Page 6 of The Lost Book of First Loves

She nodded, not sure what else to say.

“I’m going to give you some medicine now for the pain. You’ve got a cracked rib from the CPR, which I know must hurt like the devil. It’s going to make you sleepy but that’s completely normal.”

She gave a comforting smile and pushed something into the IV hooked up to June’s arm.

As the medicine seeped through her blood, she felt almost instantly better. She was so very tired. She would sleep for a while and maybe when she woke, she would find this was all a bad dream.

As she looked at Alison Wells, whose face was swirling in her vision now, June had the random thought that there was something she should be remembering about the other woman. Something important between them had happened or wassupposedto happen today.

She couldn’t seem to grab hold of any of her increasingly slippery thoughts, so she simply closed her eyes and surrendered to the inevitable.

Chapter 4

Alison

Ali exhaled with relief as she watched June’s eyes drift shut and her features relax. Her face looked bruised and pinched, with deep hollows under the eyes and a pallor that worried her.

Despite that, she was still lovely, with high cheekbones, finely arched brows and blue eyes that reminded Alison very much of her father’s.

Over the past three weeks while she had been making a total fool of herself trying to carry out intern duties for which she was entirely unqualified, Alison hadn’t had the chance to reallylookat the woman. Now that June was asleep, Alison studied her relaxed features, hoping for some kind of resemblance toher.

They didn’t look much alike. Where June was tall, willowy, athletic, with chestnut brown hair and eyes the color of a mountain lake, Alison was eight inches shorter, petite, definitely more curvy than athletic.

Also, June was a high-powered company executive who both impressed and intimidated every other employee at Move Inc, while Alison had been a lowly intern, nervous and uncomfortable if anyone even talked to her.

She still couldn’t wrap her head around the results of the DNA test that had completely shaken the natural order of things in her world a few months earlier. It still seemed inconceivable that her late father, literary icon Carson Wells, could have a secret love child somewhere out in the world who was now thirty-four years old, eight years older than Alison. Or that thesecret love child was now a smart, savvy executive at one of the top technological innovation companies in the world.

She knew it had to be true, though. Their DNA was too closely linked to be anything other than sisters, especially as June’s DNA also closely linked to their father’s DNA.

When the match had come through for the test she had almost forgotten she and her father had taken before his death, Alison had been stunned and upset.

How could Carson have kept such a huge thing from her? And how could the man who always wrote books about honor and integrity have walked away from a child?

She had wanted to reach out as soon as she had learned about the link. After some detective work, she had traced the user to Seattle, to one woman: tech executive Juniper Connelly, who had a reputation for fierce creativity and brilliant focus.

She didn’t feel like she could simply rush up to her and tell her they were half sisters. She wanted to get to know the other woman first to see if Allison even wanted a relationship with her. This business leadership internship seemed the perfect opportunity.

After weeks of observing her half sister in her natural milieu, Ali still didn’t really feel as if she knew her. Juniper could be prickly, tough, demanding, driven. But also compassionate and gentle, like when Alison had discovered by accident that she donated heavily to a Boys and Girls Club in the area and that she personally volunteered at a community recreation center, working with at-risk youth who were in danger of slipping through the cracks.

She was an enigma. Which was why Ali found herself here, in the cardiac ICU at Seattle’s biggest hospital, trying to figure out what she was doing there and, more importantly, what she should do next.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the nurse said gently. “I’m sorry, but she needs her rest, especially with all the tests she will be having tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of her.”

She had just walked back to the ICU waiting area when her phone buzzed with an incoming text and she pulled it out.

Are you still in Seattle? Let me guess, you’re at one of the hundreds of Starbucks there.

Xander Scott, one of her oldest and dearest friends, could always make her smile, even in the most stressful moments.

Still in Seattle but not at Starbucks, she texted back.You wouldn’t believe where I am right now. The story is too long to tell you over text. Definitely a mojitos-and-nachos kind of tale.

Sounds good to me. And on that note, I’m passing through Seattle next week on my way back from Indonesia and could stop for a quick layover before I fly back to Wyoming for a few weeks to stay with Aunt Sylvia after her hip surgery. Would love a chance to catch up and maybe crash on your couch.

Xander’s schedule as one of the most successful travel vloggers on YouTube was insanely busy. She couldn’t remember the last time they had been able to cross paths.

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