Heart of Clay (25 page)

“All right, Callan. Would you like me to
refer to Mr. Matthews as Clay?” Dr. Fisher asked, impressed with
the young woman’s ability to hold herself together in the face of
tragedy.

“Yes, please.” Callan rose to her feet. “I’m
ready now.”

“One more thing. Clay is unconscious but
that doesn’t mean he can’t hear you, so please think about what you
want to say to him. I firmly believe it can make a big difference
in how he pulls through the next critical hours.” Dr Fisher glanced
at her and smiled. “And you will call me David.”

Callan nodded her head, and wiped the tears
from her cheeks. She followed Dr. Fisher down a hallway and sent up
a quick prayer before walking into a room filled with doctors,
nurses, machines, tubes, and more equipment than she ever imagined
one room could hold. In the middle of it all was Clay. He looked
terrible. The skin that hadn’t bruised was a horrid ashen
color.

Shocked by his broken appearance, she took
another breath before stepping up to the bed. A place was cleared
for her to stand close to his head. She gazed longingly at his hand
and started to pick it up before looking to Dr. Fisher for
permission. He nodded.

Ever so gently, she took Clay’s hand in her
own and started rubbing her thumb on the back of it, careful not to
disturb the tubes attached to it.

“Well, Clay, if you were tired of running
cows to the chute, you could have just said something. This is an
extreme measure to get out of doing your job, even for you.” She
tried to imbue a light tone in her voice. A couple of the nurses
smiled at her efforts.

“Next time, let’s think this through a
little better, okay. But since we are here, I want you to know our
new friend, Dr. Fisher, is going to take excellent care of you. You
just need to do your part, Clay. Do you know what that is? Your
part is keeping your promises. I’ve never known you to go back on
your word and today is not the day to start. You promised me
forever and we are nowhere near forever yet. You also promised me
your heart and I’ve had it for all this time, but I’m not ready to
give it back to you yet. I still need it Clay. I need it very
much.” Callan fought her tears, desperately trying to keep her
voice even.

“I’ve never known you to be a quitter, so
you go in there and fight, Clay Matthews. You fight with every
fiber of your being, because we’ve got too many happy years ahead
of us to stop now. You hear me, cowboy? I love you, Clay. I’ll be
waiting just outside the door for you. Come back to me.”

Callan leaned over and gave Clay the softest
kiss on his forehead, then nodded to Dr. Fisher as he escorted her
from the room.

Walking her back to the waiting area, Dr.
Fisher grasped her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “Callan,
we’re going to do our best for him. We’ll let you know as soon as
we’re out of surgery.”

Callan nodded then sank onto a chair.

Dr. Fisher walked back into the room and
looked at Clay again. He knew the next several hours were going to
push him and the rest of the staff to the limits of their
capabilities. “Let’s do this.”

“Callan, honey?” Callan felt a hand on her
shoulder. She looked up into the tear-rimmed eyes of her aunt
Julie.

Callan fell into her warm embrace and
started sobbing again.

Julie rubbed her back and held her tight,
letting her cry. Steve did his best to keep himself together while
Bobbi continued to sob uncontrollably. Ralph went to find them all
something to drink.

As they sat together on a couch, Julie wiped
Callan’s tears and pushed a dry handkerchief into her hands. “Now,
tell us what you can. We need to know, honey.”

Callan took a deep breath and explained that
Clay was in surgery. She tried not to dwell on the extent of his
injuries, or her concerns about him pulling through surgery.

She instead said the doctor had let her see
Clay before they rolled him into surgery and she was confident in
Dr. Fisher being an excellent physician and surgeon.

Josh and Jenna arrived along with Big Jim
and Jake. Jenna stopped by the house long enough to bring Callan a
change of clothes and her purse.

For that, Callan was immensely grateful. She
hurried into the bathroom and changed out of her bloodstained
clothes. She tossed them into the bathroom garbage can, unwilling
to set eyes on the clothes again. The bloodstains would never come
out and the sight of them would only serve as a reminder of this
awful day.

Afternoon faded into evening and no word
came from the doctor. They sat and cried; paced and prayed. No one
felt like eating, everyone was on edge, and still they waited.

Callan took her cell phone outside and left
a message for Laken, keeping it to the briefest of details and
instructing her to call Julie the next day for an update.

Just when Callan thought she wouldn’t be
able to stand the uncertainty one more minute, Dr. Fisher walked
down the hall, looking utterly exhausted. Callan jumped up and
stood waiting. From the look on his face, she tried to brace
herself mentally for whatever he was about to say.

David Fisher looked around the worried faces
of the group and wished he had better news to share with them. His
gaze settled on Callan. He decided to tell her the facts and not
sugarcoat the truth. As he stepped up to her, the rest of the
assembled family stood as well.

Callan introduced him to Clay’s parents and
highlighted the names of the rest of the family. He assumed the
young man, Josh, must be Callan’s brother due to the resemblance
they shared. Glad to see him and the other young woman, Jenna,
flank Callan on either side, she would need all the support she
could get.

“Callan, I’m going to give it to you
straight. I don’t think you’d want it any other way,” David said,
looking directly at her. She nodded her head and he continued. “The
good news is that his spinal cord was not injured, so we shouldn’t
be facing any paralysis issues. He lost a lot of blood due to the
number and extent of the injuries. He bled significantly both
externally and internally. Both of his kidneys are bruised and his
spleen was torn. We were able to repair it and not remove it, which
is a good thing. He has some swelling in the brain due to the head
injury. We’ll monitor him closely for any brain damage and there is
the possibility he may slip into a coma. There’s also the threat of
infection setting in considering where he was at when the accident
occurred.” David stopped and took a breath before continuing.

