The One Left Behind (The One Series) (8 page)

I lift my hand and wait for Colin to respond. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. He takes a deep breath and says, “I understand, Addy, I’ll do whatever you need.”

His tone is flat and devoid of emotion and the light has drained from his eyes. His entire body deflates and sags in anguish. This only breaks my heart for him more as I watch myself crush him again. We finish our lunch in quiet conversation. There isn’t a whole lot to say to each other after I gave him back the ring. Instead of moving forward in our relationship, I’m afraid we might have taken a step back.

I thank him for lunch and go home to get ready for my week back to work. On my way, I think about everything that transpired during our lunch. A big part of me feels guilty for putting him through so much emotional stress and I hate that I’m hurting him. But another part of me feels somewhat relieved. Having that ring on me felt like a dark cloud hanging over my head. I needed to give it back to start going forward with my life while waiting to recover. Surely this has to be the hardest part. It could only get easier from here on out, right?

I GET BACK to my office from my lunch with Addison and fall into my chair. Since I’m kind of the newbie at the law firm, my office is very simplistic, but I love it. My desk is to the back wall so I’m facing the door when I’m sitting. To my right is a large, mahogany book case with all the law books and references I would ever need to get my hands on. There are two windows behind me that let in plenty of natural light. The view I have is of the side of another building. Okay, so I don’t have the corner office with a great view, but it serves its purpose and I’m lucky to have a job here.

I’m not sure what I was expecting out of this meeting, but I was so hopeful and excited, and then it all came crashing down again. Right when I think we’re taking a step forward in trying to get our lives back on track, she says or does something that pushes us two steps back.

I pull the ring she gave me back out of my pocket. I must have stared at it for a while because my vision has started to blur from lack of blinking. This one act feels more permanent than anything else that has been happening between us. Before, I felt like any day things would go back to normal. Now that I have her engagement ring in my hand, things seem bleak. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever get her back. What if she gets adjusted to being separated, her memory comes back, and she still doesn’t want me? Shit, I need to stop with all the what-ifs. I’m only making my situation worse.

I think back to how it felt when I put my hand on her lower back. It was like a rush of electricity zapped through my body. I was so anxious to see her again, but I was terrified at the same time. I started sweating wondering why she wanted to meet, but when I touched her all of my anxiety just washed away. Well, some of it anyway. I have been starving for some form of affection from her. To touch her, smell her, breathe her in. I desperately wanted to pull her up against my body and hug her tight to me, but I knew that would freak her out. She was already putting up walls, and I didn’t need to make her feel awkward and make it harder to penetrate that wall.

I look around and notice the stack of cases piling up on my desk. I’ve definitely been distracted, and my desk shows it. I really need to stop wallowing in self-pity and try to put on my game face at work. The last thing I need is to lose my job on top of everything else.

I’m going to take this day by day. She wants to be friends, so that’s a start. As much as it kills me, I’m willing to try if she is. It can only help our situation to be around each other.

So for now, I put the ring back in my desk for safe keeping. Then, when she’s ready, I’ll propose to her again and make her my wife. The idea alone is enough to make my heart race. God, I love that woman to death.

IT’S BEEN ABOUT a month since the accident and I’m finally returning to work today. Excited as I am to be getting out of my house, I can’t help but be in a sour mood when I clock in for work because I’m stuck working at the front desk. I had my last follow up with Dr. Salvatore and he said everything looked great on my recent scans. He wasn’t concerned about the fact that my memory still hasn’t returned. He said the same thing I have been trying to convince myself. Things like that can’t be rushed.

I was ecstatic to get the go ahead to return to work. No more random visits from my mom. The best part was no more sitting around. I love my job. It is fast paced and busy and you’re always on the go. Dr. Salvatore said he was going to talk to the head nurse who makes the schedule and put me on light duty. I tried to convince him I didn’t need light duty but he insisted at least a week of it just to be safe, and once the week was over he would consider taking me off. Realizing I wasn’t going to win that argument, I reluctantly agreed. So here I am sitting behind the check-in desk at the emergency room. Doing none of the things I love to do. It’s going to be a long night.

I love working the night shifts since I’ve always been a night owl, but tonight I’m starting to wish I had been placed on the day shift. You don’t see too much happening during the night shift unless you’re working in the trauma unit. At the front desk, it’s just your usual sick patients whose doctors’ offices are closed since all the trauma patients come through a side emergency entrance. Looking at the clock, I see it is twelve thirty in the morning. I sigh, dreading the next seven and a half hours until I get off.

A short girl who looks to be about my age catches my attention as she walks into the emergency room. She has familiar looking brown eyes that I can’t quite place peeking out from beneath her bangs. She take a number and is headed toward the seating area when I call her to come over.

“Hello, there’s no need to take a number. Everyone is already checked in.” The girl looks around at the full waiting room and walks my way.

“I guess that’s a bad sign if all these people are checked in and the waiting room is full?” She grimaces and I can tell she is in a little bit of pain by the way her jaw clenches every now and then.

