Sam replayed Walker’s words in her head as she showered. She longed for family. She wanted tobelieve she was the one who could fill the empty place in his heart, make a family with him, build the life they both craved. There hadn’t been time enough to grasp what she was feeling, but it was much stronger than sex. She could easily love a man as thoughtful and caring as Walker. But was she twisting his promise to suit herneeds?
Exhausted, rattled, and thrilled that Walker had comefor her, Sam dreamed an impossible future while scrubbing off a mountain’s worth of dust. How could they make a life here, where her only family lived, after what they’d justexperienced?
She still couldn’t process what had happened. Had Daisy’s lamassu actuallystoppedan avalanche? Had the positive energy she’d felt in her staff been real or just herimagination?
Was there a studyshe could conduct to test physical energy around what everyone called a “spiritual” vortex? What ifghostswere part of that spiritenergy?
That’s how tired her mindwas.
When her bathroom door opened and a filthy, disheveled Walker entered, she forgot thinking entirely. He’d been magnificent out there today, with his shirt stripped off, his shoulders and biceps bulging and coveredin sweat while he shoveled and hauled with the rescue crews. But inside that muscled body existed an inquiring mind and a huge heart, a heart he was currently protecting from harm after a mercilessbruising.
She didn’t know if she could heal him, but she welcomed him into the shower with all she had to offer. Until Walker had come along, she’d felt like a lost child. Despite his ridiculousneed to protect, he made her realize she was a grown woman capable of accomplishing anything she set her mind on. Her mind wasn’t on anything except him rightnow.
They made passionate, bone-jarring love in the shower, then tumbled between the sheets in sheerexhaustion.
“Did Mr. Gump survive?” Sam asked in a sleepywhisper.
Walker tugged her into his arms. “Not long enough.I couldn’t wish that level of agony on anyone. What the rocks didn’t crush, the rattlers poisoned. We didn’t even try to make sense of his curses, although he seemed to be blaming Xavier and half the world for not doing as told. He wouldn’t admit wrong, even at theend.”
“Proof he was a self-serving ass, but not that he killed your father,” she said, understanding. “I’m sorry. Do you haveenough information to lay the case torest?”
He hugged her closer. “Cass took Xavier in, promising to work her voodoo and see that he stays clean. We’re hoping he’ll talk. And we’re thinking Gump has been threatening Francois about the gun. We’re hoping he will speak up. We’ll see. But other than details, I have a good idea what happened and why. It’senough.”
She nodded againsthis broad shoulder. She could already hear the distance in his voice. He was thinking of the time ahead, when he returned to his real world. This was the point where she had to make herself vulnerable, strip away the immature Sam, and become the woman heneeded.
She kissed his shoulder and tilted her head to kiss his bristly jaw. “I’m not ready to give you up,” she murmured. “I don’t thinkwhat we have is justphysical.”
He hugged her closer. “That’s what I’m afraid of. You make me want to live again—which terrifies me. I should let you walk away, find a better man, but I want to find a way to keep you. I want to see what we can build together. If that’s selfish, I won’tapologize.”
“It’s not selfish to follow our dreams, our instincts.” She snuggled against him, reassuredthat she wasn’t the only one dreaming here. “As long as we’re honest with each other, we can do this one day at atime.”
“Come with me to LA then. You won’t have to be a waitress. I can take care of you while you decide what you want to donext.”
She punched his biceps instead of kissing it. “I can’t believe you just saidthat.”
