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Tom just chuckled. Despite the brave front he was putting up for her benefit, she knew he must have been scared. The thought of anything taking him away from her and leaving her on her own would have terrified him.
“I love you, Hannah,” he whispered, his breath warm against the side of her face.
“I love you, too,” she whispered back, tilting her head up so she could press a kiss to the side of his jaw.
At the touch of her lips, she felt Tom settle, the stress and anxiety melting from his system. Hannah let it melt from hers, as well. Her husband was okay, and while she knew he had a dangerous job, and there was always going to be a chance that something could happen to him, she couldn’t let herself obsess over that. If she did, she would never be able to function.
Letting her lips trail a line of kisses along his jawline then up to his lips, she needed to feel closer to her husband. She needed something to calm her frazzled nerves. She needed an affirmation of life.
There was only one thing she wanted to do right now. Maybe it wasn't such a guy thing after all. “Want to go upstairs?”
*****
6:48 P.M.
“Don’t get out of the car, I’ll come ‘round and help you.”
Chloe just looked at Fin in shock. She was completely confused by his behavior over the last twenty-four hours. She’d been caught off guard by his hostility when she had tried to make peace with him and see if they could get back together. Then she’d been caught off guard when he had showed up at the scene of the accident—he was the last person she had been expecting to come. Next, he’d caught her off guard by holding her so gently in his arms when she had cried.
Now he was catching her off guard by insisting that he bring her home from the hospital.
She hadn’t wanted to go to the hospital, but somehow Fin had managed to get her there. She wasn't quite sure exactly how he had managed it. One minute she’d been in the back seat of his car, crying on his shoulder, and the next she was being scooped up into strong familiar arms and carried through the ER doors.
Fin had reluctantly allowed another doctor to examine her, and when he had insisted that she go for x-rays of her chest and scans of her head, she had agreed. Not because she wanted to. What she wanted was to get as far away from the hospital and all its horrible memories as quickly as possible. But Fin looked so concerned, and she knew the only thing that would ease his worries was to have the tests done.
They had come back fine. No concussion, no broken ribs, no internal bleeding. She was just battered and bruised, emotionally as well as physically.
When she’d been discharged, she had been about ready to call her parents or her brother, to come and get her, but Fin had been most insistent that he would take her home.
She didn't know what to make of him.
Talk about giving her whiplash. Going from hating her to telling her that he still loved her.
Chloe had no idea what to make of that.
Did that mean he actually did want to fix things between them, but he was still too angry with her to actually do it?
Did it mean that he had just been scared?
Did it mean that they had been together for years and a part of him would always feel something for her?
She was so confused.
“Take it slowly,” Fin cautioned as he opened her door, unbuckled her seat belt despite the fact she was more than capable of doing it herself and took hold of her elbow.
His touch was so gentle.
The look in his eyes so tender.
Why was he doing this to her?
Couldn’t he just tell her what was going on inside that head of his?
Carefully, she swung her legs out of the car; she was sore all over, and even the tiniest of movements started up the dull ache that consumed her.
Her legs wobbled as she stood on them. They weren’t quite steady enough to hold her up yet, still stuck firmly in the jell-o phase. She swayed, and probably would have face-planted into the sidewalk if it weren’t for Fin’s firm grip on her elbow.
He led her up the path and to her front door, where he produced the key—she guessed he must have gotten it from her bag which he had clutched in his free hand—and guided her inside.
