Wherever You Are Read online

The sarcasm in his words wasn’t lost on his nephew, who folded his arms across his chest and planted himself on the arm of a chair.

  “Drake, I don’t want to talk about her,” El persisted. “I went to see her. We had words. I left. Nothing more, nothing less. Let’s go.”

  Except, El knew there was more to that visit than he’d let on to Drake.

  “How long will she be here?” Drake stood up and walked toward the door. “I want to see her.”

  “I have no idea.” They left his office and headed toward the elevators. “I had to use the emergency room valet when I came back.” El had been called back to the hospital earlier when one of his patients attempted suicide, and had never gotten a chance to move his car.

  They fell into step beside each other as they walked to the Emergency Department parking lot.

  A few people breezed past them as they neared the doors. El noted the crowd in the waiting room.

  “Are those photographers?” Drake asked, pointing toward the glass doors at the entrance.

  El frowned. Photographers in the ER were a rare occurrence, and he wondered what had happened. He caught a glimpse of the same guard he’d seen earlier with Avery as the burly man stormed into the triage area.

  When he saw a distraught Jessica run in next, his heart fell. Because on the gurney behind Jess was Avery.

  Drake jumped into action first, calling Avery’s name as he met the paramedics. Shock, fear and concern shot through El at the sight of an unconscious Avery. The paramedics yelled out commands, while Drake barked out a few of his own.

  “El?” Drake barked. “Snap out of it.”

  El peered down at Avery, then at Jess. “What happened?” he shouted.

  Jess was barely holding on. Her eyes were swollen and red, and pieces of tissue were stuck to her cheek. “She...” she croaked, swallowing visibly. “I knew she didn’t feel well. I told her to rest, but she wouldn’t. El, what if she dies?”

  El grabbed Jess’s shoulders and squeezed gently. “She won’t die, but I need you to tell me what happened.”

  El prided himself on being able to hear two conversations at once. It often came in handy in his line of work. He was able to talk to Jess and hear the symptoms being thrown out by the medical personnel working on Avery. Vision changes and high blood pressure. Jess continued her explanation, telling El about Avery’s behavior after the graduation. Severe headache. The other woman explained that Avery told her she couldn’t see her. Possible stroke.

  Possible stroke? He turned to Drake. “What?” he asked.

  Drake lowered his head. “It sounds like it.”

  Before El could ask anything else, emergency room staff were there, pulling Avery behind the frosted glass. Drake was right behind them, dialing furiously on his phone.

  Jess tried to push her way through, but El held her back. “Jess, you can’t go back there.”

  “But she needs me,” Jess yelled, panic in her voice. “I can’t leave her alone.”

  “She’ll be fine. Let the doctors do their job.”

  El couldn’t believe how easily the words came out. Sure, he’d practiced them thousands of times in medical school. When there was nothing else left to say, encourage the family to let the doctors do their job. Only this wasn’t a random patient; it was Avery, the only woman he’d ever loved. And she was fighting for her life.

  Hours later, an ER doctor pulled some strings and El and Jess were allowed in the room while the doctors worked on Avery. Drake had been called away for an emergency, but had been checking in periodically.

  It was surreal to see his colleagues, some of his friends, working on Avery. Many of them had attended college with them, had known her before she was the Avery Montgomery who had a hit television show on network television. Of course, they were professional, but occasionally one of them would shoot him a sad glance. A few would give him updates as they worked.

  Avery Montgomery was high profile, and the hospital had taken steps to secure the facility so that they could save her life without interruptions. Only a few people were allowed on the hidden floor where they’d taken her. It hadn’t stopped the phone from ringing. Jess had two, and had been frantically barking orders over the lines. Each call had seemed to fray Jess’s nerves even more, and he’d finally convinced her to hand over the devices to him.

  El had managed to get Jess to settle down, but every few minutes she would break down in a fit of tears. This time Jess was bent over, shaking, as a sob broke through the activity in the room.

