Coffee and Cockpits (31 page)

Nina turned to me. “You’re joking. You can’t be serious.”

I approached her slowly. “I’m deadly serious.”

She shook her head. “Well, let’s think logically for a moment. “I can’t quit. I have about four years left before I have enough money to finish my exams. I doubt you want to wait that long.”

I took her arms in my hands, rubbing her—she had goosebumps. “I’d be willing to wait, but I don’t have to. You can quit Kiwi Air. I’ll pay for you to finish your commercial license.”

She looked at me as if I were crazy. “I’m not going to let you pay for my license. Are you nuts? That’s like fifty grand!”

I laughed at her fierceness. “It would be a company expenditure. I can claim it back. It’s not that big of a deal.” But the way her pupils dilated and her skin grew clammy, it was a big deal. Nervousness filled me. I knew I shouldn’t have told her. It was too soon. Fuck.

“It
is
that big of a deal. Crap, Liam. It’s
huge
. You’re asking me to run a business with you. You’ll pay for my license. You want me to move across the
world
with you?”

Her chest rose and fell fast, and I struggled not to crush her to me, to stem her doubts with physical intimacy. If she even let me touch her again, of course. Shit, I ruined everything. 

“I don’t know how to process this. We barely know each other. I’m falling for you. Hard. But we need time.
I
need more time!” She lost it, running hands through her hair, looking at me frantic.

I held up my hands. “I’m sorry.” My heart deflated into a useless sack of hopelessness. It was over. I’d taken our unbelievable tryst in Samoa and made her fear it. “I shouldn’t have told you.” This was what I was afraid of. People thinking I was a moron for wanting something different than the white picket fence and a mortgage. I wanted island living permanently. I wanted what we’d had the last week. Forever.

Nina’s blue eyes blazed in the dark. “I need to go. I need to think.”

“No wait.” I captured her, holding as she struggled. “You’re right. It is too soon. I’m sorry for bringing it up. Can we just forget I said anything?”

Her eyelashes fluttered as she breathed hard. Her hand whipped to her neck, pain etching her face. “Let me go, Liam. I need some space.”

I refused to obey. If I let her go she might not let me capture her again. “Look it’s just a dream okay? A crazy adolescent dream. It doesn’t mean anything. I’m sorry if I rushed you.”

Nina shuddered in my arms, her eyes snapping closed as she sucked in a gust of air. “I’m not feeling so good.” Her face paled as white as the sand, and she moaned as her spine arched in my grip.

Oh my God, what the hell was happening? Had I frightened her so much she’d gone into a seizure? My hands tingled where they held her. “
Nina?!
Are you alright?”

Her legs buckled and if I hadn’t of been holding her, she’d have folded to the ground. Heart thundering, I lowered her weight to rest on the soft beach. My eyes scanned the night horizon, hoping to see shadows of holidaymakers. Nothing. We were all alone and I had no clue what was wrong with her.

Nina clasped two hands to her neck, crying out.

My heart bucked, hating her being in pain. What could I do? We weren’t far from the hotel, but I didn’t want to leave her alone. Perhaps I could carry her? But if it were spine related, I might make her worse by moving her.
Shit!
Please let her be okay!

Brushing hair from her eyes with shaky fingers, I asked, “Hush, I’m here. What hurts? Tell me how to help.” I hoped my voice was calm and collected, not betraying my panic.

She flinched, jerking into a ball. Her face screwed up in agony as her legs twitched. Tears leaked from her eyes. “It hurts. Oh God, it hurts. Make it stop.”

Oh fuck, what should I do?

Her body bucked again under my touch—hard, electric, breaking my hold on her. It was as if someone behind the scenes jerked her around like a puppet.

She called my name, her lip bleeding where she’d bitten it.

I stood and paced around her, trying to recall some sort of medical training. Her twisting figure covered in sand granules caused a gushing headache to slam into me. Concern for her setting fire to my old injuries from the crash. My shoulders ached, and my solar plexus griped as if someone punched me.

I doubled over, gripping my temple, crashing to my knees beside Nina. The waves roared like a tsunami and the entire beach faded to white, before shadows of the night reclaimed it.

Blinking past the fog of agony, I focused on her. I had to do something. Anything. Did something bite her? Was it an allergic reaction?

 Unable to stand seeing her in so much pain, I crawled over, battling my own issues and pulling her into my lap.

Her eyes connected with mine. “Something isn’t righ—” Her lips spread wide as a mind-bending scream erupted from her.

“Nina!” A wave of terror crippled me as her back arched inhumanly in my arms. Static electricity flowed between us, sending hair follicles into a standstill.

My own body twitched and I dropped her. The beach once again warped and bent, sending my eyesight stuttering, not able to focus on anything.

I reached for her sprawled form on the sand. “Nina!”

Another slam of migraine hit me and I cried out, dragging myself upright to look into her eyes. She’d be okay and whatever happened to us would leave. It was just some weird occurrence, we’d be fine. Even as I said it, I didn’t believe it.

I reached out and tilted her jaw to see her eyes.

My heart stopped. My life stopped.

It was too late.

Her eyes were lifeless.

Gone.

H
eavy pressure on my ribcage.

Arcing power tearing through my limbs.

Pain.

Unbearable pain in every part of me.

The soft hiss of waves on sand, and the warmth of Liam’s arms, were shattered as life ended. I was sucked into a black hole of oblivion.