“Then there’s his leg. It’s broken in two
places – his thigh and his shin. His thigh had a clean break and I
think it will heal well. His shin is another story. The bone’s
broken in three places. We had our top surgeon piecing it back
together and it’s pinned with plates, but to be upfront with you,
his leg may never heal properly. We aren’t looking at amputation,
but we’ll monitor that leg closely.”

Callan hadn’t said anything as he spoke but
the word amputation made her gasp and a look of fear pass across
her pale face. After drawing a shaky breath, she asked the question
they all were wondering. “Is he going to live?”

“His body has been battered beyond belief.
He is in a crucial stage at this point, Callan. I’d like to tell
you he’ll wake up in a few hours and start healing. I’d like to
promise you he’ll be just fine, but I won’t. The next twenty-four
hours are extremely critical. If he makes it through them, then we
have a fighting chance. I know you all are exhausted and past the
point of reason, so I can only advise you to go home and rest. If
anything changes, we’ll call immediately. However, if you insist on
staying, we’ll continue to keep you updated.” David rubbed his
hands across his weary eyes. “Callan, if you’d like, I’ll come get
you in a bit when we’ve got Clay settled in intensive care. You can
sit with him for a little while.”

She squeezed David’s hand and whispered,
“Thank you.”

Julie and Ralph volunteered to take Big Jim
and Jake home. Josh and Jenna refused to leave Callan, and Steve
and Bobbi weren’t going anywhere. Throughout the long night, they
encouraged each other and continued sending up prayers for
Clay.

In the early hours of the morning, as the
sun began to spread fingers of pink and gold across the sky, Callan
stared out the waiting room window and thought of all the mornings
with Clay she had wasted. The mornings during the last few painful
years that she awoke angry and bitter. How she wished she could
take each one back and relive them with Clay. Regret was a cruel,
callous companion that offered no compassion or forgiveness. Callan
realized that now.

The sound of code something came across the
hospital’s intercom system, drawing her attention. Something in
ICU. Feet pounded down the hallway along with muffled shouts.

“Please, Lord, don’t take him. Please don’t
take him from me,” Callan pleaded.

Josh stood next to her and put his arm
around her shoulders, giving her a comforting squeeze. She leaned
against his strength. Minutes passed. All grew quiet again then
Callan looked up as David walked toward them with an unreadable
look on his face.

“Callan, I’m so sorry, we…” David reached a
hand out to her but Callan fainted before he could finish.

Josh and Jenna pulled into Callan’s
driveway. Someone had driven Clay’s truck home and parked it next
to her car. It hurt to see it there.

Callan knew if she opened the door, it would
smell of Clay – of wood shavings and hay, leather, and his
aftershave.

Slowly drawing a shuddering breath, she
braced herself to go inside the house. Josh opened her door and
gave her a hand. She grasped it gratefully. She wasn’t sure she
could even stand alone without a strong arm to support her.

She fished in her purse, dug out her keys,
and unlocked the door. The house seemed eerily quiet, oddly
forsaken, as they stepped inside.

Reminders of Clay were everywhere. The ball
cap he’d worn on Friday was flung on the couch where he tossed it
when he came in the door. In the kitchen, she found a stack of
papers he’d been going through on the dining room table, working on
plans for the fall semester at school.

“Do you want to sit down, Callan?” Jenna
asked, putting a comforting hand on her arm. “I can get whatever
you need from the bedroom if you want.”

Callan shook her head. “No, you two go on
home. I’ll be fine. You need some rest, too. I’m going to take a
shower and I can’t think beyond that.”

Josh squeezed her arm lightly. “Cal, we
aren’t leaving you here alone. Get what you need and come home with
us for now.”

The front door opened and Laken walked
inside. She rushed to Callan and embraced her in a hug.

“Oh, sweetie.” Laken held her close as tears
spilled down both their cheeks. “I don’t even know what to
say.”

Callan found it impossible to speak at all.
She let Laken hold her as they cried. Jenna clung to Josh, who kept
clearing his throat.

“Josh, why don’t you take Jenna home and
rest? I’ll stay with Callan,” Laken finally said, looking his
direction and taking charge.

“Are you sure?” Josh asked, glancing at
Callan. She nodded in agreement and gave him and Jenna each a hug
with a whispered, “I love you,” before walking them to the
door.

As soon as they left, Laken pushed her
toward her bedroom door. “Go take a shower. I’ll warm up some
dinner and then we’ll decide what needs to happen next. I won’t let
you argue on this.”

Callan was too numb to think, too exhausted
to argue. As she walked into the bedroom she’d shared with Clay, a
room that held so many memories, waves of pain rushed through her.
She hurried into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and stood
unmoving in the stream of warm water. She wished she could wash
away the last several days and go back to having Clay home where he
belonged.

When Dr. Fisher walked toward her
apologizing the other day, she feared Clay was gone and couldn’t
bear hearing the words. After fainting and regaining her senses,
Dr. Fisher was quick to explain that Clay was alive and holding his
own. He’d come to apologize that it had taken him so long to let
her know she could see Clay. She, Bobbi, and Steve all took turns
sitting next to him, talking to him, encouraging him, praying for
him.

Despite their hopes and wishes for a quick
recovery, Clay slipped into a coma and, for the most part, was
unresponsive.

Although David said it was to be expected
with his head injury, it wasn’t any more comforting. Callan had
been at the hospital for days. She began to lose track of time.
Deciding it was Thursday, she remembered calling the office on
Monday and talking to Jill, asking her to follow up with her
appointments this week. She also called a couple of girls she hired
to help with her own event planning business. Until Clay was
better, she would turn things over to them.