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Wondering briefly whether his own legs would hold as he climbed from the car, his head was throbbing, but he ignored it and broke into a jog, wanting to get himself and Naomi as far away from the car as he could. Spotting Clara kneeling on the ground under a tree about a hundred yards away, he ran to her, dropping to his knees and gently setting Naomi down on the grassy side of the road.
“You okay?” he asked Clara, raking his eyes over her, visually examining her for any injuries he had missed before.
“Yes. You?” Her eyes were performing the same visual search of his body.
“I'm okay,” he assured her.
Her worried eyes moved on to her sister. “Naomi?”
Examining Naomi, he couldn’t see any major external injuries, but her blood pressure was low and her heartbeat too rapid, she was losing blood from somewhere, he was sure of it. The hem of her pink tank top had moved up while he had been carrying her, the skin on her stomach was a deep purple. Internal bleeding. More than likely she had ruptured her spleen when her seatbelt held her in place as the car rammed into the tree.
Clara’s eyes met his and he knew she had come to the same conclusion he had. “I called for help,” she told him, then turned to her sister, “Naomi, it’s Clara, if you can hear me, you just hold on, okay? Help is coming.”
Shrugging out of his shirt, Jonathon laid it over Naomi. The material was thin, but hopefully it would go a little way in helping to prevent Naomi from becoming hypothermic as her body went into hypovolemic shock. Now that they were all out of the car, safe for the moment, and with nothing to do but wait for help to arrive, his hands were shaking badly. They'd all come close to losing their lives. Any one of them could have died in the accident. Clara could have died. He could have lost her.
Reaching for Clara’s hands, he gripped them tightly in his own. For months he had been trying to plan the perfect way to propose. To make it a magical experience that they would both remember forever. But now he knew that the how didn’t matter, he didn’t want to wait another second to ask the woman he loved to be his wife. “I know this is about the most unromantic circumstances I could have picked, but, Clara, will you marry me?”
Clara flung her arms around his neck, and he knew she was as scared of losing him as he was of losing her. Burying her face in his neck, her tears wet his skin, her body trembled against him as he wrapped his arms around her. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”
Laughing, a part relieved, part happy, part still in shock about what had nearly happened laugh, Jonathon pulled Clara back, took her face in his hands, and kissed her. Kissed her like he was drowning and she alone could save him. “I’ll propose again. Properly next time. Something romantic. Something perfect. Something …”
A loud bang announced the explosion of the car.
Jonathon threw his body over Clara and her sister, protecting them from the burning debris that was raining down around them, and thanked God that none of them had been in the car when it blew up.
* * * * *
4:35 P.M.
Nick wasn't sure it was a good idea to be here, and yet he had no intention of leaving. He needed to try again with Aggie. And it was a need. A burning all-consuming need. He couldn’t function properly knowing that she was hurting and he was the cause. He wasn't delusional though, he knew that even if she forgave him it was going to take a long time for the pain his actions had caused her to fade.
He knew he should give her time. He’d told her that he would, but he couldn’t stay away. He needed to fix things. For so many years he had lived without the messiness of emotional entanglements. It made life easier, simpler. Aggie had changed that. She had somehow managed to get him to turn his emotions back on, and now that he had he didn’t want to go back to the way he had been since losing three families back-to-back. He wasn't even sure he could go back now. Learning to shut down his emotions, to not allow himself to get invested in anyone, to get close to anyone, had taken time and practice, and in just one short week Aggie seemed to have stolen the skill from him. Now he didn’twantto be alone. He wanted Aggie.
Arriving at Aggie’s front door, he reached immediately for the door handle, he wasn't going to risk her refusing to let him in. Unfortunately, the knob wouldn’t turn, it seemed that this time she had locked the door.
He gave a single rap. He didn’t want to call out because if she knew it was him, she was never going to open up.
“Andrew, I …” Aggie said as she flung the door open. “Oh, it’s you.”
She tried to close the door, but he placed his hand on it and stopped her. “Aggie, wait.”
“I don’t see what else there is to talk about, we’d just be rehashing what we’ve already said. I don’t have anything new to add, and I don’t think you do either. Just let it go. Let me go.” The last she said uncertainly, like her brain told her the smart move was to cut her losses and move on, but her heart was in total disagreement.
“I just wanted to explain again. Please.” Under the circumstances, he wasn't beyond begging.
“I got it. I really did. You think my father is a killer, and so you decided to do whatever, hurt whomever, to get proof. That about sums it up, doesn’t it? What more is there to say? I don’t think going over and over it again will change anything. I know it isn’t helping me, you’re just making this harder. Please, leave.”
He wanted to explain again, to keep explaining until she finally understood, but if she didn’t want to listen right now then maybe he could try another tactic. “Okay, we don’t have to talk about that, maybe we could go out for dinner, maybe see a movie. Or we could go to the park again, have another picnic.”
“I’m not going on a date with you. It’s over, Nick, we both have to accept that. Dragging it out isn’t helping either of us. You had to know that when I found out the truth that would be that, this would all end.”
“I didn’t think I’d care.” To be honest, he had thought he would be relieved when everything was wrapped up. He had been prepared to use Aggie to get what he wanted, but it wasn't like he was going to relish causing her pain, it was just an unfortunate side effect, one he had deemed acceptable after weighing up the pros and cons. He had thought once they had what they needed to prove her father’s guilt and he could come clean, that it would be a relief to be away from a woman he didn’t know and whom he was sure he would be uncomfortable around. He hadn’t expected to enjoy spending time with Aggie, and he certainly hadn’t expected to ever see her as anything other than a tool to use in his investigation.
“And you don’t care.”
She said it so simply that it made him angry. “I do care. Youknowit. I don’t want to hear you say that again. You want me to keep apologizing I will do that. You want me to feel like hell for hurting you, I do. Whatever you need me to do to fix things I will happily do. You just tell me what it is. I'm not letting you go, so just get that idea out of your pretty blonde head.”
Shoving the door the rest of the way open, Nick grabbed her roughly and pushed her up against the wall, pinning her in place with his body. One hand curled around her neck, his fingers entangling themselves in her long, silky hair, his other hand caressed the soft skin of her cheek. His mouth claimed hers and devoured it. After a moment Aggie’s lips parted and her hands lifted to his shoulders, drawing him closer. Encouraged, he deepened the kiss, his hand dropped from her cheek, trailing down her bare arm and settling on her hip.
