At First Sight

Chapter Nine

He’d gone home and relayed the story to Keaton and Wes who both agreed it was a crazy tale for Drew’s back pocket. When Drew tried to apologize for missing Wes’s big plan,  Wes shook his head in disbelief and told him not to be ridiculous. That he was grateful nothing worse had happened.

The entire experience kept Drew awake at night, rerunning itself in his head like a terrible TV show. The thought of what could have happened; chilled him, haunting every waking thought. If anything, it gave him a greater appreciation for life than the one he already possessed and made him realize that if something was important to him, he needed to act on it.

She was important, so there he was, standing outside the doors to her hospital room, gift bag in hand.

“Want me to go in with you?” Wes offered.

Drew shook his head. “Nah, s’okay.”

“I’ll be across the street getting something to eat,” Wes said, pointing to a diner.

“I won’t be too long.”

Copeland was laid up in bed, her leg slung upwards in some barbaric looking contraption.

As she saw him enter the room, a smile played across her lips. “I always hoped a handsome stranger would come to see me.”

Drew stuck his thumb behind him with a sly grin. “You want me to go and find that guy?”

She looked him up and down, giving him the smile he couldn’t erase from his mind. “No, you’ll do just fine.”

Drew visited her every day. She saw him more often than her own parents. Sure, he lived closer to here than the lodge was but still, it’s not like their hotel was a million miles away. Didn’t matter though. The person she wanted to see the most stood in front of her.

She gestured to the bag in his hands. “What’s that?”

He gave a non-committal shrug. “It is a bag.”

“Ha ha,” she said. “What’s in the bag? Is it a present?”

“Maybe,” he said.

“For me?”

“Possibly.”

She pressed her lips together. “So what do I need to do to get it?”

He slid one of the bedside chairs out far enough to get a good look at her before sitting down next to her. “Tell you what, I will ask a question and you answer. If you give good answers, you’ll get good presents.”

She clasped her hands underneath her chin. “I love this game! I love presents,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm. “Although you being here is enough, the fact that you come bearing gifts is heart-warming.”  

He smiled.

“What is the first question?”

“First question,” he said. “Do you have any news about when you’ll be free? Like specifically?”

“Next Wednesday,” she said, “but I have to take crutches home so I’m technically not free. No tai chi for me.”

“No doubt.” Drew reached into the bag and handed her a piece of paper.

She took it, flipping it over to examine it. It was a one-way ticket for travel anywhere in North America good for a full year from today’s date.

“I want you to stay here with me. We can do anything you want to do. That,” he nodded to the ticket, “is for your piece of mind that you can leave whenever you want and nothing, least of all me, will hold you back.”