But the pain didn’t end. If anything, it got worse. Swirling, soaring, nausea.

Then, sounds ringing in my ears: beeping, shouting, chaos. Everything around me was topsy-turvy.

My body was different. Weighted, weak as an undernourished skeleton.

Tears sprung to my eyes as another pain pierced my ribs with the pressure of a tyre iron. I tried to open my eyes, but my lids stayed glued together. The taste of Liam’s frantic kisses, and dream confession were decimated and replaced with a sharp antiseptic tang.

What the hell is happening
?

My heart that stopped beating on the beach, galloped into action as I jolted into the air, tingles of fireworks and electricity zinging in my blood.

“Clear!”

The whizzing and heat came again.

I screamed.

“She’s back. Give her more oxygen.” The voice was disembodied as I finally unstuck my eyelids and blinked. Nothing made sense.

Where was the dark evening? The twinkling stars that looked as if Christmas tinsel littered the velvet sky? Where was the gentle rolling waves and sugar soft sand?

Where was Liam?

Stark whiteness blinded me, stealing any sense of location or recognition. I tried to speak, but something obstructed my airway.

A human shaped blob appeared in my face, while hands pressed on my shoulders. “Don’t struggle. You’re in Malietoa Tanumafili Hospital. There is a breathing tube down your throat so don’t try to talk until we’ve unhooked you. Nod if you understand.”

The female voice was professional and calm. It helped soothe my pending panic attack. I nodded, hating how such a little movement felt as if an elephant sat on my forehead.

A door clattered open and a voice rose in a frenzy. “Is she awake? Are they both awake?”

I recognised that voice, but names eluded me—dancing out of reach, hiding in the inkiness of recollection.

“Leave please. We’ll come find you when she’s more lucid.”

I tried to call out, to ask the person I knew to stay. To help me understand what the hell was going on, but nothing worked. My body was not my own. Gone was the ability to move and summon muscles to obey. I was a corpse with aches and bruises and a lacerating pain that started in my neck and travelled the length of my spine.

Oh God. Can I use my legs?

I tried to wiggle my toes, but nothing responded. All that happened was a slight twinge and sweat beaded my brow. Tears squeezed from my useless eyes and tickled my cheek. Please don’t let me be paralyzed.
What’s happened to me?

Liam! I needed Liam. All memories of the panic that things were moving too quickly were gone. With him all my worries faded into nothingness. I didn’t care if he wanted to rush things. It wasn’t rushing if it was right. We were given Samoa to show how amazing we fit together. Our souls knew, even if my mind said it happened too fast. But where the hell was he? My brain short-fired, unable to connect the dots.

Shuffling sounded to my left, and a masculine groan reverberated around the sterile room.

My heart lurched in knowing.

Liam!

I struggled against the weight and foreignness of my body, managing to blink away the blindness. Slowly, like an old TV powering up, images returned.

My arms pinged with awareness as I raised the useless lumps of meat to clumsily claw at the thing in my throat.

Someone stopped me. “No. Be patient. I’ll get it out for you.” The human shaped blob morphed into a pretty elderly Samoan woman with her hair plaited, hanging over her shoulder. She wore white scrubs and a concerned look in her eyes.

I nodded, wide-eyed, as she shuffled closer and pressed a button above my head. “You ready? On the count of three, I’ll remove the tube.”

I breathed deep, fighting the urge to cough.

“One. Two. Three.” The nurse grasped the tube and pulled. The slimy, alien thing in my throat made me gag as it left my body. Nothing came up and my ribs bellowed in agony.

The nurse patted my cheek. “I’ll explain everything to you in a moment. Right now we need to focus on another patient. Okay?”

Did she mean Liam?

The masculine groan came again as chaos and rushing figures swirled the air around me. Yes, she meant Liam. My heart knew. Something happened on the beach. I didn’t know what, but we were both here. Hurt. In hospital. Did an earthquake happen? Did we perhaps have dinner after all and contracted really bad food poisoning? 

Tremors wracked my body at the seriousness of her voice. What was wrong with Liam? Unable to do much else, I nodded and turned my head to follow her.

She didn’t go far. Skirting me, she stopped in the foot or so distance between another hospital bed. On it laid a pale Liam. His skin was ashen and a bandage swathed his head.

My heart erupted, galloping with stress and fear.

Two doctors worked over him. One pumped his chest preforming CPR, while another charged the paddles that undoubtedly been used on me. The memory of hot electricity waking my cells was too vibrant to forget.

I winced as they pressed the paddles against Liam’s naked chest, calling, “Clear”.

Air molecules whizzed as they sent a bolt of power into Liam. He soared off the bed. The frame groaned and creaked as he crashed back down. The heart rate monitor beeped erratically, then flat lined.

No! He couldn’t be dead. What was he doing here? What was
I
doing here?

I refused to lose him so soon after finding him. Who cared if he rushed me? He wanted me forever. What was so wrong with that? He was me. I was him. If he died, I would too.

I lunged for him; my bed shuddered as I rolled to the side. Nobody noticed me as I lunged again, lugging my useless frame closer.
Come on, work damn useless body!

Not caring I could barely move and I had no plan apart from reaching for him, I jerked again and fell off my bed. I clattered to the floor, wincing as the I.V in my hand ripped out, sending blood to well in its place. Time froze as I stared at the back of my hand. The location was the
exact
spot where I thought an insect bit me on the way to dinner. What did that
mean?