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“We’ll take care of that when we get to my house.”
“I’ll need to be here when they come…” She sat down on her bed with a sigh. “My God, Jonah, how do people function after something like this? I’ve helped people recover from much worse. Why am I nearly paralyzed with fear?”
I sat down next to her and took one of her bandaged hands in mine. “You know that what you’re feeling is completely normal. You will get through this, Melanie. You will.”
“Yes, all I need to do is want to do the work.” She let out a tiny laugh. “How many times have I said those words to others? Others who have been through so much more than I’ve been through. And you know what? They don’t mean anything.”
“That’s not true, and you know it.”
“I don’t know, Jonah. I just don’t know how to get through this.”
“The same way you tell your patients how to get through things, Melanie. One day at a time. One hour at a time. Whatever it takes.”
Tears misted in her eyes, and I pulled her into an embrace.
My God, I wanted her. I wanted to take all the pain away. I wanted to find who had done this to her and pummel him into tomorrow. Why did the universe want to punish the people I loved most in the world?
Chapter Twelve
Melanie
We arrived at Joe’s house in the early afternoon. He set me up in one of his guest rooms. I had been hoping he would put me in his room with him, but I didn’t dare ask for it. Perhaps he didn’t feel the same way I did.
He yawned. The poor thing probably hadn’t slept very well in a chair.
“Do you have work you need to do?” I asked.
“Nothing that can’t wait.”
“You run this huge ranch. I know you have work to do.”
“This is more important,” he said. “What can I get you? What do you need?”
You. I need you, Jonah.
But I didn’t voice the thought. “A shower,” I said. “I haven’t had one since…”
Since the night.
My heart sped up. I would have to deal with this one way or another.
Day by day, just as Jonah had said, and just as I’d told my patients on many occasions. Day by day.
I would start with a shower. I’d have to take off my bandages. I wanted to get a good look at how they were healing anyway. Some of the cuts had been deep enough to require stitches, but most of them were pretty shallow.
I went into my “room.” The shower wasn’t as decadent as the one in Jonah’s master suite, but it was wonderful. I turned it on and began to unbandage my hands when a knock sounded on the door.
Jonah stood there. “I thought you might want this.” He handed me a small bottle of lavender essential oil.
I couldn’t help myself. One hand still bandaged, I launched into him and slammed my lips onto his.
He opened quickly and kissed me back.
How I’d missed this. Had it really been only three days? I felt like a lifetime had passed.
If only I could thread my fingers through his beautiful hair, but some of the cuts on my unbandaged hand were still oozing a bit.
But as ravenous as he had been on my mouth mere seconds ago, Jonah unclamped his lips from mine and pulled back. “No, you need your rest. As much as I want you, I’m not going to start something with you now.”
