This One Moment Read Online Free PDF Page B

there was caught up in the frustration of having to wait so long—caught up in their own private hell.
    After I talked to Brandon’s mom for a few minutes, she sent me upstairs to neurology.
    Pushing on the door to Hailey’s room, I removed my hat and sunglasses. A colorful display of flowers, taking up every available surface, greeted me, along with the nose-twitching combination of disinfectant and roses. The people who sent them couldn’t have known Hailey very well. The Hailey I remembered thought roses were a cliché.
    Hailey’s mom glanced up from the seat next to the bed. Her eyes were red from either crying or lack of sleep, or maybe both.
    “I’m so glad you came, Nolan.” She stood and threw her arms around me in the way I always remembered her doing, and a pain I hadn’t experienced in five years sliced through me. It had been a long time since someone had hugged me this way, this sincerely. Girls were always trying to hug me once they recognized me. But that was because of who I was. Hailey’s mom didn’t care about any of that. “How did you know?” she asked, pulling away.
    “Brandon called me last night. I came as soon as I could get a flight here.”
    I looked down at the girl I loved, and my heart almost broke in two. Whoever had attacked her had done a number on her, but behind the bruised, puffy face and the thin oxygen tube attached under her nose, she was the same beautiful girl I remembered. The same beautiful girl I had known, deep down, I would return to when the time was right. Once my life was less complicated with the band and touring. Once I no longer feared reliving the memories from the night I’d lost my family.
    Her long brown hair was still shiny and inviting. I itched to stroke my fingers through it to see if it was as silky as it had been five years ago. I longed to lean close to her and see if she still smelled like my favorite sugar cookies, sweet with a hint of vanilla.
    “What do you want to make?” she had asked me just before our last Christmas together. We’d been standing hip to hip in her parents’ kitchen, poring over a recipe book while she took a break from her studies. “Gingersnaps or chocolate chip cookies?”
    “If we make star-shaped sugar cookies,” I said, fighting the craving to kiss her, to let her know how I felt about her, “then we can decorate them.”
    She giggled. “You mean then you can eat all the frosting.”
    I’d smirked. “That too.” Hailey had known me too well.
    “What happened?” I asked her mom now. “Do the cops have any leads?”
    With her gaze on Hailey, Mrs. Wilkins shook her head. “The last we heard from her was when she was at your house. My husband had asked her to go there and locate some information off a legal document he said you needed.” I knew about that. My lawyer had contacted him because I was considering finally selling the place. “She found it, told him what he needed to know, and then was headed out to meet up with someone before going to work. She never showed up at the sports center for her shift.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “They found her and her abandoned car in Westgate.”
    “Who was she supposed to meet?”
    “She never said, and Jim didn’t think to ask.” She gave me a small smile. “It’s good to see you back. Are you going to be here for long?”
    Apparently Hailey had never told her mom that after I’d left the college town, I ignored Hailey’s attempts to communicate with me. She’d never told her mom how I had treated her like she’d never existed, as if she’d never consumed my waking thoughts all this time.
    I continued watching Hailey’s slow, rhythmic breathing. She looked peaceful. A princess sleeping until true love’s kiss woke her up, like in Hailey’s favorite fairy tale. I wished it had been as simple as that.
    “I’m not sure yet.” I wasn’t sure if Mrs. Wilkins was asking how long I’d be staying here in the hospital or in Northbridge, and I