August Unknown (3 page)

“So she’s not in a coma,” Geoffrey said over a sigh of relief.

“No, nothing quite so serious. There was nothing in the CT to
cause concern.”

Dr. Carlson set Jocelyn down. They stepped out of the elevator
and he gestured to the first room with his clipboard. “She’s right in there,
first bed.” He set off in the other direction. “Come and see me before you
leave so I can take a closer look at that pretty little nose.”

Nervous tension coiled in his belly as Geoffrey looked at the
open doorway. If they’d let her sleep, she couldn’t be hurt too badly, could
she? He didn’t think people were allowed to sleep if they had a serious head
injury.

Jocelyn took his hand and led him inside. The woman shared the
room with two other patients, both elderly women who appeared to be sleeping.
He sat in the guest chair and pulled Jocelyn into his lap. She leaned her head
back on his chest and watched the woman with him.

Impossibly long eyelashes made crescents across her cheekbones
as she dozed with lips slightly parted. He found it strange he’d noticed those
lashes last night through all the chaos. Afterward, he thought he might have
imagined them. Now, in the light of day, he saw they were more amazing than
he’d first thought.

He’d suspected her hair was light, but last night when it had
been soaking wet, he couldn’t really tell. He’d had other things on his mind,
like mind-altering fear. He never imagined it was such a magnificent,
shimmering blond. It sprawled across the pillow beneath her head, long enough
to reach her elbows.

“She’s pretty,” Jocelyn whispered.

She’s more than pretty
, Geoffrey thought. Though
frighteningly pale, her skin was clear and smooth. She looked a little green
against the white bandage at her forehead, but when healthy and smiling, this
woman was stunning—he would bet money on it. She appeared to be of Nordic
descent, with high cheekbones and a narrow nose.

Her left arm rested above the sheets. A fiberglass cast
covered the bend in her elbow and reached to the knuckles on her hand. Slender,
delicate fingers curled around its edge. He remembered how she’d cried out when
he’d moved her.

Geoffrey scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d done everything
wrong last night.

She breathed a soft sigh and her lids fluttered, and then
opened. Brilliant blue eyes that glittered like aquamarine gemstones locked
with his, making Geoffrey’s blood race. He held his breath, no idea what in the
world he would say to her.

* * *

A thin whisper brought her from the edge of a dream. Opaque
light filtered through her closed lids. It was day, she realized as she came
fully awake.

Antiseptic smells stung her nostrils.
This is a hospital
.
In the back of her mind, she knew she was hurt. Her entire body was weak, sore.
Battered.

Bass drums pounded in her head. She opened her eyes and the
room came into view, fuzzy at first, then growing clearer like steam clearing
from a window.

A man she didn’t recognize sat in the chair beside her bed, an
adorable little girl with curly blond hair in his lap.

She had never seen either of them before.

Confusion barreled over her, only to be replaced instantly by
fear. Dread. Worry. Confusion again. An underlying terror something horrible
had happened.

The little girl sat upright and her face brightened. The man
urged her off his lap. He had the same hair, only thicker and with darker
undertones.

“Go get Dr. Carlson,” he told her.

The little girl scampered off. Once in the hallway, she
shrieked, “Dr. Carlson!” and the man in the chair winced.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

He stood and stepped closer, bringing along a crushing fear.
She couldn’t breathe.

“Hi.” He smiled, but his eyes held worry.

She swallowed, tried to speak. Her throat was dry and sore.
She glanced up, looking for a call button. Something to bring help—safety. Her
pulse raced. She was in danger. But from what?

More importantly, from
whom
?

Her confusion grew thicker, along with the solid pain
throbbing in her head.

The little girl returned, tugging the hand of a man in a white
coat.

“Well, good morning. How’s my favorite patient today?”

Goodness, did she know this man? He smiled kindly, but it did
little to appease her fear.

“What happened?”

“You were hit by a car last night, but you’re going to be just
fine.”

She glanced to the other man. He smiled sheepishly. “I’m the
guy who hit you.”

“Where am I?”

“This is Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport, Oregon,” the
doctor told her.

