AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was dirty, her hair a mess, and so beautiful she made him ache to his toes. Forcing her hand out from under the blanket, she touched his cheek.
“Thinking of you kept me strong, Ted.”
“No, you’re strong without me, Mandy. In here.” He touched her forehead.
“You told me that night when you found me in the herb garden at the lodge that I was strong in here.” She touched the side of her head. “I kept saying it to myself.”
He leaned in and kissed her softly just as Jack opened the rear door.
“Yuck,” he said with a smile. “Let’s go. We need to get her back, and people will be worried.”
“And I’m driving you?”
“Your car is more comfortable.”
Dylan joined them, and Ted jumped into the driver seat. They drove back in silence, and Mandy stayed huddled shivering under the blanket until they reached Ryker, even though the weather was warm. By the time they arrived back in Ryker Falls, she was asleep.
Things moved pretty quicklyafter their return. She was hugged by her aunts and Rory, who were waiting for them at the station.
They gave her tea and cleaned her up, bathing her hands.
Chief Blake questioned her, and Mandy withstood it all, but Ted could see the cracks were starting to show. She was pale and tired and by his reckoning hadn’t eaten even though he’d tried to force her to.
“I’m taking her home. She wants to wash and change,” he said after the doctor had checked her out. “To her apartment,” he added.
Her aunts looked at him, and he thought he was in for a fight, but they simply smiled. No one else put up a protest either.
They drove in silence, then he followed her up the stairs.
“Are you coming in?” she said at the door.
“You think I’d leave you here alone after what you’ve been through?” He touched her cheek. “In you go.”
She turned on lights, then just stood there looking out the window into the darkness.
“I was so scared that I wouldn’t see any of this again.”
He moved around her so they faced each other.
“But you….” She closed her eyes. “Not seeing you again hurt me more, Ted. When I heard your voice, I thought it would be for the last time.”
“Mandy—” He tried to hold her, but she backed away.
“I need to say this before I lose the courage.”
“You won’t, you’re strong.”
“Because of you,” she whispered. “At first the panic robbed me of everything. I had no courage, I was just scared, and then I felt it. This wonderful strength, and it was from anger. Anger that this, my life here, and you would be taken from me, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“My brave girl.” He closed the distance between them and took her hands in his.
“I love you, Ted. I need you to know that, because I don’t want another day to pass without you knowing it.”
“I love you too, baby.”
“Do you really?” She gave him a searching look. “I mean, I don’t want you to say that because—”
“I said it in front of that piece of shit who kidnapped you, and at the time I had your aunts, the Trainers, Fin, and Chief Blake in the room. If I didn’t mean it, that wouldn’t have been the time to say it.”
