Fragile Hearts (Poplar Falls #4) - Amber Kelly Page 0,68
behind the restaurant.
I race to her, screaming for help and for someone to call 911. When I make it to her, I pull her head and shoulders into my lap while pleading with her not to leave me. I lean down to kiss her head, and suddenly, it’s not Annie. It’s not her throat slit from ear to ear.
It’s Bellamy.
Her eyes staring at me as she gurgles blood.
Dying in my arms.
I wake with a start, covered in sweat with my heart pounding. Victim to a new nightmare.
Bellamy
The fireman insists I go to the emergency room to be checked out. When I arrive, my oxygen levels are low, and my lungs and throat are irritated due to the heat and smoke I have inhaled. I also suffer from a few small burns to my forearms, palms, and neck.
I’m admitted, and they give me oxygen and nebulizer treatments to help my lungs recover.
My voice is gone. Just gone.
I panic when I wake up and can’t talk because I think it’s permanent. I fight the nurses and Momma, who is sleeping at the hospital with me. Refusing to leave her daughter alone. I rip out my IV and start bleeding everywhere, so once they get me to settle down; they make the decision to medicate me more heavily to keep me calm and pain-free while I heal.
Everyone in Poplar Falls comes through my room for the next two days. And I do mean everyone, except for Brandt. Even Miss Elaine stops in. Pop Lancaster and Jefferson just happen to be dropping off flowers when she arrives. Pop sits down beside her, and they strike up a conversation. One that lasts a couple of hours. Long after Jefferson has left. I kind of feel like a voyeur as they chat, and I doze on and off.
Brandt sends his regards through his mother as well as a lovely bouquet of white tulips, however he is extremely busy and can’t make it by.
On day two, a ridiculously huge bouquet of silver roses—my favorite—are delivered, and I cry, thinking they must be from Brandt as well, but it turns out, they are from Derrick. I have had him blocked for over a month, but apparently, he has continued to call my parents’ house. Momma has been effectively blowing him off for weeks, per my request, but Pop answered while we were both at the hospital and told him everything.
“I don’t want them. Give them to my nurse,” I tell the delivery lady when I read the card.
I still can’t believe Brandt hasn’t come to see me. I miss him. I’ve called his cell a couple of times, but it goes straight to voice mail, and I don’t leave a message.
I figure I’m just overreacting. He knows I’m good. He was there that night, and it obviously freaked him out. It’s only been a few days.
By the time they release me, I’m so over the hospital. I’m fine. I want to go home, and I make that perfectly clear to anyone within earshot.
I think they finally cut me loose just so they don’t have to hear it any longer.
Lightning was determined to be the cause of the barn fire. It had somehow struck into a crack on the roof or come through the tiny window to the loft and ignited the bales of hay stored in there.
Damn lightning.
I won’t be scared of it any longer though. I went toe to toe with its wrath and defeated it.
Pop and Myer salvaged what they could from the fire, and they already have the framing done for the new and improved barn.
Jefferson Lancaster has offered to temporarily store anything we need and help tend to our horses until we can raise our new barn.
Once I’m home, I take it easy for another week as Momma fusses over me nonstop.
Still no word from Brandt.
I finally leave the house to go to Sophie’s for a party-planning meeting.
The party is happening this weekend, and every detail needs to be finalized.
When I get back home, Momma informs me I have a message on the answering machine. My heart skips at the hope that it’s Brandt, but why would he call the house and not my cell?
I press play, and it’s Dr. Singh’s office from the Denver Zoo, asking me to call as soon as possible.
I jot the number down and head to my room.
To my surprise, when I return the call, I’m patched through to Dr. Singh himself.