Authors: Deanna Lynn Sletten
During a lull in the conversation, William said, "I'm so happy to see you and Sandy getting along so well. I worry about her, even though, officially, she's an adult. I think it would be wonderful if you and she become friends."
Annie smiled. She thought back to the night Sandy opened up to her. "I think we are, sort of." William seemed pleased by this.
That evening, after spending time on the deck curled up under a blanket with mugs of hot coffee keeping them warm, William and Annie went up to bed, feeling content and happy. He slowly drew her to him, caressing her gently until desire took over, and they came together in a passion that can only be shared when two people care deeply for each other.
Afterwards, William held Annie close, enjoying the feel of her silky hair brushing his cheek. "I miss you so much when you aren't here," he whispered into her ear.
Annie rolled over in his arms and faced him, looking up into his eyes. "I miss you, too," she said gently, reaching up to run her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck.
"Annie, I'm falling in love with you," he said seriously. In the soft light of the room, her face and eyes were only subtle shades of grey, and there was no reminder of Sara in them. He knew then it was Annie he was falling in love with, not the eyes that reminded him so much of his wife's.
"I'm falling in love with you, too," Annie said. And she was. Even though she'd never believed in fairy tales, she felt that she was indeed living one. William was everything she'd always hoped for, and his kids, even though grown, were her perfect idea of the family she'd never had.
William kissed her softly, his love for her evident in his gentle touch. They fell asleep, feeling warm and content in each other's embrace.
Saturday morning, Annie sat at the kitchen island, checking her e-mail on her laptop while William poured them each a mug of coffee. Sam had already left to play a round of golf, and Sandy hadn't yet emerged from her bedroom. As William set Annie's coffee down beside her, he noticed she was frowning.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"I finally got my schedule for the shoot for
Travel Washington
. They want to do it over a weekend when the trails are busy with tourists."
"Oh." William sat down in the stool opposite of Annie. "So, what weekend do they want to do it?"
Annie looked up at William. "It's the same weekend as Sam's party. They want me to come up Thursday night and stay through Sunday."
William sat quiet for a moment, sipping his coffee before replying. "If you go on Thursday, you'll miss his graduation and his party on Saturday."
"I know."
"Can't you ask them to change it?" William asked.
Annie's brows furrowed. Did William actually expect her to ask a magazine to change its schedule just for her? "I can't do that. They want these in the September issue to promote fall tourism to the area. Magazines prepare at least three months in advance, sometimes up to six months. If I say I can't do it, I'll lose this assignment."
"Don't you want to be here for Sam's party? You've worked very hard on it. You should be here to enjoy it, too."
Annie sighed. "I know, but this is a big opportunity for me. I just can't pass it up. I'm sure Sam will understand."
William stood and walked over to the counter, staring out the kitchen window at the ocean and the waves as they broke over the beach. He spoke quietly, facing away from Annie.
"Sam will be very disappointed. He's grown to like you very much over these past weeks. Your choosing work over an important event in his life will be upsetting to him."
Annie bit down on her lip, refraining from answering quickly. She didn't like the way William was trying to make her feel guilty about her choice. She stood and walked over to him, touching his arm to make him face her, then looked up into his eyes. "William, why are you trying to make me feel guilty about working? My work is important to me. I'm not a pivotal person in Sam's life. He needs you, his sister, grandparents, and close friends to celebrate with him. I've only been in his life for a few weeks. He's certainly not going to fall apart just because I'm not here."
William contemplated what she'd said. He reached out his arms to her, and she stepped into them. He pulled her close.
"I'm sorry, Annie. I didn't mean to make you feel guilty." The word 'guilty' stuck in his throat. He'd felt guilty often throughout the years after Sara died, and he hadn't realized he was pushing his feelings onto Annie. "I was only hoping you'd be able to be here. I'm sorry."
He and Annie stood like that for several minutes, each in their own thoughts. Even though William had apologized, Annie had a feeling this conversation wasn't over.
The rest of the weekend was quiet. They spent time on the beach and enjoyed grilled dinners each night with Sam and Sandy. It should have been a fun weekend, but the fact that Annie chose work over William and his family hung over their heads the entire time. Even though William didn't mention it again throughout the weekend, Annie sensed he was thinking about it. Often he was distracted or slow to respond to her when she spoke. He also didn’t attempt to hold her while they slept, which was unusual for him. By the time Monday rolled around, Annie was ready to spend some time alone at her own place. She made the excuse to William that she had a lot of work to do and thought she'd stay home for a few days. This time, he didn't try to talk her out of it, and his indifference hurt her deeply.
Chapter Sixteen
Annie had a lot to think about that next week. Although she spoke to William regularly on the phone, he seemed distant and distracted. They didn't make their usual plans to meet for lunch or go out to dinner. Even though she knew that William was upset about her missing Sam's graduation and party, Annie didn't understand why he was giving her the cold shoulder all week. Hadn't he just proclaimed his love for her the very night before she received the e-mail? Could his feelings for her have changed so quickly? She really didn't know what to think, and she felt hurt by his sudden change in attitude.
Near the end of the week, Annie received the hospital records she'd requested in the mail. It was late in the evening when she'd picked up her mail, because she'd spent the day with Cherise shopping around town and having lunch at their favorite spot. Cherise's parents were back for the summer and working at the coffeehouse, so Cherise could sneak away more often than she could in the winter. Annie liked when the Adams' came home, because they treated her like family, and Cherise had more time for fun.
