AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mack nodded. “Sure. Let’s get you two out of here.”
“I can’t believe you just fought that bear.” The blonde girl stared up at Mack with wide eyes. “You’re so hot. Way hotter and tougher than …” She shook her head as if grasping for a heroic enough figure in her mind. “Than Thor!”
Her redhead friend nodded her agreement. “Thank you,” she said much more quietly than her friend.
Sariah bit at her lip to keep from laughing. Mack’s face darkened with embarrassment.
“We’d better go,” he muttered. He gestured in front of him and the girls scurried down the trail, obviously still shaken from the encounter with the bear. The blonde girl kept looking back at Mack with longing and worship in her eyes.
Mack and Sariah walked together behind them. He checked over his shoulder and she followed his gaze, but the bear was thankfully gone. Mack put his arm around her. “You okay?” he asked.
“Of course, always okay with the hero who’s hotter and stronger than Thor with me.” She batted her eyelashes at him.
He squeezed her arm and laughed. “Don’t share that one with anyone.”
She smiled. “Ammunition is always good to have.”
He bent and swiftly kissed her. “I still say you’re the hero today.”
Sariah pointed ahead of her. “They don’t seem to think so.”
The girls both glanced back at them and the blonde winked boldly at Mack. When they turned around, Mack rolled his eyes. Sariah laughed but she kept her arm around his waist and stayed close to him. He was the hero and luckily for her, he loved her.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
After the craziness of fighting the bear, they hiked back to Mack’s rented Durango, said goodbye to his teenage girl fans, and drove to the hotel. They showered, ate a nice dinner in downtown Crested Butte at Marchitelli’s Gourmet Noodle, and then went back to the hotel. Sariah knew she had to show Mack tonight. She had an idea of how to do it. She hoped he would understand the level of trust she was putting in him.
They walked into their room hand in hand and she turned to him. “Do you want to go sit in the hot tub?”
Mack’s eyes filled with questions, but he nodded. “If you want to.”
“I do.” She squeezed his hand and hurried to her room. Slowly sliding into the swimming suit she’d bought in preparation for this trip, a thrill of fear darted through her. She’d never worn a swimming suit without a long-sleeved rash guard over it. This was braver than facing down a bear. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Her neck felt naked, exposed.
Taking a deep breath, she side-stepped very slowly to the vanity mirror. Her left side appeared first and she thought she looked fit and pretty good in the floral swimsuit. Gradually she eased over until her middle and then her right side appeared. She froze. The sight of her bumpy, disgusting skin made her stomach drop. The fire had disfigured her ear, neck, right shoulder, and part of her upper arm.
Seeing the scars revealed fully in her one-piece swimsuit robbed her of the bravery she’d felt as she put it on. She couldn’t go out there and face Mack. Would he recoil from her or would his eyes simply fill with pity? Mack was such a good man, but how could a man that was fabulous like him want someone disfigured like her? She couldn’t do this. Didn’t want to know the answers to those questions.
Pacing the small room, she realized she had to either put a shirt on and take her hair down to go to the hot tub or change her clothes and tell him she didn’t feel like hot tubbing now. She knew Mack would take either option in stride, but why couldn’t she trust him to take her scars in stride?
As she passed the mirror, she caught another glimpse of the disfigured skin. For some reason she pictured Scarlett Lily in her black dress at that Super Bowl party months ago. Scarlett’s skin was so smooth and beautiful and Mack had said she knew his brother. The Quinn family were all perfectly beautiful. How dare Sariah think she could fit in their world? Her stomach flipped again. What should she do? She simply couldn’t face him like this. Mack was so amazing and she didn’t want to lose him.
She dropped to the floor next to the bed. Kneeling, she bowed her head and begged for help. A calm reassurance flooded her and the remembrance,Jesus loves you.
She knew it was true. Jesus did love her and he would give her strength. Struggling to her feet, she knew at some point she had to focus on the fact that she was enough in God’s eyes. She trusted Jesus. She had to trust that if Mack was the man for her, he would love her regardless.
She picked up the coverup she’d brought to wear down to the hot tub, put a hand on her stomach to quell the nervousness, walked slowly to the door of her room, and yanked it open. This was it. Mack’s reaction would determine where they went from here. She’d never loved a man like she did him and she muttered a prayer that he wouldn’t recoil or run from her. He’d faced down a bear. Doubtful he was going to run from some scars. These encouraging thoughts had her walking out of her room and into the main area. She reached up to pull her hair in front of her neck before remembering it was secured in a ponytail. Forcing herself to drop her hand to her side she wrung the coverup in her hand and squeezed her eyes shut, terrified of his reaction.
She heard his soft melodious voice, “Sariah.”
Focusing on Mack’s face, she braced herself for his reaction. His eyes traveled slowly over her right side but didn’t linger there for long. His eyes continued down, taking in the floral suit and her legs then coming back up to rest on her face. He smiled at her. “You look … so beautiful.”
Sariah’s breath caught. He’d seen her scars but hadn’t really focused on them. She could see that he wasn’t blowing any smoke, but truly thought she was beautiful. Sariah dropped the coverup on the floor and ran at him. Mack opened his arms and she hugged him tight, fully appreciating the finely-honed muscles of his chest and abdomen pressed against her.
Staring up into his handsome face she finally mustered up the courage to ask, “You don’t care about … the scars?”
Mack shook his head. He tenderly bent and kissed the mottled skin on the right side of her neck. Sariah thought she would feel disgusted and embarrassed if anyone ever touched her scars, but Mack’s acceptance made warmth dart through her. He ran his fingers along her shoulder and neck and she quivered from his touch. She didn’t have much feeling there but knowing that he was touching her scars so calmly made her love him even more.
Pulling back, he smiled. “I’d better stop or I’ll have more trouble staying in control than I did last night.”
