by Sable Hunter
Maybe she was playing a game.
“Hide and seek, huh? I’m gonna find you,” Drew called out when he stepped into the hallway.
Drew searched the entire first floor. Angelina was nowhere to be found. Venturing upstairs, he pushed the door to her room open. When he saw the open dresser drawer and the remaining few articles of clothing scattered on the floor, he cursed. “What in the hell?”
…“Over there, Ky.” Cooper pointed to the figure on the side of the road.
Ky pulled the truck onto the shoulder. “I don’t like this. We should call Drew to see what happened.”
“I don’t like it either, but she called and she was upset, so we’re here and we’re going to give her a chance to explain things.”
Ky didn’t like it, but he wasn’t about to argue with two upset women.
Angelina tossed her clothes into the back cab and climbed in. “Thank you for coming. Both of you.” She hadn’t been expecting Ky to be there also, but she probably should have seen that coming.
Cooper got out and jumped in the back with her friend. “No problem, honey. Are you okay?”
Angelina could see Ky spying on them in the rearview mirror. “Can we just go? I promise I’ll explain later.”
…Drew ran out the front door after searching the entire house. “Oh Jesus, Drew. What the hell did you do?” It hit him square in the head that he probably shouldn’t have called a halt to their love making so abruptly without explaining why. Angelina was a fragile woman and he knew it. She’d misinterpreted his attempt to deal with the situation.
Frantically, he ran through the house, heading to Hattie’s wing. “Hattie! Hattie it’s Drew. Angelina’s gone.”
Grabbing a robe, she jerked it on and joined him in the hall. “Why do you mean she’s gone?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know where she went or what to do.”
Her disappearance had been a serious jolt to Drew’s already tired system, he wasn’t thinking straight.
“Did you try her phone?” Hattie asked.
“God. I’m such an idiot.” Finding his phone, he dialed Angelina. She didn’t answer so he called back. Again, she didn’t answer.
…“We can sit here and pretend that we don’t hear that,” Ky said over the sound of the truck engine, “or we could do something about it.” He pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and looked at the women in the back seat. “I don’t know what happened or what he did, Angelina, but I am willing to respect your right to privacy. But we all know that the man deserves to know you’re safe if nothing else.”
Angelina knew he was right. Drew was still a good man. She took the phone out and dialed his number.
“Where are you?” he shouted, not even waiting for her to identify herself.
Cooper and Ky had gotten out of the truck to give her privacy. “I’m safe,” Angelina assured him.
Drew breathed a sigh of relief. The thought that she’d been abducted had entered his brain for a moment. “Why did you leave?”
Angelina paused. She couldn’t bear the idea of bringing up the subject of his rejection, it was too humiliating. “I just need time, Drew.”
“Time for what? I’m sorry. Please just come back. I’ll fix things. I promise I’ll make everything okay again.”
The thought of bolting from the truck and running back to Drew flashed through her mind. Nothing would be better than to go back to Palo Gaucho Ranch and run straight into his arms. But that wouldn’t solve anything. His reaction tonight told her all she needed to know.
“This isn’t your fault, Drew, it’s mine. It’s just time for me to go. Goodbye.”
The line went dead on Drew’s end. He slammed his phone down on the ground, breaking it into a million pieces. “Hell, no.” This wasn’t over.
* * *
Angelina would allow the Landon’s to drive her only as far as Lufkin. There, in the small East Texas town, she was able to rent a car.
“I’m worried about you, girl.” Cooper hugged her. “Every instinct I have tells me to take you back to Drew.”
“No, I can’t. I don’t belong there.” She hugged the woman who’d been so good to her. “Tell Aliyah goodbye for me.”
“This isn’t goodbye, do you hear me? I expect you to call me in the morning and let me know you got home all right.”
Ky walked up about that time, his hands full of coffee. “Here, Angelina, drink this. Are you sleepy? Don’t you think you ought to rent a room and start fresh in the morning?”
She shook her head. “Thank you.” Taking the coffee, she took a sip, grateful for the liquid that slid warmly down her throat. She’d never been so cold, a chill that didn’t come from outside her body, but one that emanated from deep within. “I’m wide awake. I’ll be fine.”
“All right, but know we’re your friends. Okay?” Cooper was emphatic. “Do not hesitate to call if you need anything.”
…Back at Palo Gaucho, Drew’s morning was shot to hell. He hadn’t slept. He was hurt and angry. After talking to Ky, he now knew they’d driven Angelina as far as Lufkin and allowed her to take off for San Antonio on her own. Drew felt betrayed by his friend. If things weren’t falling apart all around him, he’d just climb in his truck and follow her.
“Drew, the clinic called again.” Hattie came into his office to relay the message. “I know you don’t want to, but you’ve got to get down there. The waiting room is full to overflowing. There was some kind of chemical leak at the paper mill and dozens of men are sick.”
“I’m going.” Drew pulled on the white coat that he didn’t particularly care to wear. Usually, he just wore his jeans and a western shirt, the ever-present stethoscope that hung around his neck the only sign he was anything more than a simple cowboy. “If you hear from Angelina, will you call me?”
