He’d been there for her every step of the way. He’d known she was pregnant before she was, and had taken her to the doctor.
He’d even offered to be there for her and to help raise the baby.
When Joey had shown up, her ex had left with a black eye and wounded pride.
And she’d walked away from him without even a word; without giving him a chance to redeem himself.
With the perfect man standing right in front of her, declaring his love.
She’d been afraid. Afraid of being hurt. Again.
It was stupid. Being apart from him hurt like hell.
They’d been attached at the hip from the moment they met.
Now, for nearly a month, she’d been nothing but miserable. And for what reason? He was lying in a hospital – perhaps even fighting for his life. She may never even get to see him again. To talk to him. To hold his hand. To kiss him.
What she wouldn’t give to have just one more day with him. One more day to have things back the way they were before.
I was wrong. It hurts more to be without him than to be with him.
There was nothing wrong with being like her father. Noah Worthington was a good man, and Samuel didn’t even have her daddy’s bad quality of not staying in touch.
Samuel wasn’t Noah. And he certainly wasn’t Joey. Or Richard. Samuel hadn’t cheated on her. In her heart, she knew that he’d been telling the truth about his passenger.
As she got into the city traffic, she forced herself to focus and not to think about Samuel, a nearly impossible task.
When her phone rang, she hit speaker. It was her mother.
“Noah is out of surgery and is doing fine.”
“Thank God,” Danielle said. “I have to go, Mom. I’m hitting traffic.”
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive? You don’t even know where you’re going.”
Danielle laughed a humorless laugh. It sounded like something between a laugh and a croak. “It’s a little late to be worried now. I’m fifteen minutes out. I’ll call you when I know something.”
She got off the phone and sat forward in the seat.
I have to make this right. When I see Samuel, I’ll tell him.
I’ll tell him I love him.
Chapter 56
When Samuel woke up, he was in a helicopter with an oxygen mask over his mouth. As he lay there with his eyes closed, slowly getting his bearings, the last thing he could remember was seeing the end of the runway ahead of them. They’d crashed then.
When he opened his eyes, the medic greeted him cheerfully and removed the mask. He quizzed Samuel on the basics – his name, the date, where he was when the accident happened.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked.
“UAB.”
“Where’s that? I’m from Houston.”
“Birmingham. One of the best hospitals in the country.”
“Noah?” His held as breath as he waited for an answer. Danielle’s father had to be okay.
“They took him to the local hospital. He had a broken bone. Probably doing surgery, but he’ll be okay.”
Samuel blew out a breath, and the medic put the oxygen back on his mouth. Noah would be okay then.
He began replaying the last moments before the crash. System failure. That’s all it could have been. Noah did everything right. They would try to blame it on the weather and pilot error, but Samuel had landed in worse. The weather had nothing to do with it. Noah had accounted for the slippery runway.
“We’re ten minutes out. Is there anyone we can contact for you?”
Danielle.
Danielle was always his first thought. But she’d made it clear that they were no longer a couple. That she didn’t want a future with a pilot. Not in words, but in actions.
Something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. She had been right. He could have been killed.
The irony was that he now had an automatic four months off. A pilot couldn’t fly for one hundred twenty days after a concussion. It was almost perfect timing. He would have been around all the time to help her get ready for the baby. The baby that he had been ready to claim as his own.
The helicopter landed at UAB, and Samuel was carried inside on a stretcher. He’d hesitated long enough to avoid answering the medic’s question about who to contact about his accident. He felt well enough. He didn’t want to alarm his family. The last thing he needed was for them to come flying out here to Alabama from Houston when he was fine. He would tell them all about it at their next Sunday dinner.
Since he was about to have four months off, he could spend some long overdue time with his family.
The next couple of hours were spent with doctors and an MRI. And more doctors. They finally decided that they would keep him for observation for forty-eight hours.
After getting set up in a private room, a nurse came in with a plastic bag containing his clothes and his cell phone.
He grabbed his cell phone like a man dying of thirst would grasp a cup of water. He had only one text message. It was from his sister reminding him to be there for Sunday dinner. Since it was in two days, he wouldn’t make it this week. He’d make an excuse later.
Finally left alone, he laid his head back and closed his eyes. Maybe after a little nap, he’d call his sister. He wasn’t over the breakup with Danielle and now this crash. He could use a friendly voice in his ear.
The sense of isolation – being stuck here in a hospital somewhere in Alabama – was overwhelming. To get through it, he imagined he was flying in his Mooney single-engine high above the clouds. His thoughts soon settled enough that he was able to drift off to sleep.
In what seemed like only a few minutes, he opened his eyes to a smiling blonde standing over his bed. He blinked. She wasn’t wearing a uniform, and she didn’t look familiar.
“I’m sorry,” the girl, who looked to be college-aged, smiled. “You didn’t answer when I knocked, so I came on in to see if you needed anything.”
