Chapter 6
Alison
Five days after she saved Juniper Connelly’s life, Ali again walked into the hospital and took the now-familiar elevator up
to the cardiac unit. She had spent more time here the past five days than she had in her borrowed apartment, but she didn’t
regret a moment.
At first, she had visited because she felt sorry for the other woman. The normally confident, brusque June Connelly had seemed
so frightened to be alone, especially after doctors talked about putting in an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator to shock
her heart if it stopped again.
For all her success and wealth, June seemed... lonely. Ali had seen friends stop by, accomplished professionals like June
who dropped off flowers, small gifts, tasteful, luxurious slippers and throws.
All their visits seemed to Alison to be superficial. They talked around June’s heart health and rarely addressed it, focusing
instead on things happening at Move Inc, about their plans for the summer, about how happy they were to see her doing so well.
Ali would slip away whenever visitors arrived and then would pop back into the room to make sure June didn’t need anything
before she left for the day. June always seemed happy, almost relieved, whenever she showed up, though Ali wasn’t sure if
she was projecting her own feelings onto the other woman.
The true breakthrough in their relationship had come after June’s second night in the hospital, after doctors had confirmed her diagnosis of CPVT and again had recommended surgery to implant the small device under her collarbone that would sense if her heart rate became irregular or, heaven forbid, stopped entirely again. It would provide a small shock to return it to its usual beat.
Ali had offered to stop at June’s apartment to pick up anything she might want or need after the surgery, scheduled for the
next day.
“You don’t have to do that. You’ve done so much for me already.”
“I really don’t mind,” she assured her. “I know you terminated my internship but we never had the chance to fill out the paperwork
so I’m still technically your intern. I’m happy to help. Make a list of what I can pick up for you and where to find it and
then you can text it to me.”
June shook her head with resignation and began composing a text message on her phone to send to Alison with her list.
After her phone pinged, Alison read through the list to make sure she didn’t have any questions. Her gaze had stopped on the
third item, after face moisturizer and before reading glasses.
“You want me to pick up a copy of Purgatory River ?” she asked, almost dumbstruck.
“Yes. It should be easy to find. It’s in my bedroom, on the bedside table.”
At Ali’s continued silence, June had frowned. “Is that a problem?”
“No. Not a problem. It’s just... I didn’t realize you were a fan of Carson Wells.”
June had given a rough laugh. “Who isn’t? He’s the best American novelist in a generation. Since his tragic death, I’ve been
rereading my favorites. They’re my comfort reads.”
Her thoughts in a tangle, Alison had stared at the woman. What did that mean? Did Juniper know about her own connection to
Carson? If she didn’t, why would she love his writing so much and call his work her comfort reads?
She had cleared her throat, trying to find the right words. “You know he’s our... my father, right?” she quickly corrected.
For a long moment, June had only stared at her. “No, he isn’t!” she had finally exclaimed.
“Yeah. Pretty sure he is.” She quickly opened the photos on her phone and found the one she used as wallpaper, one of her
favorites of them in the mountains near their ranch.
She held her phone out to June, who looked at it in astonishment, then back at Alison.
“Good Lord. Why didn’t you tell me your father is Carson Wells?”
She shrugged. “It’s not something I casually drop into conversation with everyone.”
June’s face had softened. “And he’s only been gone six months, too. I’m so sorry. He seemed like an amazing man. I saw a documentary
about him on PBS a few months ago and discovered he lived an even more adventurous life than the characters in his books.
I would have loved to have met him.”
She spoke about a stranger, not about someone to whom she was closely connected. Clearly, Juniper didn’t know he was likely
her own father.
“Have you always been a fan?” Alison asked carefully, trying to sound casual.
“As far back as I can remember. My mother and I read Purgatory River together. I was twelve, too young to understand the subtext and the layers then, but I still loved it. We read several others
over the years before she died when I was fifteen. He was always her favorite author, and reading his work helps me feel a
connection with her somehow.”