  He rubbed her back. “Jess, she’s going to beat this.”

  His words were meant to soothe Jess, calm her. But they weren’t just for her benefit. They were for his, as well.

  She peered up at him and offered him a watery smile. “What if she doesn’t?”

  “Don’t say that,” he snapped, before he was able to catch himself.

  “I told her to cancel the trip to LA, to rest. She just didn’t look good. I know her, had a feeling she’d forgotten to eat.”

  El chuckled. “I remember. That woman never took care of herself. I had to make her drink a protein shake or eat an apple when she was working in the lab.”

  Jessica shook her head. “When she came back from the graduation she was distracted, but I could tell she was battling something.”

  El couldn’t help the guilt that crept in at Jessica’s admission.

  “I told her to lie down before we went to the airport,” she continued. “El, watching my best friend collapse into a seizure was the worst thing I’ve ever witnessed.”

  He was at a loss for words. El knew that was saying a lot for Jess, considering her husband had died a few years earlier.

  Shaking her head, Jess finished her bottled water. “It was awful. And I feel so bad that I didn’t believe her at first. I thought she was joking.”

  “Don’t do that to yourself. You couldn’t have known.”

  The doctors had told him and Jess that Avery had a stroke that affected her vision and caused her to lose her sight earlier when she was with Jess. According to the attending physician, surgery wasn’t needed, which was a relief to El. Yet there was no way to tell if the damage was permanent at that point, since Avery was still unconscious. El could only pray that it wasn’t, because if Avery lost her sight forever, it would destroy her.

  Chapter 3

  Where am I? Avery heard voices, but they weren’t familiar. They were detached, stiff. Doctors? She tried to open her eyes, tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. She tried to open her eyes, but darkness surrounded her.

  “Avery?” Jess’s voice in her ear immediately calmed her.

  “Jess,” Avery muttered with a cough.

  “I’m here,” her friend said. “You’re at the University hospital. You had us worried sick.”

  Why?

  Avery remembered the graduation, being face-to-face with El and the hotel room. When she felt the flutter of her lashes on her cheeks as she blinked, she realized that her eyes had been open, but she couldn’t see.

  Fear welled up inside her as she tried to hone in on the sounds and sensations around her—the shrill beeping of machines, the suction of the blood pressure cuff on her arm, the foul, dry taste in her mouth, the medicinal hospital smell. Four of her senses were working, but the one she relied on the most, the one she needed to earn her bread and butter, had failed her.

  Closing her eyes, she let a whimper escape and the tears followed shortly after. The muscles in her legs tightened, and the urge to flee took over. But she couldn’t move.

  Avery felt Jess’s hand rubbing her arm, and she reached out to hold on to it with her other hand. Squeezing tightly, she said, “Please tell me this isn’t permanent. What’s wrong with me?”

  Her voice sounded desperate to her own ears and she wondered who was in the room with her. She had to assume there
were people she knew in the room with her, people with whom she’d attended medical school, but she still hadn’t recognized any of the voices.

  “Calm down, hun,” Jess whispered. “Your blood pressure is spiking again.”

  Avery gasped, expelling a ragged breath. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. “Blood pressure. Why?”

  “You had a stroke. The doctors think it was caused by high blood pressure brought on by continued stress. The scans indicate you have blood on the brain.”

  Avery knew what that meant. Years of studying to become a doctor hadn’t left her. Vision changes brought on by a stroke were hard to overcome. The likelihood of regaining her sight was low, rare. Squeezing her eyes closed, she couldn’t hold it back any longer. She sobbed openly, screamed loudly, drowning out everything around her. It was an uncontrollable, ugly cry. In that moment, she didn’t care who heard her. Nothing mattered, not appearances, not her pride.

  Jess held her, rubbed her back and murmured words of encouragement in her ear. “Oh, hun, I’m here. I won’t leave. You can depend on me.”

