Waiting on Us

WAITING ON US

Also by Amy Miles

THE AROTAS BOX SET

Forbidden

Reckoning

Redemption

Evermore

Desolate

THE RISING TRILOGY BOX SET

Defiance Rising

Relinquish

Vengeance

A Love Restored

In Your Embrace

Obsidian Flames

Waiting on Us

By

AMY MILES

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 products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright ©2015 by Amy Miles Books, LLC.

SMASHWORDS EDITION

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Available in eBook format.

ISBN: 9781311854087

Table of Contents

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

NEWSLETTER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MORE BOOKS BY AMY

CONNECT

ONE

Hello, Elliot. It’s me, Claire. I know it has been a long time since we last spoke. Hell, it has been forever. I have changed so much since then. I guess you have too.

I was afraid to call you before now, to risk hearing your voice because I knew that when I did I’d want to drive straight through the night to be in your arms again. If only it were that easy and life could be fair just this once.

There are so many things that I wish I could share with you to explain why I ran away. Please believe that I had my reasons and you were never one of them.

For the longest time, I wanted to believe that we could be together, that we could go back to the beginning when we first met and nothing existed outside of us, but no matter how hard I wanted to ignore it, it did exist. I wanted to go to you, but my reason for leaving hadn't changed I couldn't risk it, so I stayed away.

We were from two different worlds trying to cheat both of them just for the chance to be together. I wished it had worked. Truly I do.

I wanted you to know that I’m sorry for everything. Not for loving you. I would never apologize for that. I’m sorry for the pain that I caused you, for leaving you like I did. I know you didn't understand. How could you?

The memories of us have kept me going all this time, even while we are so far apart...especially the ones from when we first met.

TWO

Three years earlier…

They say your life flashes before your eyes the moment right before you die, but that wasn’t true for everyone. Mine didn’t even warrant a tiny flicker of light, at least not until I opened my eyes to see Elliot Carter staring up at me.

He was one of those guys that everyone knew. Popular, nice on the eyes and untouchable by pretty much anyone in town that his father didn’t approve of. You had to be somebody for the Carter’s to notice you and I was about as invisible as they came.

I had to blink several times before Elliot’s face became clear, but nothing else was. I couldn’t recall how I came to be dangling over the steering wheel of my car or why there was a tree limb impaled into my passenger side seat. The seatbelt pulled taut against my chest, crushing the air from my lungs. My hair fell around my face as I stared through the cracked windshield to the ground far below.

Elliot stood beneath me. His neck craned up to peer at my car, obviously searching for a survivor, but where did he come from? I closed my eyes and tried to remember. There must’ve been an accident. It was the only explanation. I’d been on my way home and I remembered deciding to cut my drive through the mountains short because the weather was deteriorating.

Shit. I was on Dead Man’s Curve. It was a twisty windy road that appropriately lived up to its name. A favorite haunt for bikers on a warm fall day, it became a deadly pass in winter. I knew better than to risk it but when I’d set out earlier in the day the clouds were gray and pregnant with snow, but none had yet fallen.

The pass wound up through the mountains and back to the valley below. I must have careened off one of the upper lookouts and slammed into a tree on my way down.

Why couldn’t I remember anything more than that?

I pressed my hand against my forehead and it came back slick with blood. There was a slight ringing in my ears and I knew I’d hit my head at least once, hard enough to knock me out. The likelihood of a concussion fell heavily over me as I tried to focus my thoughts against the nausea building in waves in the pit of my stomach

Hello? Is anyone up there? Elliot cupped his hands around his mouth to be heard against the blustery winds that tossed his raven hair about his face. He wore it long, nearly chin length and although it was tucked under a stocking hat, it whipped against his cheeks. Even in the short amount of time that he had been standing there, the snow had already begun to pile over his calves.

In a brief moment of clarity, I remembered that the weather station had called for a blizzard to hit tonight. Apparently, they were wrong about the timing of its arrival.

I’m here. My voice sounded pitiful in its attempt to be heard through the cracked windshield. I cleared my throat and tried again, this time manually rolling down my window a few inches. I shivered against the burst of cold air. I’m here! Please help me!

The instant he heard my voice, Elliot rushed to the tree. He surveyed the limbs trying to find the best way up. I waved my hands to be seen through the heavily falling snow but when a terrific groan emitted from my car I froze. The steering wheel had pulled to the right as the tires rotated under my enthusiastic waving.

Closing my eyes, I waited for the car to fall still once more, willing my stomach to settle. When the groan faded, I gripped the wheel tightly in both hands, determined not to let it move again.

Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes and chilled against my cheeks as I considered my predicament. I was trapped in a tree, its branches coated with nearly half an inch of ice and there was a blizzard outside ready to dump nearly two feet of snow on us over the next two days. I was in a death trap.

Oh God, I cried and gulped in the air until it burned in my lungs and gave me a wicked attack of lightheadedness, or maybe that was just a symptom of a concussion. I couldn't remember. It was hard to focus.

