Chapter 11
Emerson
After going for a late-night swim, I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. As I was walking through the living room, I saw Alex lying on the couch. I didn’t even know he was home.
“Are you okay?” I stopped and asked.
“I’m fine. Just go to bed, Emerson,” he spoke in his annoying, commanding voice.
“Are you sure? You don’t look too well.”
“I said I’m fine. It was a long day and I’m tired.”
“Okay. Good night.” I walked away and he didn’t say a word.
When I got up the next morning at six a.m., I noticed Alex was still on the couch, asleep. I made a pot of coffee and went to my bedroom to get dressed. When I came back out, I saw him sitting up. He looked as pale as a ghost.
“Are you okay?” I asked in a panic.
“I don’t know. My heart is racing, my head is killing me, and my vision is blurry.”
“Are you having chest pains?”
“A little bit.”
“I’m taking you to the hospital, Alex.”
“NO! I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
“Not up for discussion, you stubborn ass.”
I ran up the stairs and opened the door to what I thought was his bedroom, but ended up being his office. I closed the door and opened the one further down the hall. Holy shit! His bedroom was huge! I’d never seen anything like it. Going over to the dresser, I opened all his drawers until I found a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. I ran down the stairs to him.
“Here. You need to get dressed,” I spoke as I pulled the t-shirt over his head.
“Did you go through my things?” he angrily asked.
“Yes, I did. Now shut the hell up and help me put on your pants. You could be having a stroke or a heart attack.”
He didn’t say a word as I helped him up from the couch, grabbed my purse, and helped him to Adam’s car. Opening the passenger door, I told him to get in. I drove to the hospital as fast as I could. Maybe I should have called an ambulance, but I could get him there faster. Weaving in and out of traffic, laying on the horn at stupid people who didn’t know how to drive, and checking on him every second I could, I pulled up to the emergency room and yelled for help. Two nurses came running out with a wheelchair and took him inside. I followed behind.
“Excuse me, but are you his wife?”
“No.”
“Then you’re going to have to wait in the waiting room. We’ll call you in as soon as we can.”
I rolled my eyes and took a seat in the waiting room. I didn’t have time to think about my reaction to being here until after Alex was taken away. My focus was on getting him here before he possibly keeled over and died. With shaking hands, I grabbed a cup of coffee from the lousy coffee machine in the waiting room and attempted to drink it without spilling it all over my clothes. I paced back and forth, watching the people who were here with loved ones stare at me with sadness in their eyes.
“For Alex Parker?” A nurse walked into the room.
“Yes.”
“You can follow me.”
She led me down the hall and to the room where Alex was lying in a bed. He looked pissed as hell when I walked into the room.
“You may stay until the doctor comes in,” the nurse spoke.
The room, the faint beep of the machine that Alex was hooked up to, and the smell were bringing back so many memories. Memories that sent me straight into a panic attack.
“Emerson, are you okay?” Alex asked.
I couldn’t breathe and my heart was racing a mile a minute.
“Emerson!” Alex yelled. I couldn’t answer him. He yelled for the nurse and she came running in, took one look at me, and led me over to the window.
“See that tree outside? Stare at it and breathe. Focus on nothing else. That tree is your focal point,” she spoke as she lightly held on to my arm.
My breathing was returning to normal and I was coming out of my attack.
“There you go, honey. Sit down in this chair and relax for a minute.”
I looked at Alex, who had a pained look on his face.
“Do you normally have panic attacks?” the nurse asked.
“I used to. But it’s been several years.”
“Do you know what set it off?”
I slowly nodded my head. “This place.”
“I’m going to get you some water. Sit tight.”
She left the room and I once again looked at Alex.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked.
“I can ask you the same thing,” I replied.
A man walked in and introduced himself as Dr. Malone.
“Are you his wife?” he asked.
Why the hell does everyone keep asking me that? “No. I’m his houseguest.”
“Then I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the room.”
I looked over at Alex. “I’ll call Phillip to come pick you up.” I got up from my seat and walked out, practically running out like hell. I pulled my phone from my purse and took a seat outside on the bench.
“Phillip, it’s Emerson. I took Mr. Parker to the ER and I need you to pick him up.”
“Is he okay?”
“I think so.”
“I’m on my way.”
I got into my car and gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white as I stared at the hospital building. The last place I wanted to go was back to Alex’s house, so I drove to the one place that held many special memories for me.
****
Sitting in the sand on Venice Beach, I watched as the surfers surfed, the kids played in the water, and the teenagers who skipped school hung out and had some fun.
“Can you believe I’m back here, Emily? It’s been so long. The nightmares are back and I had my first panic attack today in eight years. It’s this place and the trauma of what happened here.”
