I let out a shaky breath and sat up, rubbing my eyes. Parting the small curtain at the window above my bed, I looked out into the dark, trying to see Simon’s camp area. I pictured him in his sleeping bag, moonlight cascading across his dark hair, and I suddenly had the burning desire to see him. As much as he was a stranger, he was still Simon.
Maybe it was being tired that lured me out the trailer and sneak quietly near Simon’s grove of trees. I could see the silhouettes of his chair and belongings. And as I inched closer, I stayed hidden between the trees as my eyes finally adjusted fully and I watched him. He was on his back, one arm across his chest and the other above his head. I hovered for a long time with a tug of war happening in my head and my heart. Could I do it? Could I let him in and survive no matter what happened? If I let him in, got to know him on the level I once had, would I be okay just being friends with him? I’d had no choice when I was young, but now…
In the morning, I dressed in a rush. I wanted to call Jesse first thing and check on Samuel. A lot could change overnight and I was anxious, on top of being tired. I’d lingered in the trees for a long time the night before, trying to decide how to move forward with the Simon situation. After what had felt like all night, I’d made my decision and I was eager to get it over with no matter the ramifications. I was going to ask Simon outright all the things I wanted to know. I deserved that. I had a feeling he knew I deserved it as well and no matter what, at least I wouldn’t regret knowing the truth.
It would have to wait until later, though. I needed to call Jesse.
When I stepped outside, I stopped short; my uncle’s truck was gone. “Aunt Chantelle?” I called. I couldn’t hear anything and sighed when I saw that a couple of the wheelers were gone as well. What time was it? Amy was usually the one to sleep in, not me.
“Are you alright, Katie?” I groaned inwardly when it was Trent addressing me from his chair near the firepit. His face showed genuine concern as he stood and strode toward me.
I cast my eyes around again. “Where is everyone?”
He stopped a few feet from me and gestured toward the road. “Your aunt and uncle took the truck for a ride. Everyone else is out on the wheelers…” His eyebrows drew together. “Are you okay?”
I’d avoided him since that moment after jumping off the cliff, but there was no avoiding now. I shifted uncomfortably at the idea of us being alone. At home, I made sure to always have Amy or James in the room with us. “I just wanted to make a phone call,” I muttered.
He took a step toward me and in a quick movement, I stepped back. Trent paused and held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not going to get you. I’m sorry about the other day.”
I stared at him, unwilling to trust him again, and fidgeted with my clasped fingers. He seemed to always have a glint in his eye that made me uncomfortable, even when he was decent. I cleared my throat. “It’s alright. I’m just a little tired.” I glanced down and when I fixed my gaze on him one more, I caught his roaming eyes. My stomach tightened, and I decided I’d spend the morning in the trailer until someone came back. Trent hadn’t made any physical move toward me other than in the water, which hadn’t been overly threatening. I wouldn’t put it past him, though; I knew too well that his character was a shady one.
Trent came forward again, and I took a tiny step back, toppling onto the trailer steps. He didn’t appear threatening as he leaned over me and took hold of my arms, but I still felt a moment of panic for myself. I was about to wriggle out of his grip when a wheeler sounded and came around the trees. I felt instant relief as I caught sight of Simon and had to keep myself from running to him for safety.
Trent hauled me to my feet with a chuckle. “Are you okay?” My gaze flew to his, and I nodded quickly before tugging my arms free. Trent raised his eyebrows and had a small mocking smile, as though he thought I was overreacting. “I’m just helping you, honey. Relax.”
I bit back the mean comment on the tip of my tongue and nodded jerkily instead. “I’m okay, thanks.” I didn’t wait to get away from him and headed for Simon right away. He’d just come around his wheeler when I met up with him, and he started to smile but it fell when he saw me.
“Is something wrong?” He frowned.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Trent walking back to his chair, and I looked at Simon again. I tried to smile and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Um.” I took a moment to clear my thoughts and met his gaze. “I just need to make another phone call. Do you mind giving me a ride to the main road?”
