Page 4 of The Lost Book of First Loves

She would stay and help where she could. She could check on her in the hospital, run errands for her. Whatever she needed.

She hadn’t been able to do anything to save her father. But even if June had been in the middle of firing her, Alison wouldn’t simply slink away in the night, abandoning one of the few family members she had left.

Chapter 3

Juniper

Later, when June tried to remember those first hours after her heart stopped beating and then she was brought back to life, she would mostly have vague impressions of confusion, fear, pain.

Tiny shards of memory lingered: the shock of finding strangers peering over her; wondering why she was lying down on some kind of stretcher in the elevator; why she had a mask over her face; where they were taking her.

Waking up to find herself here, in this hospital room, while someone sat in the corner and a nurse bustled around checking her IV, the leads on her chest, her oxygen settings.

She wasn’t sure exactly what was happening. She only knew her chest ached like hell. Once she had suffered a cracked rib after a hard fall during a race. This felt worse somehow.

The person in the corner didn’t move, even after the nurse left. She couldn’t quite see anyone, could only sense a presence out of the corner of her gaze.

Could it be Adam? He was in Hong Kong this week, wasn’t he?

It was a woman, anyway, she realized. Not Adam. A small woman, at that.

Maybe it was Jade or Luce, one of her two closest girlfriends. Except the person whose face she couldn’t quite see didn’t have Jade’s long, sleek black hair or Luce’s auburn curls. June shifted for a better look and saw a woman with honey-colored hair caught up in a messy bun.

Recognition flared. She knew this woman. Her rather incompetent intern, Alison Wells, looking much more rumpled and casual in yoga leggings and a hoodie than she did in the business attire she usually wore.

What was she doing here?

June frowned, trying to grasp hold of her thoughts that seemed slippery and elusive.

She must have made some kind of noise. Alison uncurled from the chair, blinking her eyes open.

“Oh. Hi. You’re awake.”

“What happened? Why am I here?” Her voice came out in a raw croak. She desperately wanted a drink of water. On a rolling table slightly out of reach of her arms, she could see a plastic cup with ice water and a straw.

Alison must have seen her looking toward it. Without being asked, she lifted it and held it out to June, who sipped at the straw gratefully, then had to lower her head back to the pillow in exhaustion.

“You’re okay to drink. The nurse said it’s fine, otherwise I wouldn’t let you.”

“What happened to me?” she asked again.

Alison looked uncomfortable. “The doctors and nurses can explain it all better than I can.”

“Tell me,” she pressed, trying for her most commanding voice. It came out like a ridiculous little squeak.

Alison pursed her lips, looking undecided. “It would be better if you heard it from a medical professional.”

“I need to know. Please.”

The other woman sighed. “You had a cardiac event apparently. A pretty major one.”

That couldn’t be right. She was thirty-four years old. A veryhealthythirty-four. She ran half-marathons. She couldn’t have had a cardiac event. Whatever that meant.

“No, seriously. What really happened?”

Alison’s expression melted into sympathy. “Exactly what I said. One moment we were talking in your office, the next you collapsed at your desk. You stopped breathing. It was terrifying.”

Her brain seemed to be slowly clicking back into action. The pieces were all there but she couldn’t quite fit them together.

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