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Luke heard it before he saw Matt pull the door open, shoving his body inside to keep it open. The surrounding wood began to give. The roof rumbled, trembling under the uneven weight. A branch crashed through the far wall, sending wood and dirt raining down on them. Luke bent over to protect Simon. They were out of time.

The second he could see daylight through the door, he readjusted his grasp on Simon. “Take him!” Luke practically threw the boy toward Knight. Knight caught him like a football, hesitating before Luke yelled out, “Run!”

Luke dived through the door after them.

Daylight burst against Luke’s eyes as he watched Knight move faster than any man with two good legs might have. Seconds later he saw Holly racing down the path, gathering Simon into her arms as she looked at Luke over the top of her son’s head.

He heard crashing inside the cabin, but Luke couldn’t tear his eyes away. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight than that of Holly holding Simon, Cash protectively circling. All was right in the world again. Luke bent over, huffing, and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. He hadn’t failed. This time had been different. History hadn’t repeated itself. Simon was alive.

And so was he. But he wasn’t done. Not when Winters was still inside. “I’m going back—” he yelled to Holly and Matt, who both stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. Matt confronted him, the expression on his face reminding Luke of a charging bull.

“The hell you are! That place is too dangerous—” Matt’s eyes widened as he raced toward Luke, pulling out his sidearm. “Behind you!”

Cash barked.

The world shifted into slow motion as Luke turned toward the cabin. Winters stood there, a rifle in his hands, the barrel aimed directly at Luke’s chest. Luke’s body turned to ice.

Even from this distance, Luke heard the hammer cock.

The cabin exploded, the fire ripping over Luke like a tidal wave and blasting him off his feet. He felt himself flying backward, heat searing him, vicious, murderous, and yet he was soaring. There was no pain, no fear and then there was...

Nothing.

* * *

“WHEN IS HE going to wake up, Mom?”

In the past four days Holly had developed an extended strength of patience she hadn’t known it was possible to possess. Every time Simon asked her the same question, every inquiry she’d made of Luke’s doctors, every gracious offering of assistance to help run the diner in her absence... It should have made her crumble.

Instead, all she had to do was look at Luke, lying in his hospital bed, wearing more bandages than Simon would probably see in his lifetime, to know where she belonged.

“When he’s ready.” She stroked Simon’s hair, grateful her little boy still felt comfortable enough to sit on her lap and let her read to him as they waited for Luke’s mind to catch up with his body.

She had no pity for the late Rex Winters, whose arrogance and anger had cost him his own life and nearly Holly’s son’s. Had Luke been standing even a few feet closer to that cabin, he would have gone up with it along with Winters. Would there come a day Holly wouldn’t see the explosion every time she closed her eyes? The doctors had been stunned Luke hadn’t suffered a traumatic brain injury, but the severe concussion was more than enough for Holly to worry about. As was Luke’s broken left leg and six badly bruised ribs. If that blast had gone out instead of up, Luke wouldn’t have been thrown back into the overgrown clearing of weeds and grass, which had cushioned most of his fall.

He could not have been luckier.

The fact that Gil Hamilton, along with several other folks in town, had paid Luke more than one visit was proof Luke had made a lasting impression on the people of Butterfly Harbor. If only he’d wake up so she could tell him so. She’d stayed at his side, waiting, screaming for the ambulance, hoping, praying and wishing for Luke to stay with her. When they’d finally loaded him on to the stretcher and wheeled him away, she’d looked down and saw Simon’s notebook. She took it as a sign. Luke wasn’t going to die. Not after all he’d done, all the promises he’d kept.

She wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily.

Today was the first day she wasn’t jumping out of her skin. She’d finally stopped dwelling on “what if Luke had been too late to save Simon?” He hadn’t been. Just as he’d promised. Her boy was safe and sound, and reveling in the dozens of signatures he continued to collect on his cast. He’d even exceeded her expectations when it came to looking after Cash.