  “What am I going to do?” Avery cried. “How am I—?” She choked as the tears continued to flow.

  “Avery?”

  Avery froze. Turning her head to his voice, she called his name. “El?”

  “Yes,” he said. His calm voice soothed like balm to an open wound.

  “You’re here?” It wasn’t a question. Well, at least, she hadn’t intended it to be.

  She reached out and within a few seconds she felt the stubble on his chin. She inhaled the lingering scent of his cologne, let the notes of sage, lavender and mandarin ease her mind. Her fingers traced the outline of his forehead, felt the frown lines on his forehead. She brushed the line of his nose and ran her thumb over his full lips.

  She smelled the hazelnut on his breath, felt it against her cheek as he leaned in.

  “You’re okay,” he told her. “You’re going to be just fine.”

  Her first response to his words was to nod in agreement. Because, for some reason, she believed him. Logically, she knew the odds, but El had a way of making her believe almost anything.

  The press of his forehead against her temple made her turn her head toward him. She needed a deeper connection to him in that moment. The tips of his fingers brushed the outline of her ear and she savored the touch.

  The tenderness he showed her, despite everything she’d put him through, was enough to make her belly ache with yearning. He’d known what she needed right then. He always knew how to take the pain away, if only for a brief moment. When the warmth of his mouth pressed against her forehead, she held her breath and let the flutter in her stomach take over.

  His proximity, his presence, was what she needed to handle the shock of her trauma. Vaguely she felt moisture drizzle down the arm Jess was holding. Her poor friend was probably a nervous wreck. Avery had to be strong. She had to figure out her next steps.

  “I need answers,” Avery said, sucking in all of her emotions. Her question wasn’t directed to anyone specific, though. She sensed the quiet presence of many people in the room and she wanted to know the extent of the damage.

  “It was a hemorrhagic stroke that accompanied the onset of hypertensive encephalopathy. Your body couldn’t take the sudden increase in your blood pressure,” a strange voice explained. She assumed it was a doctor. “Ms. Montgomery, my name is Dr. Thorne. I’m the neuro-ophthalmologist assigned to your case. I’ve been briefed on your history and your knowledge of medicine, so I’ll be candid. As you know, it’s too soon to ascertain if your sight will return. But based on the latest scans, there is a good chance it will.”

  Avery closed her eyes and said a silent prayer to God for healing.

  “Avery?” El called. “We’re all here to help. There is more testing to be done, but I’m going to need you to hold it together. We can’t afford another spike in your blood pressure right now. I know you’re scared, but try to relax and let them do their work.”

  El then introduced her to every other physician in the room. Some she knew and some she didn’t. He must’ve informed them all of her background, because they spoke to her in a language only used among one of their own. Once she’d received the updates, she opened her eyes.

  It wasn’t a dream. She still couldn’t see a damn thing. She darted her eyes back and forth, hoping something would give. No faces, nothing—until the glint of metal flashed into her view. It was small, but she immediately knew what it was. It was the metal on El’s watch—the watch she’d given him.

  A tear slid down her cheek, and it startled her because she hadn’t realized she was crying again. She felt the pad of El’s thumb sweep across her face, then felt a soft tissue against her skin. Her emotions were all over the place but she knew she couldn’t afford to let them get the best of her. She needed to get through this so she could go back to her life. As soon as possible.

  Later, after countless scans, multiple blood draws and too many neurological exams, Avery was over it. Everything in her wanted to blow up, yell at everyone within earshot. She’d done just that a little over an hour ago, taking no prisoners, and she didn’t even care if she’d hurt feelings.

  Avery shook her head, lifting her chin high in the air. As she grew more restless, she felt her muscles quiver and her pulse speed up. Heat flushed through her body, straight to her toes. The despair she’d felt when she woke up surrounded by doctors, the slight hope she’d felt earlier when El was in the room, had been eclipsed by the fear she’d tried to trick away. And when Avery was scared, she became angry and irritable. Seeing the glint of El’s watch had been an isolated incident, a fluke, because the darkness seemed never ending. She’d yet to see anything, not even a flash of light.