I looked over at two little girls who were building a sand castle and smiled as tears sprang to my eyes. Pain filled my heart as I thought of my sister. I was living my life for her. Doing all the things we talked about since we were kids. I took my phone from my purse. It was already five o’clock. Feelings of guilt crept over me for leaving Alex the way I did. Getting up from the sand, I dusted myself off and drove back to his house.
When I walked through the door, Jenna was just getting ready to leave for the day.
“Where have you been?” she asked in a whisper.
“Is he home?”
“Yes. He’s upstairs resting. I wouldn’t go up there if I were you. He’s in a foul mood.”
“What else is new? I’ll just wait until he comes down.”
I made myself a sandwich and took it outside on the patio with a bottle of wine. Finishing up my sandwich, I took my glass and the bottle down to the beach. As I was sipping on my wine, I heard Alex’s voice behind me.
“It’s about time you came home. Where have you been all day?”
“How are you feeling?” I asked as I turned around and looked at him. He was shirtless and wearing the pair of sweatpants I had helped him into earlier.
“Answer my question,” he commanded as he sat down next to me.
“Answer my question.”
“I asked you first,” he spoke as he took the glass from my hand and took a drink.
“Where I was doesn’t matter. What matters right now is how you’re feeling. Should you even be out of bed?”
He sighed as he handed me back my glass.
“It’s okay. You keep it. I have the whole bottle.” I smiled as I held it up.
“I have high blood pressure and, right now, I’m feeling a lot better.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“You’re not?” He arched his brow.
“No. You keep long hours, you yell a lot, and you get upset when you feel like you’re losing control. To be honest, you’re a heart attack waiting to happen.”
He laughed. “Thanks. So are you
going to tell me about that panic attack you had at the hospital?”
Chapter 12
Emerson
Now he wanted to talk to me? After all the days that went by and he couldn’t be bothered?
“It’s being back here. I never should have let Adam talk me into coming back.”
He looked at me in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“You know, with the accident and stuff.”
“What accident?”
“Didn’t Adam tell you?” I frowned.
“Tell me what? I didn’t even know he had a sister until he asked if you could stay with me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course he didn’t tell you.”
“I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know anything about Adam’s personal life. He has never talked about his family or anything. The only thing I knew was about a girl he had dated for a while.”
“Really? I always thought he was gay.” I smirked.
Alex chuckled. It was good to see him laugh. I took in a deep breath and took a sip of wine from the bottle.
“When I was sixteen years old, I was in a bad car accident with my parents and my identical twin sister, Emily. They were killed and I spent three months in that hospital in a coma. I actually had died for a couple of minutes, but the doctors were able to bring me back. There were times that I wished they hadn’t.” I lowered my head and looked down at the sand.
“Emerson, don’t say that,” Alex whispered as he reached over and placed his hand on mine.
I pulled away because I didn’t want or need his pity. He was lucky I was even telling him everything. Bringing the bottle of wine up to my lips, I took another sip.
“When I woke up from the coma, Adam told me everyone was dead. I felt like my soul was gone and I wanted to die. I couldn’t believe they were gone. Emily was my best friend in the whole world and we did everything together. When she died, a huge piece of me died with her.”
I got up from the sand and walked towards the water, Alex following behind.
“Besides the coma, a couple of bruises, and a fractured knee, I lost complete control in my right arm due to severe nerve damage. After surgery, I spent a year in rehab, trying to regain use of it again. The doctors said I only had a twenty percent chance of it ever fully recovering and that I needed to get used to doing things with one arm.”
“But you did recover,” Alex softly spoke as we walked along the water.
“I did because of Emily. Swimming was our life and we trained in the pool every day since we were seven years old. Our parents didn’t know we were training; they only knew how much we loved the water. Emily had her heart set on becoming an Olympic swimmer. She wanted nothing more than to make the USA Olympic team. My goal wasn’t that big. But I trained with her anyway because it meant so much to her. Before the accident happened, she was training for the national swim meet for our high school. She was on her way to the top and everyone had their eye on her.”
“What about you?”
“I was on the team too, but it was her dream. Not mine. So I pulled back to let her have the spotlight.”
“That was very admirable of you.” He smiled.
“Thanks. There was nothing we wouldn’t do for each other.”
I stopped walking and stared out into the ocean. Alex stopped beside me and brushed a strand of my hair from my face. I took his hand and held it.
“I’m so sorry for leaving you at the hospital.”
“Please, don’t apologize. You have nothing to be sorry for. I completely understand why you had to get out of there.”
I let go of his hand as I gave him a small smile.
“So how did you become a national swim champion?” he asked.