“Certainly.” Hattie hadn’t asked too many questions. All she knew was that Angelina was gone and Drew was miserable.
As the day progressed, Drew couldn’t get Angelina off his mind. When he got a chance, he closed his office door and called her. When she answered the phone, he let out a sigh of relief. “Talk to me.”
“Drew, please, we have nothing to say to one another.”
Her voice caused his heart to ache in his chest. “Do you think I can leave it like this? I can’t.”
“I appreciate all you did. It’s not your fault that I’m the way I am. You can’t fix everyone, Drew. You need to let me go. I don’t blame you for how it ended.”
“You know you’re not making a lot of sense, don’t you? You ended up in my bed, right where you belong.” She didn’t say anything for a few moments, all he could hear was her ragged breathing.
“I spoke to Rafe. He knows I’m home.”
“I want to see you, Angelina. I’ll call Virginia and let her take over here and I can be there by nightfall.”
“No, don’t come. I don’t want you to come.”
Drew felt like he’d been stabbed. “Why? Did I hurt you so badly? I didn’t mean to, I can make it better. That’s why I…”
“I need to get better on my own. Please, don’t call again.”
The line went dead and Drew felt like something died within him also.
…The next day, Angelina was trying to keep busy by cleaning her small house. A layer of dust seemed to cover everything. Standing on a chair, she used one of those cloths on a stick to wipe down the ceiling fan blades. When the doorbell rang, she almost fell off her perch. The thought that it might be Drew stole her breath. At once, she wanted it to be him and at the same time she dreaded seeing him. To her surprise, her visitor was a delivery man with a beautiful bouquet of red roses from the local florist. She didn’t have to ask who they were from, she knew.
Taking the card from the envelope, she read it aloud.
I’m not giving up. I want to see you. Please, Spanish Eyes. I need you. Drew.
Angelina didn’t know how to process this. Why would he say those things? They couldn’t be true. Neverthele
ss, she buried her face in the roses and dreamed of being with him once more.
…Across the state, Drew went about his work in a daze. The house was empty. She’d only been with him a handful of days, yet the hole she left in his life was huge. Even the animals seemed to miss her. Hattie tried to make him feel better, she cooked him all his favorite foods but he had no appetite. Over and over again, he rehashed and relived their last hour together. Being with her, being inside of her had been paradise. He faulted himself for not going slower, not taking his time. He should’ve known she’d have trouble responding. Even if what she was feeling was genuine, her emotions and thought processes had been contaminated by her expectations. Angelina would’ve been hesitant to trust herself and he’d turned his back when she needed him most, destroying her trust in him. He wanted to call her, to explain, to reassure her – but this wasn’t something you talked about over the phone, this was something you spoke of face to face, preferably when she was held tight in his embrace. The one thing he could do was insure that she didn’t forget him.
…The next two weeks passed in a blur. Angelina tried to reestablish some order in her life. Taking Rafe’s advice, she contacted Dahlia Cruz and scheduled an interview. She was honest about her lack of experience, but the daycare director was impressed by her medical knowledge and thought she’d be an asset to have around.
Once she went for the interview and acquired the job, Angelina began to form a routine. The order of her days gave her a sense of control. Spending her time with children was eye-opening. She found that she loved them, looking forward to nurturing and caring for the young ones gave her purpose.
Another thing she came to rely on was her daily dose of Drew. Every day he sent her flowers. He seemed to know her schedule, because they were delivered a few minutes after she came home from work. She began to expect them, to anticipate them, standing at the window to watch the florist truck drive up. He always seemed to be surprising her, one day there would be roses, the next orchids, the next a huge bouquet of birds of paradise. On Saturdays, she received two deliveries since the florist was closed on Sunday. He seemed to have thought of everything.
And the flowers weren’t all.
He called. He texted. Whether his voice whispered in her ear or she read the heated words over the phone, the message was the same. “I want to make love to you, Angelina.”
Her answer would always be some form of denial. “I’m not sure I can.” She wondered if he could read between the lines to see her desire and understand her fear. Even when she emphatically told him that she didn’t want to be with him again, the truth was she couldn’t get him out of her head.
Angelina remembered everything. She remembered how it felt for their bodies to move together – the heat, the sweat that caused his skin to become slick and cling to hers. The sounds they’d made still echoed in her ears – the groans, the explicit words he’d whispered in her ear. If she closed her eyes she could still feel the rough, rapturous touch of his hands on her body and the thrust of his cock as he joined them together. Just the memory of their shared intimacy caused Angelina to clench her thighs together to contain the powerful surge of lust and longing that swept through her. As the research implied, she couldn’t bring herself to believe all of this was caused by a chemical, nothing had ever felt more right and natural to Angelina than what she felt for Drew.
Gradually, she felt herself changing, wondering if she’d made a mistake. Had she misinterpreted his actions? Could she believe him?
Drew might not know it, but he was chipping away at the wall she’d built around her heart. One of these days, when he called, she might just tell him she wanted him too.
