Page 71 of Return to Me Always

"What were you going to say... right before Malcolm showed up?" I struggled for a breath. "Something about dreams?"

He hesitated for a moment.

"Please," I begged.

After a long pause, he stared straight into my eyes. "I've been dreaming about you all my life, lass."

My heart melted into a huge puddle.Tyler had been dreaming about me?All his life?And he had admitted it?

If I was going to die, it was a damn good way to go.

My lips curved into a slow smile even though the pain was unbearable, even though I felt...

so...

damn...

weak...

I had lived here. I had loved here. I had died here.

Chapter Twenty

A roaring noise rang in my head.God, please make it stop. It was so damn loud. And annoying. Adding to my misery.

"Please... please..."

"What, Ryder?" Tyler's voice sounded near my ear. An anxious tone I'd never heard before.

"Please... stop the noise. Make it stop..."

"They're here to help," he said, his hand caressing my hair.

Who? What? I struggled to open one eye. Then the other. God, it was agony. Excruciating agony. I thought I was dead. Death would be better than this pain.

With both eyes now open, I could see several people rushing toward me. In uniforms. Medics. Holding something. A stretcher.

They lifted me onto it before I could even manage to speak. Then rushed me toward the noise. The never-ending loud noise that I hated.

As they moved closer, I realized what the sound was... a helicopter.

A helicopter?

They loaded me on board. Where was Tyler? I didn't want to leave him, and I knew he'd never get on a helicopter.Never.

I tried to move my head around to look for him, but the movement sent sharp pains down my neck, and blackness overtook everything.

***

Annoying needles jabbed into my arm.

What the hell was going on? And why wasn't I dead yet?

The noise had followed me, and I remembered I was on a helicopter. I opened my eyes to see the medics leaning over me, pushing a needle into my arm, a blood pressure cuff on the other. I wanted to thrash around and tell them to stop. Ihatedneedles.

"It's okay, Ryder."

Was that Tyler? He was here?

---