Page 50 of Sterling Stone

As Em and I stand at the back of the room, the sliding door open with flair, and a force of wild dark hair; beautiful, bronzed skin, and vivid color arrives wearing bright pink overalls covered in paint splatters.

She rushes to the bedside opposite Emory and stares down at her aunt.

When her cheeks drain of color, she turns her head and her silvery eyes collide with mine.

Taxi is back.

19

[Taxi]

When Judd’s number popped up on my phone, I almost ignored the call. It was early in the morning. I’d just finished a project, and I was looking forward to a long day of napping in Gloria. My van had seen more miles in the last year than I’d put on her in the past five.

Chasing, my mama would say. The next adventure when it was really about pursuing her latest man.

Running, Sedona would argue, like she was anymore planted than I was.

Working. I’d overused the excuse as a reason not to return to Sterling Falls and face my aunt.

Or him.

A man I’d been sending postcards to for almost a year but had no way to know if he received them. It was better this way, I’d told myself. Sending a note without a return address meant he couldn’t reject me by not responding. I hadn’t given him the choice.

Then again, I’d hinted at having an Instagram and I thought he’d DM me there.

He never did.

Let me show you who I am.

I hadn’t done it, and the words shouldn’t have been chasing me everywhere I went this past year.

Maybe I had been running, like Sedona said.

None of this should matter now. Not with Trudy lying in this bed, so frail looking, so drained of energy.

And yet, I’m seeing red at the proximity of that pretty little blonde standing so close to Stone.

Rich crimson that bleeds with an irrational amount of jealousy and anger when I have no right. I’d been the one to leave. I’ve been the one conducting one-sided communication. I walked away from him.

But had I? Had I really let him go?

Those thoughts were neither here nor there right now.

I force my gaze from the perfect-looking couple. Her, in a sharp, fitted, navy blue suit, and him in his dull brown uniform. The town mayor and the sheriff.

With my gaze firmly on my aunt, my vision blurs. Tears I rarely shed come from a collision of emotions. The initial shock. The rush to get here. The exhaustion. And now this, Stone and Emerson again.

I blink back the clouds in my eyes despite it all being too much.

My focus and priority need to be in one direction. The woman in front of me. A strong, robust female who suddenly looks so helpless, attached to tubes and monitors.

A massive heart attack.

How did this happen? Her heart is too big, too strong, too full of love. There is no way it attacked itself. Trudy Wallace would not have allowed it.

Uncle Carlton had a heart attack as well, and Trudy made a sad joke after his funeral.

“We’re just heart people. Some people suffer strokes. Some deal with cancer. We’re destined for heart trouble.”