Where she was?
“Rest, Narelle. You’re okay.” The deep voice was familiar. It was a voice that had filled her dreams, but it was impossible he would be there.
Whatever was going on with her, whatever was causing her pain and her fuzzy mind, was conjuring up Andy.
The pain through her body was becoming more unbearable and the fact she couldn’t open her eyes didn’t bother her as much now. With her eyes shut, it was so much easier to fall asleep.
Besides, when she was asleep, nothing hurt.
Narelle didn’t know how often she drifted between sleep and wakefulness. Each time, she couldn’t seem to break the shackles surrounding her, to become fullyawake. She was aware of hearing her mum and dad talking to her.
She recalled them saying she’d been in an accident, and that alleviated her fear a little—if she’d been hurt, then the pain made sense. She didn’t remember the accident, but her parents wouldn’t lie.
What she hadn’t heard again, or felt, was Andy’s touch. The drugs she’d been given to deal with her pain must have made her believe that he was in the room with her.
This time, as she floated to the surface, her brain was a lot clearer. The pain still there, but not as intense, and her eyes didn’t feel so heavy.
With more effort than she thought possible, she blinked a couple of times, grimacing as the light penetrated her senses. It didn’t appear that bright, but it had hurt
She closed her eyes again and counted to ten, determined this time they would remain open.
Pleased when they stayed open, she looked around, taking in the muted light. The beeps of the machine monitoring her heart, something that she’d gotten so used to hearing every time she floated to consciousness, that it was now almost white noise. The IV dripped beside her bed, and someoneslumped in the chair beside her. It wasn’t her mum or her dad, but the person was male, his head forward on his chest as he napped. A hand rested on her bed near her plastered left leg, as if he wanted to touch her, but didn’t want to disturb her.
Who was he?
Hope sprang to life that it was Andy, but she squashed it down. There was no way it could be him.
As if he was aware of her scrutiny, he lifted his head, and she gasped. She had to still be asleep. Her mind was playing tricks on her. “Andy?” His name a hoarse whisper, as her throat was dry and very sore.
His lips lifted into a smile she remembered so well. “Hey, you’re awake.”
Words seemed impossible because it sounded so real, but it had to be a dream, didn’t it? This couldn’t be happening. He wasn’t here.
“You’re not real.” Maybe if she said it out loud, she’d wake up, but that would mean this moment wouldn’t be real. It was too late though, she had spoken them, but Andy was still there.
“I am. How are you feeling?”
“What are you doing here?” Again, the possibility she was sufferingfrom amnesia flashed through her mind, and they’d connected after she returned from Bali. It didn’t seem right though.
“I was at the intersection where you had your accident. I stopped to help and was shocked to see you.”
“You live in Perth?” The questions kept popping out of her. The more she asked, the more she’d get the answers she wanted, so she could understand how Andy was by her bedside. How he’d been at the same place as her when she’d had her accident.
An accident she still couldn’t remember all the details of.
“I do. And I take it so do you.” His words were gentle, as if he didn’t care she was asking questions and not listening to what he was saying.
“I do. But how are you in my room?”
Wasn’t it only immediate family members who were allowed in patients rooms, particularly those who’d been seriously hurt like she had?
Narelle recalled one of the times when she woke up. The warm hand over hers. The gentle voice she thought was Andy. She knew her parents had been in here.
Had Andy told them about their night together?
She was a grown woman. She didn’t answer toher parents, but she also didn’t want them to know about her sex life, either.
“Perhaps I should start at the beginning.”