She tried to move. A spike of pain went off like a siren,
racing down her arm and ending in the tips of all five fingers. She sucked in a
breath as nausea rolled in her stomach. “Ouch!”

A new level of fear rushed in with dizzying force. Her left
arm was in a cast. She held her breath and pinched her eyes shut, willing the
pain away.

“Here, have some water.” The doctor poured from a carafe into
a paper cup and brought it to her lips. Refreshing coolness slid down her
throat, and slowly the blaring pain faded.

“How badly am I hurt?” She dreaded the answer. Strangely, her
fear was worse than the pain.

“You have a broken radius, right here, and a hairline fracture
of the olecranon. That’s here.” He pointed to his own arm to demonstrate the
locations. “Nothing required pinning, thank goodness, and both should heal
better than new. There was a deep laceration at your hairline, but I did a
marvelous job stitching you up, if I do say so myself.”

A nurse stepped through the doorway. “Dr. Carlson, you’re
needed in recovery two.”

“I’ll be right along,” he told her. He moved closer and gave
her a pitying smile that sent her worry climbing. “Do you remember anything
from last night? Can you tell us what you were doing out on the highway during
the storm?”

The storm
...
the storm
... She clawed through the
darkness filling her mind, but nothing would come.

She shook her head.

“Don’t try too hard. This is normal for head injury patients.”
He patted her knee. “But I do need to get you checked and listed. Nurse Barnes
will help you fill out the paperwork.”

All at once, the uncertain fear she’d been feeling was
replaced by terror a thousand times brighter.

Everyone stared back at her, suddenly quiet.

“Don’t worry,” the younger man said, stepping forward. “I
intend to pay for all your hospital costs, any rehabilitation you need, and
fully compensate your for your pain and suffering. This whole thing was my
fault, and I’m prepared to make amends.”

He didn’t understand. None of them did.

The nurse took the clipboard from Dr. Carlson. “Let’s start
with your name, and date of birth.”

She choked on a hot lump of misery. The room fell into silence
again. She stared from one to the next. Only the nurse seemed to have realized
something was terribly wrong. She leaned forward, the concern evident in her
face. “Are you from Newport?”

Hot tears stung her eyes as the frightening realization hit.
“I don’t know where I’m from. I don’t know who I am!”

Chapter Three

Geoffrey knew he was staring, but he couldn’t believe what
she’d just said.
Amnesia?
It was unbelievable, the thing daytime soap
operas were made of.

His heart wrenched as the woman burst into sobs. She bit back
a cry of pain as she jostled her broken arm, and then settled one hand over her
eyes as she cried.

“Now, now,” Dr. Carlson said, patting her knee. “Don’t worry.
As I said, it’s normal to be confused after a head injury. It’s understandable
that you wouldn’t remember the events immediately after a head injury, and
sometimes what happened before is foggy, too.”

How much worse could this get? Geoffrey believed he’d only
caused physical injuries that would eventually heal, but he never imagined he’d
crippled her mentally and emotionally, too.

If it was the last thing he did, he would make this right. He
only wished he knew how.

Nurse Barnes pulled a handful of tissues from a box on the
bedside table and helped the woman blow her nose.

“I know this is frightening for you,” Dr. Carlson said. “Let
me assure you, you’re in one of the best medical facilities Oregon has to
offer, and we’ll do everything in our power to get you reunited with your
family.”

Dr. Carlson’s words crushed the rising protectiveness Geoffrey
had just experienced. Did she have a husband who would pulverize him when he
learned what had happened?

He glanced at the fingers curled around the edge of her cast.
Did he imagine it, or was that a tan line circling her wedding ring finger?

Again, unbidden and unwelcome, gruesome emotions came rushing
in. After Christina’s death, he’d wanted to destroy whatever person or thing
got in front of him.

The woman’s sobs frightened Jocelyn. His niece’s eyes were
wide and shiny with tears.

“First of all, let’s get you something for the pain that will
help you relax.” Dr. Carlson tried to sound upbeat. “You heard what Geoffrey said—he’s
picking up your tab, so you might as well indulge in the best.”

The woman glanced from Dr. Carlson to him with wariness all
over her face. She didn’t know him from Adam.

