If her morning was any indication, Shannon Paige’s day was shaping up to be hectic. Filled with ill-tempered vendors, conference calls, and endless buyer meetings, she doubted she’d even have time for a soda and pack of crackers for lunch. A headache loomed. She tossed two pain killers in her mouth and washed them down with water from the fountain outside her twelfth floor office before taking a short break to check her messages and emails.
Her cell phone rang as her assistance buzzed her office, announcing her noon meeting with a teen apparel vendor from Los Angeles.
“Shannon Paige,” she greeted in her usual business tone, not recognizing the out-of-area number on the caller ID.
“Shannon.” A man’s voice came clear and full of authority. “This is Jon…Sutton, from Awenasa.”
Her heart stopped at the name.
“I’m sorry to have to call you, but there’s been an accident,” he continued.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her grandmother May’s worn, sun-drenched face came to mind.
“An accident? Is Grandma May alright? What happened? How is she?” The questions came fast and flooded her head with panic.
And for him to call, why him and not the doctor, or hospital, or… oh my God
  “Jon!” she shouted. “Is May…?” The rest she couldn’t bear to say aloud.
“She’s alive,” he answered with haste. “She’s at Memorial Hospital in Charleston in the ICU—” He paused. “But, Shannon, there’s more.”
How could there be? Her grandmother, the only family she had left was lying in a hospital some six hundred miles away—she couldn’t handle more.
“What is it, Jon?” She braced herself for the worst.
She heard him take in a shallow breath, then clear his throat. “She’s in a coma.”

* * * *

Like a robot programmed to complete a task, Shannon moved through her day. She boarded a plane to Charlotte, then a smaller puddle-jumper into Charleston. From there, a taxi took her the rest of the way to the hospital in silence.
A short, rather stout social worker greeted her at the nurse’s station when she asked for May Quinn. The woman rambled on, but Shannon tuned her out, instead focusing her attention on the passing room numbers as they walked. Nothing mattered until she could see May, alive and breathing.
At her Grandmother’s room, the heart monitor beeped in rhythm, giving Shannon an eerie sense of comfort. The stark white hospital room smelled of disinfectant and urine, burning her nose as she stood over her grandmother’s bed. The woman who had raised her for most of her life appeared small and frail surrounded by bed rails and machines. Her face looked almost translucent, letting the blue blood running through each vein show. Tubes ran to her mouth and nose to supply oxygen and one from her wrist for medication. Shannon checked the ribbon of paper expelling from the machine, the only tangible evidence her grandmother still lived.
The night nurse, Natalie, returned to the room and checked the levels of the IV bag sometime later, though Shannon couldn’t be sure how long. The minutes seemed to tick away into countless hours of worry.
“You’re not doing her any good just sitting here,” Natalie said with a sympathetic smile while thumping at an air bubble in the bag.
“I don’t have anywhere else to be.” Shannon waited for her to finish before taking her grandmother’s hand in hers again. “Is it true she can hear me?”
“Medically speaking, no one knows.” Natalie charted something on the clipboard then cast a genuine smile down to where Shannon sat. “But if you ask me, I think it’s worth a try. Can’t hurt, can it?”
“At this point, I’m willing to do anything.” Shannon tried to return the smile but her mouth felt heavy and unyielding.
“Let me know if it works.” Natalie slipped the metal covered chart back onto the foot of the bed before facing Shannon again. “If you know any of her favorite songs, I hear that sometimes helps.”
“Thanks.” Shannon looked up at the nurse then retuned her attention to her grandmother.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Natalie stopped short of the door leading to the hall. “You have a visitor waiting at the nurse’s station―the officer who rode in with your grandmother.” Natalie’s eyes widened as she looked out to the hall then back in the room. “They say he saved her life. He wants to talk to you when you’re up to it.”
Shannon dropped her shoulders. She knew she’d have to face Jon sooner or later. Not exactly the reunion she had planned, but still she did at least owe him a thank you. He had saved May’s life.
“Would you mind telling him I’ll call him in the morning?” she asked, hoping a phone call would be enough thanks. He was, after all, just doing his job.
Natalie held the door open with one foot still in the room. “Forgive me for intruding, but he’s been here for hours waiting for you. I hate to just send him away.”
