The Way Back to You

by Sharon Sala

  His whiskers itched, and he’d been in his clothes two days. The first thing he wanted was a place to stay so he could clean up and change clothes.

  Another search on Google revealed his choices for an overnight stay in Blessings were either a motel or a bed-and-breakfast. He chose the Blessings Bed and Breakfast and found it easily enough. When he pulled up and parked, the appearance of the two-story home with a wraparound porch was immediately appealing. He was glad he’d chosen here instead of the motel. He got out, grabbed his luggage, and walked inside. The woman standing behind the registration desk smiled when she saw him walk in.

  “Welcome to Blessings. I’m Rachel Goodhope.”

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am. I’m Sully Raines. I need a room for at least a couple of days, maybe more.”

  “Certainly. Is it just you, sir?” Rachel asked.

  “Yes, I’m alone,” Sully said.

  Rachel went about getting him registered and then led the way up the stairs to his room. He stood aside as she unlocked the door and walked in, turning on lights as she went.

  “The bathroom is just to your right,” Rachel said. “There’s a stocked mini-fridge in the cabinet next to your closet and a house phone on the bed stand. If you need assistance or have a question, just press the number 9, and either I or my husband, Bud, will answer. Breakfast is served from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. There are several good places to eat your other meals in Blessings. I personally recommend Granny’s Country Kitchen. It’s on Main Street, so you can’t miss it. There’s also Broyles Dairy Freeze if you want fast food, or there’s a barbecue joint. It’s small, but the food is really good. I hope your stay here in Blessings is a pleasant one,” she said, and gave him the room key.

  “Yes, ma’am. Thank you. Before you go, may I ask you a quick question?”

  “Of course,” Rachel said.

  “Do you know a woman named Jane Carter, or have you known of anyone by that name ever living here? She would be in her mid-sixties by now.”

  Rachel thought a moment, then shook her head. “No, I don’t, but I didn’t grow up here. If you go to Granny’s for lunch, ask Lovey Cooper. She’s lived here for years and owns Granny’s. At one time or another, everyone in Blessings has eaten there.”

  Sully grinned. “Thank you, I will.”

  After she left, he unpacked his things, then stripped and headed to the shower. He stepped beneath the hot spray with his shampoo bottle, then after his hair was washed, proceeded to scrub from the top down. When he was through, he got out and wrapped a towel around his waist, then moved to the sink to shave, dripping water on the thick, fluffy bath mat as he stood.

  The mirror had fogged over from the heat of the shower, so he wiped it clean, then paused and stared at himself in the mirror.

  He’d seen that face every day of his life and never once doubted his identity, even though his black hair, the Roman shape of his nose, and the classic curve to his jaw were nothing like either of his parents’. He leaned closer, staring intently into his own brown eyes as water dripped from equally dark lashes. If he had to guess, at least one of his parents might have been part Middle Eastern, or maybe from any one of the Mediterranean cultures. Not knowing even the most basic of things about them left him feeling lost.

  “Who are you?” Sully muttered, then shook off the feeling and plugged in his electric razor.

  The simple act of removing the dark stubble on his face was calming. Even though he didn’t know where he’d come from, he was restoring order to his appearance. For now, it was enough.

  Once he was finished, he towel dried his hair and got dressed. The last thing to go on were his old Justin boots. They were a little worn at the heels but familiar, and right now he needed all of the grounding he could get.

  He pocketed his room key and headed back downstairs, then out to the parking lot to his car. He hadn’t had anything to eat but fast food for a couple of days, so the idea of a sit-down meal was enticing.

  The sun was bright, the sky clear as he drove back toward Main. Since he’d left home in a storm, he took the good weather as a positive sign.

  He was just turning onto Main Street, eyeing the traffic in the distance ahead of him and watching for the sign to Granny’s Country Kitchen, when all of a sudden, a car came speeding out of a side street and T-boned the car ahead of him. The impact was so hard, it sounded like an explosion. Glass flew as the car spun and stopped, facing the opposite direction. He got a glimpse of a woman behind the wheel, and then steam and smoke began coming out of both cars. Old work habits kicked in as Sully stomped on his brakes, put the car in park, and jumped out running.

  * * *

  Melissa Dean had been at the shop all morning, overseeing the installation of a new dry-cleaning machine. Her employees were excited to get it and eager to learn how to use it. By the time Melissa left, they were all in the back getting firsthand instructions from the installers.

  She glanced at herself in the rearview mirror as she backed away from the curb, liking how the pale-lavender eye shadow she was wearing accentuated her green eyes. And she was still liking the chocolate-brown color of her hair and the shoulder-length cut. She’d come a long way from the drab woman who’d worked at Bloomer’s Hardware.

  Growing up an only child in Missouri, she’d never imagined herself being unhappy. She’d always had friends, some more special than others, but there was never a shortage. Her parents moved away from Kansas City when she was in junior high, and she later met her husband, Andy, during her last year of junior college.

  They married within six months of his graduation from Missouri State and had a few happy years together before he died. And that’s when she’d put her life on hold. She hadn’t meant to, but over the years, being a widow had become her identity. A recent windfall in her life had changed all that, for which she would be forever grateful.

