by Abbi Glines
“Get out here,” Bray said pulling in front of a building. A large red sign in front of us said Emergency. We were here. “I’ll park and meet y’all inside.”
I didn’t wait. I was out of the car and inside within seconds. I ran to the lady at the sign in sheet. “Dixie Monroe. She was brought in by Life Flight. Do you have information on her? “
The lady casually looked at her computer smacking her gum like I hadn’t just said the words Life Flight. This was no big deal to her. She’d been desensitized by other people’s nightmares.
“She’s not in the ER,” the woman said frowning. “She’s admitted, though. She’s in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit.”
I had no fucking idea what that meant other than she was alive. Right now, that was enough. “Where is that?”
“Go left around the large turn, then take the elevators on your right to the fifth floor. Take a left then and go straight until you see the waiting room.“
Bray was inside now. The four of us headed in the direction we were told. I knew that, even without telling them to do it, that one would text Dallas and give him directions. I was always the one who keept them together, stood with them, ready to face anything and anyone. Making sure everyone was taken care of. Not now. Now, they were standing with me. By my side. Because they all knew that if something were to happen to her, I’d fall apart. She was my center.
Walking toward the waiting room, I could see Luke pacing in front of it. He ran his hand over his balding head and the tense lines of his face were obvious even from afar. Charlotte saw us first. She stood up and walked toward me, pulling me into a hug. “She’s alive,” she whispered in both relief and desperation. Because that didn’t mean she was okay.
“What happened?”
“She just . . . collapsed. Her heart stopped. There’s the doctor,” she said letting me go and hurrying over to Luke who was already there in front of the man dressed in white.
“Would you like to go somewhere private?” the doctor asked.
Luke looked back at us, at me standing there. “No. This is her family,” he said.
The doctor nodded. “Dixie has a rare congenital heart condition called Long QT Syndrome. Many people have no signs or symptoms until the moment their heart stops, thus ending their life. It almost always goes undetected until it’s too late. Dixie was lucky. Her mother was there with her and you kept her heart pumping until the paramedics could revive her. Most aren’t that lucky. I want you to understand the severity of what she’s been through and that she isn’t in the clear just yet. We have put her in a drug induced coma and packed her in ice to bring her temperature down. In two days, we will warm her back up and bring her out of the coma. She will be in it for about four days total. I have done this before and it’s been successful. And I’ve done it and it hasn’t been. But we will do our absolute best to bring her through this. She’s a fighter. Once she’s brought out of the coma, we will then fit her for an implantable cardioverter defibrillator that will regulate her heartbeat.”
Her heart had stopped. Dear God, she could have died. Today. I’d have never gotten to hold her again. We wouldn’t grow old together. She’d have never grown old. The idea of it rocked me. I sank down onto the closest chair and buried my head in my hands. She didn’t die. She was alive. The coma they had put her in scared the fuck out of me. She had to open her eyes and look at me. She had to let me tell her we were forever. She had to let me give her everything she ever wanted, everything she deserved. It wasn’t over yet. We still had a lifetime to live first.
Asher Sutton
I OPENED MY eyes squinting against the sun now coming through the waiting room window. I saw Scarlet sitting across from me. She had her knees pulled up under her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs. She had no makeup and her hair was in a messy knot on top of her head, but she was still the same striking redhead that had almost torn my brothers apart. She was Dixie’s best friend and I was happy she was here. I just hoped Brent and Bray weren’t back anytime soon.
Sitting up, I yawned and stretched. She dropped her knees and straightened. She looked like she was ready to be told to leave, or worse.
“Someone must have known where to contact you. Dixie will be happy you’re here.”
My words seemed to ease her some.
“Charlotte called last night,” she said.
“Good.”
She was quiet for a few minutes staring down at her hands. “I must have missed some things since it isn’t Steel sleeping on those chairs.”
I was the only one still here. Her parents had paid for a guest room. The rest had gone to a hotel. But I wasn’t leaving. Not while she was here fighting for her life.
“She broke it up with Steel a couple of days after you left.”
“I figured it was something like that.” She paused, then added, “Charlotte said her heart stopped.”
The screaming, the sirens, the helicopter. I could still her them in my head. I’d never forget them. I knew I’d keep re-living the horror of those moments in my nightmares.
“She’s going to wake up, isn’t she?” Her words were both a question and a statement, a plea stemming out of her fear.
“She’ll wake up. Dixie is strong. You know that.” I had to believe that.
Scarlet nodded, but then frowned. “How long do I have? When do the others get here?”
“They’re all at a hotel with Momma. I expect they’ll be here in an hour. I can text Steel to let me know when they’re headed this way.”
“Is it that bad? Do you think I need to leave?”
I didn’t want her to feel like she couldn’t stay, but I knew her presence here would hurt my brothers even more at a time when they were already hurting. “They’ve come to blows. It didn’t fix things. They’re not the same, Scarlet.”
She hung her head and closed her eyes. “I wasn’t thinking. I should have never let Brent believe I loved him.” She shook her head as if to clear it and stood up. “But that’s not what is important now. Dixie is what’s important and when she wakes up, she will need you here. Not me. I’m going to go, but I won’t go far. I’ll ask Charlotte to keep me updated.”
