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“Ben—” Her voice cracks, and she starts to cry silently, tears sliding off her face and dampening the sheet underneath her. “I don’t understand.”
A wave of protectiveness sweeps through me, so intense it’s hard to breathe past it.
I’m brushing away her tears before I even think about it. I have no right to do it—I’m here to treat Thea, not touch her like this—but it feels necessary. Even though I’ve been a coward for months, trying to ignore what my heart was telling me. But now—
Well. Not now. Of course, not now. Not with Thea hurt, in pain, crying. But soon.
“It’s okay,” I croon, brushing a stray curl back from her forehead. “You’re going to be okay.”
Thea meets my gaze, her eyes still welling with tears. “But how? A tree? Where?”
“Just before the turnoff to Sleepy Hollow Road. Do you remember where you were going?”
“I was…” She pauses, her delicate brows arching in concentration. “I was going to Ari’s. But that’s not the way…”
Her pulse jumps, her breathing going fast. “Don’t worry about it,” I rush to say, reassuring her. “It’s normal for things to be a little foggy after you hit your head. It’s okay.”
God. The look in her eyes—fear mixed with pain and confusion. I’d do anything to fix it for her.
“Ben.” It’s a weak whisper. “I don’t remember the accident. I remember leaving my house, but that’s all.”
“That’s alright, Thea. It’ll come back to you.”
“But it doesn’t make sense. That’s not where I’d go. And—” Her lips press together, quivering. “I had cookies. For Ari. That’s the last thing I remember, putting them in the car.”
I’m beyond relieved that Thea is alert and relatively clear-headed so soon after a head injury. But my heart aches for her. “It’s normal,” I tell her. “You’ll remember soon.”
A fresh bout of tears escapes. Her voice is tiny as she says, “I made the cookies for Ari. We were supposed to watch Bachelor in Paradise together. Now they’re ruined.”
She sounds so vulnerable and fragile, I can’t stop the affection from coming out. “Ah, honey.”
Eyes glued to mine, she asks quietly, “Will you… will you hold my hand again?”
“Of course.” I take her small hand in mine and the rightness of it steals my breath away. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter 3
THEA
The books in my TBR pile are taunting me.
They’re calling out to me from my bookcase across the room, each one begging to be the one I read next. There’s the murder mystery with the inky blue-black cover and bold white font on the spine. And there’s the fantasy romance trilogy, each book a slightly different shade of purple. On the top of the stack is the newest release from my favorite author, a military romance that promises to bring twists and turns and plenty of steam.
As a librarian, my to-be-read pile is never-ending. And while I’m constantly reading—both at work and at home—I rarely have an entire day free to just read. Not that I’m complaining; I don’t want to become a hermit and hide out in my house, building walls of books around me.
But since I’m home already, the idea of snuggling up on my couch and reading for hours sounds wonderful. Turn the air conditioning down a little and wrap a blanket around me instead, set up a little buffet of snacks on the coffee table, Daisy curled up at my feet, purring loudly…
Too bad I can’t do it.
Because even though I’m home for the next week on a forced vacation, my doctor recommended that I go easy with reading.
“I’m not saying you can’t read at all,” Dr. Emmerson explained as we spoke at the hospital. “Just that you shouldn’t read too much. Especially not in the beginning.”
“What do you mean? Like, no more than one book a day?” I asked, while Ari snickered softly beside me.
“No.” The doctor shook his head, his expression apologetic. “For the first few days, no more than an hour a day, and it should be broken up into smaller increments. Say, fifteen or twenty minutes. If you push it, Thea, you’ll end up making your head hurt more. Trust me.”
An hour a day? What am I supposed to do with the rest of my time?
