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“I love you.” Her hands cover my forearms. “I still want you on my team.”
“You’ve got me.” I kiss her hand. “You’ll never fight alone again.”
“Just like my dream.”
“No more dreams, no more nightmares. I’ve got you. Understand?”
She nods quickly. “And I’ve got you, professor.”
Lifting my hand, I cup her cheek, sealing my lips to hers as our mouths part. Our tongues slide together, and the lash across my heart is healed.
30
Rainey
“But what about your final grades?”Ali stands at the edge of my bed, sad-faced as she watches me pack my final belongings into my large suitcase.
“They’re giving me an incomplete. I can’t attend classes like this.” I hold up the polished wooden cane I’ve been using since I left the hospital.
The bullet caused nerve damage in my left hip, and while the physical therapist says I’ll make a full recovery, for now I have to do biweekly exercises using parallel bars, I have to tread water in the pool, and I have to walk with this stick.
Hugh van Hamilton was kind enough to loan me one of his. “If you have to use a cane, you might as well do it in style,” he’d said. It was after he’d visited to thank me for saving his grand-nieces and his horses, although Blake and Hana helped with the horses.
“Are you in terrible pain?” Ali strokes the side of my hair. “I can’t believe your friend shot you while cleaning his gun. With friends like that… you just need to stay here.”
“I’m not in pain. It’s just weakness and numbness in my leg. And that’s the importance of gun safety—always make sure your gun is completely unloaded.”
It was the only lie I could come up with—a horrible accident, and I’m lucky it wasn't worse.
“Does this mean you’ll have to come back next semester to finish?” She’s so excited by the prospect, I don’t have the heart to tell her I’m already finished. I already have a degree.
“Maybe…” I close my suitcase, sliding the zipper around the edge. “My family wants me to come home and recover, where they can help me.”
A bubble of warmth grows in my chest at the wordfamily, at knowing what it means now. Scar doesn’t say much, but before I was released, he visited me in the hospital alone.
“I never knew I had a sister,” he’d said, standing tall at my bedside. “But the way you rushed into a burning barn to save Hana, to save the horses, it’s clear we’re related. It’s what I would’ve done.”
His long hair was pulled back in a bun, and the imposing tattoos covering the scars on his arms were visible beneath the short-sleeved shirt he wore.
“I think our hair and our eyes make it pretty clear we’re related as well,” I’d teased, strangely comfortable with his demeanor.
He cut his wolf gaze at me, the same color as my own, then a rare smile curled his lips. He stepped forward to kiss the top of my head, and so much happiness rose in my chest it hurt. My father’s spirit was with us. I had them both again.
“And your sister-in-law is having a baby…” Ali’s pout pulls me back to the present. She crosses her arms. “You’re going to forget all about us.”
Exhaling a laugh, I put my arm around her shoulders. “I’ll never forget about you.” It wasn’t so long ago I was pissed to see her walk through that door. I thought of her as a complication to my plans. Who knew we’d get so close? “I’ll come back for a visit, and I’ll actually be in the same town as Professor Winston.”
Dirk and I decided to say we’re from the same hometown on campus, considering he’d still like to continue his teaching job at Thornton.
Ali’s eyes go wide. “You arenot!” she cries. “You’ll be in Hamiltown with Professor Panty-dropper for the holidays?”
“I don’t know that I’ll bewithhim…”Yes, I’ll be with him.
“You are definitely coming back for a visit, then. I want to know everything.”
“Okay.” I exhale a laugh as she pulls my suitcase out the door and to the elevator for me.
Scar and Hana are waiting in the parking lot when we exit the dorm. I introduce them to my roomie, who clutches my arm at the sight of my oversized brother.