  She glanced at the time as she put the car in gear and tried to remember what she had at home in the way of leftovers. There was leftover baked ham, but beyond that, she couldn’t remember and decided to go to Granny’s to eat instead.

  Today was Monday, which meant the Curl Up and Dye was closed, and she was thinking about giving Ruby a call to see if she wanted to join her for lunch. But then she glanced at the time as she braked at a stop sign and decided it was too late for that spur-of-the-moment call.

  She turned right onto Main, accelerating slowly, and was just getting ready to turn left into the parking lot at Granny’s when a car came out from a side street without stopping, ramming into her at full speed.

  The impact threw her against the door, then yanked her back as the car spun around in the opposite direction. Her seat belt kept her from being thrown out as the driver’s side door flew open and then slammed itself shut from the momentum of the spin. Glass had already shattered as the airbags deployed. Steam and smoke began coming into her car from somewhere beneath the dash, along with tiny fingers of flames.

  For a few seconds she was so stunned by what had just happened that she couldn’t think, but then smoke began to billow up inside the car, and when she saw flames coming out from beneath the hood, she panicked and reached for her seat belt to get out. To her horror, it wouldn’t unlatch.

  “No, no, no, God help me,” she mumbled, and then began trying over and over to unlatch it, even pulling and tugging on it without success.

  She didn’t know she was screaming until someone yanked open the driver’s side door.

  Chapter 2

  Sully was running at top speed and within ten yards of the car when he saw the flames and heard the woman’s screams. Without hesitation, he yanked the door open and felt for her arm. She jerked at his touch but stopped screaming.

  “Lady! Can you move?” Sully asked.

  Melissa couldn’t see him, but she could feel his hands on her shoulder.

  “Help me! It’s on fire!” she cried
.

  The tone of his voice was more urgent now. “I know! I see it. Can you move?”

  “Yes, yes, but my seat belt…the latch… I can’t get it open.”

  She felt his weight against her as he leaned across the steering wheel. She felt him fumbling for the latch, and then suddenly she was free.

  “Put your arm around my neck,” Sully said, and when she did, he slid one arm beneath her legs and the other around her body and pulled her out. The moment they were clear of the car, he tightened his hold and turned and ran—straight toward the parking lot at Granny’s, trying to get as far away from the wreck as he could before it blew.

  All traffic on Main Street had stopped, and people were coming out of the businesses. Sirens were blasting, announcing the approach of emergency vehicles. People were getting out of their vehicles, and the man who’d hit her was out of his car and sitting on the curb a short distance away.

  And then the wreck exploded into flames, sending shrapnel-like pieces of metal flying in all directions and burning debris up into the air. It went up, and then it began to come down, sending onlookers running for safety.

  Sully stumbled from the impact of the blast at the same time he was hit on the shoulder by a sharp, burning blow.

  The woman was coughing and struggling to breathe. He had to get her out of this smoke, so he kept running straight to the front door of the restaurant. But now, burning debris was also coming down from above them. He was only yards from the café when the door flew open and an older woman ran out.

  “In here! In here!” she cried, and he leaped across the threshold with the injured woman in his arms.

  * * *

  Granny’s dining room was doing business as usual up until the wreck. The sound of crunching metal and screeching tires was impossible to miss. At that point, diners began getting up and running to the windows to see what had happened.

  Lovey was up front at the checkout counter when she heard the impact. She jumped up from her seat and pushed the curtains aside to look out just as the cars exploded into flames.

  “Oh my lord!” she gasped, staring openmouthed at the huge plume of smoke and fire shooting up into the sky.

  And then she saw a man running across the street and into her parking lot with a woman in his arms, with burning debris falling down around them.

  With no time to waste, Lovey ran out from behind the counter and opened the door only seconds ahead of them.

  “In here! In here!” she shouted, and then stepped outside long enough for them to run past her before ducking back inside.

  The man was in the act of laying the woman down on the bench seating in the lobby when Lovey saw her face.

  “Oh my God! It’s Melissa! She’s bleeding!” she cried, and then saw a scorched and bloody spot on the man’s back and realized he’d been hit by some of the debris. “Mister, you’re bleeding, too,” Lovey said.

  Sully didn’t look up. “I’m okay. Will you please call 911 and let them know one of the victims is in here?”

  “What did you say?” Lovey asked.

  Everyone who worked at Granny’s was well aware Lovey had lost complete hearing in one ear.

  Mercy Pittman, who did all the baking at Granny’s, had come out of the kitchen with most of the others in the dining room when the explosion happened, and she’d followed Lovey into the lobby. When Lovey didn’t hear what the man asked for, Mercy tapped her on the shoulder.

  “I’ve got it,” she said.

  Lovey nodded.

  By now, business inside the dining room and the kitchen had come to a complete halt. Waitresses and customers alike were all trying to wedge their way into the small lobby to hear and see.

  Sully was assessing the woman’s condition, checking out the small cut on her forehead, then checking to see if there were others.

  “Ma’am, show me where the pain is worst,” he said.

  Melissa’s eyes were burning so badly that she wouldn’t open them, but she was locked in on the sound of her rescuer’s voice, responding to everything he was asking.

