Page 64 of Don't Regret Me
“It’s okay, honey. I’m here. Everything is okay.” She looked back over her shoulder to where paramedics loaded Nick into the ambulance, wondering if he looked just as he had after his accident, the one that started their journey together.
“Ma’am,” one of the paramedics said. “We need to treat you.”
Liz struggled to breathe, but she didn’t want to leave the twins.
“They’re taking us all to get checked out,” Booker said, pulling her away. “They’ll be right behind you. I’ll make sure of it.”
Liz made eye contact with her dad, who nodded, and Jasmine, who offered her a weak smile, before letting the paramedic help her into the ambulance. When the oxygen mask came down over her face once again, she leaned back and closed her eyes. There were no more tears. They dried up in the smoke and ruin of the house that had been a place of both joy and pain.
The ambulance lurched forward, and her consciousness slipped away.
The next time she opened her eyes, she was in a sterile white room with air pumping up her nose. Her lungs burned with each breath, so she didn’t remove it. Pain snaked down over one arm and into her side as she shifted in bed.
Where was everyone? Her dad and the kids. Nick. She tried to remember every moment of the fire and after. They all made it, she was sure of it. Except, Nick’s eyes hadn’t been open the last time she looked at him.
She tried to sit up, but the pain intensified and she relaxed back. Her eyes searched for a button to call the nurse. She found it the moment the door opened and a young woman with short, blue-tipped hair, blue scrubs, and thick brows walked in. She smiled. “You’re awake. That’s good.”
“What… who…?”
“I’m nurse Kinzie Haes. You’ve had quite the night, haven’t you?”
“What time is it?” Her voice was hoarse.
“About three in the morning. You were brought in last night. Your lungs are damaged from the smoke, so we need to keep you for observation and treatment. We also treated you for second-degree burns on the right side of your abdomen and your right arm. Frankly, from what the paramedics told me, it’s amazing you’re in such terrific shape after what you went through.”
“Terrific shape.” She almost laughed at that. “Right.”
“It’s true. From what I understand, the fire spread rapidly, and, amazingly, everyone survived.”
“They did?”
Nurse Haes’ smile dropped. “Oh, I’m sorry. I should have told you. Yes, your family is okay. They were discharged and spent a while in the waiting room before they left to get some rest at a nearby hotel. I’m supposed to call them when you wake.”
“And Nick? Nick Jacobs. Is he…”
“He’ll be okay.” She smiled. “He escaped with only small, and his lungs will heal, just as yours will.”
“Can I see him?”
“I’m not supposed to?—”
“Please.”
31
NICK
It was gone. All of it. Everything Nick cared about, all the good memories he had, were in that house.
And now, it was nothing but ash.
The moment he woke, he had to see her, had to reconcile the woman he’d come to know recently with the one in these newfound memories of a simple time in a world that existed just for the two of them.
Everything now made so much sense. How discontented he’d been with his life since the accident, the connection between him and Liz.
The night of the accident, he’d told Sherrie he wanted a divorce. One long in the making.
And she’d told the world she was pregnant. If he hadn’t lost a year of memories, he’d have known how impossible it was that he was the father of that child.
