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calling my name gently. The voice sounds like
it's coming from a tunnel outside of my dream.
    “ Leave me alone!” I
scream. “She's gotta hear what I hafta say to her!"
    Sobs consume my body. My
cheeks are hot and wet. Don’t you get it?” I cry, pushing against
the arms that hold me tightly. “Daniel's mine…he's supposed to
be…mine.”
    I was once again blessed
with blackness. The freeze-frame picture disappeared to
nothingness. Sometime later, my eyes fluttered open. As they
adjusted to the light, I realized that I wasn't in my bed at my
cottage.
    “ Tylar,” a soft, familiar
voice said, “you're in the hospital. Do you remember what happened?
You may not remember, but you're going to be fine,
okay?”
    My eyes searched the room.
Then I saw him. Trey. He was standing at the end of my bed, and his
sapphire blue eyes reflected fatigue and worry. He smiled, his
dimple appearing briefly. My throat hurt so much I was afraid to
speak. I had all kinds of tubes on me. Something was dripping into
me from an IV that connected to the back of my hand. A woman I
didn’t recognize rose from a chair in the corner and stood next to
Trey.
    “ Trey,” she said, “she’s
awake now. She’s okay. Don’t you think you need to get home and get
some rest, maybe change your clothes, get something to eat? The
doctor says she’s stable.”
    Trey looked like he'd been
in that wrinkled tuxedo for days. He didn’t take his eyes off of me
while he answered her. “Charlotte, I’m here as long as she is, or
until someone from her family surfaces. We haven’t been successful
in reaching her mother, and I don’t feel right leaving
her.”
    “ But Clint, Rodney, Ray,
and Luke have offered to be here in shifts so that she isn’t left
alone,” Charlotte persisted. “You’re the one who chooses to keep
vigil.”
    “ I don’t give a damn,”
Trey answered, his tone full of irritation. “I need to make sure
she is safe. Someone has to be responsible for this girl and make
sure everything that should be done is being done. That's why I'm
here, and frankly, I’m tired of explaining this to you.” Charlotte
wasn’t happy with his response but I was; I felt like I was a
voyeur in yet another dream, and this one gave me far more pleasure
then the one I'd escaped earlier.
    “ Fine,” she snapped at
him, grabbing her purse from the chair. “Call me if you ever get
relieved of duty here.” With that, she flounced out of the room,
leaving Trey in a whoosh of wind as she abruptly slammed the door.
Trey rolled his eyes and smiled sheepishly at me. I couldn’t
suppress a giggle and I winced at the pain it brought to my throat.
Why did it hurt so much? Trey came closer and asked if I wanted
some water. I nodded yes. He poured some ice water out of the
pitcher that was on the bed tray, and gently put his left arm
underneath my head, lifting it slowly. I could feel that my lips
were parched. I was glad that I couldn’t see how bad I looked. He
tilted the straw toward me so I could reach it with my lips. I took
several painful swallows.
    His nearness made me feel
so safe. I wanted to sleep without dreams but there was no
guarantee. I didn’t want to close my eyes for fear he would leave.
He sensed my fear because he settled back into a chair by my
bed.
    “ I’m not going anywhere,
Tylar,” he whispered. “Go to sleep and dream good things, I'm here
to chase the bad dreams away.” I smiled and sank deeper into my
pillows, closing my eyes.

CHAPTER 5

    When I awoke, sunlight was
streaming in through the mini blinds of my hospital window. Trey
was asleep in the same chair, gently snoring. I reached over and
took a sip of water from my Styrofoam cup. My throat felt much
better. I drained the water with my straw. The slurping sound
caused Trey to stir.
    He languidly stretched his
arms out in front of him with the fingers of both hands intertwined
like a steeple. He yawned and glanced over at me. He was startled
to see me awake, sitting