Tommy appeared in her dreams, for the first time in many years. “Tommy,” she said. “I planted some flowers and they’re doing good.”
Tommy laughed. “I guess you were paying attention,” he said. His face loomed over hers, as she lay in the bed.
“Come on,” she said. “Get in here with me.”
Tommy crawled in the bed beside her. She kissed him. He kissed her back.
The dream felt real and not like a dream. Jamie somehow knew it was a dream, but it felt real, too. Tommy was real. His body moved up next to hers and she felt it. Really felt it. He smiled at her, and it was his warm smile.
“I love you, Tommy,” she said.
“I love you, too,” Tommy said back. “I’m glad you got some flowers.”
“When are we getting married?” Jamie asked him, holding him close to her.
“Soon,” Tommy said. “Very soon.”
And then Jamie woke up. Her heart was pounding. Tommy was in her mind in a way he hadn’t been for a long, long time. Tommy was real to her again. Her heart slowed, but Tommy was still real.
Jamie knew she had to call Nate and let him know how she was feeling. She picked up her phone and pushed in his number. It was seventeen minutes after ten.
“I’ve been worried about you,” Nate said when he answered his phone. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m all right,” she said. “I’ve been sleeping. I think I’ll just keep sleeping.”
“That’s the best thing,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the clinic.”
“Okay,” she said.
“I missed you this afternoon,” Nate said. “It wasn’t the same without you there.”
“How is Darma?” she asked, ignoring Nate’s comment. She didn’t know what to say to that. She had been so caught up in thoughts and dreams about Tommy, she couldn’t actually say she had thought very much about Nate.
“She’s fine,” Nate said. Stacie told me she said some weird stuff to you, but she couldn’t remember what it was. Did she?”
“Did she what?” Jamie said.
“Did she say weird stuff to you? Stacie said you seemed upset by it.”
“Oh, she was just talking little girl stuff. It didn’t mean anything.”
“Okay,” Nate said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “You get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jamie ended the call and fell back asleep in a few minutes.
When she woke up the next morning, Tommy seemed very far away. She felt like she was in her real life, the one where she was a doctor and she was in love with Nate. Jamie had no idea what had happened the day before, she didn’t know why Darma had said those things, but it was behind her now. She showered and dressed for work.
The first time she saw Nate that day was in the supply room. It had been a busy morning with allergies and colds, mostly. The pollen was thick around the mountain. Nate walked into the supply room and closed the door.
“You okay?” he asked her. “I missed you last night.”
“I’m better than okay,” she said, kissing him. “I feel great.”
“Can I come over tonight after work?” he asked.
“Definitely,” she said. “I want to see you.”
Nate came over around seven that night. Jamie had started cooking as soon as she got home from the clinic. She roasted Cornish game hens in pepper and lemon juice and made rice and steamed asparagus. They sat on the back porch after supper. It was dark by then and Jamie lit a lantern on the table between the wicker chairs.
“Do you get headaches often?” Nate asked her as they sat there in the still night.
“No, I don’t,” she said. “I don’t know what happened yesterday. It was unusual.”
“Just checking,” Nate said.
“Nothing to worry about,” she said.
A few minutes later, they went inside. “Do you want me to stay?” Nate asked, uncertainly.
“Of course!” Jamie said. “Why wouldn’t I want you to stay?” Nate had always stayed at her house, or her at his. They had never asked each other about it. It was just the way it was. No question about it.
They got into bed and Jamie turned out the bedside lamp. They came close to each other and kissed. Jamie wanted Nate. She wanted to have a life and a future. As they made love that night, Nate told her he loved her. She was going to tell him, had planned to tell him she loved him, but he said it first. “I love you, too,” she said.
The next morning, when they woke up, Nate said, “Jamie, I think I want to marry you.”
“Really?” she said. “Are you sure?”
“I think I’m sure,” he said.
