Two weeks later
LANA PICKED HER way through the crowd that had gathered in Waikiki for the International Surfing Championship. The wind was blowing offshore, which was making it perfect to catch waves. There were a lot of people from the International Surfing Commonwealth here. The ISC was where Andrew had applied to work. As soon as he got what he wanted, as soon as that green card came in, he was going to divorce her and head to California. She knew that.
But that’s what you agreed to.
She couldn’t think about Andrew. She hadn’t seen him in two weeks and though she wanted to believe it didn’t bother her, it did. There was a hole in her life. She was lonely, but he’d left her. So she was here for her brother, Jack. Not for Andrew, who had, as expected, crushed her heart so completely. She hated that she’d been right. That if she let herself fall in love with him he would break her heart.
And that was exactly what he’d done, but she supposed she’d had it coming to her.
She’d let her guard down and lost her heart. It was her fault. No one else was to blame but herself.
Now she had to make sure that her children were protected from Andrew, who apparently wanted nothing to do with them as he hadn’t even shown up at the obstetrician appointment. That had hurt her.
What did you expect?
She had just been trying to help, to make the peace by stretching out an olive branch to Andrew’s estranged parents.
Funny you can’t extend the same olive branch to your own mother.
Lana found a shady spot, high in the stands, where she could see all of the action. She pulled out her binoculars and watched the competitors. On one of the boats that patrolled the water for injured surfers she caught sight of Andrew and her stomach clenched.
He was grinning and wearing an ISC red shirt. It suited him and he looked happy out there. And a bad niggling thought crept into her mind that he was probably happier without her.
Because when she’d got home that night two weeks ago, he’d already moved out.
“Next up is local surfer Keaka Jack Haole Jr., from the beautiful Waikiki. Give it up for ISC contender Keaka!” The announcement blasted over the crowd.
Lana cheered her brother, even though he wouldn’t be able to hear her. She turned her binoculars over to the waves and caught sight of her brother and his bright neon-green surfboard. He caught a pipeline but wasn’t in the hollow; he was riding it high as he did his tricks, much to the delight of the crowd.
He’s going to win this.
And, just as he was about to perform a Shove-It, which was a tricky maneuver, his board flipped and he was tossed into the rocks.
Lana let out a cry and the boat with Andrew on board raced toward the rocks. She didn’t waste time as she climbed down off the bleachers and started running for the beach.
Oh, God. Oh, God.
“I’m sorry, miss, you can’t go past this point.” A security guard barred her entrance to the beach.
“I’m a doctor and Keaka Haole is my brother.”
The security guard let her past and she waited on the shore desperately.
It felt like an eternity that she waited.
She heard the distant sound of an ambulance making its way down the beach and then she saw the boat coming back from where Jack had been tossed. Lana waded out in the water after the boat stopped in the shallows. She could see Andrew had Jack strapped to a back board. There was blood everywhere and, just from a quick assessment, her brother was pretty mangled.
“Oh, God,” she whispered as she ran forward.
“Lana, you need to step back,” Andrew said gently. “It’s bad.”
Lana ignored him and helped carry the back board through the water. This was her brother, who she’d raised. He was all she had, the only man who had ever really seen her. She couldn’t lose her only ally in this world.
“Lana, I got this,” Andrew snapped.
“He’s my brother. I don’t care how bad it is. I’m not leaving his side,” she snapped back. “I’m here, Jack. I’m here.”
The paramedics took over and Andrew began to bark orders as they did the ABCs on Jack and started a central line. Jack was unconscious but breathing, but his trachea had been damaged, so they were inserting a tube.
Lana felt powerless as she knelt next to her brother in the sand, her hands covered in his blood.
The only man who really understood her. Who loved her. She couldn’t lose him. She would be lost without her brother.
“It’s okay, Jack. I’m here. I’m here.”
The paramedics got him stabilized and strapped down onto a gurney to take him to the hospital. They loaded him into the back and Andrew followed, but when Lana tried to climb in the paramedic stopped her.
“Sorry, miss. Only family.”
“It’s okay, she’s his sister and she’s a surgeon,” Andrew said.
The paramedic nodded and helped Lana up, shutting the door and then climbing into the front, while another paramedic in the back continued to monitor Jack.
“Thank you,” Lana said quickly, not looking at Andrew, because she couldn’t look at the man who’d broken her heart.
“You’re welcome.” Then he raked a hand through his hair. “Lana, there’s... Look, I...”
“No, I don’t want to talk about it, Andrew.” She shook her head. “Not now. My brother is clinging to life and that’s all that matters.”
Andrew nodded.
She kept her focus on Jack during the ride to the hospital. Which felt like an eternity.
