Beyond the Orange Moon (Mathews Family Book 2) Read online

  Table Of Contents

  Title page

  Copyright page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Adrienne Frances

  Beyond the Orange Moon

  Bandit Publishing

  Text Copyright © 2014 by Adrienne Frances

  All rights reserved.

  Please respect artists’ rights.

  Don't steal books, music, or videos.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Bandit Publishing

  Flower Mound, TX

  ISBN: 978-1-940652-29-0

  Dedication

  For Dad and Cathy

  You are living proof that true love and happiness come in many forms and unforeseen places.

  I love you both.

  Prologue

  Exhausted, Lucy Dalton swiveled around in her chair. She leaned back and looked up at the fluorescent lights that hung above her head. She watched as they flickered with a quiet zapping sound, which was both hypnotizing and irritating.

  “Wake up,” her best friend and roommate, Grace Webber, warned, her bright blue eyes narrowed at Lucy.

  “I’m up,” Lucy assured, and wondered why anyone in their right mind would want to work a night shift.

  Grace came alive at night. She would mope around all day and talk about how drained she felt; however, when evening rolled around, she seemed to perk up and get ready for the night.

  At the other end of the white, dimly lit hallway, Lucy could see the chaos coming from one of the labor rooms. It was full of anticipation, which was really nothing new on that particular floor.

  “Did you see those guys down there?” Grace asked as she pulled out a manila file. “Lordy, lordy.”

  “I only glanced at them,” Lucy said, gazing at the happy group. “From what I could tell, they all look alike.”

  “I think they’re brothers.” Grace sat next to Lucy and rested her elbows on her knees, before flashing a giddy smile.

  “Maybe,” Lucy murmured.

  Of course she had seen them. She had looked at them far longer than she was supposed to. Only hours before, she had crept into the room with every intention of being invisible. This was what Nurse Knight, the nurse she was to shadow, had ordered, anyway. It was her duty to creep through the background, change the pans, clean up the trays and used cups, empty the garbage, and peek at the numerous machines—and she was to do all of this without being intrusive. If she was noticed, she was to smile and quietly leave the room. If she was spoken to, she was to respond as briefly as possible, smile, nod, and quietly leave the room.

  Apparently, for Nurse Knight, quiet observation was the most important part of her externship; bedside manner and patient relationships came last.

  While the other nursing students crossed their fingers and hoped to avoid working with Nurse Knight, Lucy happily accepted her fate of working under the biggest bitch known to nurses. With Nurse Knight’s strict policies and major distaste for students, Lucy knew without a doubt that she could remain in the shadows.

  This was another indication that she might not be the nurse her mother had always hoped she would become. Although her grades and clinical tests were flawless, nursing was never in her blood like it was for every other woman in her family. She didn’t possess that thick skin that everyone else in her class had, either. While everyone else couldn’t wait to dive in, Lucy was happy with the smaller, less personal jobs, such as bringing ice chips, picking up garbage, and reminding visitors when the cafeteria was closing.

  The room at the end of the hall had been abuzz all night. Lucy had never seen so many people running in and out of a labor room. Its occupants were all full of excitement for the arrival of their newest family member. It was hard to tell who the father was; there were three other men who all looked alike and wore matching smiles. When it came time to push, however, the men in the room had dwindled down to one—one gorgeous man, she couldn’t help but notice.

  “Here,” she had said, pushing a pair of scrubs over to the shaking father. “You’ll want to put these on.”

  “Thank you,” he’d mumbled. He had looked past Lucy and watched his wife turn her sweaty head and moan. His eyes had fallen to the floor, seeming to search for some sign that everything would be okay. He’d looked lost as he took a deep breath that shook on the exhale.

  “Hurry,” Lucy had said, her gaze moving toward the scrubs in his hand. “It’ll be okay.”

  The man had finally nodded as he walked past her and back into the room to join his wife.

  Hours later, the baby boy was born. He was healthy and everyone seemed blissful as they took turns holding him, then finally left for home. This was the typical cycle for the floor that Lucy worked on; it hardly fazed her anymore.

  “Lucy, go make sure room 226 doesn’t need anything before we take them down to maternity,” Nurse Knight ordered, bringing Lucy back to attention.

  Lucy headed down to the room she’d been staring at. Her clogs squeaked with each step, the sound echoing through the hallway. She hated that sound, especially during the quiet night hours; it was like a bell that announced her presence. She snuck into the dark room and began removing whatever useless materials she could find.

  As Lucy bent over to pick up a tray, she snuck a glance at the new mother. She looked tired, but Lucy could see how beautiful she was. Her smile was glorious as she watched her husband hold their new son and rock with him, swaying the bundle back and forth by the window. It was always so odd to see such large, masculine hands holding something so small. What was even stranger was the natural tenderness in those hands. It was simply miraculous to witness that instant love between a father and child.