“Well, so far you’ve said you think you want to marry me and you think you’re sure. That doesn’t sound a hundred percent to me.”
Nate got out of bed and put his jeans on. He laughed then. “Yeah, I see what you mean. I guess I’m getting carried away and trying to control it or something. Let me rephrase. I want to marry you. I’m a hundred percent sure.”
Jamie had never wanted to marry anyone but Tommy. But now her life had changed. She had found someone else, and she didn’t want to be without Nate. She couldn’t be with Tommy. But she could be with Nate.
“Then I want to marry you, too,” she said.
“If you’re serious, then you’re gonna make me the happiest man on earth right now,” Nate said. He pulled his shirt over his head. “Are you serious?”
“I’m serious,” she said laughing.
“Then I’m gonna get you a ring!” he said.
“Okay,” she said. Nate leaned down to Jamie, who still lay in the bed naked. He kissed her.
“I’m off to the clinic,” he said. “See you there.”
After Nate left her house, Jamie stayed in the bed for a few minutes, thinking. She had finally found someone else, someone who could measure up to Tommy. It had been a long time since she had felt love from a man and loved him back. Surely Tommy would want her to find happiness. Surely he would.
Chapter Six
Jamie didn’t dream about Tommy anymore. She didn’t want to dream about Tommy. She didn’t want to feel those feelings for him anymore. What good would it do? Tommy was dead. He had been dead for a dozen years.
The next weekend, Nate came over to Jamie’s house and they barbecued chicken on the grill. It was May and the weather had warmed considerably. She and Nate drank wine before supper, during supper, and after supper. Jamie was definitely feeling the effects of the wine.
While she and Nate were sitting on the couch listening to his Beatles collection she had bought him for Christmas, Nate pulled a box out of his jacket. It was wrapped in beautiful silver paper. He handed it to Jamie.
She tore the paper off and opened the jewelry box. Inside was a sapphire ring.
“I got this ring in North Carolina from the Cherokees. I wanted it to be special.”
Nate took the blue ring from the box and held Jamie’s left hand.
“If you still want to marry me, I want to put this ring on your finger.”
Jamie smiled. “Yes,” she said. Nate put the ring on her finger and kissed her.
“I can’t believe this,” she said.
“Me either,” he said. “I wasn’t a big believer in marriage after my last one. But I’m a believer now. I love you.”
They spent the rest of the evening in bed, making love, and then talking about their wedding.
“There’s this place up in the hills,” Nate said. “It’s where I want to build a house. I’d like to get married there, but I know you might have other ideas.”
“I don’t have any ideas,” she said. She supposed that it would be traditional to get married in her hometown, Baker, but that didn’t seem like the right thing to do. She hadn’t been there for years and it seemed dumb to go back to get married to someone who didn’t even know the place. She was thirty years old. Her connection to Baker was pretty much dead.
“I want to get married where you want to get marr
ied,” she said. “We’ll have to figure out how to do a reception up there, but it sounds like the perfect place.”
When they went to work that day, Jamie announced to Tiffany and Stacie that she and Nate were engaged. Tiffany hugged her right away. She was a sweet girl. “I wish you the best of luck,” she said.
Stacie hugged her next. “You lucky girl,” she said in Jamie’s ear. “You’ve got a great guy.”
Jamie talked with both Tiffany and Stacie about wedding plans then. Tiffany said her aunt did catering and could do the reception, if Jamie wanted. They agreed to meet with her aunt the following week, and Tiffany left the supply room to tend to patients.
“I’d like you to be my maid of honor,” Jamie said to Stacie. “You’re my best friend.”
Stacie blushed and then smiled. “I’d be honored,” she said. “I hope I can return the favor very soon.“
“Are you and Dustin getting serious?” Jamie asked.
“I think we are,” Stacie said. “We’re starting to talk about making it permanent. The only bad thing about that is that I’d probably move to Knoxville with him. He’s got a good job and I can get a job there easily.”