Annie sat on her sofa and gingerly opened her hospital records from her appendectomy. The date of the surgery was clearly marked on the top of the page. It had been in early March as she'd suspected. She read through the surgeon's jargon, trying to understand what occurred during the surgery. Then she came upon the word 'expired', and that made her stop and re-read the sentence.
Patient expired but was revived within 1.23 minutes
. Annie frowned. Expired? Revived? She continued reading but found no other explanation of what had occurred during surgery. The records after the surgery did briefly state that all her functions seemed to be working properly, and there was no lasting damage from what occurred during surgery.
Annie suddenly felt chilled. She shivered. Had she died during surgery and no one told her? Is that what the dreams were about—dying? Grabbing the blanket off the back of her sofa, she wrapped it around her to control the sudden chills. She tried to think back to her stay in the hospital but couldn't remember much about it. It was all a blur. Maybe the doctor had told her about dying during surgery, and she'd been too drugged to remember. All she remembered was her recovery took longer than expected, and she'd become depressed. She'd taken antidepressants for some time, then her depression finally lifted, and she felt normal again. But when did the dreams start? She really wasn't sure.
As Annie contemplated this, Cherise's words from a few weeks ago came back to her.
It's not like you both died during surgery, and you came back as her, right?
Cherise had said jokingly. Now Annie wondered if she had been close to the truth.
"Joey might know what happened," Annie said aloud to herself. He'd left her not long after her surgery, and they'd never discussed it, but maybe the doctors had said something to him. Annie looked at her phone. It had been almost five years since she'd talked to Joey, and she wondered if she should even try. But she needed to know for certain what happened that day of her surgery.
Slowly, Annie tapped out the number she still remembered. She hoped he hadn't changed his phone number after all these years. It rang.
"Hello?" a male voice answered.
Annie froze. Should she answer or hang up? She suddenly felt silly for calling. "Joey? Joey Baird? Is that you?"
"Yes," the voice on the other end said. "Who's this?"
"It's me. Annie," she said softly.
"Annie?" Joey asked, his voice questioning. "Annie Paxton? Oh my God! I can't believe it's you. How are you?"
Annie relaxed when his tone sounded friendly and welcoming. "I'm fine. How are you doing?"
"Great. This is such a surprise. What's going on?"
"I need to ask you a couple of questions," Annie began.
Joey's tone became serious. "Okay, what do you want to know?"
"Do you remember when we were still together and I had my surgery?" Annie asked.
"Well, of course I remember. You scared me to death. I was afraid you were going to die before I could get you to the hospital. You were so ghostly pale. What about it?"
Annie hesitated. No matter what she said, it was going to sound strange. "Did the doctors say anything to you after the surgery? Like, about how the surgery went. Or, if anything serious had happened during the surgery?"
There was a long pause in which Annie didn’t hear a sound. She was afraid she'd lost the connection, but finally, Joey spoke. "The doctor did come out after your surgery and told me there had been some complications. But, weren't you told about all this?"
"No, actually no one told me anything. Can you tell me what he said?"
"Well, the doctor came out and said you were fine, but that you had some trouble with your heart during surgery, and they had to revive you. Apparently, you had a reaction to the anesthesia, and your heart stopped. I guess you were actually dead for a short time before they revived you. I can't believe you weren't told all this afterwards."
Chills prickled Annie's arms. "I never heard about this until now. I was reading my medical file, and it said I'd expired during surgery, but I needed to find out more, so that's why I called you."
"Are you okay? Has something happened that you need to know this now?" Joey asked, concern in his voice. His concern touched her.
"No, nothing is wrong. I was just looking into what happened that day. Everything was so fuzzy then that I wanted to know what actually happened."
"That's good to hear," Joey said. "I'm glad you're doing fine. So, where are you? What are you doing now?"
Annie filled Joey in on where she was living now, her photography, and even a little about meeting William. Joey told her he was engaged. Annie was happy he'd finally met someone to settle down with.
After awhile, Annie said sincerely, "It's been nice talking to you, Joey. I'm glad everything is going well for you. I hope you and your girlfriend have a very happy life."
"Thanks, Annie. I hope you are happy, too." Joey hesitated again. "Annie?"
"Yes."
"I just want to tell you how sorry I am about leaving you the way I did years ago. I know I was wrong in doing it, but things had changed so much after your surgery, I didn't know what to do."
Annie frowned. "Changed?"
"Yeah, it kind of freaked me out. I mean, first I find out you died and came back to life, then, well, you went into that deep depression, and you weren't acting like yourself at all. It was all so weird."
"I was sick," Annie said. "Of course I wasn't myself."
"I know, but it was more than that. Your whole personality changed. And then, there was the thing with your eyes."
"What do you mean?" Annie asked. "What about my eyes?"
"That first time you opened your eyes after surgery, it just blew me away. They had changed color. I mean, that's weird, isn't it?" Joey asked.
Annie was shocked by what Joey was saying. "My eyes didn't change color."
"Yes, they did. Your eyes were hazel before the surgery. Afterwards, they were a brilliant blue-green. It was like I was looking at you, but yet I was looking into someone else's eyes. It freaked me out."
"Why didn't you say something back then?" Annie asked. "I don't remember you mentioning it before."
"I figured you'd see it for yourself. And that was the other weird thing, you didn’t seem to notice. Plus, because you were so depressed, I didn't want to make a big deal about it. I figured the depression was caused by the fact that you almost died. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I left you the way I did. I guess I wasn't mature enough to handle everything that was happening."