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Unconscious but stable.
“That helps my mind a bit,” she said as she retook Lorenzo’s hand in hers. “To know that you’re stable. I suppose I won’t have a problem leaving when visiting hours are up, but Ren...I’d really love to see those beautiful eyes of yours. Yeah, I said it. They’re beautiful. And I miss the way they used to look at me.”
Judith had indicated that Katrina had been so wrapped up in Lorenzo that she couldn’t see anything past him.
Past them.
Was it the truth? Had there been signs all along that he was going to leave? And what caused it?
Why would he leave less than 24 hours after making love with her for the very first time?
“Did you know,” she began as she caressed his hand, “that I’d wished that I had been pregnant? Just to have a part of you with me always. But we’d been so careful that I knew it wouldn’t happen.” Her sigh was soft. “Oh, but what a comfort that would have been. Losing you devastated me. Seeing you like this devastates me. But Martin said you were starting to show signs of waking up. I want mine to be the first face you see. And maybe you can tell me everything. Maybe you’ll think that I deserve the truth.”
She noticed his intake of breath and she sat up straighter. “That’s it, Ren. Come back to me.”
Then she paused.
What if he hadn’t been on Willow Creek Road to find her?
What if he’d had no intentions of seeing her at all?
No, she couldn’t think about that right now. All that mattered was he was there, right in front of her, and that she was holding his hand the way she’d longed to for years.
Even when she’d been with Timothy.
She could admit it in that moment.
She’d always longed for Ren, for his touch, for his voice.
“You know,” she continued on, “we could always start over. We could...we could be friends, just like we were before.”
Before.
But she could never forget the day it all changed.
***
Katrina peered outher window as the sounds of pebbles hitting it echoed in her otherwise silent room. Lorenzo was there, the occasional flash of heat lightning showing him in her yard below her bedroom window, which she opened.
“What are you doing here?” she called out to him as quietly as she could.
“I needed to see you.”
“Let me see if—”
“Not Justin.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. Normally when he did this, she would round up Justin and they’d sneak out her window, easily climbing down the tree. This night she made the trek alone, and when she reached the bottom, she was shocked to see the stricken look on his face, to see the tears swimming in his eyes.
“Ren—”
“Can we take a walk? Or... or a run? Yeah, a run.”
“This late?”
“Trina, please.”
“Okay,” she replied softly. “A run it is. In my pajamas, no less.” She looked down at her sleep set, its shorts needing adjusting from her climb down the tree. She was in the perfect shoes for running, though.