  “Isn’t it lovely?” the woman asked Lucy. Her voice was barely a whisper as she watched her husband and son.

  “I love watching new dads, but there’s always something about the beauty of a new mother that I enjoy a bit more.” Lucy winked as she allowed herself a small smile. It was hard not to smile at this new mother.

  “It’s like falling in love all over …” The woman’s voice trailed off with a small exhale.

  Lucy watched her eyes roll back. She quickly assessed the woman and saw that she was turning blue. She had never witnessed a human being turn such a color so quickly. She looked down at the woman’s chest, noting her shallow breaths and the odd pace of her breathing.

  Lucy backed away to the door. With her eyes still on the woman, she hollered into the hallway, “I need someone in here!”

  “Honey?” her husband asked as he stood with his son in his arms. When his feet could finally move, he frantically made his way to Lucy and handed her the tiny, bundled boy. “Here. Please, take him.”

  With the baby against her chest, Lucy looked into the man’s eyes and the world slowed around her. They were the greenest eye
s she had ever seen, and in that moment they were piercing into her with such urgency that she nearly lost her breath.

  Within seconds, Nurse Knight raced into the room with Grace hot on her trail. She looked down at the baby in Lucy’s arms and shook her head, confused.

  “Not the baby,” Lucy said, her voice nearly a whisper. She pointed to the bed where the man tried desperately to wake his wife.

  Nurse Knight lunged for the bed. She moved quickly, but, as the seriousness of the situation set in, she finally yelled, “She’s crashing! I need a team in here!”

  “What’s wrong with her?” the father asked, his voice full of despair. “What’s happening?”

  “Sir,” Nurse Knight began, “you need to let us do our jobs.”

  “My wife—”

  “Mr. Mathews, please step back,” Nurse Knight ordered again, and began compressions on the woman’s chest. “We need to tube her and bag her, now!” she yelled.

  Grace leapt into action, her natural instincts kicking in full throttle. She said nothing as she handed a tube and bag to Nurse Knight, who placed the tube down the woman’s throat and thrust the bag into place without hesitation.

  The piercing alarms sounded, causing Lucy to jump. The intercom in the hallway blasted: Code blue. Code blue. Second floor. Room 2-2-6. Code blue. Code blue. Second floor. Room 2-2-6.

  Within seconds, the room filled with people checking machines and shouting things at the new mother. The room was a whirlwind of commotion, taking over Lucy’s entire thought process.

  Lucy looked down at the tiny, pink face below her. The baby was sleeping, completely unaware of the chaos going on around him. She gently bounced him in her arms and felt the tears well in her eyes. She had never heard Nurse Knight’s voice so panicky and, if she had to guess, this was not going to end happily.

  As the room began to fill and the defibrillator cart was rushed in, Lucy snuck out into the hallway and moved behind the nurse’s station. She swayed from side to side and held the baby tighter in her arms while she looked into the room and waited for the doctor to say the words she prayed weren’t coming.

  Lucy knew what this all meant. Code Blue: she isn’t breathing. Code Blue: everyone who can, get your asses up here and help—a patient is dying.

  The intercom above her gave a final call: Code blue. Code blue. Second floor. Room 2-2-6.

  And then everything just stopped.

  It was only then that Lucy was aware of the tears pouring over her cheeks. She gave a small gasp as the doctor walked out of the room, defeated, and ripped off his gloves.

  Behind the doctor, a sound she never knew a man could make erupted from the room. It was the most agonized sound she had ever heard. Had she not been holding the baby, she would have collapsed to the floor.

  “Meredith!” the man screamed in between gasps. “Meredith … Meredith, NO!”

  Grace emerged from the room and sighed when she made eye contact with Lucy. “Are you okay?” she whispered after she got closer. “Lucy, you’re white as a ghost.”

  Lucy shook her head, and carefully handed the baby off to Grace.

  “What are you doing?” Grace’s mouth fell open as she held the baby. “Lucy, there was nothing you could do.”

  Lucy wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I can’t do this.”

  “Lucy, don’t …”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll see you at home.” With that, Lucy Dalton walked away, leaving behind everything she had worked so hard for and everything she was expected to be.

  Chapter One

  Lucy sat back on a bench and took in the warm Arizona sun. She closed her eyes and listened to the happy sounds that lingered all around her at the park. For only a second, she felt normal. Lately, she had found herself wondering, what is normal, really? Was it the life she once lived? Is normal a life of just doing what you’re supposed to do and never really opening your eyes to look for what you truly want? If that was the case, then most of the normal world must be working on autopilot.

  How sad.

  What was even more depressing, though, was the fact that she had been forced to open her eyes and she still wasn’t sure what she wanted; she only knew what she was running from.

