He drops his head like I’m causing him pain. “That’s not true.” His gaze meets mine. “I didn’t think you felt that way about me. I should have been honest with you. I was just so afraid of losing you. But what I felt for Kenda is nothing like what I feel for you, Zara. You’re the only one I’ve ever truly loved.”
I cover his hand with mine and pull it away from my face. He can’t be touching me if I’m going to get out what I have to say unscathed. “Have you finished your book yet?”
“My publisher and the movie production company extended the deadline. Because Peony was kidnapped. But what does that have to do with me being in love with you?” A crinkle forms between the dark slash of his eyebrows. A confused crinkle, not a celebratory one.
“That’s good. About the deadline.” It would be heartless of them to still expect the manuscript on time when Garrett was more worried about his daughter than the book.
I adjust my position on the bed, wincing at the pain hammering my body. The emotional pain this conversation is costing me is not much better than the pain from the spondyolarthritis. “But you shouldn’t be here. You should be in Maple Ridge with your daughter and attending Emily’s funeral.” Grief cracks my voice at her name, and I sniff. I close my eyes, fighting to regain my composure. It hangs from a thin wire when I reopen them. “But instead of being there, where you belong, where you’re needed, you’re here.”
“I’m here becauseyou’rehere. You’re important to me, Zara.”
“If it weren’t for my chronic illness, I could’ve flown back with Peony.” My tone is the calm of a teacher hammering home a point.Please get what I’m saying. Please don’t make me have to keep explaining.My heart can’t take it. “My injuries weren’t bad enough for me to be hospitalized.” I touch the spot under my collarbone where gauze covers thirty stitches. “But the spondyloarthritis is. That’s why I’m here and not at home.”
“I know. The physician explained all that when Samuel and I gothere.” Garrett threads his fingers with mine, and the reassuring strength of his hand grounds me.
But it’s not enough to change my mind. “I don’t want to be a burden, Garrett. To you or anyone else.”
“Why would you think you’re a burden?”
“Because I have a chronic illness that makes it difficult to do things. Especially when the symptoms flare up.”
“So?”
“So I don’t want to be a burden.” What isn’t he understanding?
“If our places were reversed, would you stop loving me because I had a chronic illness or because I survived an accident that left me disabled?”
I snort out a laugh at the ridiculousness of that question. “No. I love you no matter what.”
“Exactly. You’re not a burden.” He leans down and brushes a kiss on my jaw. The tension in the air coils around us, drawing us closer. “You’re my everything, Golden Girl.”
I shift my head slightly to catch his gaze. The love I see reflected back at me has me sucking in a soft breath.Is this real?Is he really in love with me?
“You’re a beautiful, strong, courageous woman. You protected my daughter under the worst possible conditions.” His lips press ever so gently on mine. The touch lasts a fraction of a moment, but it still steals the air from my lungs. “And I would have flown halfway around the world to tell you I love you, regardless of the reason for you being there.” His mouth hovers above mine, our stuttering breaths caressing. “I was going to apologize when I got back from Tucson for what I said and tell you I do love you. But everything happened before I had the chance.”
The feel of him, his taste, his scent…my senses are thrown into overdrive. He kisses me again, this time lingering longer on my lips. “How ’bout for the next few days, we just focus on us. You and me. And on how I want to grow old with you. Because I love you.”
His words are like aloe vera to the soul, easing my fears, my misgivings, my self-doubts. Words I never imagined I would hear from Garrett. Words I’ve longed to hear. And I believe him. He. Loves. Me.
And not just as a friend.
My heart pounds, my breath hitches, and a wave of tingles sweep over my body, our new reality winding around me in a loving embrace. “Okay.” My reply brushes my lips in a whisper.
He slowly pulls away, his eyes searching mine. “Those men…did they touch you?” He traces over the bruised side of my face. “Other than here.”
“No. Not in the way you’re thinking.” Thank the Lord for that. And thank the Lord Peony had never been touched that way either. Tilly confirmed that. She’d told me a lot of things while I was her roommate. Things I don’t want to think about right now. I’d much rather think about this man in front of me—this wonderful, sweet, caring, sexy man…who finally, after all these years, is all mine.
A sexy glint lights his eyes. “So…so you’re okay if I touch you?”
“Are you asking if you can give me much-needed orgasms…for pain relief?” A wide smile spreads across my face. “Because the answer is yes, please. But you might want to lock the door first.”
“Good idea.” He clicks the door lock and returns to the narrow bed. I scoot over to give him more room.
He lowers the head of the bed to make things a little more comfortable. Hospital beds weren’t exactly designed with sex in mind. A nervous giggle escapes me at what we’re about to do in a very public place. But heck if I’m changing my mind. I need him, this, so badly, I ache for it deep in my bones.
And not just because of what it means for my physical pain.
He’s in love with me.
