The Secrets We Keep

CHAPTER TWENTY

Together with Alex she sat with Blake while he recounted what he remembered of the events and Hunter remained in recovery following surgery for a punctured lung. She’d watched enough medical drama on TV to know a punctured lung was serious as was the amount of blood he’d lost. As Blake talked to them, he suffered a medical emergency and she and Alex were ushered from the room and asked to wait. And wait they did, holding hands, supporting one another, reminding Olivia of the time when, during a nature walk at school looking for shells, Monica Taylor pushed her into the water because Olivia wouldn’t hand over a shell she’d found. Soaking wet and crying, Alex had come to her aid, deftly pushing Monica into the water before giving everyone else the evil eye if they said anything. Monica Taylor, Olivia heard she’d become an actress and won a role in a daytime soap opera in the US. Figures, she thought, Monica had been the quintessential drama queen.

 John Porter arrived and together they waited, they waited for what seemed like hours as John comforted first Alex and then herself. What an i***t she’d been, why hadn’t she simply expressed her emotions to Hunter that morning he’d called in? Surely that wouldn’t be the last time she heard the deep baritone of his voice, his handsome face or have his arms around her, making love to her? Casting her eyes upwards, she asked whoever controlled these matters for another chance for them both, they were worth another chance weren’t they? Her throat constricted with such pain she had difficulty swallowing and she no longer had the ability to keep the tears at bay, trickling down her face. John Porter placed his hand on her back and gently soothed her,

“Hang in there Liv, this is a hell of a thing, isn’t it?” he noted, “Were they going to the winery at Deans Point?”

By now both she and Alex were sobbing their hearts out and she could do was shake her head as a response to his question.

“Hey, hey” John soothed, “Take a deep breath girls, this will work out, for all of you, you have to believe that.”

Alex sniffed and smiled at him, “You sound very philosophical Dad.”

“Yeah, well apparently your mother is an expert on alpha males so go figure.”

Both Alex and Olivia had an attack of the giggles which did help to relieve the tension and it provided a respite from the uncontrollable crying and tears.

“They think Nina did it,” Olivia sniffed, gratefully taking a tissue from Alex, “Or it could have been her twin, I don’t understand what she wants. Apparently one of them waited for Mason outside of the school, gave him a letter supposedly from his mother, wanting to meet with he and Izzy.”

John appeared deep in thought,

“After all this time and then she tries to kill Hunter?”

“I know, it sounds crazy, but she looked wild, hair in a tangle, unkempt looking, if she is mentally ill it sounds as though she might have had a psychotic episode of some sort, not that I’m an expert on the matters.”

Any further conversation was put on hold as a doctor and a nurse came with the news both Hunter and Blake were being moved to ICU, so they picked up their belongings and followed the directions given.

There was no colour in Hunter’s face, his eyes were closed, and Olivia leaned over him and brushed her lips on his forehead, tracing the outline of his strong jaw until she came to his lips and kissed him. If the machine beside him didn’t beat out its persistent beep, she might have thought he’d gone from her, but he wasn’t. The doctor had assured her Hunter would make a full recovery in time but that it would take some time. He’d lost a significant amount of blood, the tip of the knife had only narrowly missed his aorta, Hunter would have been in considerable pain, the doctor told her and because of that, he’d been given heavy duty pain relief. So, she sat and waited, holding his hand, stroking his hand, holding it to her face and kissing the palm of his hand and her eyes grew heavy, she didn’t even know how long she’d been sitting here waiting for even the smallest sign he sensed her presence. But he didn’t and, grabbing a spare pillow she found in a cupboard by his bed, she placed it along the back of her chair and let her head drop back and drift into nightmare riddled sleep. Visions of Nina wielding a huge knife, maybe a sword or something similar at both she and Hunter, screaming, ranting, threatening Leo, demanding Mason, and Izzy go with her. She woke with a start as Nina brought the knife down on her head, only to realise the pillow had slipped and her head had fallen onto the back of the chair.

John Porter poked his head around the corner of the cubicle Hunter lay in and neared the bed.

“Any change Liv?”

“No, I nodded off, but he hasn’t woken up, the doctor said he’d been given heavy duty pain relief so it could take a while. How’s Blake?

“So, so,” he replied, “In a lot of pain, apparently he crashed into a rock trying to put a tackle on her. He’s done a fair bit of damage to his knee which is not something he wanted to hear.”

“Is Alex alright?”

“Yeah I think so. To be honest I feel helpless, Liv and that isn’t something I’ve experienced too many times.”

“It must be hard for you guys to be in here, will you be alright?”

“We will. I’m going to get another coffee, I’m getting a hot chocolate for Alex, can I get you something?”

“Ooh, a hot chocolate definitely sounds lovely.”