  She took in the scene before her. Nestled in a valley with mountains in the background, the park was flooded with people. It wasn’t like this all the time, but the air was clear today; it had brought out all the children who needed to run off some of their excess energy.

  It didn’t bother her one bit, though. She loved the chaos. It was a nice break from the utter gloom and doom that followed her around on a daily basis. The chaos meant life, and she craved it.

  She returned her focus to her novel, a touching story about a man who was secluded from the world until a woman fell in love with him. It was a romance novel, which, lately, she had found a lot easier to deal with than the real-life kind. Fiction allowed her to forget about her last failed relationship. She could hardly blame him, of course. Who would want to deal with a girlfriend stuck in a state of depression? At least in her novels, the hero never left the heroine behind. If she thought really hard about it, Adam was never really her hero, anyway. Like being a nurse, he was just something she thought she was supposed to want.

  She shook those thoughts away and buried herself back in her book. It was a good read in comparison to the others she had read over the past year of her life. After reading medical journals for three years, a good novel was definitely rewarding. This particular book was the perfect blend of heart-wrenching and happily-ever-after that had her soaring from one emotion to the next.

  The tears began to flow as she read a touching scene. Her heart squeezed, causing her to grab at her chest.

  “Get it, Jack,” a voice called from just in front of her.

  Lucy’s heart beat faster; it pounded through her chest and made her ears ring. She had heard that voice before. She had heard it in her nightmares, her dreams, and even in the daytime when she had let her thoughts get the best of her.

  Hesitantly, Lucy looked up at the man in front of her. He ran beside a waddling baby who was chasing a soccer ball, and chuckled when the boy finally fell on the grass and let out a small cry. It was clear that walking was a new development and still needed a lot of work.

  “Oh, come here,” he said, and scooped the boy up from the ground. He bounced him with a gentle arm and smiled, his eyes shining with pure love. “You’re okay.”

  The baby’s ball had managed to roll directly in front of Lucy. She bent to pick it up and panic rushed through her so fast that she struggled just to sit back up. The man’s shadow loomed over her, blocking out the sun. She sat still for a moment and then realized she probably looked like she was stuck in that position.

  “Thank you,” the man murmured from above her.

  She had never felt as bare as she did in that moment. What would her presence do to him? What horror would it bring up? She slowly stood and felt her cheeks return to their normal color as the blood drained from them. She nearly lost her breath from his intense stare and only then remembered her blotchy face that was soaked with tears.

  “Oh,” she said, and swiped at a wet cheek. She handed him the ball and gave him a small smile. “It’s the book,” she said, to which he simply nodded in understanding.

  She hadn’t forgotten his green eyes, of course. They were the kind of eyes that you just stared at, mesmerized, until someone or something brought you back to earth. But these eyes, as beautiful as they were, had haunted her. And, now, as they had almost a year before, they were locked on her, holding her in place.

  She couldn’t move, much less breathe.

  She opened her mouth to say something, but his face was expressionless. He simply nodded again, swung his son around on his shoulder, and walked away.

  As they left, the boy giggled loudly and Lucy snuck a glance at his happy face just in time to see his carefree smile. He had his father’s eyes and his mother’s beautiful light brown hair curling o
ver his ears. She gave the boy a small wave and a smile that grew even bigger as he laughed and responded with a backward wave.

  Maybe seeing him was something she needed to do in order to make herself feel better. Whatever the reason, that happy boy sent blooming warmth to her heart. The baby she had cradled against her chest while he lost his mother seemed at peace with the unfair circumstances the universe had thrown at him.

  It was in that moment that Lucy understood Charlie Mathews’ nod: he had no idea who she was; he didn’t remember her at all. She should have felt relief at that, and she did, but there was something else swirling around inside of her that she just couldn’t put her finger on.

  The following week, Lucy went back to the park. It wasn’t as if she was going for them, exactly. Going to this park had been her ritual for months. She had always sat on that same bench; it was Charlie Mathews and his son who were the newcomers. There was nothing wrong with her returning and keeping a small hope alive that she would see them again.

  It was hard to focus on her book this time. She couldn’t seem to stop her head from jerking up each time she saw someone in her peripheral vision. It became a habit: she would get halfway through a sentence and tear her eyes away to see if the blurry shapes were them, then return to her book only to forget what she had been reading. But nothing would ever make her forget his voice and, when she heard the unmistakable sound, this time they really did come into view.

  Today, Charlie looked tired. His eyes were dark; he looked as if he was running on very little sleep, if any at all. He sat on the bench across from hers and stretched out his long, jean-clad legs as he watched his son play in the grass. The sun shone behind him, enveloping him in a candescent light that illuminated the sadness in his face. Yet, somehow, when he looked at his son, happiness and pride seemed to push away all the reminders of what he had lost.