Chapter 24

© Copyright 2011 by Elizabeth Delayne





Like so many mornings on the move, Jamie joined George at the small RV table. They were silent as they split the morning paper in silence.

They were heading into Dallas where they were supposed to film clips of them as a team, riding bikes somewhere... which would prove interesting ... as most of the bikes were children’s bikes.

Someone had a sense of humor.

They’d stopped at a hotel in Austin, fallen, as was now their habit, into their own beds without so much as talking ot planning. Morning had come early, but with it another coffee ... time with Tyler. That’s all it was.

All she could think of it being.

But it had been nice, just to walk together to the lobby of the hotel, to share breakfast while they watched, this morning at least, the weather channel. Tyler had skimmed over one of the morning papers. She’d brought a book, her latest devotional.

Sometimes they talked about what she was reading. This morning, they hadn’t. They’d been followed by a camera, had been interrupted by a trio of sisters who recognized Tyler from the show.

Seeing the camera, and finding out that they were filming for the coming season, had made the girls gush with giddiness.

It had been funny to watch Tyler deal with it. As comfortable as he was with his role on the show, he was less comfortable in the presence of teenage girls who wanted autographs and attention.

He supplied them with both, including prerequisite pictures he knew would end up on the internet before they finished breakfast. He was less comfortable, she could tell, with his image as a heartthrob.

“Have you made it on the cover of some teeny-bopper magazine?” she’d asked, surprised when he blushed.

He ran a hand over the back of his neck and grimaced. “From what I’ve heard. It’s not a big deal.”

“No? I used to read teeny-bopper magazines.”

He grinned at that. “Way back when?”

“Somewhere around there.”

“Would you have gone for me? As a heartthrob back then?”

She’d grinned and took a long sip of coffee, pretending to seriously consider t. “Probably. But I wasn’t the best decision maker before I hit high school. I once had a crush on—“

She’d nearly said it out loud, and whatever had stopped her, she could only be grateful. Not only did she not want to open up her secrets to the entire viewing audience, but her word choice for the guy wouldn’t have been nice for anyone. Some things were better left locked in the recesses of long ago memories.

She doubted said boy even knew who she was back then.

“With who?” Tyler prodded.

“No –nothing. No one. I’ve forgotten.”

“Uh ... uhh.” He tapped his fingers on his coffee mug. “We’re going to have to see about that.”

“Only if I can see your magazine cover.”

“I don’t ... I didn’t bother to get a copy.”

“Really,” she asked cheekily—especially since she knew Felicity would know where to look. “Then I guess my secret is safe.”

They’d been joined all too soon by the rest of the group. And things were still easy. It was like she was with a group of people she’d known her whole life. It had been a long time, since college, since she’d had that feeling.

And before that? It had been since ... leaving Chicago.

Iowa was home because of her grandmother, but it had never been hers. The thought startled her.

Saddened her.

“Jamie?” George asked, across from her on the RV. She blinked, brought the present into focus.

“Oh, sorry. You brought up what you’re missing?” Jamie repeated, as she looked up from the morning paper she hadn’t been reading. “That’s easy. Your girls.”

“Well ... besides them,” he said. “It’s Sunday. About this time I would be sitting in the seat next to my wife at our little church on South Hampton Road. Brother Thomas would be up preachin’ the word. My heart ... my heart misses that.”

“Yeah,” Jamie said, reflective. “There’s a good group of people there at my church. I miss them, their insight. I miss the music. Just singing, with other people.”

“You go with your grandmother?”

“I tried, but there wasn’t much of a youth group there when I was in high school, so she made arrangements with a friend of a friend. I kind of grew up there,” she glanced up, studied the traffic on the interstate as they headed into Dallas.

Kind of ... but thinking of them didn’t beat back the melancholy she felt now. She wasn’t really in contact with anyone from those pre-college years. They had moved away, or had eventually married and things had changed.

She frowned at the cars she could see through the front RV window.

And then it sunk in.

It wasn’t just traffic. The cars were colliding...

It wasn’t a movie, it wasn’t in slow motion. It just happened.

The wave of cars, then another wave, came together.

She stood, her hands shaking as she watched the cars up ahead continue to crash into each other, like something out of a movie.

But not.

It was real.

“Jamie?”

The RV swerved.. She felt hands on her arms, keeping her from tumbling forward.

They were far enough out. There was enough room to stop. Please let there be room enough to stop.

But that didn’t change what had happened up ahead.

She jerked away from the hands holding her and scrambled for her backpack.



Tyler watched Jamie bang on the door until Bob slid it open.

Then she was running, in emergency mode. He stood, stunned as he watched her weave through stopped cars, tossing the back pack over her shoulder as she ran.

She was going to help. She hadn’t processed it. Hadn’t thought.

It was just instinctive.

She’d mentioned that she worked emergency. She’d talked about working in Chicago’s EMT services over the summer.

He knew she’d worked in disaster zones, going into Katrina and Haiti. And he knew–from the look in her eyes—that it hadn’t been easy for her after.

And behind her, the cameras were on her, filming it all.


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