Alison had tried to word her next question as carefully as possible. “Had your... mother met him?”
June nodded. “Apparently, she went to a signing of his in Jackson Hole when she was a grad student, trying to earn money during
the summer working at a lodge in Grand Teton National Park.”
So that was when the two of them must have connected. At a book signing. Her mind whirled with questions but she suspected Juniper wouldn’t know the answers any more than she did.
“Her signed first edition copy of the book was her most prized possession,” June said. “Now it’s mine.”
As odd as that made Ali feel, she couldn’t wait to tell her father’s friend Beckett Hunter, who was the cotrustee with her
of Carson’s literary trust.
He was one of only a few people she had confided in after her shocking DNA test.
He had speculated that maybe June’s mother had been a literary groupie who had hooked up with him in those heady early days
of Carson’s career, when his debut novel had launched him into instant success.
That conversation with June here in the hospital had been three days earlier. In the time since, somehow she and her half
sister had begun to forge an unlikely friendship.
She stepped out of the elevator when it stopped at the cardiac unit, smiling at a young father and two young girls still inside
who carried flowers in a blue basket, along with a small balloon on a stick that said It’s a Boy.
Hospitals were a constant source of drama, she thought. Births, deaths. Cancer diagnoses, miraculous healings. The people
who worked here were making a difference in people’s lives.
Unlike her.
Her own discontent annoyed her. She had a law degree. She only had to take the Wyoming bar later that year and then she could
start the rest of her life.
When she walked in, she found June sitting up wearing a robe Ali had brought in over her hospital gown. She looked bright
and alert, with more color than Ali had seen on her features.
“Alison. Hi. I was telling Adam what a lifesaver you have been, literally and metaphorically.”
She saw at once that the very handsome CEO and tech genius of Move Inc sat in the visitor’s chair. He had been delayed by business overseas. While he called every day, as far as she knew, this was his first visit to the hospital.
“This is Alison Wells, our courageous intern?”
He had never spoken to her before and she felt deeply intimidated.
“Yes,” June said.
To Ali’s shock, he rose and reached out to fold both of her hands into his. “I can never thank you enough for what you have
done. Move Inc would be lost without our Junie. She was in on the ground floor, since we were in college, dreaming of brighter
days.”
“I’m glad I was there at the right time and the right place and knew what to do.”
“We all are. I want you to know we’re purchasing AED kits for every single department at Move and I’ve initiated a new program
through HR where every new hire will be required to learn CPR and other basic first-aid skills as a condition of their employment.
I can’t imagine why we haven’t implemented such a thing before.”
“You never know how important training is until someone needs it.” That was the only reason she had learned. Because she hadn’t
been able to help her father.
She knew now that her father had been beyond help from the very moment he collapsed. That didn’t help her guilt.
“So true. So true.” Adam reached for June’s hand now and squeezed her fingers. “I wish I could stay longer but Rudy is having
fits with both of us gone. I’ll check in with you again. You take care of yourself, Junie. I can’t lose you.”
After he left, Ali couldn’t help but notice how most of his conversation had centered on himself.
“I didn’t realize you were part of Move Inc from the beginning.”
“Adam, Rudy and I went to university together. I wasn’t as good at the coding as the two of them were, but I was definitely in on the brainstorming.”
“That’s great.”
“It’s always been a joint endeavor, even though Adam gets most of the recognition. Rudy and I are both happy to be behind
the scenes.”
“How are you feeling today?”
June shrugged. “Fine, though every time I take a breath I’m reminded I have a broken rib and a tiny piece of tech inside my
chest that’s keeping me alive.”
Ali couldn’t imagine how difficult that must be. “Are you supposed to go home today?”
“Apparently, the plan is for me to leave tomorrow. Doctor Singh wants to watch me another day to make sure the settings on
the ICD are correct.”
“I hope you’re not planning to immediately jump back into work.”