Once the ambulance door opened she jumped out and ran into the trauma department.
“Someone page my father to Trauma, stat!” she shouted.
Dr. Page, one of the residents, ran off to a phone and Lana turned back to the paramedics wheeling Jack in. Andrew was helping them.
“Page a trauma surgeon,” Andrew shouted. He was barking orders as they wheeled Jack into a trauma pod. A crash cart was pushed into the room and Andrew was putting on a gown. All Lana could do was stand back and watch in horror as the paramedics handed Jack over to Andrew and the trauma surgeon, Dr. Rodman, who had come rushing into the pod.
“Iolana, what’s going on?” her father said as he came rushing toward the pod. Then his eyes widened in shock. “You’re covered in blood!”
“It’s not me,” Lana said and she held her father back. “It’s Jack. A wave tossed him and it’s bad, Dad. It’s really bad.”
Her father raked a hand through his hair. “I told him not do it. I told him it was dangerous.”
“Yeah, but he loves it, Dad! He did something he’s passionate about, just like you. You two are so alike.”
Her father snorted. “We are not alike, Lana.”
“You are both exactly alike. You’re stubborn, unbending and you both nag me until you get what you want!”
Her father’s eyes widened as the words came out of her mouth.
“I raised Jack so I know that he’s like you. He just did what he felt passionately about. Just because he didn’t follow your path doesn’t mean that his path wasn’t right.”
“His path led him to this, Iolana. He might die!” her father shouted.
“And he dies loving what he was doing. I was too busy trying to keep the peace between you two, to take care of Jack when you were working doing what you loved, I sacrificed most of my life to give you both what you wanted.”
“You love surgery...”
“I do, but I wanted to leave Oahu. Dad, you left us.” She was tired of holding it all in. Tired of pretending. She wasn’t just angry at her mother; she was angry at him too for controlling her life.
“I didn’t leave you,” her father said darkly. “Your mother left.”
“She left physically, but you weren’t there either, Dad. I raised Jack. I didn’t have a childhood.”
Her father’s head hung. “I couldn’t be home.”
“Why? We needed you and you weren’t there,” she said.
“It was too hard. I loved your mother and she left us. Home was a reminder of my broken heart.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I loved her too, but we needed you, Dad. And I’m sorry we’re such a disappointment to you. Such a burden”
“You’re not. You weren’t. I’m sorry.”
She nodded and then swallowed her fear to tell him more. She was tired of lying. “Jack had me marry Andrew for a green card.”
“What?” her father demanded. “Iolana...”
She held up her hand. “At first, but I fell in love with Andrew. I want these babies. Don’t be mad at Andrew or Jack. It was my decision, it was my mistake and I’m owning it, but I have to take charge of my own life, Dad, and you need to be more supportive of Jack. I can’t be the peacekeeper between the two of you anymore. I’m done. It’s time I get to live my own life. I can’t follow in your shadow any longer.”
Her father was taken aback by her outburst and so was she, to be honest. “Iolana?”
Then she broke down in tears and her father pulled her close, holding her and comforting her the way he had never done. The last time she’d embraced her father it was when he’d been crying because her mother had left and she had held him while he cried. Now he was holding her, because she was terrified.
A code blue was called and she could hear Andrew shouting over the fray as Dr. Rodman shocked her brother as he coded.
“Oh, God, I can’t lose my son! I can’t.” Her father broke down. “Please, God, no.”
Lana held onto her father tighter and then, as Jack’s heart stabilized, she knew exactly who she had to call, but she was afraid to do it.
Andrew came out of the trauma pod. His face was grim.
“What’s going on?” her father demanded.
“He’s stabilized, but it’s not good. They’re taking him down to do a CT scan right now. Dr. Rodman is an excellent trauma surgeon and he’ll be able to tell us the extent of the damage.”
Her father nodded. “I’m going to go down with him.”
“Okay, but Dr. Haole, remember that Dr. Rodman is the surgeon. Not you. You can’t interfere.”
“I know,” her father said quietly and he left Lana and Andrew standing in the hall as he followed Jack’s gurney down for an emergency CT scan.
She turned to leave, but Andrew grabbed her arm and dragged her into a private room. He discarded the trauma gown and washed his hands.
“Why did you bring me in here?” she demanded. “I should be with Jack and my father.”
“They’re fine. It’s you I’m worried about. You and the babies.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” she snapped.
“I know I didn’t go to that obstetrician appointment. I’m sorry. I was angry and scared.”
“And now?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“I don’t know. Worried. I’m worried about my friend.”
“Yes, Jack has been a good friend to you. Got you hooked up with his sister so you could land your cushy job with the ISC.”
