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“All right,” I said, already breathless from the way he was looking at me. He was so possessive and protective. He basically made me melt just standing there.
I heard a car pull into the driveway outside the stables and exhaled.
“It’s time,” I said. We’d brought a hospital bed into the dining room, just in case the stairs were too much for Meg. The room was all set up like a pretty bedroom now, with the heavy oak table temporarily squeezed onto the screened-in back porch. There was also all the equipment the doctors had recommended, like an oxygen tank and a bedside commode. Nobody wanted to think about that kind of thing, but being sick was messy.
Dying was even worse.
It broke my heart to see Melissa going through this. Nick was really stepping up to the plate. I couldn’t be prouder. Like the rest of the girls, we wanted to see all our guys settled down and happy. Nick had been one we all despaired of that ever happening to. Not because he wasn’t wonderful. He was. But we’d worried because he hadn’t seemed to care about any particular girl since, well, ever. The good Lord knew we had tried to introduce him to every nice girl who’d crossed our paths!
Melissa didn’t know it, but she was the answer to our prayers, not the other way around.
“Ready?” Mac asked. He knew that after taking care of my first husband, this was ringing a lot of familiar, painful bells. I nodded.
“It’s part of loving someone. You have to be ready to do this for them, too,” I said softly, silently praying that I would never have to watch anyone else I loved go through anything like this again.
He nodded and squeezed my hand as we went outside to welcome them home.
Chapter Twenty-One
Nick
“Here you go, Champ,” I said, sneaking Hendrix an apple in between doing chores in the stables. I’d taken two weeks off from my construction gig with Mac and the bar. Not that I got any kind of pay, but at least I knew my jobs would be waiting for me. It didn’t matter. I had savings aplenty and would have happily shifted things around to be with Melissa, even if she didn’t need me twenty-four seven right now.
I frowned at a couple of boards that were falling down behind a stack of supplies. I checked the tack room for tools and dragged out an ancient, rusty box. Perfect.
I was going to fix this place up, I decided. The house too. Anything to make it nicer for my girl and her sweet mama.
“Playing favorites, are we?”
I turned to see a beautiful, pale-faced angel leaning against the door. The smile on her face was genuine but so was the sadness in her eyes. I couldn't help it. My heart filled up every time I saw her.
Other parts of me were also taking notice . . .
“I always play favorites,” I said with a suggestive smile. I walked toward her, setting down the tools I’d been sifting through. I pulled her close and leaned my forehead against hers.
“How are you doing?”
She sighed and I could hear her pain. I wished I could take it away from her for the hundredth time. I would gladly carry this pain for her and more.
“Mom is finally sleeping. I'm worried about her upstairs, but I know she didn't want to sleep in the dining room. Even though your friends made it look lovely in there,” she added. I knew she was grateful for what everyone had done. She was still getting used to having a support system.
“She'll be fine by herself for a little while,” I said, brushing the hair away from her face. “But that's not what I asked. I asked how you were doing.”
She gave me a wan smile and my heart broke a little bit more.
“I’m okay. Better with you here, Nick. Are you sure you don't need to go? You have a life, after all.”
“This is what I want,” I said, squeezing her tightly. “This is the only place I want to be.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, her huge eyes searching mine. “This thing . . . between us. It’s great. But . . .”
“But what?”
“It just started.”
I shook my head and sighed.
“Girl, you don’t get it. You’re with me now. For as long as you want to be. Maybe longer, if I can convince you,” I added with a wry smile. Because I wasn’t ready to tell her I wouldn’t let her go. That I couldn’t. It sounded too creepy. I didn’t care about being creepy, though. It was the truth.
Maybe love made you into a creep in the best way possible.
Love. Fuck me. I fucking loved her. I wasn’t even surprised by the revelation. I’d known it for a while. But it was the first time I’d used the word, even to myself.