Even as she said the words, she wondered if June would consider her too presumptuous. While their relationship had shifted
to something more than boss and incompetent intern over the past few days, Ali knew she had no right to nag June about her
work habits. Maybe if June knew she was her younger sister, yes. But she still hadn’t told her about the DNA test results.
June didn’t appear offended by her effrontery. She frowned, looking disgruntled. “I’ve been ordered by Doctor Singh as well
as Adam and Rudy to take at least a month off. I don’t know how that will be possible. Maybe I can be gone for a week but
any longer than that and I’ll have to pop into the office to check on things.”
“Why don’t you come back to Wyoming with me?” Alison blurted out the idea that had been spinning in the back of her mind for
days.
June stared at her. “Wyoming?”
“Yes. My father’s ranch, The Painted Sky. It’s spectacular. It’s in a beautiful valley, on a river. The nearby town, Bridger Peak, is small, but has everything you might need. No matter what else is going on in my life, I always find peace there.”
“I couldn’t do that. You’ve already done more than enough for me. I can’t impose on you more than I already have.”
Ali wanted June to come to The Painted Sky. She wanted her to see the place their father had loved, where he found inspiration
and where he wrote.
Beyond that, she needed to tell June they were sisters, though she didn’t feel quite ready to blurt that out yet. Maybe it
would help June deal better with the shock if she came to the ranch first and had a chance to get to know Loretta and Beck
and everyone else in Bridger Peak who had adored Carson.
“There’s plenty of room,” she assured her. “We have five unused bedrooms in the ranch house. If you would rather be on your
own, my father’s writing cabin is a fully contained guesthouse, with three bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. When Dad was
trying to finish a book, he would sometimes stay there for an entire month, coming up to the main house only for the occasional
meal.”
June looked intrigued by the insight into Carson’s writing process. “I don’t imagine your mother loved that. I’ve always thought
how hard being married to a writer must be.”
“My mom died when I was fourteen. For most of my teenage years, it was just me, my dad and my grandma Loretta.”
“My mom died when I was fifteen, but it was always just the two of us. I never knew my father.”
“I’m sorry,” Ali murmured.
She wanted to say that going to Bridger Peak would give June the chance to get to know that father better, but the timing
wasn’t quite right to tell her.
“I can’t impose on your family that way,” June said again.
“It’s no imposition, I promise. It’s only my grandma and me now. The ranch is mine. I can invite anyone I like to stay.”
June studied her as if trying to make sense of a complicated coding problem. “You own a ranch in Wyoming. Yet, you were working as an unpaid, overworked intern to the marketing director at Move Inc. Why?”
Ali gave a bland look in response, though she could feel her palms sweat a little. “I love the ranch, don’t get me wrong,
but as I said on my application, I graduated from law school this year and needed something to do while I study for the bar.
I wanted some actual experience in the corporate world and it seemed a great opportunity to explore that option.”
“Lucky for me, you did,” June murmured. “Adam would probably call it fate or destiny that our paths crossed so you could save
my life.”
“You don’t agree?”
“I’m too prosaic to believe in destiny,” June said.
“I don’t know. I think I was in exactly the right place at the right time. And maybe going with me to The Painted Sky is exactly
where you need to be while you recover.”
June looked undecided.
“Adam wants me to go to his place on the California Coast near Napa. It’s lovely, don’t get me wrong. But you know, I think
I would prefer the mountains of Wyoming. Are you sure it isn’t too much to ask?”
Ali beamed. She wouldn’t have to say goodbye to June yet, and she could choose the best time to tell the other woman that
her favorite author was actually her father.
“That would be amazing,” she exclaimed. “I’ll call my grandmother and have her make sure the cabin is ready for a guest.”
“I won’t be ready to leave as soon as I’m discharged. It will take me a day or two to pack and make arrangements.”
“Totally fine. I’m in no hurry. And I can help you with whatever you need to do before you leave.”
That was what family members did for each other, wasn’t it?