“But Luke should be ready now.” Simon tapped his knuckles against his neon blue cast. The break in his arm had been clean, but the cast was proving to be a weapon of mass destruction. He’d managed to knock two holes in the walls of their house and taken out three of her baking canisters in the kitchen. “He wants to marry you.”

It wasn’t the first time her son had made this pronouncement, but she wished he’d refrain from putting ideas in Luke’s sleeping brain. She had little doubt Luke had said a lot of things to Simon during their time in the cabin. She wasn’t going to hold him to anything. All she wanted was for Luke to wake up and be okay. Anything else would be a bonus. “Simon, we talked about this.”

“But he told me, Mom. He said he wants both of us, even though I’m troublesome.”

“He called you troublesome?” Holly frowned. Okay, it was true, but she never would have told her son that. She couldn’t believe Luke would have, either.

“Not Luke.” Simon shook his head. “Dad. Before he went away. You two were fighting and Dad said he needed a break because I was so troublesome. And then he never came back. Was it my fault?”

“Simon.” Holly shifted Simon in her lap and turned him to face her. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you’d heard that?”

Simon shrugged and stood up. “Talking about Dad makes you cry. I make you cry enough already.”

“Your father loved you very much,” Holly said, seeing so much of Gray in Simon’s face she ached. He’d miss so much. “But he had a lot of problems.” One of which had been not knowing when to keep his mouth shut. But she was done blaming Gray for anything. He was gone, and while he’d always be Simon’s father, it was time for Holly to put him and his faults to rest. “I’m sure if he was here he’d be very sorry he said it.”

“Are you going to let Luke be my new dad?”

Holly sighed. Why couldn’t her son ask the easy questions? “Simon, I—”

“Yeah, Holly, are you?”

“Luke!” Holly sprang to her feet. “You’re awake.”

“Hard to sleep with all this deep conversation going on.” His pale face twisted as he lifted a hand to his bandaged head. “Ah, man.” He groaned. “I hate hospitals.”

“You were like a superhero!” Simon announced, shoving himself between Holly and the bed. “You flew real high!”

“No kidding.” When Luke winced, Holly realized she needed to remove the enthusiastic member of the party. “Did anyone get it on video?”

“Simon, go tell them at the nurses’ station he’s awake.” She patted Simon on the butt and angled him toward the door. Only when he was gone did Holly surrender to the tears clogging her throat. Had she ever seen a more beautiful pair of blue eyes? “You kept your promise.”

“Told you I would. Holly...” He reached a solitary finger toward her face and she bent down, letting him catch a tear. “I don’t like you crying, either.”

“You saved him. If it wasn’t for you—”

A curtain of doubt draped over his face. “I did what needed doing. Nothing more. I’m glad he’s okay. Winters?”

Holly shook his head. “He’s gone.” Anger swelled like the tide. “I can’t believe you were going to go back for him.”

“It never occurred to me not to.” Luke pressed his hands against his ears, grimacing. Holly had been warned he’d probably sustained some hearing loss. “Whatever he did, he didn’t deserve to die.”

And that empathy was why she loved him so much. His capacity for love and understanding astonished her and was a testament to his survival.

“Was Simon right?” Holly had spent the past few days trying not to get her hopes up. “Did you tell him you want to marry me?”

“Depends.” He tried to push up, but he gasped and sagged against the pillows. “This was not the setting I had planned, but it is what it is.” He took a deep breath and turned those gorgeous, kind eyes on her. “I love you. And I love that frustrating, too-smart-for-his-own-good kid of yours, too. But I don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to do or say anything out of gratitude or obligation.”

“What if I want to because I love you?”

Luke’s brow furrowed.

“Why is this so hard for you to believe?” Because she’d come to know him so well, she’d prepared herself for this conversation. She sat on the edge of his bed and clasped his hand in hers. “I think I knew before you stepped foot in that cabin to get Simon that I didn’t want to spend another day without you. The ten-ton explosion only confirmed it.” More tears spilled from her eyes. Happy ones this time. “I love you, Luke Saxon. Bad boy, sheriff, any and all of you. What do you say? You gonna marry me?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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