1
when the snow settles
Red and blue lights danced across Lana McKenzie’s face as she lay disoriented on a stretcher. Her body shook uncontrollably, but she wasn’t sure if it was from shock or the freezing snow. The bloody ice still clung to her body, and the cold penetrated to the bone. She couldn’t feel anything below her left knee but didn’t care; her concern was more for Kayden than herself.
With a neck brace in place, she could barely move her head but tilted it enough to see him lying on a bed of red snow. She cried out and tried to wriggle off the stretcher, but the straps made it challenging to move. Her frenzy escalated—fear racking her body as she watched paramedics begin working on him until her vision blurred. An EMT approached from her right and hovered over her, shining a penlight in her eyes.
He tried to keep her focused on him, but she craned her neck in defiance, straining to see what was happening to Kayden. A second ambulance pulled to the side of the first, and she could hear the paramedics and Sam, her ex-fiancé, shouting orders and counting chest compressions on his unresponsive body. Sam—she remembered seeing him standing on the sidewalk just before...
“Clear!” The command broke her train of thought, then she heard the familiar beep of a defibrillator.
Please don’t leave me.
“Ma’am, I need you to look at this light!” the young man yelled, gripping her arm firmly to calm her.
She looked up at his face.He can’t be older than twenty-five, she thought as her eyes filled with tears. Lana felt the familiar squeeze of pressure in her head as white dots formed in her vision. She would soon pass out again. In anticipation of unconsciousness, she struggled against the restraints harder this time and forced her neck until she could see Kayden again. The defibrillator light blinked, charging once more when Sam turned his head to her, then looked across the street.
Lana followed his gaze and saw the horror on the faces of Maureen, Heathcliff, Paula, and Taylor. Maureen was inconsolable, clutching onto Heathcliff. She tried to run toward Kayden, but Heathcliff held her back as her wails echoed on the street, and she fought against his iron grip. People from all over town were arriving, accompanied by the media, who had been in attendance for the grand re-opening of Aunt Mae’s, the town’s local diner.
The restoration project had been an enormous success for Kayden, and the media attention had been thanks to Maureen and her ill-fated attempt to control the family real estate business. As Lana’s vision began to fade, she thought about the pregnancy test she had taken earlier that night, and how she may not get to tell Kayden he was about to be a father.
“Damnit. Again!” someone yelled below.
The earlier defibrillation attempt had been unsuccessful. Sam stood up and walked toward her as two paramedics lifted her into the ambulance. His face barely came into focus when he, Kayden, and the chaos around her faded from view.
LANA JERKED AWAKE,and the cold, sterile bite of hospital antiseptic hit her before she even opened her eyes. She pried her swollen eyes open and saw a small flat screen TV on the wall across her bed. It played the local news, but was too low for her to make out what they were saying. The bald man sitting intently and watching it, though, she knew without having to try.
It was Sam, sitting comfortably next to her parents on the couch in the private room. Both her parents sipped coffee and spoke in hushed tones, concern etched on their faces. No one in the room looked like they had slept in days.
She couldn’t help the hot stream of tears that rolled from her eyes—for several reasons. One, she had missed her family so much and was very happy to see them, and two, she was terrified to hear the answers to the questions her parched mouth and sore throat were about to ask.
“Where... is Kayden?” she asked finally, and it came out in a small and cracked croak.
Rupert, her dad, leaped from the couch and, at the same time, spilled coffee on his lap, but he never flinched, ignoring any sensation felt from the steaming liquid.
“Lana?” he asked, his face twisted and concerned.
“Oh, my baby,” her mom, Veronica, said, then was at her side, kissing her face in an instant.
Sam approached her bed next, his big brown eyes locked on her.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, keeping his eyes on her heart monitor.
He was a Nurse Practitioner at the hospital where they worked in Florida, and a long way from home, in the small townof Hamby, Georgia. Lana’s reason was to get her life on the right track, finally, but Sam...she wasn’t sure. The last thing she remembered was seeing him with roses outside of Spence Hotel, then the headlights of Heathcliff’s squad car as it barreled into her and Kayden, with Kim behind the wheel.
“Where’s Kayden?” she repeated, ignoring his question.
Her heart rate increased as she tried to sit up, causing the monitor above her head to beep rapidly.
“Calm down, honey,” Rupert said.
As her emotions rose, a massive surge of stabbing pain radiated through her abdomen, and she clutched it, doubling forward. That’s when she noticed, halfway down the bed, the outline of a cast under her blanket. Her fingers touched her sore stomach, and she felt the familiar pull of stitches holding her skin together. There were four sets in different areas.A laparoscopic surgery,she thought, and panic set in.
“How long have I been asleep?” she shrilled, her eyes wild, scanning the faces of the people in the room.
Sam, Rupert, and Veronica exchanged looks, then Rupert nodded at him, permitting him to speak. Sam sat on the corner of her bed and turned to her.
“Lana, you’ve been out of it for about four days,” he finally responded.
