While I Was Away(16)

“Oh, Charlie, and Mom, I think.”

“That's good. Your mom really loves Charlie, huh,” she grumbled. River shrugged.

“I guess. You don't?”

“I don't think much about him, period. He's just ... there.”

“You don't think he and Adele will get married some day? Grow up and have little club promoting babies?” River teased. She got lost in thought for a few moments, staring out over the crowd.

“I don't,” she finally admitted after a few moments. Then she sighed and looked at him again. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. Charlie's a great guy, honestly, but he and Adele ... we shouldn't be talking about them while she's gone.”

While she's gone – he didn't question Zoey's choice of words or why she said it, because for all the Reins, it was a forgone conclusion that Adele would wake up. There was no if for them, only a when.

River was the “middle” child, or at least had always felt that way. Adele had come along so late, and before her it had just been the three boys for so long. He wasn't as smart as Ocean, and he wasn't as talented as August. He'd had to try twice as hard to get half the attention. Then a beautiful baby girl had come along and that had been it, all the attention had gone. No more to go around.

Not that he didn't understand. River loved Adele with all his heart. He'd cried when his father had told him about the car crash. Seeing his baby sister looking like a broken doll, it had been too much. She'd always seemed so small and delicate next to her rambunctious brothers. They'd all been so overprotective of her – River probably most of all, because he hadn't been as busy and distracted as his brothers.

Yet in the end, what good had it done? He hadn't been able to protect her when she'd needed it the most. None of them had, and now she was in a fucking coma.

Don't think like that – focus on the positive.

“I like that you say that, you know,” he suddenly blurted out after a long silence. Zoey raised her eyebrows.

“Say what?”

“Gone. You always say 'while Adele's away' or 'while she's gone' – it's nice. The doctors and Charlie, sometimes I feel like they think she's already dead. She's not dead, she's ...” he ran out of words.

“She's gone away. She'll be back, River. She just needs some time,” Zoey assured him. He nodded and picked at the label on his beer bottle.

“Yeah. Hopefully not too much more, though. We don't work so well without her,” he chuckled. Zoey stunned him by reaching over and rubbing the back of his hand. A shocking gesture from a person like her.

It's a miracle. Now just make Adele have one, and I'll be really impressed.

“She'll be back in the blink of an eye,” Zoey said with a firm nod. “Just you wait and see.”





7




Adele blinked her eye rapidly, then held up her hand to block the sun.

Everything was bigger here, she'd noticed. Or her vision was clearer, she hadn't quite figured it out. Either way, the sun was always glaringly bright – it was too much to keep her eyes open for any length of time.

“Really? Here?”

Adele glanced to her left. Jones was laying down next to her, but he had his eyes closed. She turned away and closed hers, as well.

“It's as good as anywhere else.”

They were in the middle of an ocean. At least, she assumed it was an ocean. It was a large body of water with no end in sight. Just blue in every single direction, as far as the horizon.

She'd been scared at first, when she'd woken up floating in the middle of nowhere. But then she'd realized she wasn't in the water – she was on top of it. Her body was resting on the liquid as if it were a water bed. She moved along with the gentle waves, but never slipped under or got wet. The sun was warm, making everything feel peaceful and happy, so she'd decided to just stay laying down and enjoy the moment.

As usual, though, Jones hadn't been too far behind. He always popped up not long after she opened her eyes. Like a guardian angel always hovering nearby. Adele didn't mind. She liked knowing he was taking care of her, and the more time that passed in this strange place, the more she liked him. The more she felt like they'd always been meant to meet in this ... this ...

This oasis of eternity, that's where we are. That's why there's no time. That's why we've been here for only a few hours, and also forever.

“Jones,” she said after a bit. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“Huh?” he sounded caught off guard.

Even after all the talking they'd done, enough to fill days and weeks and months and years, lifetimes, she still didn't know a whole lot about him. She asked questions all the time, but usually about where they were, how she'd gotten there, or how she could get home.

She never got any real answers, though, so she'd decided to try a different tactic this time. Maybe she could learn something about him and how he'd gotten there, and it could teach her how to get out.

“Siblings. A brother, some sisters, got anything like that?” she tried again.

There was a long pause.

“I had a sister. You're lucky, all those brothers,” he sighed.