Shannon crossed her arms over her chest. Why did everyone always see Jon as such a hero? Did they not get that he only came to the rescue because he got a thrill out of being in control? Bet he had the whole town of Awenasa bowing down to him by now.
“He’ll understand.” She eyed the nurse, whose sweet smile faded as she drummed her acrylic nails on the door held tightly between her hands.
“I’ll tell him. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.” Natalie let the door close and the room fell silent.
Several minutes later, Shannon heard the door to the small room open again. The doctors usually made such a commotion when they entered she thought they’d rouse her grandmother from the coma. But this uninvited guest came in quiet and on guard. She felt the expanse between them close in. Not able to move, she held onto her grandmother’s hand as if it were the only thing keeping her from falling apart.
“How are you holding up, Shannon?” Jon Sutton closed the gap between them slowly.
Wearing his dark blue police uniform, he looked official, like he fit right into the décor of the hospital. His short cut brown hair left no hint of the curls he had favored as a teen. His once burning chocolate eyes had cooled to the color of caramel, showing a maturity she wished she could find comfort in.
“The nurse said you didn’t want any visitors just yet, but I thought that might exclude an old friend like me.” His velvet voice came smooth and soft.
Shannon didn’t move from her suspended state in the chair. As usual, he hadn’t listened, didn’t care what her request had been. He knew what was best, and no one could tell him different. She offered no greeting—he didn’t deserve it. Instead, she went straight to the mounting questions building in her head.
“Are you the one who brought her in?”
“I am. I heard the nine-one-one call on the radio,” he answered, still standing a distance away from her. At least he had the wherewithal to give her space.
“How’d it happen?” She laid her grandmother’s hand down on the bed then steeled herself for his answer.
“No one knows for sure. Her housekeeper found her on the floor of the kitchen surrounded by a broken jelly jar. We’re guessing she slipped from a near-by stool.” He stopped, as if giving her a chance to prepare. “She hit the back of her head on the counter, then again when she hit the floor.”
Shannon gritted her teeth, trying to hold back the breaching tears. “Did the housekeeper say where she had been?”
“The store, I think.” Jon kept his distance. “She called the second she found May…your grandmother.”
Shannon cringed and Jon closed the space between them. He stepped between her and the bed, casting solemn brown eyes on her face.
“I’m sorry, Shannon,” he offered.
Shannon looked past him, to the wide linoleum tiles on the floor. “No, please go on. I want to know everything.”
“There’s no more. The paramedics found her unresponsive. She hasn’t changed.” He reached a hand to her shoulder.
Shannon grabbed it, and then spun up from her chair to face him. “Don’t touch me.” Lowering her brow, she allowed a tinge of hostility in her words.
Jon flipped his wrist over, landing her hand into his. “Don’t do this, Shannon,” he demanded, his voice turning cold.
“Do what?” she snapped.
“Turn away from help. I want to help you.” His hand held hers.
Guilt and fear took hold. The impending tear crested, and with it the reserve she had fought to keep.
“I wasn’t there,” she sobbed. “I told her I would never leave her, and I wasn’t there.” Shannon swung her arm in the air, pulling her hand free from his. “She told me she was having dizzy spells. I thought it was the new blood pressure medication. I should have never left her alone. I should have been there.” Burying her face in her hands, she struggled to control her shaking body.
She wouldn’t let him see her like this. Trying to control the sobs racking her body, she sank back into the chair by the bed.
Jon fell silent, as if letting the tension drain from the room.
“Shannon.” He finally spoke after her body calmed. “You need to get some sleep. Let me take you to a hotel here in Charleston, or even your grandmother’s house in Awenasa.”
Not willing to cooperate with his hero act, she remained silent.
“There’s a chair in the corner,” he tried again. “You can sleep there. Natalie’s a great nurse―she’ll wake you if anything happens.” He placed a hand on each of her slumped shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “You need rest.”
His pleading voice tugged at Shannon’s reserve.
Rubbing the middle of her forehead with her fingers, she wanted to surrender. The last twelve hours of rushing adrenaline had taken their toll. She wouldn’t be able to fight off the need to lay down―to melt into something more comfortable than the wooden chair by the hospital bed. It would be so easy to just give in and let him take over. But that wasn’t her anymore. She wasn’t the little girl he had known. She was a woman, a successful business woman who knew how to handle a stressful situation without the help of a man. She wouldn’t give in that easily.