“Since it was Emily’s dream, I decided that I was going to try and win it for her. Rehab helped. They exercised my arm to try and rebuild my strength in it. I swam every single day, sometimes for four to five hours and practiced only using one arm. The coach didn’t want to let me back on the team at first because she didn’t think I would be a good asset with only being able to use one arm. But I showed her. I got into that pool and swam my heart out, beating out my teammates who could swim with both arms. Our team made it to the nationals and suddenly I wasn’t sure if I could do it. Anxiety started to set in because I was so afraid of letting Emily down. Doubt started to fill my mind and I began to question why I was even there. I remember sitting in the locker room on the bench. The rest of the team had already headed to the pool. I begged Emily to give me the strength to go through with it. I met my team out on the benches by the pool and, all of a sudden, a white dove came out of nowhere and landed by me. I knew that was the sign from Emily. I swam that day like I never swam before, breaking three national records.”
Alex took hold of both my hands, bringing them up to his lips. “Congratulations. I’m very proud of you.”
“Thank you.”
****
Alex
Listening to her story was heartbreaking, yet fulfilling. Emerson James was a phenomenal woman and, apparently, I didn’t give her enough credit. I had no clue that she had lost her parents and twin sister and my heart ached for her. My heart never ached for anything or anyone. But for her, it did.
“So after Nationals, what did you do?” I asked as I continued to hold her hands.
“After high school, I packed up and left California. This is the first time I’ve been back since I was eighteen years old.”
“I’m surprised colleges didn’t offer you scholarships.”
“They did.” She smiled. “I didn’t want to go to college. As much as I loved to swim, it wasn’t my dream. I only did it for Emily. I had other plans. I wanted to travel the world just like me and Emily planned to do.”
“I’m surprised Adam let you.”
I laughed. “He didn’t have a choice, plus I had already been a burden on him since the accident. He was still in college and had to take care of me. That wasn’t in his life plan and I hated that he put his life on hold for me.”
“How did you have the money to travel?” I asked out of curiosity.
“My parents were wealthy. Not like you wealthy. But they led a comfortable life. After they were killed, Adam sold our childhood home. Between that money and all the investments that my parents had and their savings, we had a lot of money to split between us. The only way Adam agreed to me traveling was if he kept control of my finances, since that was his specialty. I agreed and then left. When I was running low on money, I would call him and he would send some more.”
“Did you ever work?”
“Yeah. I took on odd jobs here and there. When I was in Texas, I worked at Billy’s ranch, taking care of the horses. That’s how we met.”
“Why did you leave Texas?”
“I had been there just under six months and it was time to move on to the next adventure.”
“I still don’t understand why you had to come back to California.”
“Apparently, my money is almost gone, which I can’t understand since I was very careful, and Adam said that I need to settle down in one place. He wouldn’t send me any more money until after we talked. So, I’m waiting for him to come back so we can have our conversation and I can get on with my life. Are you hungry?”
“Yeah. Actually, I am.” I smiled.
“Then let’s go cook some dinner. There’s a couple of steaks in the refrigerator.”
“Sounds good. You can cook and I’ll get another bottle of wine ready.” I winked.
As we headed up to the house, I couldn’t help but think how much her life had changed in the blink of an eye. She was such a beautiful and courageous woman and she had touched my life like no one ever had before. I was starting to see things differently through her eyes and, to be honest, it scared me.
Chapter 13
Emerson
After seasoning the steaks, I threw them on the grill and started to cut up some vegetables.
“So where are you off to next
?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to look at my map.”
“Your map?” His brow arched.
I told him that I’d be right back and I went to my room and took my map from underneath the bed. Bringing it back to the kitchen, I laid it out on the counter.
“See these red circles? Those are the places I already visited. The ones in black are where I still have to go.”
“You and your sister did this?”
“Yep. We had been working on this map since we were ten years old, circling all the places we were going to visit. It hung on our bedroom wall and whenever we had an idea or thought of a place, we’d circle it on the map.”
He looked at me and smiled. “That was a great idea the two of you had, but I still don’t understand why you have to visit all these places now. Why not spread them over your lifetime?”
“Because, Alex, you never know when your time is going to be up. Never stay in one place too long. There’s too much beauty in the world to see.”
“Well, it looks like you’re going to have to slow down since your money is running out,” he spoke as he poured the wine.
“I’ll find a way.” I smiled.
I made the salad and took the steaks off the grill. Alex shocked me by setting the table on the patio.
“I didn’t think you knew how to set the table.”
“I’m not that incapable of things. I do run a multi-billion-dollar company, after all.”
He still was in his sweatpants and no shirt. Staring at his rock hard chest and eight pack was getting to be unbearable. The ache between my legs was getting out of control knowing what the man could do to me.