  “My head and my neck, I think.”

  “Try not to move or turn your head, okay?” he said.

  Melissa’s heart skipped in sudden fear. Head and neck injuries often led to bigger problems, and there had been no time to immobilize her before he pulled her out of the car.

  “Can you move your legs?” he asked.

  Melissa responded again.

  “Good job,” he said, then began feeling up and down the length of her arms and legs for signs of broken bones.

  “My eyes burn so bad,” she whispered.

  “Can someone bring a wet cloth for her eyes?” he asked.

  Lovey pointed. “Wendy, go get one from the kitchen.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the waitress said. She ran out of the lobby and returned carrying a wet linen dinner napkin. “Here you go,” she said, handing it to Sully.

  “Thank you,” he said, then reached for the injured woman’s hand. “Melissa. Your name is Melissa, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Feel this? I’m going to put it across your eyes.”

  The soft tone of his voice was as gentle as the touch of his hand as he unfolded part of the napkin and laid it across her face. A soft moan was all she was capable of making, but it was one of relief.

  Melissa wanted to see him—the man that went with the voice—and after patting the wet cloth against her eyelids, and letting the cold water seep beneath the lids, she was finally able to open her eyes. Her vision was still a little blurry, but what she did see was a good-looking man with very black hair and kind eyes.

  For a few timeless seconds, their gazes locked.

  Greenest eyes I’ve ever seen, Sully thought, and then knelt beside the bench because his head was spinning. His throat burned, likely from smoke inhalation, and the pain in his shoulder was increasing.

  “Are you okay?” Lovey asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. Just feeling the smoke,” he said.

  Before Lovey could respond, the door opened, and a couple of firemen stepped inside.

  “Miss Lovey, we’re going up on your roof to make sure none of that falling debris caught anything up there on fire.”

  “Oh my goodness,” Lovey said, and ran outside with them to look. When she came back inside, two EMTs pushing a gurney were right behind her.

  After making a cursory check of Melissa’s condition and applying a neck brace, they loaded her onto the gurney and wheeled her out to the waiting ambulance.

  Sully slipped out when the EMTs arrived and jogged back across the street to his car. It was still running, the keys in the ignition and the door wide open. He slid in behind the steering wheel, then shut the door and took a deep breath.

  For someone who’d just left the Kansas City Fire Department, this was a hell of a way to start retirement. When he saw an ambulance leaving the scene, he followed it to the ER. His shoulder hurt like hell, and he was pretty sure whatever had hit him was still in it.

  * * *

  Melissa was in shock. The ambulance ride had felt surreal, and even after they transferred her from the gurney to a bed in the ER, she couldn’t believe this had happened. People were all around her as they began assessing her condition, talking to one another and then asking her rapid-fire questions about what hurt and what didn’t until her head was spinning.

  She had the headache from hell. Her eyes were burning, and it hurt to breathe in too deeply. She didn’t know if it was from smoke inhalation, the impact from the steering wheel, or a combination of both. She still didn’t know who’d hit her, and she didn’t know the man who’d saved her life. But a short while later, as they were taking the portable X-ray machine out of her room, she heard his voice again. This time it was coming from the room next to hers, and she was immediately curious.

 
“The man who saved me is in the next room, isn’t he?” Melissa asked.

  Her nurse, Hope Talbot, hesitated to answer.

  “I’m not sure who’s there, honey. I can check for you in a few minutes.”

  “Thank you,” Melissa said. “Do I have a concussion? Can they tell if I have internal injuries from the X-rays?”

  Hope noticed a little bit of drying blood in Melissa’s ear and wiped it out with a swab to make sure she wasn’t bleeding from the ear.

  “Just a stray bit of blood from that cut on your head,” Hope said, then checked the gash on Melissa’s forehead that they’d just glued shut. “The test results will answer your questions, honey. Rest for now, and if you need me, remember to just ring this buzzer, okay?”

  Melissa nodded, but as soon as Hope left her room, she swung her legs out of bed and sat up. It wasn’t as easy to move as she’d thought, and she had to steady herself until the room quit spinning. But as soon as she felt able, she slipped off the bed and headed next door.

  The door was open, and the man who’d saved her was shirtless and sitting on the side of the bed. Dr. Quick was cleaning a cut on his back. The man wasn’t talking or moving, but his hands were clenched into fists, which meant he was likely hurting.

  Melissa’s head was pounding as hard as her heart. Every muscle of his upper body was taut and lean, but she was too dizzy to admire the scenery and knocked to get their attention before walking into the room.

  Everyone turned to look—including Dr. Quick, who immediately frowned—but Melissa was looking at the stranger, and the longer she looked, the more puzzled she became.

  “Do I know you?” she asked. “You look so familiar.”

  Sully was staring at her eyes again.

  “My name is Sully Raines.”

  Melissa frowned. “I knew a Johnny Raines from Missouri.”

  Sully’s dark eyes widened as he remembered them calling her Melissa.

  “Melissa? Missy, is that you?”

  Melissa gasped. “Yes! Oh my God, Johnny! What are the odds of this happening? Where did you come from? Why are you in Blessings? You just saved my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”