  She was too young, too busy, too smart for this. It wasn’t rocket science. She’d read all the textbooks, studied the medicine in school. She worked out regularly, ate healthy foods—when she remembered to eat. What the hell?

  As the cuff on her arm tightened uncomfortably, she squirmed in the bed. If she’d been able to see, she would have been out of there with “the quickness,” as they used to say back in the day. A nurse announced her vital signs and gave her a few pills. She didn’t ask what pills they were. She didn’t even care. She just wanted to feel better.

  Her life wasn’t going to stop because she’d had a stroke. Who has a stroke at thirty-two years of age anyway? The network was probably calling, wondering why she wasn’t in LA, wondering where her script edits were for the second season premiere.

  “Getting angry isn’t going to help.”

  Avery jumped at the sound of El’s voice, coming from the far left of the room. What was he doing there? She’d asked to be alone, even sent the reluctant Jess home to get rest. “Why are you here?” she growled. “Get out!”

  She heard the click of his heels against the floor, but instead of heading toward the door, the steps grew closer to the bed. Then there was nothing. He was still there, though—watching her, assessing her like he undoubtedly did with his patients.

  “What do you want from me?” she demanded. “We’re not together anymore. That was my choice for a reason. You don’t have to be here, and I don’t want you here.”

  It was the first time she’d felt glad she couldn’t see his face. Her words had to have stung, and she didn’t want to see the evidence of that truth in his eyes. Most of all, she didn’t want him to see her like this, wounded and angry. Because for all of her bravado earlier, for all of her positive thoughts about her life not stopping because of this new development, she was a wrecking ball of emotion. She’d made a good living using her eyes, and knowing that there was a chance she’d never be able to see again ripped her to shreds. The only thing she wanted in that moment was to be alone so that no one could see her torment.

  “You don’t have to pretend to care, El,” she added. “You made it perfectly c
lear at the auditorium that you still harbor resentment toward me for following my dreams instead of attaching myself to your coattails.”

  When he didn’t respond or even make a sound of acknowledgment, she let out a shaky breath and tried to burrow her body into the bed.

  “Please, go,” she pleaded, her chin trembling. “I’m fine here.”

  “You really get on my nerves,” he said finally, with a chuckle. “Your damn mouth always got you into trouble.”

  Avery’s mouth fell open, then closed again. She couldn’t even respond to that because she knew it to be true. Even as a child, it had kept her in trouble with her parents. Strong willed, stubborn, whatever you wanted to call it. She was the reason her mother went gray at forty-five.

  “I knew the anger would come, Avery,” he said. “It always does when you’re scared. I just wanted to be here when you let it take over, to make sure you got it out and let it go.”

  I hate you.

  “I’m sure you do,” he countered, to her horror. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

  Avery apologized. “I didn’t mean it.”

  “Yes, you did. In this moment, you probably do hate me. What you said was the absolute truth. I do resent you for leaving the way you did.” His confession took her by surprise, but she did her best to not show it. “But you’re not going to get better if you keep stressing the way you do. Do you not understand that your blood pressure was so high it caused a neurological crisis in your body? All work, all day, will make Avery a dead woman.”

  His blunt truth felt like a fist around her heart. El had always told her to slow down, to appreciate life. He’d warned her that her goals were great, but there was only so much she could do in a day. And she hadn’t listened. Case in point, she’d been going nonstop for weeks, appearing on late-night television, flying from coast to coast for meetings, answering every single phone call, writing until her fingers cramped up.

  She didn’t expect him to understand, either. He’d never had to worry about anything. His life was golden, charmed. Born to one of the richest families in Ann Arbor brought automatic approval from the community. Avery had to work for everything she’d ever received. Her parents weren’t wealthy. Both of them had worked, from dusk until dawn to make ends meet, to support her.