Simon was quiet for a moment. He threw a quick glance at Trent before nodding. “I will,” he said slowly. He looked at me for a moment, and his eyes lightened. “Good morning,” he said smoothly.
I blinked. “Oh, good morning.”
He half smiled while focused on me. “You don’t seem to have rested well.” He lifted his hand and the back of his fingers ran lightly along my cheek.
My thoughts went blank at his touch and I blushed after a moment, remembering I looked tired because I’d been lurking in the woods as I’d watched him sleep. When I pictured it now, I bit back a giggle. I felt like I was a creepy vampire or something, stalking him while he’d slept. “Can we go now?” I asked before he could inquire about my sudden smile. “I’m really worried about Samuel. I want to check on him.”
Simon rubbed his thumb along my cheek once more and nodded.
When we were driving up the dirt road, Simon asked about Samuel, and I filled him on my phone call the day before.
He frowned. “I hoped he’s better today,” he said as he rolled his shoulders.
I was momentarily distracted as I watched him rub his neck. I leaned against the door and turned toward him. “Are you sore from sleeping on the ground?” I quizzed.
Simon threw a glance my way and stopped rubbing his neck. “I am a little sore. It’s not just from sleeping on the ground. My whole upper back and neck have problems.”
I cocked my head to the side in interest. Perhaps it was the nurse coming out in me. “Is there a reason for that, that you are aware of?” I tried to see the back of his neck better from my angle. “It could be something serious.”
Simon paused and looked at me with an amused smile. “Yes, Nurse Kate,” he said in a would-be serious tone, though his eyes were teasing. “I’m pretty sure it’s from my accident last year.”
“What?” I gasped soberly. “What kind of accident were you in?”
Simon parked the truck near the main road in the shade under the trees. He turned toward me with a sad smile. His eyes were on me, although he was seeing something else as he spoke. “I was hit by a drunk guy on the freeway. He only clipped the corner of my truck, but it was enough to send me rolling.”
My mouth hung open in horror at the picture he was putting in my head.
“Yeah, it was pretty bad,” he murmured. Simon focused on me again. He was quiet for a moment before he took an audible breath. “It was scary, even for a grown man like me.” He swallowed quite noticeably. “I really thought I’d die, Kate,” he said with a strained voice.
My heart quickened with the way he said my name, and my eyes were glued to his.
Simon folded his arms tightly across his chest, and his throat bobbed again. “They didn’t think I’d survive. I was so broken when they got to me, and the truck was so completely destroyed, everyone assumed the worst.” His lips pressed in a tight line, and a muscle jumped in his jaw. After a moment he cleared his throat.
I stared in shock and felt such an overwhelming wave of grief at the idea of him dying, of him even being so close to death. How would I have taken it had I received a phone call with that news? Would anyone have informed my family? Would my family have had the heart to tell me the man I’d once loved was gone forever? My gaze was down as my chin suddenly quivered at the thought of a world without Simon, and I swallowed against the harsh aching in my throat and chest.
When I glanced up at him, his head was tilted to one side, and his eyes were so
ft. “Don’t feel bad for me. That accident was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.” He shrugged. “It was hard to recover from, but it also showed me how life can be taken from you at any moment. I didn’t want to keep living the way I was, and not long after I recovered, I decided I wanted something different out of my life, and I have it now.”
My heart went out to him and his life-changing experience. His wasn’t the first story of this kind that I knew of. At the hospital, I’d seen the life changes people could make after experiencing something so traumatic. It made more sense now that I had the whole story. It wasn’t just that Simon didn’t want to be a lawyer or please his parents; something had happened to him that had set his priorities where they should be.
Still, I couldn’t get past the idea of him lying there dying like so many of my patients. I knew what injuries could come from that sort of accident, and Simon was certainly lucky to be here with only a stiff back and neck as a reminder.
