“I will be,” Jamie murmured, “once I’ve seen Shannon. Where is she…is she okay?”
Lana stepped back, her hands slipping from his chest as she tucked herself into Marcus’s side.
“Yes, she’s in the guest room…in bed. Resting.”
His entire body stilled. “What do you meanresting? Did the hospital run tests? Is she sick?”
“She’s not sick.” Lana gave him a soft smile. “But…she needs to talk to you.”
Jamie’s stomach hollowed. “What do you mean?”
But he didn’t wait for an answer.
Spinning on his heel, he bolted down the hallway, every muscle coiled with urgency. Emotion surged, so strong it made his vision blur.
He didn’t knock. He couldn’t.
When the door flew open, his heart stuttered. There she was, curled on the bed, knees tucked in, hugging a pillow like it was all that tethered her to the earth.
Her face was red, tear-stained. Vulnerable in a way that twisted something fierce and protective within him.
“Shannon?” Jamie’s voice thundered.
He crossed the room in three powerful strides, dropping to his knees in front of her, his hands already reaching. “Talk to me, love…what’s wrong? Did something else happen?—”
His voice cut off when her watery ocean-blue eyes lifted to his.
The worry in his chest caved beneath the troubled shadow behind her eyes. She looked broken.No, not broken…fragile and brave all at once, and it wrecked him.
“Talk to me,” he demanded, his thumb brushing under her eye to catch a tear. “Show me where it hurts. I need to see, love. All of it.”
As she sobbed, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her onto his lap.
“I’ve got you, love,” he murmured into her hair. “I’m here now. It’s all over.”
He rocked her, one hand firm at her lower back, the other stroking through her hair as she wept into his shoulder.
“I missed you so much…” she whispered.
His voice dropped, husky and sure. “I missed you, too, love. More than you’ll ever know. It’s all over now. I’m home.”
Her fingers fisted in his shirt, yanking him closer.And Jamie let her. Let her cry, let her cling, let her tremble. Because she needed to fall apart, and he needed to be the one who held her through it.
“You don’t have to be strong right now, love,” he whispered. “That’s my job.”
Then her voice, strained and shaking, broke the silence.
“Lana told me everything. That Bucky mixed stuff into the coke. But…you need to know… It wouldn’t have mattered if you’d killed him.” Her breath caught. “Because I love you, Jamie. So damn much it hurts.”
The words fluttered something in him. The storm in his head stilled.
Her puffy, red eyes were a lifeline dragging him from the dark. She sat on his knee, brave, beautiful and fierce, declaring her love with tears streaking her cheeks and a fire still burning in her heart.
And he couldn’t even speak.
Before he could gather a single syllable, she reached for his hand, pulled it toward her, and held it to the soft curve of her belly, letting it rest there.
“We’re having a baby, Jamie.”
