Page 18 of Where Are You Now
She read the paragraph at the bottom of the poster on trauma and the one on mind-health connection. Her eyes weregetting heavy, and she yawned. Sitting in silence, with no phone to distract her, her muscles began to relax, and she rested her hands on either side of her. Was their goal to make her completely comatose before testing her brain function?
A light knock jolted her back into an alert state. The door opened, and Ava was certain she’d actually fallen out cold on the exam table and was now dreaming.
“Lucas?”
He blinked at her, tilting his head as he held his laptop and a small stack of files. “Ava Barnes?”
Dr. Lucas Phillips washerLucas Phillips. And he was standing in front of her, in the flesh. Her skin prickled.Find Lucas Phillips …Everything she’d gone through since waking that day in the hospital had fallen into place. She didn’t need any testing to verify she was totally fine. She could prove to her mom, now, that hearing the voice and finding Lucas couldn’t be a coincidence if he had been both in New York and now in Nashville. It had to be divine intervention.
“How did you …?” She was overjoyed by the fact that she had her sanity to formulate the whole question.
He studied her as if she were some rare stone. “AvaSt. John? You were put on my caseload here because I’m used to the format of the Columbia-Presbyterian paperwork, and I remembered treating you in New York.” He leaned in. “That wasyou?”
“Yeah.”
“With a different last name and swollen face, I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Those green eyes that were so familiar searched her face, and the unknown of how her life might have been different if he hadn’t moved away pelted her unexpectedly. The adult Lucas seemed stoic, less of a free spirit than she remembered. He’d taken on a more somber stance. Was he always like thatnow, or did he loosen up outside of work? She couldn’t expect him to be the same boy he’d been at fifteen, but a tiny part of her wished he could be.
“It’s surreal to see you,” he said.
“Same.”
He set down his laptop and folders and took a seat on a low stool, looking up at her. “Is that why you wanted to find me?”
“What?” Was he a mind reader? “How did you know I was looking for you?”
“The nurse at Columbia-Presbyterian gave me your message.”
“Oh.”
“Did someone tell you I’d moved back to Tennessee?” he asked.
“No, I had no idea.”
His brows pulled together, and he pursed his lips, looking confused.
She scrambled for an explanation. The last thing she wanted was another person to think she’d lost it. “I thought it was you in New York, and I just wanted to reach you to … say hi. But it’s a wonderful surprise to see you ended up here.”
He locked his gaze with hers, but there was something indefinably heavy in his stare. She’d expected a smile, a chuckle, anything but the storm of bewilderment that brewed on his face. An urge to soothe him came over her, but she didn’t understand the feeling. Who was she to guess anything was troubling him? The young girl within her wanted to ask, though, the way she would’ve back then.
As if he could sense her thoughts, he broke eye contact and clicked a few keys on his computer. “Your address is still New York?”
“Yes.”
He was definitely more serious now. If shehadn’t actually known him as a child, she’d never have believed the Lucas from her youth and this man were the same person. How much he’d changed from the boy who’d climbed the tree next to her window after bedtime just to tap on the glass and tell her good night.
“What areyoudoing back here?” he asked, a mixture of fondness and curiosity in his stare.
“I’m staying with my mom while I recover.”
He brightened a little. “She still lives on Willow Road?”
“No. After my dad died she bought a cabin on Marrowbone Lake.”
He visibly recoiled. “Your dad died?”