Unable to tame my sorrow, I cleared my throat lightly and my heart pounded as I scooted across the seat. I looked up at Simon, with a desire to comfort myself somehow. “Can I give you a hug? I just really feel so—”
Simon’s arms came around me in flash, and he held more tightly than I’d have thought. I slipped my arms around him, my face against his shoulder, and settled near his neck until his stubble on my face. My heart was aching for more than just Simon and his accident. It was aching for the loss of time between us, the hurt that lingered from his absence and the desire to be with him now, even without fully knowing who he was. At least for a moment, wrapped in his strong embrace, I was where I’d wanted to be so many times over these past years. I’d lie awake at night with such longing to be near him.
“I’m glad you survived,” I finally rasped.
Simon swayed me lightly, his face resting on my head. “So am I.” He squeezed gently and released me with another small smile. “Why don’t you give your man a call and see about Samuel?”
My mouth fell open with a squeak, and I giggled a little, glad for the release from the emotional moment. “He’s not my man. I don’t have one.”
Simon’s eyes widened slightly with surprise, and then a slow grin spread across his handsome face. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”
I laughed and shook my head, but my heart leaped at the joy radiating in Simon’s eyes. I felt lighter for reasons I’d have to think through later. I needed to make a call.
I gasped suddenly when I realized that I didn’t have my phone. “No,” I whined. “My phone’s in my uncle’s truck.”
Simon held his phone out and chuckled. “Don’t get upset. Use mine.”
I pursed my lips and folded my arms. “I don’t know Jesse’s number. I never memorized it.” I shifted my eyes to see him from under my lashes, and he was smiling at me again.
“You’re so adorable when you pout like that. You look like you did at eight years old.”
It tickled to think he remembered me from so long ago. At the same time, I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing to look like my eight-year-old self. I tried to glare at him, but he only chuckled, and his eyes took on an even more adoring light. I finally broke, laughing a little, and sighed.
“Can’t you call the hospital and just ask for Jesse?” Simon asked as he adjusted in his seat.
I rolled my eyes for not thinking of that on my own, and Simon laughed at me. I swiped his phone. “I guess you’re right,” I muttered.
I fumed the entire ride back, and Simon was good to listen as I badmouthed the unhelpful nurse who’d said Jesse was busy. She wouldn’t give me a proper update on Samuel, either.
When Simon suggested he could get my mind off it, I secretly thought he might keep me in his truck to distract me. After he brought up going to the mine, and not the fun distraction I’d hoped for from him, I went ahead and agreed to his plan. When we returned to camp, however, our plans were delayed until later that evening. My aunt and uncle returned shortly after we did, and the day was spent on a hike through the forest, which would end on top of the small mountain that backed the lake.
“Hey, Simon,” Parker asked as he and Bryce followed behind us on the trail. He interrupted Simon telling me more about Caleb. I was glad they were close friends with one another. Especially since Simon had no family to count on, other than a sister in Florida.
“Even though we’re still close,” Simon had said before the interruption, “we don’t see each other, living so far apart. Caleb’s like a brother to me now; another sibling, aside from Olivia.”
I’d been about to extend my heartfelt sympathies to Simon, and that was when Parker had butted in, no doubt eavesdropping.
I glanced over my shoulder, ready to tell Parker to back off, but I was suddenly biting back a smile. I knew by now what was about to happen, and it wasn’t anything to do with Simon, or making him feel uncomfortable about his current family dynamic. Parker and Bryce wore matching smirks when they were feeling a little full of themselves, and it always had to do with women. Bryce was by far more of a womanizer than Parker, but with Parker’s large build, blond hair and blue eyes, he could easily capture a woman’s attention.
Simon looked back at them with an expectant smile. “What, Parker?”
“How’s that sister of yours?” he asked with a grin.
Simon’s face fell, and he was left scowling at Bryce and Parker.
Bryce snickered, and he and Parker exchanged broad smiles. I could see they were scheming to get a rise out of Simon. Bryce stood a little straighter as we passed under the shade of large aspen trees, and he eyed Simon. “Yeah, how is she? Still the hottest thing to walk on the face of the planet?”
