“And, Connor, the next time you have the impulse to undo all my hard work with Nathan?” Henry said, starting after the boy and his mother. “Don’t.”
“No promises. But I think ye’ll find that Nathan learned a fine lesson on this tree.”
“Oh yeah? Exactly what did you tell him just then with that look?”
“That he’d do well to listen to his better angels. That would be you.”
Henry laughed, spread his wings and bowed like a courtier, then disappeared down the trail after the boy.
Emma slipped her fingers in between Connor’s, then smiled up at him. “Thank you. Lannie would have been lost if anything had happened to him.”
He tightened his fingers around hers. “He’s a good boy with a long life ahead of him. He’ll be fine.”
“And yet his guardian won’t protect him and can’t make him listen.”
“Dinna think that Henry isna watchin’ out for him. He is. ’Tis the bigger picture ye canna see. My interferin’ likely would’a cost Nathan precious time had he not heard my intent.”
“And did he? Hear you?”
“Oh, aye. He heard. Smart lad.”
He perplexed her, almost as much as this whole situation she was in did. “Why did you act like you didn’t care?”
He seemed surprised by that. “Ye dinna know me, Emma.”
“You’re right. I don’t. But…what if I said I…I wanted to?”
Her words hung in the air between them. The look he gave her made her wish she could take it back. But she could still almost feel his kiss on her lips as his gaze fell to her mouth.
“Not how this works,” he said a little too sharply, dismissing her question and tugging her along behind him across the grassy field.
In the next instant they were back at the hospital, hurrying down a corridor full of people.
“Howdoesthis work? All of this?” she asked, hurrying to keep up with his long-legged strides as she avoided gurneys in the hallway. “And why are we paired up here in the in-between? Can you answer me that? I mean, I could have gotten someone…anyone else. Henry or…or anyone. But no. I got you. And you’re stuck here with me. Why?”
His jaw went ridged again. “I was assigned—”
“I know. But why?” She wasn’t sure why she needed to know this, but suddenly, it seemed important.
He turned back to her. “What does it matter? It just is.”
“It matters to me.”
“Dinna think too hard on it, Emma. ’Tis a temporary thing, and sooner or later, it will be over and done. If it means I can let ye go once and for all, then it’s all for the good.”
“Ah,” she said quietly, feeling his words with unexpected sharpness. “I wonder how that works, though? Since I’m not her, there’s nothing I can do to change your past with her.”
The answer to that question seemed as far away as she did right now from the life she’d lived only two days ago. The one where she’d been so caught up trying to fix everyone else’s life she’d forgotten about her own.
Connor let go of her hand as they reached her ICU room. The glass doors were closed, but to Emma and Connor, they were no barrier. There were nurses and doctors scurrying around between rooms. It wasn’t until they were inside hers that Emma gasped at the sight of her empty bed. The sheets were turned down, all the machines were unhooked and silent.
That other Emma was…gone.
“Oh my…” She felt like she might faint. “Am I dead?”
*
Aubrey and Jacobhad stopped at the impound lot to search Emma’s wrecked car, unsuccessfully, for her necklace before heading to the police station to speak to the detective in charge of Emma’s case.