Samuel shook his head. Why would this girl, this stranger, be here to check on him?
“I’m here with the Sigma Kappa Sorority, and we’re visiting people at the hospital with Alzheimer’s Disease. I know you don’t have it, but since you hit your head, you were kinda the closet person I could find to talk to that would count.”
Samuel groaned. The girl was talking, and he couldn’t quite follow what she was saying. He closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. When he woke, Danielle was there, leaning over him. His heart soared. He held out his hand and squeezed hers. She’d come!
“I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve missed you more than you can ever know.”
Chapter 57
Danielle rushed into the ER and found her way to the desk.
“Samuel Johnson,” she struggled to catch her breath.
“Your name,” the clerk peered at her over narrow glasses.
“Danielle.” She tried to smile. Anything to keep from grabbing the computer from the woman and looking herself.
The woman’s hands remained in her lap. “We have a family-only policy for giving out information.”
“I’m his fiancé,” she blurted.
The woman tilted her head as she seemed to consider.
“Please,” Danielle pleaded. “Just tell me if he’s even here. I just drove in from Auburn. And we’re from Houston.” She didn’t fight the tears that filled her eyes. Crying on demand was a talent that she’d never mastered… until becoming pregnant. Now, the pregnancy hormones had opened up a whole new world.
The clerk tapped on her computer keys. “He’s in room 532,” she said.
“Thank you,” Danielle said and took off toward the elevators.
When she got off the elevator and approached his room, she stopped. What was she supposed to say? Hi. I know I broke up with you. But I was so worried.
Maybe it was best if she didn’t say anything.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she put one foot in front of the other. Now that she was
here, it took every ounce of strength to keep moving forward.
She heard female laughter as she approached his room. Probably a nurse trying to cheer him up. She put a hand on the doorknob and turned it. As the door opened, she wondered if she was supposed to knock first. Danielle had no experience with hospitals. She’d gone with her mother once to visit her grandmother, but that was it.
As the door swung open, Samuel smiled. With a two-second sweep, she took in the situation. Definitely not a nurse.
Samuel sat propped on pillows in the bed. His attention was on a young lady standing at his bedside. Definitely not a nurse. As she drew closer, she saw that he was holding the girl’s hand. She took another step, though her brain was frozen. She stopped just inside the door and heard Samuel’s words. “I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve missed you more than you can ever know.” It barely registered that his eyes were half closed.
The girl saw Danielle first and turned, concern and confusion shadowing her face. Samuel followed her gaze. His eyes widened in disbelief. “Danielle,” he breathed. He looked back at the girl standing next to his bed, holding his hand.
Danielle felt a wave of heat setting her blood to boil. This. This was exactly why she would never marry a pilot.
“You’re here.” He murmured, looking back at the other girl. “How?” Then turned his gaze back to Danielle.
“I drove.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but her heart was in her throat.
“Wait.”
Danielle turned around and quietly walked back down the hall. Never make a scene, her mother had told her a million times.
Once she was in the parking lot and inside the vehicle, she locked the door and the tears wracked her body. She cried harder than she had ever cried before. Even harder than the time she had taken her mother’s Xanax with her father’s alcohol.
That had been years ago, and she had never felt that way since.
Not until now. Now she felt like her world had crashed at her feet in a thousand pieces. Even as she’d broken up with Samuel, she’d clung to the belief in her heart that he was different. That he would never hurt her.
He had no idea what it had taken for her to drive to this hospital. Not only the drive itself, but to take the risk that he might want to see her.
He hadn’t needed her after all. He’d moved on. Without her. Just like she’d known he would.
It will pass. Years of therapy coalesced in that moment to give her strength. She wiped away the tears and lifted her head. It was raining now. She watched the raindrops slide down the windshield and let them wash away her pain along with it.
Maybe it was the hormones, but whatever it was, it was too much. Samuel deserved better.
I need to get myself together.
Every instinct had her going back up to his room. It was a misunderstanding. She could straighten it out in a minute.
Samuel deserves someone he can make a baby with. His own baby.
I love him too much. I have to let him go.
She put on her seatbelt and put the SUV in reverse.
She needed to get Emily’s car back to her. Then she needed to get back to L.A. and back to work. Authors were waiting on their covers, and she had to design them.
And more importantly, she had to get ready to bring home a baby.
Chapter 58
Samuel had his feet on the ground before the nurse darted into the room and grabbed hold of his ankles. “Where do you think you’re going?” she admonished.
“Danielle,” he said, pulling away.
“You can’t leave,” she told him.
“I can.” He made it as far as the elevator. As he stood waiting for the elevator, he knew. He knew he wasn’t going to catch her.
