“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.