I gasped with a wide, exasperated smile and met Amy’s eye. She was grinning madly, listening a few feet behind her mischievous brothers. I looked at Simon, whose lips were creased at the corners, and a pucker appeared between his dark eyebrows. As much as he’d like to argue the case, he knew he couldn’t. His sister was incredibly beautiful, she always had been, and she’d had the body at seventeen to knock a man to his knees. What was more was that she’d known it. Not in a vain way, but she did like to tease my cousins to get her way or flirt with them for entertainment's sake. But Olivia wasn’t the only beautiful one in that family; Simon’s looks rivaled hers. There probably wasn’t another pair anywhere who’d turned heads the way those dark-haired, gray-eyed siblings had.
“She’s married, you idiots,” I said lightly. “And even if she wasn’t, she didn’t give you two the time of day years ago. What makes you think she’d encourage you now?”
Simon laughed and threw me a wink as we turned forward once more. I felt an odd sense of pleasure at coming to his rescue, but it didn’t last as long as I’d have liked.
“Says who?” Bryce asked. “Simon’s giving you the time of day when he wouldn’t back then…”
My face flamed in humiliation, but I didn’t look back, or at Simon. I hadn’t expected Bryce to turn on me, and I was mortified with the way he’d burned me. I folded my arms tightly across my chest as I walked, and my embarrassment reached another level when Amy’s whispering voice was defending me.
“Don’t tease her about that, Bryce,” she scolded quietly. Although, if I could hear her, I knew Simon could as well. I didn’t have it in me to look and see what he was making of this very awkward moment. Amy went on. “You know how sensitive she is about…things.”
I chewed my lip, ready to catch up to my aunt and uncle, who were a long way ahead of us, when Simon’s quiet chuckle caught me by surprise. I dared to look at him from the corner of my eye, and he was looking my way.
“How would they know what went on between us back then?” he murmured for only me to hear. My rigid shoulders relaxed a little, and I looked sideways at his sweet half smile. Our eyes met, and for a moment, we seemed to be sharing those secret memories.
I smiled timidly at him, flushed but a little exhilarated with what he’d just said to me. He was r
ight, of course—everyone had seen us together back then but nobody had known exactly what had been between us except for Simon and me. The fact that he recognized this as well filled me with a warm delight I was sure he could see.
“That’s true,” I whispered after a moment, trying to ignore the bickering that circled through the siblings behind us.
Simon’s eyes softened; he stretched before inching closer until our arms brushed as we walked. I looked at him with a hesitant smile, waiting for him to explain his sudden desire to be so close to me. “They were wrong, you know,” he said with a smile. His lips were suddenly touching my ear, and before he even spoke a word, a shiver ran through me. It was addicting to keep getting these chills from him, and I would've enjoyed it more had my family not been so near. I braced myself with my lips pressed together, and Simon whispered, “You are the most beautiful girl to walk on the face of the earth.” He didn’t move back, and my pace slowed to a stop. I blinked, staring ahead with my heart slamming into my ribs. I ignored the snickers as my cousins passed by. I ignored Trent, whose jaw was set as he tossed me a scowl. All I was focused on was Simon and his hand, which was lightly holding the side of my waist, his nose near my ear. Desire rose from the ashes inside me and burned its way through. Had it not taken so long for the others to turn on the bended trail out of sight, I’d have turned to Simon, no hesitation, and thrown myself at him. As it happened, I took a shaky breath, swallowed against this resurrected thirst for him, and shifted my head to see him.
Simon’s light eyes were intent on drawing me in, as though we were two magnets that had no other choice. I stared at him, my pulse pounding in my ears, but when I saw a moment of doubt cross his features, my confidence was cut in half, and I blinked, taking a step back.
“I’m sorry,” I said, a little breathless. I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away, self-doubt now settling in. What was I doing? I couldn’t get caught up in my attraction to him. What purpose would it serve beyond making things more complicated?
“Kate,” he said quietly. I glanced up, now on my guard, and he took a long breath. “Let’s catch up to the others.” He gestured for me to begin walking again, and I did, after putting space between us.
Everything for You (Unforgettable) Page 9