* * *
“Violets, I think I’ll send violets today.” Angelina was beginning to thaw. Last night, when Drew spoke to her before going to bed, he could hear it. The courtship he was carrying on long-distance – the flowers, the calls, the texts, all of it was beginning to work together for good. In the next couple of days, he planned on putting the piece de resistance into place. He’d written a song for her and he planned on recording it on his phone and sending it to her. Pouring his heart and hope for the future into lyrics and a melody might just show her how serious he felt about her.
Yea, Dr. Drew Haley was beginning to fall in love.
As his hand reached for the phone on his desk, it vibrated in his hand. He had a call. “Who is it, Patsy? I’m sort of busy at the moment.”
“This might be important, Dr. Drew. There’s a woman on the phone who says she has an important message for you, life or death. Her name is Collier. Does that ring any bells?”
“No, it doesn’t. I deal with life or death situations every day. I’m not sure what she wants, but I’ll speak with her.”
As he waited for the click that would tell him the call was being put through, Drew felt a sudden chill crawl down his spine. He shifted in his seat, endeavoring to shake the shadow of concern. What it meant, he didn’t know, but he’d felt the same thing the day the Sheriff had called to tell him his father’s car had been found in the deep waters off Pendleton Bridge.
“Dr. Haley?”
“Yes, this is Drew Haley. To whom am I speaking?”
“This is Susan Collier. Susan Brandt Collier.”
“I’m sorry. Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”
“I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know what you might have discovered about your father’s birth family.”
Bam! She had his attention. “I know absolutely nothing about my father’s birth family.”
“Ah, well, let me be the bearer of good and bad news.”
“I’m not sure what to ask for first.”
“Look, I’m sorry to do this to you. You’re going to rue the day I ever called, but to not let you know wouldn’t be fair either.”
As she spoke Drew got a sick, weak feeling in his stomach. He grasped onto the arm of the chair, knowing he was about to hear something that would change his life forever.
“I’m your cousin. Your father was my uncle. His mother was my father’s sister. We’ve been trying to track him down for almost a year. To make a long story short, when Aunt Mary learned about our family curse, she couldn’t face raising a child who might not live to grow up. She couldn’t deal with the fact that she might have condemned her baby boy to a horrible death just because she was his mother.”
“You’re not making sense, Susan. Plus, you’re scaring the bejesus out of me. My father never knew who his parents were. I’m not sure I believe you. What do you want? Just tell me what you called for and get it over with.”
“Very well. There’s no easy way to tell you this, but your grandmother was the carrier of a rare neurological disease. Over the last decade or so, we’ve learned more about it, but this is one of those orphan diseases where very little research is done and there’s almost no government money to look into a cure or treatment because the number suffering from it is so small compared to the population as a whole. Regardless, we’re hoping to notify all family members, not only to alert them to the danger, but we’re also planning to organize testing and data gathering, hoping to get a grant from the government to look for a cure.”
Drew couldn’t speak. He was stunned. Shocked.
When he did find his voice, he croaked, “What is the name of this disease?”
Susan laughed weakly. “That’s right, you’re a doctor. Well, you might have heard of it, this monster has a name a mile long. Gerstmann-Strausller-Scheinker or GSS.”
Even as a physician, Drew wasn’t sure what the disease entailed. “What are the symptoms? What is the prognosis?”
“Not good. The symptoms seem so ordinary. Taken one by one, they are common place. The main characteristic is a progressive degeneration of the cerebellum, diminishing control, coordination, balance, and equilibrium. Early onset dementia. Weakness in the legs. Poor reflexes. Slurred speech. Spasticity. Signs and symptoms generally appear between the ages of thirty-five and fifty. Surv
ival ranges from two to ten years. There is no cure. No treatment. Zero survival rate. Every person who carries the gene comes down with it and there is the possibility a carrier can pass the disease down to his offspring.”
Drew clutched the arm of his office chair. He felt like he was in the midst of some horrible nightmare. “So, this Mary, the woman you think was my father’s mother was a carrier.”
“Yes, she passed away with the disease. I have GSS, myself. Some of our relatives refuse to be tested, they’d rather not know. But, I thought it was only fair. You never know how a person will react when they realize they’re…”
Her voice faded away and Drew wasn’t sure he wanted to hear more.
“I’ve got to process what you’ve told me, Susan. Pardon me if I don’t take your word for everything, but I’m going to need to check this out for myself. Can I reach you at this number?” He glanced down at the caller ID display on his phone.
“Yes, please do. I’d love to meet you one day. We always wondered what became of Mary’s baby and if we had any long-lost relatives out there somewhere.”
When Drew gently replaced the receiver in the base, he was shaking. Turning to his computer, he typed in the letters – GSS.
What he found changed everything.
The seriousness of this situation devastated him. If she was right, and his father was this Mary’s son, all the symptoms his father suffered from, all the symptoms they’d attributed to drugs and alcohol – slurred speech, staggering, forgetfulness, depression - all of these things were early onset symptoms of GSS. One comment in an article referred to the disease as ALS on steroids, eventually leaving the afflicted person unable to swallow, to move, to even take a breath. Like Susan had said; GSS was always fatal, there was no cure, not even a drug to slow it down or ease the symptoms.
One hundred percent fatality.
Fifty percent chance of passing it on to your child.
He read that again.
Fifty percent chance of passing it onto your child.