Breath puffed from between my lips as I trembled in the cold, terrified to admit what was about to happen. My car, a rust bucket on wheels was heavier than most, despite its compact size. Ed, the guy I was supposed to call dad, ran a scrap yard on the outskirts of town and preferred to work on old junkers, tearing them apart to sell them off part by part. That was how I ended up with Frankenstein, my pieced together clunker.

It ran. It got me to and from work. It meant I wasn’t dependent on Ed for anything and that meant freedom from a hell of a lot of shitty things.

A shiver raced up my spine as Elliot circled the tree, testing different branches for their stability. He disappeared for several minutes and then returned with a windshield scraper and began chipping away at the ice. As I watched, my shivering transitioned into a full body tremor.

I knew I was in bad shape. Blood dripped from the ends of my hair onto the dashboard. I hissed when I touched the stinging sensation along my forehead again and my fingers came away wet with ample amounts of blood. My vision swam and my stomach clenched at the sight, knowing that the angle with which I was positioned wouldn’t help to slow the blood loss anytime soon.

When I opened my eyes again I was pretty sure I’d passed out for a couple of minutes because Elliot was on the move. By best guess, I was, at least, twenty feet in the air, a perilous climb on icy limbs that would prove to be slow going for him if he could manage it.

Talk to me, he shouted up as he paused between chipping out footholds. From below, I could hear him grunting with effort. What’s your name?

Claire Sullivan. My voice was shaky as my arms trembled under the force it took to keep the wheel straight. I knew if I let go the wheel would pull to the right and I couldn’t let that happen. Elliot was moving to a position directly beneath me. He wouldn’t stand a chance.

He paused and looked up. Claire? That’s a nice name. I’m Elliot.

I know.

What’s that?

A large chunk of ice broke off from the tree limb overhead and smashed into my back windshield. I screamed and instinctively ducked. Elliot hugged the tree as the chunks slid off my roof and fell past him.

You ok up there?

I’m fine. Just a little ice.

Wasn’t so little from where I'm standing.

I couldn’t believe it when I heard him laugh. Was he nuts? Well, he had to be since he was free climbing an iced-over tree with a car teetering over his head. If that didn’t qualify him for crazy I didn’t know what would.

I fell silent, watching his progress, wishing that I had something more to wear than a threadbare coat, but it was all that I owned. No hat. No gloves. I had a scarf that my mom knitted for me last Christmas. It had meant so much to me. Things were tight, especially around the holidays. That’s when Ed liked to drink in excess and what little money we had gone straight down his throat. When that ran out he found other ways to get his drinking money.

I learned long ago that Christmas was better off without gifts. Mom had arthritis something fierce and knitting was painful for her, but she’d refused to let me go without something. I loved her dearly for that sacrifice.

I knew my scarf was repurposed from several pairs of old socks, but I never said anything. Mom would have been embarrassed so I smiled and wore my scarf with pride. Today I was extremely grateful for its added protection.

Hold on, he shouted as he gripped a new branch and hoisted himself higher. He vanished from sight for a moment and was lost to a thick patch of evergreen needles. I held my breath when I heard a cry followed by an extended silence.

Elliot?

Just a bit slippery down here. I’m good. But he didn’t sound good. His voice was pinched and I knew he must have come close to taking a tumble. He was high enough now to break a leg or worse.

I’m sorry, I called through the crack in my window. The tip of my nose was instantly sore from the bite on the air. It had to be well below freezing. It was nearly impossible to tell what time it was, but the sky was growing darker by the minute. The clouds spilled over the mountain top, concealing nearly everything from sight.

For what? When his head poked through the pine needles I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

This is too dangerous. The car isn’t seated well in the tree and I could come speeding down at you at any moment. There’s no reason for both of us to die today.

Even as the words passed my lips, the car shuddered, sliding a few inches to the right. My arms ached as I tried to steer left, hoping that the added friction would slow the slide. My heart thrummed in my neck and I held my breath once more, terrified that this could be my last moment.

Elliot swung his leg over a branch and pulled himself up, clinging to the thick limb with a vice-like bear hug. I’m not leaving you up here.

When I didn’t answer I heard him start to move again, inching toward the main tree trunk. Through the spider-webbed glass, I could see his determination staring back at me and realized he was nearly close enough to reach my front bumper.

I need you to work with me, ok?

I wanted to nod, to tell him I’d do anything that it took to be safe but as I looked at the ground, I felt the world tilt and knew I was close to passing out again.

Claire?

I’m fine, I called in a shaky voice and focused on inhaling and exhaling. Something constant to keep the fear at bay. Just a little petrified of heights.

His warm chuckle helped to clear a path through my panic. You and me both.

You?

Elliot Carter was a known daredevil. He loved fast cars, racing jet skis on the lake, jumping dirt bikes and performing crazy aerial tricks on the half-pipe skate park that his father had built in his backyard for Elliot and his friends. As I thought about it, and I focused really hard on keeping my mind off the swaying of the tree, I realized all of those kept him near enough to the ground.

Claire? I let out a little squeal of surprise when I heard a muffled knock on the window beside me. The thrumming in my heart instantly became a chaotic stampeding when he popped up beside me. Can you open the window a bit more for me?

I shook my head as I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. I can’t let go of the wheel. The car is pulling towards the right. If I let go…