Winter Waites (Aster Valley 0.50)

The first sign came three days later when a coach bus full of tourists drove off the highway and flooded the hospital with trauma patients. It was all-hands on deck for anyone associated with the hospital, and I helped organize friends and family around the clock as they trickled into town in search of news of their loved ones. The accident had made national news, and the press was out in droves. Gent heard about it when he landed in Sydney and immediately called to ask if I was okay.

It was so good to hear his voice. I assured him I was fine, just sad and exhausted like all of the rest of the hospital staff, when I had to cut our call short to deal with another group of people who’d arrived. Only two hours later, a delivery van showed up with stacks and stacks of pizza boxes and cases of water and soda for all of the hospital staff, injured tourists, and their friends and family.

“Who sent this stuff?” someone asked around a mouthful. “This is a godsend. I’m starving.”

Aaron bustled around handing out paper plates and napkins. “The delivery crew said the order was made by someone pretending to be Gentry Kane. He said to make sure Winter Waites eats something.” He glanced at me with a giant knowing grin. “I said, ‘Girl, he wasn’t pretending. Gent’s a friend of ours.’ Not sure she believed me.”

My heart flew in wild, wobbly circles in my chest. I grabbed a slice of the nearest pizza and used it to keep from blurting out lovesick exclamations. When I finally had a few minutes to myself late that night, I texted Gent.

Me: Thank you for the pizza. That was incredibly generous.

Gent: Did you eat? Did it help at all?

Me: A lot. We’d barely had time to grab stuff out of the vending machine before that arrived.

Gent: That’s what I was worried about. What else can I do?

Hold me, I thought. Come back to me.

Me: Keep being you. Take care of yourself. Have fun.

Gent: I meant, what else can I do to make your life easier and keep you healthy?

Me: Just knowing you’re out there in the world caring about me is pretty amazing.

Gent: I do. So much. More than you know. Get some sleep, sweetheart.

I fell asleep hugging my phone.

Two weeks later, my sister called and shrieked intelligibly into the phone. “Oh my god you did not! Oh my god! Oh my god! I can’t believe you did this!”

I was at work in the locker room, changing into running shoes after attending a meeting. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I told her. “And you’re deafening me.”

“The car. The car. Winter. Holy shit!”

“What car? I have no idea what you mean.”

“I am standing outside of my dorm building looking at a brand-new Mini Cooper All-Wheel Drive… like… I can’t even breathe right now. Cherry red. Two sunroofs. I can’t… I can’t even believe this. How the hell can you afford this? It’s too much!”

“Summer, stop. I did not send you a car. I can’t afford it. It’s a mistake. Tell the delivery person they made a mistake.”

I heard muffled noises, then the sound of a man’s voice. “Yeah, uh, this Summer’s brother?”

“Yes, sir. I didn’t buy her a car. You have the wrong person.”

He chuckled in a low, easy way. “He said you’d say that. We got the right lady. It’s a gift from Kevin Jones for Summer Waites.”

I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t know any Kevin Jones, when suddenly I remembered. Kevin Jones had been the name on Gent’s OT paperwork.

I stared at the chipped paint of the locker in front of me. “Are you sure? Do… do you have an address for Mr. Jones?”

He read of an address in Los Angeles, and my hands and feet started to tingle. “Was there a note? A gift message? Anything?” I asked, holding my breath. This couldn’t be real. Why? Why had he done this.

“I gave it to her. Hang on.” He gave the phone back to Summer.

“Winter, fuck. I can’t believe this. Who the hell is Kevin Jones?”

“What does the note say?”

“It says, ‘Winter adores you. Hope this helps make your life a little easier.’ Oh. I just saw the name Winter and thought it was from you. What does this mean?”

I barked out a disbelieving laugh. “It means I’m friends with a crazy person who doesn’t know how to create reasonable boundaries.”

“But who is it? Who’s Kevin Jones? I thought you were seeing a guy name Brian, but then you two broke up.”

I hadn’t even spared Brian a thought in all this time. Just went to show everything had worked out for the best. “No, this… Kevin… is someone I met after Brian. But we’re just friends.”