“What do you mean?” he asked, lifting his arm to rest it on the back of the couch.
Lana scooted closer, resting her head on his chest as she remembered how that night had changed her life.
“It was rainy and foggy, which made it hard to see,” she explained. “We were at the movies and only realized how bad the weather had gotten when we came out. We should have headed straight home, but we’d planned to get something to eat after the movie and were too young and stubborn to change our minds. We passed half a dozen places we could have stopped at to grab a quick bite, but I really wanted to go to this drive-in because they had the best tater tots in the world. I should have realized Shari wasn’t comfortable driving in bad weather, but I was so busy daydreaming about those stupid tater tots that I didn’t slow down to think about how stupid we were being.”
“What happened?” Max asked softly.
Tears welled in her as she thought about those last seconds before the wreck. The music playing on the radio, Shari and Viola singing along in the front seat, her laughing like crazy in the back. Then suddenly, there were headlights coming right at them, and Viola was screaming.
She hadn’t thought about the accident itself in a long time, and reliving the moment had her heart racing. Strangely, it also made her gums and fingertips tingle like they had today during her encounter with the cop from Central.
She pushed those thoughts aside and instead forced herself to get the words out that needed to be said—before she chickened out completely.
“We were on Highway 12 when another car veered into our lane.” She closed her eyes and listened to Max’s steady heartbeat under her ear. “I found out much later that the guy driving had been drinking, but in that moment, everything was a blur. One second, we were all laughing, and the next, all I could hear were the sounds of crushing metal and breaking glass.”
She took a deep breath and fought down the tears. “We all survived to make it to the hospital, but Shari and Viola didn’t live through the night. I was in a coma and no one expected me to make it, either. Mom and Dad said the doctors were amazing, never giving up on me through one procedure after another. But while they thought I might live, none of them expected I’d regain full use of my body and mental capacity.”
“How long were you in a coma?” Max asked.
“Over a week,” she said. “The doctors had intended to leave me under for longer, but I came out of it on my own.”
“How long did you stay in the hospital after that?” Max asked.
“Only another day or two. Mom and Dad arranged for my doctor to take care of me at home. It probably cost a ton of money, but they’d been so freaked seeing me in the hospital that they got me out of there the first chance they could. I think even the doctors were stunned by how quickly I recovered. Some of them called it a miracle, but I think it was a matter of the right procedures at the right time.”
“Is that why you went into the pharmacology side of organic chemistry?” he asked. “Because of what the doctors were able to do for you?”
She nodded against his chest. “Uh-huh. They were working on the fly, giving me different drugs to help my body recover from the severe trauma I’d sustained. I wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for that. But they didn’t have anything that could help Shari and Viola. That’s why I went the direction I did in college, in the hopes that maybe someday I could help create medicines that would allow patients like Shari and Viola to survive until their bodies can heal some of the damage, like mine did.”
Max slipped his arm off the back of the couch, curving it around her. “You said you spent years blaming yourself for Shari and Viola’s deaths. What helped you get past it?”
“Therapy mostly,” she said. “I was a complete mess for months after my parents brought me home. I didn’t even leave the house. Like you, I spent a lot of time wondering how things would have turned out if I’d done things differently—if I’d suggested we sit in the parking lot of the movie theater until the storm passed or told Shari to stop at the first restaurant we saw instead of insisting we go somewhere else. But after a lot of sessions with a really good psychologist, the raw edges finally dulled somewhat, and I was able to understand that playing what-if games would never change what happened. It would just keep me locked in the past.”
“Sounds like that psychologist really helped you,” Max observed.
“She did,” Lana agreed. “Maybe you should consider spending some time talking to one yourself. I’m sure the DPD has some on call that could help you.”
Max chuckled. “I know this sounds incredibly guy-like, but I can’t see myself sitting down and talking about my feelings with a complete stranger. I’d rather talk to you.”
She smiled as she leaned there against his powerful chest. “Anytime you want to talk, I’m here to listen.”
“Might be a bit tough to have deep, meaningful conversations if you end up taking a job in France,” he pointed out.
She absently ran a finger up and down T-shirt-covered abs. “I think I’m going to be sticking much closer to home than I originally thought.”
“Oh really? What changed your mind?”
Lana laughed softly as she pushed away from Max’s chest to look at him. “I think you already know.”
Max dipped his head to give her a quick, teasing kiss. “I guess I do. In fact, I’ve felt this thing building between us from the moment we met. I just wasn’t sure you felt the same thing.”
Lana traced a finger along his jawline, loving the scruff there. “Of course I’ve felt it. Are you that oblivious?”
He shrugged. “Well, yeah, I’m a guy. Being oblivious is what we’re best at.”
She laughed. “Well, Mr. Oblivious, I’ll spell it out for you. Yes, I realize there’s something special happening between us. We’ve just met and I already find myself trusting you more than anyone I’ve ever known.”
He regarded her thoughtfully. “Kind of crazy, isn’t it? How fast this is happening, I mean.”