He smiled, “Back in five.” And with that he left her alone with Hunter once again.

“Hunter Lewis, do you know how much I love you? I’ve loved you since forever, maybe even since we sat in that paddling pool at your place, both of us naked and splashing water. That’s a long time to love someone don’t you think? I mean it’s virtually a lifetime for me and I’ll be honest when you decided Nina spoke the truth about me, that hurt. But I still loved you, I loved you when I learned you and Nina were getting married, I loved you when you came to my place, begging and crying for me to make it all go away, I loved you when we made love and as a result made Leo and I especially loved you the moment they placed Leo in my arms. Our son, Hunter. I always had a connection to you through Leo.” She waited patiently for a response, but none came,

“Loving you has never been easy Hunter Lewis because each time you turned your back on me, you might as well have pushed a wooden stake through my heart. But I’m still here loving you, begging you to get through this and everything else we will fight together. Nina or Lana or Holly will never win this Hunter.”

A nurse came in, check Hunter’s observations and giving her a shy smile before slipping away as quietly as she entered. John returned with a hot chocolate and sat with her for a few minutes before she suggested he check on Alex.

“Has he woken up?” Alex stood on the other side of the bed, looking as tired as she herself felt but Olivia shook her head,

“No, the doctor said his level of pain would have been severe. Are you heading to your parent’s house soon?”

“Dad said no hurry, but you look like I feel, I don’t think either Blake or Hunter will hold it against us if we head home for the night.”

“Is Blake awake?”

“In and out, he keeps calling out for Hunter, it must have been awful for them, Liv.”

“I know. Imagine trying to stop someone from stabbing your friend and then for Hunter to see that freaking knife coming at him.”

“Ah, you’re both in here.” A doctor who’d spoken to them both earlier in the evening was checking Hunter’s observations, “I’m sure these guys will understand if you want to go and have a good sleep.”

“Is Hunter likely to wake up overnight?”

“Doubt it to be honest but if you’re concerned, I’m on duty until eight tomorrow morning, I can call you if there are any issues and I can tell him you were here but went home to get some rest.”

Olivia looked across the bed at Alex, “Sounds reasonable?”

“It does, do you have both of our numbers?”

“I do, your father also gave me his.”

“Come on Liv, tomorrow will look better with a good night’s sleep.”

Hunter knew this appointment with Tom had to be kept, no dreaming up excuses to cancel, postpone or anything else for that matter. He needed Tom to get him back on an even keel, to make sense of what happened. Jesus, the hospital were insisting on making a referral for him to see a psychologist and he enjoyed besting them with the news he already saw one.  Tom entered, carrying a pottery teapot and cups, and placed them on the low table which sat between his chair and Tom’s. Hunter shook Tom’s hand, although he didn’t know why, apart from the first time he’d come here there had been no handshaking.

“I’ll pour our tea now, so it has time to cool down,” he said, then sat back in his chair, arms stretched out along the back, one leg crossed over the other. Hunter jiggled his knee and why he did that he didn’t know. Nerves? Apprehension?

“Start anytime you like, Hunter.”

“Blake Forrester and I were attacked,” he began, “Well he tried to stop her from attacking me, I owe him my life.”

“I see. How do you feel about that?”

“About what?”

“Someone saving your life, I mean it doesn’t happen every day, in fact for most people it never happens at all.”

“Humble, like I can never repay him in a way that is meaningful and sincere. When we first got out of hospital we had guilt issues and -,” he paused and reached for one of the cups and sipped from it, “To be honest we gave those closest to us a hard time, my mother did one of her conferences which is almost as bad as her interventions.”

Tom lifted his cup from the table, “Did the conference resolve the guilt issues?”

“Mostly. Blake’s guilt stemmed from not being able to stop that crazy woman and mine stemmed from Blake getting caught up in all of that.”

Sipping slowly from his cup, Tom nodded and returned it to the table.

“That’s good. So, you were in hospital for a few days, came home and gave your nearest and dearest grief?”

“That about sums it up.”

“And Olivia? Did she go to the hospital and visit you?”

Hunter sipped his tea again, holding the cup in both hands,

“Before all that drama occurred, I went to see Liv because I’d been such a coward, still hadn’t apologised for my inability to defend her. I took your advice and brought pastries from Baker Bill so we could breakfast together.”

“Excellent. Did she appreciate the gesture?”

“I think so, she did seem happy to find me at her front door and extremely happy with the contents of the Baker Bill breakfast.”

“So, you apologised?”

He had another sip of the tea and s**t; this stuff was growing on him!

“I did, I did a fair bit of grovelling, and she didn’t kick me out, didn’t say she failed to see any future for us. When I left I did feel upbeat, that maybe we could have something.”

“And in hospital?”

