Page 13 of Wounded Hearts

Mara saw concern and love in the other woman’s eyes and wondered at their story. What had happened to them that caused such pain and love to co-exist? “Be there for him. Show him you aren’t going anywhere and that there’s something in him worth fighting for. Make plans that create a safety net, and always keep your promises.”

Lizzie tilted her head as she regarded her. “You know about this?”

Mara blushed again but held her head up. “I worked with wounded veterans as a physio before…” She wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence without her entire sordid past spilling out.

“Would you be willing to help me help him?” Lizzie asked nodding her head to the closed door behind her.

Mara felt a kernel of hope unfurl inside her at the request. Could she help? Did she want to? She decided she did. She desperately wanted to help this man and if it kept her closer to Drew, then all the better. “I’d have to ask Drew first.”

“Why?” Lizzie challenged her gently.

Mara thought for a second and realised she didn’t have to ask anyone. She let out an embarrassed laugh. “I don’t know. I guess I don’t. Yes, I’ll help you if I can.”

Lizzie smiled a regal smile and handed her a card from her purse. “Call me tomorrow and we’ll talk.” With that she’d taken Mara to Drew who’d looked at her with so much kindness she’d almost given in to the tears that seemed to constantly threaten.

He moved towards her with confident strides but stopped just out of her personal space. “You ready to go?”

“Yes, whenever you are.”

With that they said good night to Dane and Lizzie and left, and now she was here second-guessing every decision she’d made tonight.

“Stop overthinking it.” Mara snapped her eyes open at the deep voice beside her. She looked at him and he gave her a sexy smile that made her squeeze her legs together and answering her unspoken question with his next words. “You were chewing your bottom lip. You always do that when you’re overthinking something. Did it all the time when you were kicking my ass to get me on my feet.”

She realised she did bite her lip when she was thinking. “I didn’t kick your ass.” Her voice held a lightness she didn’t recognise for a moment. It had been so long since she’d felt it that it was alien to her.

“You sure did, and it was sexy as hell.”

Mara saw the fire in his eyes as he said the words and wanted so badly to respond in kind. “That woman doesn’t exist anymore.” She turned away from his warm eyes and swallowed the disappointment. She was free and that was enough.

Drew was silent as he pulled into a quiet street with old Victorian houses close to the Cathedral. He parked and turned to her under the light of the streetlamp. “People change, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. It’s what experience and life does to us. We evolve to stay healthy and continue living, but that doesn’t mean we change who we are fundamentally. You’ve had something life-changing happen to you.” He held his hand up as she went to speak. “You don’t have to tell me. I can see it. Whatever it is has changed you, but not who you are deep in your soul.”

Mara watched as he touched a fist to his heart and spoke from the same place. “In there you’re wounded, and you need to heal and evolve but you’re still you. Kind. Funny. Smart. Strong and so beautiful you had every man in the room hanging on your every word whenever you walked into the Physio Department. But it wasn’t just how you look, which is still stunningly beautiful, it’s your spirit. It’s bruised. I can see that, but it’s not dead and I’m going to promise you here and now that I’ll help you, Mara. We’ll get you there again because I believe in you like you believed in me.”

“Why are you helping me?” With tears in her eyes, she felt her lip tremble as she spoke, his words having a profound effect on her.

He reached for her hand and held it in both of his. She felt the callouses and the warmth and the safety in his touch. “Because I let you go once before, not ready to tell you how I felt, and I won’t make the same mistake again. I care about you, Mara—a lot and I hope when you’re ready we can move forward together.”

“I’m not sure I can.”

He slowly lifted his hand and stroked a gentle finger across the tear that had broken free and now tracked down her cheek. “You can but whatever happens between us, I’m still here for you in whatever capacity you need and if that’s as a friend for now, then that’s okay.”

“You don’t know the danger you face.” She feared for him and his family when Brayden found her.

“I’ve faced much worse than the likes of Brayden Wells and I’m still here. I’m pretty hard to kill.”

“I mean it, Drew, he’s dangerous.”

His jaw hardened and the fire that burned in his eyes turned to ice. “So am I, and I have an entire family behind me that are equally deadly to those that hurt one of our own, and tonight, Mara, you became one of our own.”

She’d never felt like she was surrounded with so much love and support in her life. She’d felt it on the island when they’d been hostages. Watched as the deadly men who’d thwarted mercenaries set on death held the women they loved gently and tenderly.

They were all family and now this man had told her she was one of them. A sense of being where she was meant to be filled her and she lifted the hand that was lying in her lap and cupped his jaw. “Thank you.”

No more was said but he nodded breaking the spell and the intensity. “Let’s go up, I’m starving.”

Mara laughed then. Drew was always starving, and that normality broke some of the shell she’d built around her broken heart.