Once More (Mercy Heart #1) Read Free Page A

been if that night had gone another way, if she’d only taken the risk and made a different choice. 

Chapter 2
    7 years earlier
    The Arkansas Tree Trail runs straight through campus, and is a favorite escape for many students from the stress between classes.  Katelyn put her things down and sat under a wild black cherry tree.  This particular day was quite warm, so she shed her cardigan and enjoyed feeling the breeze on her arms.  She looked down and noticed just how pale her skin was.  Her mother had always had tan skin, no matter what time of year it was.  Shaking her head to rid herself of the solemn feelings that thoughts of her mother still conjured, she leaned back against the rough, black bark of the tree trunk, gazing up through the long clusters of white flowers that were beginning to form.  In previous years, she always looked forward to summer, when the small fruits that the tree cultivated would ripen. The fruit that fell to the ground had a distinct, inviting scent, similar to that of cherry soda pop.   But this summer, she would not be around campus anymore to enjoy it. 
    At the age of 21, Katelyn was closing in on the first objective on her most important to-do list.  In her final semester at the University of Arkansas, the completion of her college degree was within her grasp.  A nursing student, she worked tirelessly at all of her requirements, from critical care clinicals to advanced pharmacology, often scoring high and maintaining a near perfect grade point average.  She was president of the Sigma Tau Theta honor society for nursing students, and most of her friends and classmates were certain she wouldn’t walk away from the annual awards ceremony empty-handed.  Any accolades she might receive would be well deserved. Her hard-work and perseverance did not go unnoticed by her professors or her peers. 
    After graduation, she was set to begin her career as a nurse in the oncology unit at Mercy Heart Medical Center.  She volunteered at the hospital on weekends in their Faith in Action program, visiting terminally ill patients, with many of whom she built close friendships, though, sadly, most were brief at best.
    As she rested for a moment under the tree, another student was riding his bicycle nearby on the sidewalk.  He appeared to be distracted, texting on his cell phone with one hand while steering with the other.  His groan in agony yanked her out of her peaceful rest.  A branch on the path had brought him down.  When she saw him in trouble, she ran to him to make sure he was not badly injured.  By the time she reached him, he was on all fours, running his hands through the grass, as if he were searching for something. 
    “Are you injured?  You really shouldn’t be moving around.  You could have fractured something,” she said, kneeling beside him and evaluating his condition while recalling with an almost photographic memory everything she had learned about triaging a patient in her nurse’s training over the past four years.
    “I’m fine, really.  Do you see my cell phone?” the young man said, almost to himself, without much regard for her presence.
    She looked around, found the phone behind him, and said, “Here it is.  Now will you let me take a look at you?”
    As he took the phone from her hand, his gaze met hers for the first time, and she noticed a small laceration on his right temple just barely visible under his unruly dark hair.
    “You are bleeding.  We need to get you over to health services to get checked out.  Can you tell me your name?  Are you feeling queasy?  Did you hit your head very hard?  How is your breathing?  If you could rate your pain on a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain, and ten being unbearable pain, how would you rate it?”  She was very close to him now, holding his wrist to check his heartbeat while following the second hand on her watch.  She then stared deep into his blue eyes, searching for any possible