“I hate to think about your leaving,” Jamie said. “But I understand. You’d have to do that. Leave.”
“Let’s not worry about that right now,” Stacie said. “Let’s concentrate on you and Nate. I’m so happy for you.”
Jamie knew that she had to tell her parents about her engagement. That was going to be difficult somehow. She had been so out of touch with them. It felt awkward to call them with the news.
Jamie planned to call her parents that very night to tell them about the engagement, but her mother called her first.
“Your father has had a heart attack,” her mother said.
Jamie panicked and her heart started to race. Had she really thought that her parents would live forever, over in Baker, where Jamie never would go? What had she been thinking all those years? She suddenly felt very selfish, allowing her own trauma to influence her relationship with her parents and little brother. Very selfish.
“How bad is it, Mom?” she asked.
“He got a couple of stents. The doctors say it’s mild. He’ll be in the hospital a few days. It’s been very scary.”
“I’ll be right there, Mom,” Jamie said. “I’ll leave right away.”
She expected her mother to protest that Jamie was leaving in the evening when she would be driving in the dark, but she didn’t.
“Okay, honey,” her mother said. “I’d feel so much better if you were here.”
Jamie ended the call with her mother. She threw some clothes into her small suitcase and walked out the door. She locked it behind her and got in her car. She had driven twenty miles or so before she called Nate.
“My dad’s had a heart attack,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” Nate said with concern. “Is it bad?”
“It doesn’t sound severe. I’ll know better when I get there. But I’m on the road to Baker now.”
“Of course,” Nate said. “Your family needs you.” After they hung up, Jamie wondered about Nate saying her family needed her. She had not talked about her family to him, except in the vaguest terms. He had not pried. But Jamie could tell he was curious about her family and why Jamie had not been home in so long.
As Jamie thought on the drive to Baker, she realized she would probably have to tell Nate about Tommy and why she had not been home in a dozen years. Now, as she drove down the highway, she thought her reticence to go home had been foolish and self-centered. She had hurt her parents and her little brother by dropping out of their lives like that. And now, she was in love and engaged to be married, and her parents knew nothing about it. They knew nothing about her life. They must have suffered so much, Jamie thought. Suffered at the loss of their only daughter. It had been a terrible loss for them.
Two hours later, Jamie pulled into the parking lot of the Baker Hospital, the same hospital where the ambulance had taken Tommy that day. The same hospital that had declared him dead on arrival. Jamie pushed those thoughts from her mind and walked inside. She asked the receptionist which room John Walters was in.
The receptionist checked her computer. “He’s in room 308, the cardiac wing,” she said. The young woman directed her to the elevators and told her to turn left when she got off on the third floor. Jamie rode up to the third floor and turned left. Room 302, 304, 306, and finally Room 308. The door was slightly ajar and she pushed it open.
Her father was lying back in the hospital bed with his eyes closed. Her mother was in a chair by his bed, and she looked like she was asleep. Jamie walked over to the side of her father’s bed and he opened his eyes.
“Hey, honey,” he said.
Jamie tried to hold back her tears. Her father looked weak and older than the last time she’d seen him. She tried to remember when that was and was shocked to realize it had been five years. Her mother continued to sleep in the chair. Her hair was much grayer now.
“Hey, Dad,” Jamie said. She stooped to hug him. She kissed him on his cheek.
“You look so much like your mother,” her father said. “When she was your age. So much like her.”
“How are you, Dad?” Jamie asked. “Are they treating you all right?”
“Oh, definitely. You get the royal treatment in the cardiac wing, I think. All of the nurses have been great.”
“That’s good,” Jamie said. A young black nurse with close-cropped hair walked in, and Jamie introduced herself as Mr. Walters’ daughter. The nurse introduced herself as Adeline. She checked her father’s blood pressure and looked at the cardiac chart.
“He’s looking good,” she said. Jamie followed Adeline out of the room when she left.
