AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And then explodes out of his chair so fast he rocks my hospital bed.
“Ruby,” he says hoarsely. Wild and haunted blue eyes meet mine, but he doesn’t come to me like I ache for him to do.
He stands there, breathing hard, chest heaving. He keeps his gaze on me, and there’s so much weight in it. So much fear, pain, and desperation, I feel it all.
And I remember.
Everything.
The fire, Winslow, adrenaline, pain, rain falling from the sky.
My mother.
Dying with Charlie’s name on my lips.
I died.
I press my shaky hand against my chest. My heart rate is normal—my normal.
I’m alive.
I lived.
I stare at Charlie. Sadness surrounds him. That same sadness I sensed back at the ranch all those lifetimes ago. So unlike the man I know now, the brooding rancher I first met in that bar. His eyes are tortured, his beard unkempt, his muscles tense. A man unhinged. It looks like he hasn’t slept in days.
With tubes and wires wrapped around my wrist, I extend a trembling hand, like I’m coaxing a bear forward.
He flinches.
“Charlie?” I say quietly, worried. “Come here, Cowboy.”
His eyes flare at my words, and then his face cracks, shatters into a thousand emotions I can’t name. With a wild roar, he’s storming toward me, towering over my hospital bed.
He sits himself at the edge of my bed, near my hips, and gently gathers me into his huge body. His arms surround me like the home they’ve always been.
“You came back to me,” he mutters desperately. His deep, rumbling voice is like heaven to my ears. “Ruby. Thank God, thank God. You’re alive.” He kisses my cheek, my throat, locking us together tight, like we’re tethered by our hearts.
The relief in his eyes, his frantic touch, shatters my control.
I burst into tears.
“Yes,” I whisper. I weep against his warm, solid chest, gripping his shaking shoulders. Grateful to be with him, to be alive.
The sound that leaves Charlie is a sob. “I love you,” he says raggedly against my ear. “I fucking love you, Sunflower.”
With those words, he kisses me. Soft, slow. I relish the sensation of his coarse beard against my lips. He holds my wrist in his fingers and my heart breaks. He’s not okay.
“Feel,” I whisper against his lips. “Feel me. I’m okay, Cowboy. I’m alive.”
A shudder wrenches his body. “Ruby,” he rasps, burying his face in my hair and hanging on for dear life. For a long time, he doesn’t let me go. He holds me, making sure I’m here, alive and in his arms.
When we pull away, Charlie gently lowers me back onto my pillow. The bed creaks as he hits the remote to bring it to a sitting position.
“Do you remember what happened?” he asks. He keeps his eyes on me, dark with concern.
“I died,” I whisper.
His face almost shatters. His breath is a harsh exhale. “Ruby.”
