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Megan nodded. “I’m glad.”
“They didn’t catch him or stop it. He had to go get her out of the ditch.”
“She’s going to be okay. They’re treating her for non-life-threatening injuries. It’s going to be okay. She’s stable. It’s terrible, but sometimes bad things happen to good people. The good news is she’ll be okay.”
He glanced at her, and his eyes chilled her to the bone with the depth of their sorrow. He looked haunted. That’s when he started pacing and rubbing the back of his neck as if he was trying to hold off a headache. Megan wasn’t surprised when he checked the doors again.
“Troy, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not you, but I’ll be damned if I let it happen to you. I’ve lost almost every single person I care about. You said bad things happen to good people, then why do I have more than my fair share? It’s not right. Besides it’s getting worse. There’s some nut or something going on right now—”
“They said they’re looking for—”
“One of the best people I’ve ever met was attacked and could’ve been killed. I’ve lost my mom, I lost Adam, I lost Simon.” He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his fingers to the corners. “I almost lost Dad. I can’t lose you.” He let out a choked sob. “This world isn’t safe, and…and—I just want to fix it.”
Megan’s heart swelled. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, relieved when he let his weight lean into her. He was shaking. It was so slight she hadn’t noticed, but she could feel it. He was quite literally holding himself together.
She didn’t have to ask if Simon was the one he was trying to get to in his nightmare. She just knew and clearly now was not the time.
Megan held on to the man she loved. He was so strong. So powerful, but had so much pain and worry inside him. All of this grief and rage had nowhere to go. It was all from a place of great love. She knew that to be true.
“Oh Troy.”
He jerked back and sucked in a breath, visibly tamping down all of the emotion.
“I want to enable your location on my app. We already did it on yours.”
“What?”
“I know you can’t always stop what you’re doing to text me that you’re safe, but,”—he took her shoulders in his hands and brought her close to him before wrapping her in a big hug and pressing his lips to her forehead—“I won’t be able to sleep at night unless I know you’re okay and I can get to you if something goes wrong, no matter how far away I am.”
Megan was overwhelmed with emotion. For so long she relied on herself to stay safe, but now she had someone who worried about her other than her friends. He truly cared for her, not just when she was with him, but when she wasn’t. There was a warmth in her chest that hadn’t been there in a long time.
“So you’ll be able to see my location the way I can see yours?”
He nodded. “There’s too many crazies out right now. I don’t know what’s going on, but when I saw that guy coming at you, something in me just took over, and it wasn’t just the training. I thought it might have been that, and it certainly helped, but thinking that you may have been hurt…” He stopped and shook his head. “I just can’t lose you.”
“I don’t want to lose you either.”
Troy looked down and smiled and kissed her. “Let me get your phone and we can set it up.”
“You okay?”
He sighed. “I’m getting there.”
Megan looked at him as he walked into the other room. He was so strong on the outside but was coiled like a spring. Even now she could see the tension under his eyes. The conflict inside him was like an animal poised for fight or flight, but with nowhere to go, trapped and fearful.
His arms were powerful and muscled, stretching his T-shirt so tight. She remembered the strength in him. His dark hair was tousled and her fingers remembered the feel of his thick hair between her hands as she had clung to him during their passionate nights.
Troy was always so gentle and understanding, putting her needs above his own. To see him like this with the emotion he had been carrying and the anxiety of yet another tragedy, she could see his reality of waiting for the next shoe to drop. The story had been terrible, but it had a happy ending, and he couldn’t even see that.
As much bad in the world as Megan had seen herself, she saw plenty of good too. Neighbors helping neighbors when fires broke out. Strangers risking themselves to stop and help others during a car accident. People coming out of the woodwork for the station’s canned food drive and toy donations. There were good Samaritans everywhere. There were bad things, accidents, and sickness too, but she truly believed the world was mostly good. Troy didn’t.
He came back in the room still wearing his boxer briefs, which showed off excellent legs. The muscles on his chest stretched the T-shirt, and as she admired him, her fingers itched to know what was under his T-shirt that she felt every time they were together.
Megan realized now why he always felt so strongly about the light being off and had controlled where her hands had been. When she had felt the scars, he had shifted away so she couldn’t reach him, but seeing the physical evidence of the pain he was suffering from, Megan wanted to know every inch to try and understand. Maybe then she could know and help him in some small way. Even if it was terrible, she wanted to know everything he had gone through, because it was him and a part of his story. Megan wanted all of it. The good and the bad.
“Here. Check on my phone to be sure it works.” He punched in a long passcode to his phone so fast she couldn’t see it, then held it out to her.