While the doctor listed off a regimen for the woman, Geoffrey
bent down and reached for Jocelyn. “Maybe we better get you home.”

“No!” Jocelyn grasped both hands around the plastic rail at
the side of the bed. “I wanna stay. I was in the car, too, you know. It was my
fault just as much as yours.”

His guilt tripled. Before he could find the terms to argue
that a seven-year-old would understand, Jocelyn turned back to the woman and
took a sideways step to the head of the bed.

“My name is Jocelyn Tanner.” She stepped onto the lower bar of
the guard rail and pulled herself up so she could see better. “I live with
Uncle Geoffrey and Grandpa Duke because my mommy and daddy are getting a
divorce. Last night we had a really big storm and Uncle Geoffrey and me were
going to get my Gran Millie. She lives at the wharf on top of the Mirthful
Mermaid. We thought she would be safer if she came home with us because our
house is on a hill and the wharf shops always get flooded in really bad storms.
We didn’t mean to hit you.”

Geoffrey wanted to pull her away, but Jocelyn had captured the
woman’s attention, and stopped her tears.

She gave a hesitant nod. “I know you didn’t mean to do it on
purpose.”

“Twelve years ago a real bad storm came and washed a bunch of
people out to sea. That was before I was born, but my grandpa says it was real
bad.”

The woman’s gaze drifted away, as if Jocelyn had jogged
something in her memory.

“I’m seven,” Jocelyn continued. “But I’m small for my age ’cause
I was born too soon and I got sick a lot when I was a baby.”

“Well you sure grew up...” the woman sniffled, “to be very
pretty.”

“No I didn’t!” Jocelyn shrieked adamantly. A hint of a smile
trembled on the woman’s lips.

The nurse returned with a paper cup containing two pills. She
handed them to the woman and poured her another cup of water.

“Thank you,” she said in a thin voice.

All Geoffrey could do was stand there, staring like an idiot.
His oldest brother Justin would have something witty to say, making everyone in
the room chuckle. All David would have to do was flash one of his charming
smiles to make the tension dissipate. Geoffrey was usually the one to cause
that tension, and today was no different. Actually, this was the worst it had
ever been, but still classically Geoffrey.

Running a woman down with his car would certainly be the coup
de grace to his social life.

She swallowed the pills and turned back to Jocelyn. “How do
you manage to grow all that hair?”

“I hate my hair,” Jocelyn returned shrilly. “I wish it was
soft like yours.” She reached out and touched a lock of the girl’s platinum
hair where it fanned over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Geoffrey said. “Come on, Jocelyn.” He pried her
off the bed frame and stood her on the floor.

“Don’t go, please,” the woman said, stopping him. “I don’t
want to be alone.”

He felt as if someone had opened a faucet and let warm water
trickle over him. Geoffrey shifted from one foot to the other, searching for
something to say to end the aching silence. He wasn’t witty or charming, and
knew he should probably keep his mouth shut.

But common sense had never been his strong point, either.

“I’m Geoffrey Barthlow. Geoffrey with a G.”
G, for Geek
.
“I meant what I said. I intend to pay for your hospital bills, and whatever
else you need.”

“Thank you.” She blinked slowly and her eyelids drooped.

“Is there anything I can get you?” He moved closer, setting a
hand on the railing. This much closer to her, he realized an entirely new level
of beauty. She had the perfect features of a movie star. As her gaze drifted to
something across the room, he studied her flawless complexion and the unique
flecks of gray in her pale blue irises. All at once, he felt like an intruder.
He stepped back again.

“A toothbrush would be nice.” Already the painkillers had
softened her voice.

“Let’s continue on this paperwork before you drift off again.”
Nurse Barnes took her clipboard and sat in the guest chair. “For now we’ll call
you Jane Doe.”

The woman’s eyes flashed open. “No, please. I don’t like
that.”

Nurse Barnes pursed her lips and leaned back in the chair.
“What would you have us call you, then?”

“We could call her August,” Jocelyn suggested. Everyone looked
at her, and her cheeks turned pink. “What? I have a friend named April and a
friend named June. August is a name, too, you know.”