She had been moving too fast, and he had lost precious time before he reacted. And that nurse had held him back, and now that same nurse was there grabbing one arm while an orderly took the other. “It’s not a good idea for you to leave right now,” The man’s voice was gentle. Understanding. Unlike Nurse Ratched whose fingers were digging into his upper arm.
He allowed them to lead him back to his room – as if he had a choice. He had some things to think about anyway.
First, and most importantly, Danielle had driven here from Auburn; the other side of Auburn if he remembered correctly. For a girl who never drove, that was quite an accomplishment.
The girl from Sigma Kappa was still there when he got back into his room. “I appreciate your kindness,” he told her, “but I’d like some time to myself now.”
The girl left as he climbed back into his bed and lay there with his eyes closed.
He had quite a few things to think about.
Chapter 59
Two weeks later…
Danielle now remembered why she avoided commercial flying when at all possible. The hassle had gotten out of hand. Especially at this time of year, just days before Christmas. She sighed as the older woman sitting next to her pulled a tote bag of merrily-wrapped presents from under the seat in front of her. Yes, she should have taken her father up on that offer.
She walked through the gate at the airport in Fort Worth. Her pulse rate was a little too high. Maybe it was from flying commercial. Her father had offered to send someone to pick her up, but she’d said she needed some time alone. To think.
Fortunately, the expense of booking a flight over and back the same day was so ridiculously outrageous that she had booked a one-way ticket. She had made a good decision in counting on her father getting her back to California.
Or Samuel.
She had come to Fort Worth under the guise of visiting her father, but in truth, she wanted to see Samuel. Maybe it was the sentiment of the holiday season, but she wanted to make things right with him. She hadn’t given him a chance to explain himself either time before running away. Something nagged at the back of her brain about the two incidents. Maybe it was his bewildered expression. And that it just didn’t fit with what she knew about him. Whatever it was, she wanted to see him. To talk to him.
Her father stood waiting for her just outside the door. It was one of the perks of being a pilot that he had free reign at the airport. He greeted her with a big bear hug, as always.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” It was the first time she’d seen him since he was in the hospital, and she had to blink back tears.
“So am I. It’s good to see you, too. No luggage?”
“Nah. I’m just here for the day.”
“Alright. Let’s get lunch.” Together, they walked through the airport, then outside to his car. “Are you craving anything in particular?”
“Pizza.” She’d run through seafood, then Mexican, now anything with cheese.
“Pizza it is.” Driving away from the airport, he took them straight to a small pizzeria.
“You knew just where to go.” Danielle said.
Noah looked a little sheepish. “You know pizza is my weakness. I eat here whenever I can come up with an excuse. Just don’t tell Savannah.”
Danielle laughed. She loved that she and her father were close enough that they had things they did. Things that neither her mom nor Noah’s current wife, Savannah would need to know about. Like eating pizza.
After they ordered, while they waited on their pizza, Noah peered at his daughter. “I know you didn’t fly all the way over here to eat pizza. Although I have to admit I’ve done it myself.”
“Yeah.” She looked away. There was nothing she couldn’t tell her father. That didn’t mean it was always an easy thing to do. “I was hoping I could see Samuel.”
Noah’s eyes widened. Danielle’s heart tripped. Surely, if something had happened to him, someone would have told her.
“You didn’t try calling him?”
“Dad. I deleted his phone number.”
“Pumpkin, you probably shouldn’t do things like that.”
“I know. But is he here today?”
“He has a mandatory one hundred twenty days off after a concussio
n.”
“So… is he coming back?”
Noah shrugged. “I don’t know.”
The only way Danielle had communicated with Samuel was through his cell phone. “Daddy, does he still have the company cell phone?”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t answer it.”
Danielle stared into space. There had to be a way.
“Danielle.” Noah pulled her attention back to him. “What happened with him?”
“I saw him. In Houston. At the airport. With another woman.”
“When?”
Their pizza arrived, giving Danielle time to think back to enough details to answer her father’s question. “It was the day he had me bring him his birth certificate.”
Noah gaped at her. “I remember. He came back so obviously upset, but he wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. He’d just taken Annabelle to Houston to see her dying grandfather.”
“Annabelle?” Danielle didn’t feel so good.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “A client.”
“Daddy. I think I messed up.”
She told him about how she’d seen Samuel at the airport and stormed off. She also told him about seeing him with the girl at the hospital. “He’d just had a concussion. I think he might have been confused.” She blinked back tears. “What should I do Daddy? What would you do?”
Chapter 60
Two months later…
Danielle sat at her desk in her home office on the second floor of her mother’s house in Los Angeles. She had to give her mother credit. She’d accepted Danielle’s pregnancy without a hitch, and together, they had converted a guest room into a home office for Danielle to work. Danielle had an enviable view of the back yard – a manicured lawn with evergreen trees blocking the neighbors.
She was lost in the world of shape shifters. This was her biggest author yet. And the author’s release date was in just six months. And big name authors got their books out there for preorder early.
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