I have gotten a lot of complaints tonight about how we aren’t moving fast enough. We are two doctors short, both of whom were called away for an emergency trauma coming in, so there was nothing we could do to speed up the wait time. The only thing I can do is apologize. I give the other nurses who work the desk a lot of credit. The patients in the waiting room are just downright mean and I’m glad I don’t normally have to deal with this.

I brace myself for another person’s attitude when I answer her question. “Yes, I apologize, but there was a very bad trauma that came in and they needed all the hands they could get. So we lost two of our doctors until the surgery is done.”

As I’m anticipating another attitude, the response I get is not at all what I’m expecting. “Eh, it’s okay. I just hope the people in the trauma pull through. It must be bad if they needed extra hands. I’ll say a silent prayer for them.”

I admire the sincerity in her voice. This one patient made my night a little bit better knowing that not everyone I come across in here will be rude.

“I’m Addison. I’ll be checking you in and taking your vitals. I’m just going to ask you a couple questions if you don’t mind.” I ask for her insurance card and other information and she hands it over. I glance at her I.D. to get her name so I can address her by it. It seems more personable to me. I want my patients to know I care about them and I’m not just here for a paycheck.

“So Lexi, what brings you in tonight?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure it’s a kidney stone. I get them all the time so I’m good at recognizing when I have one.” She clenches her jaw again.

I take her vitals and ask her about her pain level. It’s pretty high on the scale and I tell her I’ll get her some pain medication before she sees the doctor after she signs the consent form.

I didn’t see her walk in with anyone and wonder how she got here in that kind of pain. “Did you drive yourself here?”

“No. I always try to wait it out for as long as I can before I have to come to see the doctor. My brother thinks it’s ridiculous because he’s always stuck driving me to my late night emergency room visits. I just tell him to get over it and look at it as sibling bonding time.” A warm grin spreads across her face showing the fondness she has for her brother.

I hand her all the paperwork she needs to fill out and enter her vitals into the computer and tell Cameron, the male nurse who is working with me, I’m going to go check with the doctor for medication. He gives me a nod and I disappear into the back. After finding the doctor I am looking for, he gives me a Percocet and I grab some water on my way back to the front desk. I finally get a few minutes to finish up some paperwork I’ve been working on when I see someone standing out of the corner of my eye with a clipboard. I glance up to collect the paperwork and standing in front of me is Pierce. For some reason, I get butterflies in my stomach at the mere sight of him.

You can hear the surprise in my voice when I say, “Pierce, how nice to see you again. Are you feeling okay?”

What a stupid question. Obviously he isn’t feeling well if he’s in the emergency room. I really just want to take those words back the moment they leave my mouth, but it’s too late. I try to cool my features hoping Pierce doesn’t notice my embarrassment. It only takes him a second to respond to my stupid question.

His eyebrows are drawn in and he tilts his head to the side. “Have we met before? You will have to forgive me, I have a horrible memory.” A huge grin slowly breaks out on his face, so I decide to play along and give him a run for his money.

“Ah, I guess that is why I never got a call back from you. You must have forgotten that I called.”

He looks surprised clearly not realizing I’m just messing with him.

“Did you?’ he starts digging for his phone and I start to laugh. “Ha, you’re messing with me, good one. I guess it’s not nice of me to joke about your situation. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, Pierce, it’s nice that someone can be relaxed enough around me to joke about it. So, what brings you in?” I’m curious to know why he’s here since he looks fine.

“I drove my sister here. She suffers from kidney stones and I suffer from being her late night chauffeur.” He’s trying to play it off that he’s put out by his sister, but I see the affection he has for his sister in his eyes while talking about her.

“So, you’re Lexi’s brother. From what Lexi tells me, she prefers to call it sibling bonding time.”

“I see you met her then.”

“Yes, she seems sweet, but I know she’s in a lot of pain. So I have some pain medication if you wouldn’t mind getting her.”

Pierce takes a few steps backwards away from me and then turns around to retrieve his sister. She’s resting with her eyes closed in one of the chairs and he is so gentle to wake her without startling her that it warms my heart. He whispers something into her ear before helping her stand up. I got a glimpse of his caring side on the beach when we first met, but watching him interact with Lexi sheds a whole new light on it and I have to pry my eyes away from him. It feels like I’m intruding in on a private family moment.

I give Lexi the medication and tell her that I will lead her to a back room to lay down in a bed.

I turn my attention to Pierce and notice him rubbing her back to help comfort her. “If you would like to wait with Lexi, you’re more than welcome to.”

He looks at his sister and her pleading eyes give him his answer. “Sure, that would be great. My sister gets a little freaked out in hospitals.”

I scan my access card up against the wall and the door to the emergency room opens. As we are walking, Pierce begins to talk. “So, I wanted to call you and see how you were doing but I realized I didn’t have your number.”

Lexi stops mid step and we both pause to make sure she’s okay. I know the pain medication hasn’t kicked in yet. I’m about to offer to get her a wheelchair when she says, “Wait, you two know each other?”

I wait for Pierce to say something but he doesn’t answer which makes me wonder if he has a girlfriend or if he’s hiding something. I answer for him. “Yes, we actually met a couple days ago on the beach. Pierce was kind enough to stop and help me out with a problem I was having.”