“I’m a doctor,” Jamie said. “So please tell me anything I need to know. I’ll understand what you’re talking about.”
“Oh,” Adeline said. “Okay. Well, your dad suffered a mild cardiac event and they put two stents in this morning. His vitals look good and we expect him to go home in a couple of days.”
“Okay, thanks,” Jamie said. “I appreciate your looking after my dad.”
“He’s a real charmer,” Adeline said. She put her hand on Jamie’s arm. “Don’t worry. He’s doing real good. You can look at his chart and you’ll see that for yourself. He’s going to have to watch his diet and take some medications, but he’s lucky. I’m sure you know that already. He got a warning and he can fix it.”
“Thank you,” Jamie said.
When she walked back into her father’s hospital room, her mother was awake and standing by her father’s bed. Jamie hugged her. She was so glad to see her mother, she didn’t want to let her go. She vowed to herself right then and there that she would not make her parents suffer anymore by her absence. She was going to be there for them.
“I’m going to stay with your dad tonight,” her mother said. “You go on back to the house. There’s nowhere here for you to even sit. We’ll be fine.”
“Okay, Mom,” Jamie said. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning. You call me if you need to, okay?”
“Okay, honey,” she said. She hugged Jamie. “I’m so glad to see you. It’s been too long.”
“I agree, Mom. Way too long. But I want you to know that you and Dad can count on me. I’m going to be here for you now and forever.”
“Thank you, honey,” her mother said in a choked voice.
Jamie walked back through the hospital and to the parking lot. She got in her car and headed toward her childhood home, a house full of memories, a house she had not seen for a dozen years. She was going to have to drive by the spot that Tommy ran off the road, through the barrier, and down the cliff. That was the only way to get to her house. That last time she had driven by that spot was when she left for Vanderbilt. She had held her breath then as she passed.
It was dark. Jamie reached the spot and the reflector lights on the barrier glowed at her. Why did Tommy run off th
is road? she thought. She held her breath again and then she was past the spot and on the short road to her house.
Jamie parked in the gravel driveway. The front porch light was on and guided her up the porch steps to the front door. She didn’t have a key, but the door was unlocked. Jamie walked inside.
Everything was the same. The blue and green plaid couch and green wingback chair. The fireplace surrounded by old bricks. Nothing had changed. She walked into the kitchen and flipped the light switch. The cream-colored cabinets from her memory lined two walls of the kitchen with a long island in the middle of the floor. The breakfast nook was at the end of the kitchen with the same glass-topped round oak table.
Jamie walked upstairs and opened the door to her childhood bedroom. The bed was neatly covered in the same bedspread with pink rosebuds on a white background. Her favorite stuffed animal, a gray elephant, sat on her pillows. Her white dresser stood on the wall opposite the bed. Nothing had changed.
Jamie stood in the doorway of her bedroom and began to cry. For her father. For her mother. For her brother. And most of all for herself. She had cut her parents out of her life when Tommy died and she went away. They had mourned their daughter as surely as she he mourned Tommy. They had created a shrine. Jamie dropped to the bed and wept hard, bitter tears. She knew for the first time, really knew, that she had hurt her parents immeasurably. And why had they put up with that from her? Jamie was left with the only answer. Because they loved her. With that sure knowledge, Jamie fell asleep.
The next morning, Jamie showered and dressed in jeans and a cotton shirt and went back to the hospital. Her mother was sitting in the chair while her father ate a breakfast of oatmeal from his hospital tray.
“I like oatmeal,” her father said. “But I don’t want to eat it every day.”
Jamie laughed. “I know, Dad. You won’t have to eat it every day, I promise. We’ll work out a menu for you that you can tolerate.”
“Thanks, hon,” he said as he took another bite of oatmeal.
“Mom,” Jamie said looking at her mother. “You should go get some rest and something to eat. I’ll stay here with Dad.”
Come Down In Time (A Time Travel Romance) Page 5