This wasn’t easy for her. I knew that. I would have understood had she wanted to stay. All the drama with my brothers felt less important right now.
Scarlet hadn’t been gone long when my mom and brothers returned. Momma came to sit beside me and put a bag with what smelled like buttered biscuits and bacon in my lap. “Eat,” she said. “Won’t be as good as mine, but it’ll do. You need to eat.”
I didn’t have an appetite, but telling her that was pointless. She’d make me eat anyway. So I did as I was told.
“Heard anything?” Brent asked, sitting down in the seat Scarlet had been in not long ago.
I thought about telling him and Bray, but decided against it. “No,” I just answered.
Momma patted my leg. “I had Brent pull this condition she has up on the internet with that phone of his. I read about it. She one of the lucky ones. And she can live with this. Now that they know about it, they can keep a watch on it.”
I’d done the same. I had read everything I could find on my phone about this Syndrome. The doctor hadn’t been exaggerating when he said she was lucky. She’d shown no symptoms until she collapsed, and she could have easily died then had Charlotte not been there to see it and act fast.
Even once she was released, I didn’t know how I would ever let her out of my sight again. My fear of something happening to her again wasn’t going to go away overnight. I knew I had to deal with this.
Her mother walked into the waiting room. “They’ll be taking the ice away and warming her up today. The doctor said she is responding well. He feels good about it all so far.”
I felt both relieved and stressed even more. Something could go wrong. They weren’t talking about that, but I knew it could. I suddenly needed some air. I felt like the whole room was closing in on me.
“I’m go
ing for a walk,” I said and headed for the door without looking back.
When I got outside the waiting room, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. She needed me to be strong for her. To believe she could do this. I wanted to be strong. But right now, all I wanted to do was cry. All I could think about was that I could lose her. That fear was slowly choking me.
The door behind me then opened and while I expected to see my mother walking through it, my eyes found Charlotte. I got myself together. She didn’t need to see me breaking down. She was scared as it is and I didn’t need to add to it.
“Sorry. My family can be too much sometimes,” I said, wondering if she was needing to get away from them too.
She smiled. “They’re fine. Great, really. Having all of you here means a lot.”
Several of the people from their church had come by, including the pastor. They’d brought flowers and snacks. But no one had stayed overnight. Dixie’s aunt was in town, as was her grandmother. They’d come yesterday and said they would be back today.
“I can’t leave her.”
Charlotte nodded. “And if it were you in there, she wouldn’t be able to leave you either. She’d be much like you are now, doing all she could to hold herself together. The two of you,” she smiled to herself before continuing. “You’ve been dancing around each other since you were kids. You worried you were too old, she worried you’d never see her for more than a little girl. Then when you finally come together, those letters appear and ruin it all. So many obstacles. So much pain. Yet here you are. Not leaving this hospital. That’s what happens when you know you’ve found the one. I once told her you weren’t it. That there was someone else out there for her. I wanted it to be true because I wanted her to have a chance to be happy. But I see now she knew better. You two make a whole. Knowing she found that, that she found you at such a young age, gives me hope that she will fight to open her eyes. That she will fight to live. That she will fight to come back to us.”
Asher Sutton
THE WAITING ROOM was slowly filling up. I’d woken up here for the third morning in a row to find more and more people from Malroy arriving. The girls from the salon, Norton Knolls and his wife, Denver Watson, even Amber and Hannah, as well as faces that were familiar but I couldn’t place. I kept my head down, mostly, lost in my thoughts. They’d be waking her up today. Or trying to. The doctor had said there was a chance she would go into her own coma and then we’d have to wait it out. I wanted to see her eyes. God, I wanted to hold her hand and promise her that we’d get to be all she wanted us to be. I would bust my ass to make sure the past three years became a distant memory for her.
As nice as it was that these people were here offering their support to Luke and Charlotte, I wished they’d all go away. The voices around me were grating on my nerves. I needed silence. I needed to think of all the ways I would try to make Dixie happy.
“Brent said you haven’t left at all.” Hannah had kept her distance until now, but she had worked her way over to me.
I nodded. What was I supposed to say to that? Of course I hadn’t fucking left.
“Can I go get you something?”
This wasn’t the Feed and Seed. This wasn’t a lunch break. It was the damn hospital. Did she think a sandwich would make it all better?
“No,” I knew I was being rude, but I couldn’t get myself to care. Dixie might never wake up and I’d be here eating a damn sandwich.
She didn’t say anything after that. She just sat there beside me in silent support. But I kept thinking that Dixie wouldn’t want her there beside me. I needed her to go. Talk to someone else. Leave me alone.
“Asher, go with me to get a coffee.” Bray was suddenly standing in front of us, looking down at me. He knew I needed some space and Hannah didn’t seem to get that.
I stood up and followed him out without a word to anyone around me. They’d all have to just understand. Small talk and words of courtesy were the last thing on my mind. Luke felt the same. He wasn’t even in here for that very reason. He was keeping his distance from the crowd by staying away.