“Lana, you know that’s always been my dream.”
“So you were offered a job?” she asked.
“No, not yet, but if I am I’m going to take it and if you weren’t so scared you could come with me.”
“Why would I go with you?”
“You wouldn’t. I know you wouldn’t.”
Before she could answer, Dr. Page, the orthopedic resident, stuck his head in the room. “Sorry to interrupt, Dr. Tremblay, but Dr. Haole is requesting you come down to the CT scan. They have results and they need you down there, stat.”
Andrew nodded. “I’ll be right there. Thank you, Dr. Page.”
Dr. Page left and Andrew turned back to her. “This isn’t over. We need to talk.”
Lana didn’t say anything else. Andrew left the room and the room began to spin as the adrenaline of what’d happened began to wear off.
There was a phone on the wall and she knew what she had to do. She left the trauma department and made her way up to her office. It was a Saturday so her assistant Kelley wasn’t there.
Which was good. She had to pull herself together to tackle what she was going to do. There was a card on her desk. One that had been left when her mother had come to see her a month ago.
With trembling hands she picked up the phone and dialed the number.
“Hello?” It was the voice she recalled from when she was a girl. Before her mother left, the gentle voice that had sung her Hawaiian lullabies to calm the night terrors. The voice that had haunted her for years, until it faded into the recesses of her memory after she’d left. Now it was all rushing back and she had to keep her voice calm.
“It’s Iolana,” she managed to say.
“Iolana, I’m so glad you called me!” Her voice was genuine. She was happy and now Iolana had to break the news to her.
“I have bad news,” she choked back.
“What is it?”
“It’s Keaka... I mean it’s Jack. He’s been in an accident. It’s not looking good. You should prepare yourself.”
There was a strangled cry on the other end. “Oh, my God. I’m coming. Hold on. I’ll be there soon.”
“I’ll meet you at the ER doors.” Lana disconnected the call. Her hand still shaking, she buried her face in her hands and wept.
Things were going to change.
Life was too short.
* * *
“His pelvis and his hip are fractured. His femur is also broken, all on the left side. It’s like his body was crushed on one side only. There is a fracture of some of the right ribs, but those aren’t as serious as the pelvis, hip and femur,” Andrew said, pointing to the images that were on the computer. “The pelvis is crushed on this side and he has extensive internal bleeding.”
Dr. Rodman nodded. “I need to get him into the OR and control the bleeding.”
“Agreed, and once the bleeding is stabilized his bones need to be repaired. As long as he can tolerate it. We’ll see how he does after you stop the bleeding.”
Dr. Rodman left the CT room and went to speak to Dr. Haole. Jack needed to go straight into surgery.
Andrew just stared up at the screen and had the other two orthopedic surgeons paged. One was in the OR doing a hip replacement and the other was away at a conference.
Dr. Haole couldn’t perform the surgery because he was Jack’s father and Lana couldn’t perform this surgery either.
He broke out in a cold sweat.
“It’s bad?” Lana asked as she came into the CT room.
Andrew nodded. “I’m sorry. You can see the extent of his injuries. When he hit the rocks, it crushed the left side of his body.”
Lana nodded, but kept her calm. “He’ll need extensive work.”
“Right, and one surgeon is in the operating room and the other is at a conference, which just leaves...”
“You,” she said as a matter of fact. “You’ve been cleared for surgery. You’re one of the best orthopedic surgeons, Andrew. Dad can’t do it. I can’t. There’s only you. My other two orthopedic surgeons are fine, they’re good, but I want the best working on my brother. It has to be you.”
“I can’t, Lana...” Which was pathetic. He had to, but he was terrified in that moment. It had been four years since he’d picked up a scalpel and operated on a patient. His first patient couldn’t be his friend, the brother of the woman he loved.
“You have to,” she snapped. “I want the best for my brother. Save his life.”
“What if I can’t? It’s been four years, Lana. And if he dies... I know I’ve screwed up, but if he dies I can’t lose you.”
Lana didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she grabbed him by his shoulders. “You’ve got this. I’m not your parents. You won’t lose me, unless you walk away from this.”
Andrew pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Terrified about what he was about to do, not fully believing that his hand wouldn’t shake, that Lana wouldn’t walk away if Jack didn’t survive. But she was right—if he walked away Jack would die and he would lose her.
He couldn’t lose her.
And their two weeks apart, when he’d left, had been brutal. He’d missed her and he realized how lonely his life had become. He wanted Lana, but he was worried that he’d blown it. Now he had a way to make it all right.
And he would make sure that after all was said and done he’d win her over.
And he would never leave again.