Lani squeezes my hand. “If anyone who walks this earth can, it’s you.”
“He told me that he wants to try again. When he’s ready.”
Lani’s expression lights up despite the clear exhaustion on her face. “That’s huge.”
“I know.” I glance over my shoulder. “It’s what I’ve wanted ever since we ended.”
“He comes with baggage. And plenty of demons frothing at the mouth to drag him into the pit.”
“I won’t let them,” I reply. “Even if I have to wear God’s armor for the both of us for now, I’ll stand with him.”
Lani smiles. “I know you will. Now, how about you? You’ve had a pretty large number of stressors in your life. Are you sleeping okay?”
“Not too bad, tonight excluded,” I reply. “I mean, I’m not doing fantastic. There are definitely some things I’m dealing with, but I have God on my side. No matter how bad things get, He’s always there and always good.”
“Amen to that.” Lani stands. “All right, brother, Emma is all good,” she says, loud enough for him to hear. “She’ll need to avoid any weight-bearing movement on that foot for the next twenty-four to seventy-two hours. After that, limited movement,” she says, eyeing me. “The stitches can come out in ten days as long as it’s healing well.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.” She glances at her watch and yawns. “If you’re offering coffee, I would love some. I have to be at the clinic in two hours.”
“Coffee it is.” He smirks at her, though it doesn’t fully reach his eyes. He’s pretending he’s okay. Why does he feel like he has to hide his pain? “Emma?” he asks.
“Yes, please. Coffee would be great.”
Chapter 25
Dylan
“That a new way of fishing?” Tucker asks as I climb out of the pool with my knife in hand. “Or were you practicing risky escapes again?”
“Emma dropped it in here last night. I was retrieving it.”
Tucker narrows his gaze, then notices the blood-stained concrete I still haven’t managed to fully clean. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. Cut her foot on broken glass. Lani stitched it up.”
“Dylan, what happened?” Tucker crosses his arms, and I set the knife on the table, then dry my face with a towel.
“What do you think happened? You’re certainly looking at me like I attacked her, so why don’t you just ask that?”
“Did you?”
“No.” I pause and lower the defenses I put up the moment I realized he was here. I don’t need to be told how close we were to Emma truly getting hurt. I’ve gone over every second of it ever since it happened. “I had an episode, and she surprised me. I jumped up, and she jumped back, slipped, and fell into the pool. I jumped in, pulled her out, and called Lani.”
“Broken glass?”
“Happened in the kitchen.” I leave out the fact that it broke because I was trying to get a glass of water, and my hands were shaking so bad, I dropped it. I’m so angry. I thought I was getting better, took too many risks, and Emma got hurt because of it.
It was a stark reminder of who I truly am and how dangerous I can be. Last night wasn’t even the worst it’s been, either. What could’ve happened if it was the worst? If I hadn’t been snapped out of it so quickly?
“I’m glad you’re both okay.”
“You’re trying really hard not to tell me ‘I told you so.’”
“Absolutely not. Dylan, I want you to find happiness. I want things to work out because you deserve some joy in this tortured existence you’ve been living in.”
“You didn’t make it a secret that you thought her staying here was a bad idea.”
