Page 55 of For Always
“Gabriella!”
He kept yelling her name.
“Come on Gabriella, you can do it. Just open your eyes for us. Everything is going to be okay, just open your eyes, Gabriella.”
Now there was a woman. She had a firm tone, authoritative, yet caring. Gabriella knew them both. She knew them and she’d missed them. Just as she’d missed so many things in her old life.
Somebody brushed her hair back from her face. Somebody held her hand. They kept calling to her, insisting that she open her eyes. But she didn’t want to. It was over, wasn’t it?
“Gabs, please, just open your eyes for me. I know you’re in there. You’re breathing and you’re alive. Gabriella, please!”
He sounded so sad. He was usually bossy with her and protective, but never sad. It made her heart hurt and she didn’t like that she was the one making him sound that way.
Gabriella decided to open her eyes but it was harder than she thought it would be. She tried again and again, but it wasn’t working. Why couldn’t she just wake up? Because she’d thought for so long that she didn’t want to wake up. She’d been walking around smiling and living as if things were as they had been before, but they weren’t. She knew it and now she had to live it.
With that thought her eyes shot open and Gabriella gasped for breath. She coughed and blinked a couple of times, sure she had to be seeing things.
“Gabs! There you go! That’s my girl!” he said lifting her head and shoulders up into an embrace. “That’s my Gabs!”
He was rocking her back and forth and Gabriella inhaled deeply. She knew his scent. Her arms went around him and she sobbed, “Alex.”
“Yes, you little troublemaker. It’s me,” he said with a chuckle.
He held her back away from him and smiled. “You scared the hell out of me! Twice, Gabriella! Two damn times, in twenty-four hours you’ve scared me to death!”
“Alex,” Gabriella said again. “But how? I’m not home. I mean, I left town and he kept calling me and I didn’t want to talk to him. But I wasn’t home. I was…what are you doing here?”
“We can get to that later. Right now I think we need to get you to a hospital.”
That was Monica. Gabriella knew that cool voice anywhere. She looked to her other side to see Alex’s fiancé kneeling on the ground beside her.
“Monica,” she sighed. “Oh, it is so good to see both of you.”
Monica had been holding her hand and she squeezed it as she smiled at Gabriella. “It’s good to see you.”
“But I don’t know why you’re here. Or where we are exactly,” Gabriella said and then tried to sit up on her own.
Alex kept his hands on her, but she managed to come to a sitting position as she looked around.
“We were on our way to see you at a place called Westwind Ranch & Resort,” Monica told her.
“Then we were almost hit head-on by some maniac driving erratically,” Alex said before tweaking her nose. “You almost killed all of us. What’s the matter with you, Gabs? And don’t you dare tell me nothing. Because I’ve come all this way because I know that’s a big fat lie.”
“We’re on the road,” Gabriella said, ignoring her brother’s words. “I was leaving the ranch. It’s back there, not too far.”
She tried to stand up but Alex quickly grabbed her arms.
“Whoa, wait a minute, champ. You’ve got quite a lump on your head so I’m sure you’re dizzy,” he said.
“No, I’m okay.” But she felt queasiness overtake her as she attempted to get up again. “Well, maybe not. But I will be. Just help me up.”
Alex and Monica helped her up and walked her slowly to their rental car. Once they had her in the backseat and Gabriella felt like she wasn’t going to vomit all over the place, she said, “Let’s go back to the ranch. I have to go back there.”
“Wait a minute, Gabs,” Alex said. “Just hold on. You were clearly upset to be driving the way that you were. You look like you’ve been crying. I’m not taking you back there until you tell me what’s going on.”
He had come all this way to check on her. Gabriella wanted to cry again. This was love right here. Of course he was her brother, but this was the bond she wanted to one day have with someone. It was what she’d dreamed of, but had been wondering if it would ever happen for her.
“I know. I’m going to explain. I just need to go back. I need to make sure he’s alright and see if I can help. I was so awful, the way I acted and then I just left and he’s probably worried. I don’t want him to worry.”
