“Katie! Wake up, Katie!” Anya shakes her best friend. Katie jerks awake, eyes wide open and full of fear she stares at her best friend. “Are you okay? We’re getting ready to land.”
Katie nods and forces her heart to slow down. Anya waves the stewardess away as she tends to her.
“Just more bad dreams,” Katie murmurs, looking around embarrassed that she screamed. Other passengers are whispering and looking at them.
“It was just so real, Anya. I swear I could feel his breath on me, and my shoulder...” She winces in pain when she rubs it and glances out the window.
The green fields below remind Katie why she agreed to this trip. “Remember the three R’s. Rest, relaxation, and recuperation.” The doctor said it is normal to have memory loss, after a traumatic accident. Though she tried, she could not remember any of the car crash, only pain when she tries too hard. Katie woke up in the hospital and while her physical recovery was quick, “When will the nightmares leave me be,” she mumbles.
At her last checkup, her doctor prescribed sleeping pills, assuring her that the nightmares were simply a result of her brain trying to remember, but she didn’t think the side effects were worth it. They left her feeling slow and hung over.
“Was it the same dream, again?” Anya asks, grabbing a stewardess, she offers Katie a drink of water.
“No, they are never the same, but sometimes it feels so real.” Looking out the window she watches the clouds go by and shakes her head before looking back at her friend, “Anya they feel like memories, not nightmares!”
Anya looks into the eyes of her best friend since childhood and feels her pain. She hasn’t told her of her own nightmares that mirror her friends. “We will figure it out, Katie. In the meantime, we’re going to make some memories of our own. Hopefully, the kind we can blush over when we are old biddies,” she pronounces with a grin.
Katie laughs, “Sounds like a plan to me.” Sipping her drink, she rubs her shoulder and shakes the memories off as the seatbelt light comes on.
“Look out Scotland, here we come!” Anya sings.
Chapter 2
“Oh, thank God,” Anya murmurs and points to the coffee shop in the airport. Katie laughs and loops her arm through her best friends.
“I’ll buy, you grab a table, and we will talk about what to do first. I can’t believe our flight was so quick. Only an hour and fifteen minutes to heaven! Why haven’t we done this sooner?”
“Crazy isn’t it. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed out so late last night. Just grab me a Venti… something.” Anya pulls out her cell to check for service as she drops into a chair in the cafe.
Katie inhales the scent of coffee and pastries and smiles before she orders. While waiting for her coffees she glances at the table and sees Anya talking on the phone. All the color has left her face and she is listening to the person intently. Katie hurries to the table and sits down. Anya’s hands are shaking so hard she can barely hold the phone as she hangs up.
“What’s wrong?” Katie grabs her hand to comfort her.
“It’s my Da. He was attacked at St. Michans, during a tour, and nobody saw anything! Christian is with him at the hospital.”
“Ring the hospital!” Katie urges.
A few minutes later Anya is laughing and crying at the same time. “No, DA! I’m coming home. You stay at the damn hospital!” Anya shakes her head and whispers, “Yes, Sir. I know. Da, I love you.”
“He wants me to stay with you.” Anya glances up and Katie sees the fear in her eyes.
“No. We can be at his side in less than two hours.” Katie urges. Anya reaches for a napkin and blows her nose. She tosses her black hair over her shoulder.
“Katie, I know you mean well, but there is no reason for both of us to miss out on this trip. Da would kill us both if we did. He is the reason we’re here.”
“I still can’t believe he entered us in a drawing and we actually won,” Katie laughs. “How seriously is he hurt, Anya?”
“Christian said he was roughed up pretty good. The doctor is keeping him for three days to watch his blood pressure and he has a fractured rib and a broken foot. Mostly scrapes and bruises, I feel sorry for whoever messed with him. He can be a brutal fighter when he feels threatened.”
“I’m going back with you. This is crazy. We should go book our flight.” Anya stops Katie from standing with a firm grip on her hands.
“No. Katie, you’re still healing from your accident, and the last thing you need to do is go home! I know you, and you will go straight to your bakery. The doctor told you to rest, and that is just what you are going to do. This week is all planned, you will see some amazing sights and you can tell me all about it when you return. Please, just do this for me. I can’t worry over both of you.”
Katie sighs, “I will stay, but only if you promise to text me the moment you see him, and to call me if he has any changes in his condition.”
“I promise.”
Chapter 3
“St. James Hospital, straight away, please,” Anya tells the cab driver in front of the airport. She takes a deep breath to try to ease her anxiety and sits on her hands to stop trembling. Christian promised her that he was okay, but until she sees him with her own eyes, she won’t be able to relax.
Anya rushes into the hospital, dragging her suitcase with her and heads straight to the
