While I Was Away(26)

“See you later, Ocean.”

“Bye, Zoey.”

Ocean headed back towards the house. He was just starting to jog up the porch steps when he heard a sharp whistle from behind him. When he looked back, Zoey was waving.

“Hey, Ocean!”

“What?”

“It was a really good kiss!”

He laughed and didn't stop till she was in her car and driving away.





12




“... it really was a good kiss,” Zoey sighed as she leaned over Adele, brushing her hair carefully. “Pity he's got a jumbo sized flag pole shoved up his ass. Why's he so grumpy, Adele? What happened to him?”

Of course, Adele didn't answer. Though really, it wasn't much of a change – she'd always been pretty tight lipped about her oldest brother. The other two she'd talked about a lot, but it had been obvious her relationship with Ocean was special.

So Ocean had always been sort of an enigma. The lead Reins sibling, the eldest. Hard working and career oriented, he hadn't visited often, and even when he had, he'd almost never spoken to Zoey. She'd never paid much attention to him, either. He'd just been some guy, just her best friend's solemn older brother.

But now, though ...

“So tell me, Adele. When was Ocean's last girlfriend?” she mumbled, moving around the bed to brush out the rest of Adele's hair.

Zoey was guessing it had been a long time. He'd kissed her like he'd wanted to suck the oxygen out of her lungs. Like he'd been practicing on an air hose, and it had paid off – she was still a little breathless. And his hands, pushing and scratching. Arms tight around her.

She usually intimidated men. Not that she set out to, but it just wasn't in her nature to be sweet and demure. Or even particularly nice. So it was kind of a novel experience to be with a man who didn't seem like he was afraid of her.

Noooo, I bet there isn't much Detective Reins is afraid of.

“Tell me I'm being stupid,” she whispered, finally dropping into a chair next to the bed. She put aside the brush and crossed her arms on top of the mattress. “Explain to me that a good kiss is nothing more than nerve endings and endorphins. Remind me that your brother has no interest in anything outside of his job.”

Zoey stared at her friend. Could imagine her responses. Adele was a romantic. She believed in fairy tales and happy endings, and she only ever wanted the absolute best for everyone around her.

And she would tell Zoey she wasn't being stupid at all, and then she'd explain to her that all the best stories started out with a good kiss, and to cap it all off, she'd remind her that maybe, just maybe, it was high time her brother found something better than his job to take an interest in.

“Awful, Adele Reins,” Zoey chuckled. “You give awful advice. Even when you're sleeping.”

“She's not sleeping.”

Startled, Zoey jerked upright. One of Adele's regular nurses, Nurse Lund, was striding into the room.

“I'm sorry ... what?” Zoey was caught off guard.

“There's a big difference between being in a coma and being asleep. If she was just sleeping, we could pinch her, or yell her name, and she'd wake up. She'd have normal wake cycles,” the nurse explained while at the same time looking over Adele's chart, checking numbers against all the machines in the room.

“Wake cycles, huh. So where she is ... she can't dream? She's just in blackness?” Zoey asked, staring down at her friend.

“I wouldn't say that. I've been working with Adele for a while now, and I can tell she's special. There's definitely something going on in that brain of hers. I'm very excited to meet her.”

Zoey laughed, but when she lifted her head, the nurse was already walking out of the room.

“Even unconscious,” she sighed. “Even in a frickin' coma, you still have an easier time making friends than I do. Grossly unfair, Adele.”





13




Days.

Or an eternity.

Since Adele had no sense of time, she couldn't be sure how long Jones was gone for; it certainly felt like forever. And no amount of crying brought him back this time.

Without him, she became hyper aware of just how strange her life had become; it was even a little scary. Old Town seemed darker. The endless ocean intimidating. And the field – she couldn't get back to their poppy field. No matter how many times she tried, no matter how vividly she tried to picture it, she couldn't quite get it right in her mind's eye. All she could see was that huge magnolia tree, with its dozens of pink blossoms and its roots reaching for the ground.

More than ever, she became convinced she must be dead. She spent hours and hours wandering around her parents' house. Going through drawers, flipping through scrapbooks. It got so she was scared to go out the front door. She didn't want to brave the fog alone. She also stayed away from the edge of the stairs, scared to fall. If she couldn't see Jones, she didn't want to go anywhere.

So she spent a lifetime in that house. Multiple lifetimes. She screamed sometimes, cried others. Or huddled in a corner and laughed at herself.

I'm dead, and I'm going crazy. Man, heaven is not what it was cracked up to be.

She slept a lot. Or at least, Adele thought she slept. She never dreamed anymore. She'd curl up in her parents' bed, hugging her mom's favorite robe. Then she'd wake up in her own bed. Lay down on the couch in the living room, then open her eyes and find herself staring at the ceiling in her room. It finally got so she just never left her room. She had no idea how much time passed between eyes closing and eyes opening, and she began to not even care.