When we were far enough from everyone, Bray stopped walking. “I have no fucking clue where to get coffee. I was just thinking if I didn’t get you out of there, you were gonna toss Hannah’s hot ass out a window.”
I wasn’t going to go that far, but I was grateful he saved me. “I just need her to wake up like she’s supposed to,” I said staring out the window in front of us. Out there, the sun was still shining, the world was still turning, people were still living their lives unaware that others were locked away in here fighting for theirs. Their worlds hadn’t stopped. Just ours.
I turned to Bray, “Scarlet came by yesterday morning. She was here when I woke up. She didn’t stay because you and Brent would be coming. But she’s close by. Waiting on news. Charlotte is keeping her updated.”
Bray was silent for a couple minutes. I understood needing to be left alone with your thoughts to process it all. So I let him. We both stood there, with our arms crossed over our chests, our eyes on the world outside but not really seeing any of it. Both our minds were elsewhere.
“I’m not letting her go. Brent may hate me for life, but I can’t let her go. She makes me sane. She understands and accepts me in a way no one else ever has. I can’t let her go, Asher.”
I knew he couldn’t. I never expected it to be that easy.
“Seeing Dixie put into that helicopter, realizing that life can end so abruptly, just like dad’s . . . I have to fight for her. Life could end for any of us at any moment.”
I knew he hadn’t meant to, but the image of Dixie being taken away caused a burning in my chest again. I just nodded in agreement. I had to catch my breath. I had to remember she was alive and I hadn’t lost her.
“Shit. Didn’t mean to upset you. You’ve gone fucking white.”
“It’s never going to be easy remembering those things.”
Bray squeezed my shoulder. “No, it ain’t,” he agreed.
I started to say more when Charlotte’s voice rang down the hallway, “She’s awake.”
My heart jumped in my chest. The long strides I took from where I had been standing with Bray to the room that Charlotte led me to were a blur. All I could think about was that Dixie’s eyes were open. She was here. She was back.
When we reached the room, Luke was just walking out. He smiled at Charlotte. His eyes were full of joy while his cheeks were still damp from his tears. “She’s asking for Asher.”
I didn’t wait for an invitation. I moved past both her parents and opened the door. Dixie looked so small on that bed, her skin pale and with all those wires connected to her body, but from the moment her eyes found mine, a smile curled on her lips.
I had prayed for days just to see that smile again, and just from seeing her there sitting up and awake, I started to cry.
“Asher,” her voice was hoarse and soft. I moved toward her as my vision blurred from the tears and a sob tore from my chest. When I finally got to her, I laid my head in her lap and let the fear, relief, and all consuming love I felt for this woman break me further. Her hand touched my head and I just stayed there.
“I love you, too,” she said. I smiled through the tears and lifted my head to see her. To take her in. To remind myself she was alive. We still had our forever ahead of us.
Luke Monroe
MY BABY GIRL was alive.
I stood outside her hospital room door while Asher Sutton sat by her side. The doctor gave us an update on the device they’d implanted on her heart to keep it beating. He explained how her life would be different.
“She will have regular doctor visits. She can eventually have regular exercise in her life. But moderate, nothing too strenuous. This is a hereditary condition so if she ever decides to have children, they’d have a 50/50 chance of having the same condition. That’s a choice she will have to make. Do either of you have a history of any heart conditions in your family?”
I spoke
, “Charlotte isn’t her biological mother. And no, I’ve never had any issues. But her biological mother, she died of unknown causes. She had left us, so I didn’t look into it. She hadn’t been in our lives for five years at the time of her death.“ I hadn’t wanted Dixie to know. I wanted to protect her from Millie, from all she’d done, all she was capable of doing. I didn’t want Dixie to mourn a mother who wasn’t worth it. She’d never loved Dixie. Millie had only loved herself.
The doctor nodded. “I’d be interested in finding out if it was heart related. There is a very high chance it was Long QT Syndrome and it just went undetected. It often does. Dixie is very lucky. I’ve said that to you before, but I need to stress to you just how lucky she is that you were there when she collapsed. You saved her life.”
What if Charlotte hadn’t been there? I couldn’t think that way. She had been there and Dixie had lived.
“She will need to stay with us another week at least. Then we will need to put her in some physical therapy to ease her into things. Dixie is very strong and very determined. She has a life ahead of her now and the two of you to thank for it.” He patted me on the back, then turned and left us.
“Will I ever stop asking myself what would have happened if I hadn’t been there? What if I’d been outside? What if she’d been in her room and I hadn’t heard her?” Charlotte was fighting her tears but slowly losing that battle.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I keep asking myself the same thing. And now I feel guilty for not looking into Millie’s death and why it happened. Maybe if I’d known more and had Dixie checked on time, we would have been able to stop this from ever happening.”
Charlotte wrapped her arms around one of mine. “We can’t do that, Luke. She lived. She is okay. We were given this gift and we can’t keep torturing ourselves with what ifs. We need to rejoice she is alive.”