suddenly felt like he was about to leap off of a cliff. “What I’m failing miserably at saying, is that I love everything about ye, Megan. I’m in love with ye. And it’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever felt. But I’m even more scared to stop.”
“Then don’t,” she whispered, pressing her lips to his. “Because I love you, too. And I’m never going to stop.”
Joy ripped through Zander more powerful than any drug the doctors had plied him with as he wrapped Megan in his arms, kissing her with a lifetime of unbidden love—obliterating all thoughts of maybe.
Epilogue
Megan
Megan scarcely left Zander’s side after their tearful hospital reunion. Their relationship blossomed quickly. But this time they both knew they were sure. They'd saved each other and in doing so, tore down any illusions that they could ever be just friends. Zander hadn't even been willing to let Megan go back to her room for the remainder of their hospital stay. He ordered a bed be brought to his room for her.
Secretly, Megan found Zander’s display of authority irresistibly sexy. Maybe there was something to having enough money to order around hospital staff? However, Zander's authority didn't hold the same clout once they returned to the James’ Estate.
Devon and Sam were unimpressed with Zander’s demands. They had no sympathy for his open affection for Megan, ordering them back to their separate rooms to "recover.” Sam and Devon were eventually relieved of their hall monitors duties when Cara arrived.
Sam’s father had stayed on as well to make sure everyone was getting the care they needed. And when Zander’s strength returned everyone sat down with him to address the disturbing truths Megan had uncovered while they’d been stranded in the forest.
Megan had been nervous telling everyone about Zander’s secret without his permission, but she knew he needed help and refused to see him suffer any longer. In the end Zander was grateful. Everyone rallied around him as Megan knew they would if he’d only asked.
Cara decided to move back into the James’ Estate. Having Cara, her cheerful fiancé and the children around only helped speed Zander’s recovery.
Sam’s father extended his stay in Ireland, taking the reins of Cor-Tec until Zander could get back on his feet. Thomas Connors implemented some major changes in the company as well, increasing personnel and support three-fold when he found out how overworked Zander had been.
Things with Sam and Devon were good, too. They had their own happy news to celebrate. After things calmed down with Zander and Megan’s rescue, they revealed they’d discovered the reason for Sam’s mysterious stomach flu. She was pregnant!
Megan had shrieked with joy when they told her. Sam was still shocked but it made her decision to slow down her overzealous university schedule pretty easy. Devon of course was over the moon. Megan had no doubt her friends would be incredible parents. And as her study abroad semester drew to a close she found she had gained so much more in Ireland than she’d ever imagined possible.
To celebrate Zander’s recovery and the end of Megan’s internship in Ireland, the two of them drove to Torc Falls. Megan wanted to conquer her fear of the place. Both she and Zander had admitted to each other that they still had nightmares where they were left freezing in the misty mountainside. She hoped coming back with Zander to celebrate making it through their ordeal together would help.
Zander parked in the waterfall’s visitor lot and Megan took his hand. They walked side-by-side on the gentle path that led to the falls until it narrowed into stairs. Zander let Megan go in front of him as they made their way down to the rushing base of the waterfall.
“I can’t believe this is where ye wanted to come on yer last weekend in Ireland,” Zander remarked, taking the stairs down to the gushing falls easily on his mended knee.
“What can I say?” Megan replied. “This place brought us together.”
“Aye,” Zander laughed. “Nearly killed us, but I suppose it was worth it.”
Megan turned around and stuck her tongue out at him. Zander pulled her close, plying her with kisses that made her toes curl. Sometimes Megan couldn’t believe the change in him. It was like she was living a dream. Since the accident he’d stopped living his life in fear and he’d become the man she knew he was all along.
“Thank you for coming here with me,” she whispered in his arms.
“Ye know I’ll go anywhere with ye, doll face.”
Megan grinned and then continued their trek down the stairs, Zander chatting merrily behind her.
“Don’t forget there’s still so much more to see,” he said. “I want to take ye to see the caves and the Aran Islands. And I think you’ll absolutely love Skeillg Michael.”
“We’ll get to do all of those things when I come back for summer break,” Megan said. “You’ll have three months to dazzle me.”
“I was thinking maybe ye could stay longer?” Zander replied.
“How much longer?” s
he asked as they reached the base of the falls.
“Like maybe forever?”
Megan turned around and almost lost her balance. Zander was down on one knee, blinding ring in hand.
“No more maybes, doll face. What do ye say?”
“Yes! I say yes!” she squealed leaping into his arms.
Zander
Zander slipped the gargantuan diamond onto Megan’s finger and kissed her under the waterfall that had torn them apart and remade them. He’d never known love could feel so freeing, and as he held Megan in his arms, he knew he was done with maybes. Now his word was together, because there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish with this amazing woman by his side.
To my readers,
I want to personally thank you for taking the time to seek out this great little indie book. Writing is truly my passion. I believe each of us can find a small part of ourselves in every book we read, and carry it with us, shaping our world, our adventures and our dreams.
Following my dream to write frees my soul but knowing others find joy in my writing is indescribable. So thank you for your support and I hope your enjoyed your brief escape into the magic of these pages.
If you enjoyed this story, don’t worry, there’s plenty more currently rattling around in my rambunctious imagination. Let me and others know your thoughts by sharing a review of this book. Reviews help shape my next writing projects. So if you want more books like this one be sure to shout it from the rooftops (or social media.) ;-)
- Christina Benjamin
PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW HERE
The Accidental Boyfriend
Christina Benjamin
Book 7
The Maybe Boyfriend: A YA Contemporary Romance Novel (The Boyfriend Series Book 6) Page 19