“Yeah, that’s when it gets weird.”

Tom leaned forward,

“Weird?”

“I can’t remember the pain, but they told me I would have been in a lot of pain and for that reason I was given strong pain relief, the kind that keeps you half in and half out of consciousness,” Hunter drained the last of the tea from his cup, topping it up from the pot, “I had surgery then admitted to ICU and Liv was there, sitting beside me. I couldn’t get myself awake, I wanted to but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get my bloody eyes open, nor could I talk.”

“Did she talk to you?”

“Yeah. Hell Tom, she talked to me, and I heard every single word, but now I keep asking myself if I did hear those words.”

“Why?”

Hunter leaned over, resting his arms on his thighs,

“I think she told me she loved me, that she’d loved me forever even when I was marrying Nina, even when I was a total shithead to her. But Tom? How do I tell if that conversation happened, or did I dream it all?”

Tom settled himself back into his chair,

“Have you spoken to her since coming out of hospital?”

“A few times, well mostly when I had an attitude problem because my recovery was taking too long. She took me to and from physio on a Saturday morning and unfortunately my behaviour alienated her. I think.”

“Hunter, you certainly know how to self-destruct don’t you?”

“I do that well, Tom.”

“That has to stop right now. You’ve repeatedly told me that you’ve f****d up and sounds like you’re still doing that. When you had breakfast with Olivia what sort of reaction did she have to your apology.”

“I thought we’d been over that?”

“No, you rushed over it, and I don’t believe you told me what Olivia said.”

Hunter groaned, “She told me I’d hurt her. A lot. She admitted to being wary of me, she let her guard down to sleep with me, to get close to me and I’d – well you know me.”

“Indeed,” Tom murmured, “You hurt her, you apologise, and she opens up with how much it cost her to let you into her life?”

“Something like that.”

“And then?”

“Liv asked if I’d be willing to go back to friendship, see where it goes.”

“And? Does that work for you?”

“I wanted more but I know I’m being unreasonable with that; I did let her down and I can be her friend.”

“And at the hospital, you thought she told you she loved you?”

“Yeah. Do you think I imagined it? I don’t want it to have been an imaginary conversation, Tom. I wanted it to be real.”

“Then make it real Hunter. Go to the source, take her for a nice lunch, a picnic, anything and ask her whether she said those words. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Now, before we finish, any progress with Mason?”

“The day of the attack he came to see me at the vineyard, and we talked, he asked if he could be involved the way Leo is. I thought it an odd question because Leo showed an interest right from the start whereas Hunter has never been interested. I asked him if that explained his resentment of Leo.”

“What did he say?”

“No, but later in the conversation he became angry and my heart broke Tom. I love him but right now, I’m not able to reach him on any level. Also, he never mentioned anything to me about the woman he’d been seen talking to outside the school.”

“Did you ask him?”

“No. I wanted him to tell me, to be honest and open about her. We know Nina or Lana has a twin named Holly and both are on the island, hiding out somewhere.”

“I understand your frustration, I think it’s important Mason continue with counselling, perhaps check in with the counsellor to ensure Mason is attending those appointments, although I’m sure she’d tell you if he weren’t.”

Tom scheduled his next appointment and he stepped outside, pulling his phone from his pocket.

H…Are you doing anything super important?”

Hunter stared at the screen of his phone willing Olivia to respond and when she didn’t he pushed his phone back into his pocket and returned to his car. As he pulled the door closed his phone buzzed with a new message and his heart jumped into his throat when he saw her name.

O…Weeding the vegetable garden, not sure it can be considered super important though.

H…Can I bring you a picnic lunch?

Another long pause, maybe she’d rather work in her garden? Fair enough, he decided he would arrange something another time. He placed his phone on the passenger seat and fired the ignition when phone rang, he reached for it, smiling when he saw her name while his pulse rate tripled.

“A picnic lunch?”

“Why not? Not today obviously, but I’d like to take you on a picnic.”

“Not today?”

“I’m being presumptuous, it’s short notice and you’re busy.”

“You could come here.”

That caught him by surprise and rendered him speechless for a few moments,

“Um, your place? Are you okay with that?”

“Would I have suggested it if I wasn’t?”

“No. I can be there in twenty minutes.”

“That’s good, gives me time to clean up.”

A satisfying warmth flooded through him; twenty minutes would give him time to pull together a darn good picnic.

“See you soon.”

He replaced the phone on the passenger seat and drove to the supermarket and while sitting in the car park he took a moment to Google what makes a picnic a picnic, he found the most basic of picnics to give him an idea of what he needed, pushed his door open and with purposeful strides entered the supermarket. He could do this; he could be a friend until such time as Olivia gave him an indication she wanted more than friendship. He might need more than a few cold showers, but he could do this, he would do this.