Surrender 01 - Surrender

their tracks. She wouldn’t allow fear to ruin her time with the woman who’d given her life — who’d always been there for her — who was her best friend. Ari couldn’t change the past, but she could make sure their present was as perfect as possible.
    She quickly ran to her apartment and gathered a couple of changes of clothes, then stopped in at a local store and picked up a few games. Of course, she sneaked in a couple of books, just in case her mother got too tired and fell asleep for a while. Ari wasn’t leaving her mom’s side all weekend.
    If these truly were their last few nights together, she needed to pile on the memories. Losing her mother would be worse than anything she could imagine. The world would simply stop spinning. What reason would she have to go on? She’d smile and lie to her mom, telling her it would all be OK, but Ari knew that if her mom died, it wouldn’t be OK. Nothing would ever be OK again.

Chapter Twenty-Two

    “If you see a bright light at the end of a long dark tunnel, then you run like heck in the other direction. Do you understand?”
    “Surgery will be fine, Ari. You need to quit worrying about me, OK? How many times do I have to tell you this? I’m your mother and it’s my job to worry about you . You just take care of yourself. The doctor said surgery will last for several hours. I’d tell you to go outside and enjoy some of this beautiful sunshine streaming through the windows, but I know what a worry wart you are and I realize you won’t leave this hospital. Instead, I need you to do your best to stay calm, and know I’ll be as good as new in just a few hours.”
    “I love you so much, Mom. Don’t you dare leave me. I mean it. ”
    “I promise you I won’t.”
    “Ms. Harlow, it’s time to go now.”
    Ari’s jaw tensed in frustration. Knowing that the nurse was only doing her job didn’t help because Ari had a horrible feeling in her gut and she didn’t want to let her mother out of her sight. All she wanted to do was keep holding her hand. If there was a way for her to go into the surgical room with her, she would. She wasn’t ready for this — not that any amount of time would prepare her for her mother’s possible death.
    “Quit trying to intimidate these nice medical people, Ari. You are far too petite to scare anyone.”
    Ari hadn’t even realized she’d growled at the nurse when the woman had stepped up to the bed.
    “You raised me, Mom. I’m tougher than I look,” Ari joked as she bent down and kissed her mother’s cheek with tenderness.
    People not much better than strangers wheeled her mom from the room, and Ari slowly sank down into her chair, finally allowing the tears that had built up all weekend to fall. Her mother was tough — she’d make it through this just fine. Why be pessimistic for no good reason?
    After about an hour of sitting alone in the room panicking, Ari decided she had to get up and walk around. Driving herself crazy wasn’t helping and sitting there all by herself was only fueling her pessimism. She wandered from the room and found herself in the spot where she’d collided with Rafe so many months ago.
    It seemed like a different time. She’d grown so much in the last nine months — dropping out of college, losing her family home, finally finding work and, of course — meeting Rafe. She almost wished she’d taken up his offer just so she could lean on his shoulder at this moment.
    She immediately snapped herself out of those kinds of thoughts. Even if she had taken his offer, it wasn’t as if he’d be there for her. The whole point of his kinky arrangement was to have his women at his beck and call. He wouldn’t be her boyfriend and he certainly wasn’t the type of guy to hold her hand while she worried about her mother.
    Moving down the hall and finding pictures lining the handsome tan walls pulled her thoughts in a different direction. She admired the work of the photographer, seeing beautiful images of historical homes, blooming flowers and important members of the community in a range of different outfits, most of them volunteering at various functions.
    When she got to the end, she found a picture of Rafe wearing a hard hat and with a hammer in his hand and a big smile on his face. She was stunned at how human he looked without his custom suit on.
    She read the words beneath: Our deepest thanks go out to Raffaello Palazzo, who donated the funds for this wing to be built. A dedicated member of