Amy’s ashes.
Lake Tahoe had been her favorite place on earth. Levi had been her favorite person on earth, going as far back as middle school, when they’d crashed into each other on the monkey bars and cracked heads.
She liked to say he’d knocked himself right into her soul, that there would never be another for her. She’d known that from age twelve. He’d never fully understood it.
Or appreciated it.
Guilt washed over him in tune to the water hitting the sand. Except . . . hold up. The sound was shifting from gentle waves to an obnoxious beep, beep, beep . . .
“Levi? How we doing?”
He didn’t recognize the voice, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to open his eyes, because suddenly something was hammering away at the base of his skull. A sledgehammer. He actually lifted his hands to his head to hold it on his shoulders and felt the tug of an IV.
Damn. That, along with the scent of antiseptic, was a dead giveaway.
He cracked his eyes open and immediately regretted it because the pain behind his eyeballs exploded. “Jesus,” he gasped.
“Take your time. Slow breaths or you’ll get sick.”
No kidding. The urge to throw up was suddenly his number one problem. He drew in a very slow, shallow breath. And then another, not moving a single inch until the nausea retreated slightly.
“Good.”
He fought his eyes open again. Given the slant of light coming in the window on his left, it was midmorning. On his right stood a nurse, checking his vitals.
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Of course you are.” She smiled at him. “If not just a little roughed up. And welcome back.”
“Wait.” His brain felt scrambled. “Jane.” He had to clear his rough throat, the sound causing more stabbing pain behind his eyeballs. “Where’s Jane?”
His nurse moved closer, adjusting his IV line before patting his hand. Her name tag said Daisy. Her warm, caring eyes said her regret was genuine. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t here when you were brought in. Is she a relative? Your wife?”
He struggled to think, to remember, but his entire head felt constricted, like his skull was too tight. “I just need to know if she’s okay.”
At the look on his face, Daisy took sympathy on him. “All right, hon, I’ll ask around. What’s her last name?”
He opened his mouth and then had to close it again because he didn’t know her last name.
“Okay, so not a relative, and definitely not your wife,” Daisy said dryly. “Hang tight. I’ll get your doctor.”
Levi lay back and stared up at the ceiling. The night was a blur, a jumble of snapshots he couldn’t seem to put in the right order. Frustrated, he started to push up from the bed, and immediately his world started spinning.
Beep, beep, beep . . .
“Whoa,” Daisy said, back at his side, gently pushing him to lay down. “You’re not quite ready for prime time yet.” She took his vitals, made notes, and smiled at him. “Hang tight, your doctor will be here any second.”
The next sound he heard was the curtain rings sliding on the metal rod, reminding him of another metal sound. From last night, when the gondola had tipped and the steel rod had slid out of its holder and . . .
Hit him in the head.
Suddenly the images in his head shifted and fell into order. Leaving San Francisco for the drive up the mountain to Lake Tahoe, his childhood home. And then after an hour with his parents, a familiar sense of restlessness had come over him, and needing to clear his head, he’d gone to North Diamond. Getting on the gondola, he’d felt his first sense of excitement in a long time, looking forward to the rush he always got from skiing.
Then Jane. Flirting with her. Irritating her . . . All while the storm increased with shocking speed, battering the gondola and rocking them like a ship at stormy sea.
Then the gondola ahead of them had gone down. Jane’s soft gasp of horror, and his own oh-shit feeling as their dangerous predicament hit him. They’d both known that at any minute they could fall to their certain death, and still Jane had remained calm. Not fearless. Nope, she’d definitely been afraid. Hell, they’d both been terrified. But she was good in an emergency, and damn, that had been attractive.
Lying on the floor of the swaying gondola, the storm beating them up from every angle. Jane sitting with his head in her lap, holding pressure to the cut on his head. Being with her had been quiet and peaceful . . . that is, if nearly dying could be quiet and peaceful.
He remembered the ambulance ride. Jane had been at his side, talking in medical jargon to the EMS team, and he also remembered thinking how hot that was. She’d been here in his room too, sitting in the chair in his cubicle. Someone had given her fresh scrubs and she’d stayed with him while his head was cleaned and stitched until he’d been taken away for X-rays and a scan of his head.
When he’d been brought back, she’d been gone. Which meant she had to be okay, right?
The doctor who appeared from behind the curtain wasn’t a stranger. Dr. Mateo Moreno wore scrubs and an opened white lab coat, his face dialed to eight hours past exhaustion. He’d been Amy’s brother, and once upon a time, also Levi’s best friend. It’d been a few years since they’d seen each other.
Levi’s fault.
Mateo stepped up to the side of the hospital bed. His eyes, once always filled with laughter, mischief, and the genuine affection that came from a lifetime of hanging out together, were hooded now. “How you feeling?” he asked in a doctor-to-patient voice.
“Good enough to go home.”
“Nice try.” Mateo paused, then sank into the chair with both weariness and wariness. “About time I run into you, even if it’s because you landed in my ER looking like death warmed over.”
“That bad, huh?”
Mateo shrugged. “You’ve looked worse. Like when we drove my dad’s truck up to the summit and did donuts on the ice and you fell out.”
Levi laughed, then groaned at the pain. “You mean when we stole your dad’s truck, and you did donuts on the ice until the passenger door opened and I was flung over the embankment?”
“Semantics.” But Mateo smiled, his real one this time. “It was fun until you had to make it about you.”
“Ha-ha.” But it had been fun, just one in a long string of fun times they’d shared. “We’re lucky we survived all the shit we got into.”
“True story. And speaking of surviving, you’re being held for observation because of the concussion and stitches, but you should be good as new in a couple of weeks with a lot of rest. Good thing your head’s so hard.”
Levi snorted, which caused a new stab of pain, but he sucked it up. “Good thing.”
Mateo nodded, eyes serious. “It’s been a minute.”
“Too many.” Levi had thought being in Sunrise Cove again, seeing Mateo, would hurt. Instead he just ached. Some from his injuries, but mostly from the loss of one of the best relationships he’d ever had. “I’m sorry.”
Ignoring this, Mateo stood and hit some keys on the computer. “I called your mom, told her you were going to be okay. I also told her visiting hours didn’t start until nine A.M., so you’re welcome and you owe me.” And then he started to go.