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“How about you take a shower, Lena, and I’ll take this bloke’s temperature.” He ran a hand along Copper’s back, and her dog’s tail thumped. Heath’s usually straight mouth curved into an almost-smile. “That’s what I like to see.” He glanced at Lena. “Go on. Get. Us two mates’ll be fine, won’t we Copper?” At the sound of his name, Coppy’s tail thumped again.
“Fine. I see I’m outnumbered.”
Normally,she liked to take long showers. It was one of her indulgences, especially after a long day riding horses. Or just a long day.
But she couldn’t stand to be away from Copper. She knew he was in good hands with Heath, but she couldn’t help worrying. She took a lightning-fast shower and as soon as she got a towel wrapped around herself, she cracked the door to check on how he was doing.
Heath sat next to Copper on the rug, his back to the couch, facing the lit Christmas tree— the fake one they’d put up after the spider invasion, decorated, she realised with a jolt, with paper snowflakes. The ones she’d left on the gum tree. Heath had moved them. Or else cut his own. She never would’ve guessed.
Copper rested his muzzle on Heath’s thigh, completely relaxed, but also focused, his eyes raised to watch Heath.
She knew she should shut the door and finish getting dressed. Copper was fine. But she couldn’t stop herself. It was quite possibly the cutest thing she’d ever witnessed—this big man sitting on the floor, stroking her dog and her dog gazing up at him with plain adoration.
“You going to tell me what I should do or you just going to keep staring at me?”
For one heart-stopping second, she thought Heath had caught sight of her or figured out she was spying. Then he kept going.
“So that’s how it is, eh?” Even from where she stood, hiding behind the door, she could see Copper’s eyebrows raise as he looked up at Heath in that soulful way dogs had cornered the market on. She was about to ease back into the bathroom when Heath spoke again. “It’s just you know her best, mate. Do you think there’s any way she’ll give me another chance? Because I really let her down.”
She froze, towel clutched in her hand.
Heath ran a hand down Copper’s back and there was that thump thump thump of his tail.
“Ah, that’s good to hear. Because I think your girl is pretty special. Hands down the prettiest, strongest thing I’ve ever seen. I know you saw her climb that wall like a badass.” Copper let out a heavy sigh. “But hey. I don’t want you to think I’m all about looks and muscles. She’s strong in other ways too. She’s as brave as anyone I’ve met. I mean—moving all the way here? Singing to complete strangers? Telling them off when they’ve got their heads up their arses? What’s not to love about that?”
Love?
Copper twisted his neck and tried to lick Heath’s wrist.
“Exactly. I agree. I should lick her. Everywhere.” She almost snorted when he said that. “I’m not sure that’ll work though. I kind of tried that already.”
Copper let out one of his yawns that ended in a whine.
“Yeah. I screwed up. I should’ve called. I just…” Heath lowered his voice as if he were revealing a secret. She had to lean closer to hear. “This all scares me a little bit.” Copper thumped his tail again, the traitor. “Yeah. You too? I want to make her happy and be there for her, but… she deserves the best.”
She deserves the best. How many times had she told herself that over the last five days?
She stepped out into the kitchen doorway, clutching the towel closed with one hand. “Do you really mean all that?”
Heath jerked upright. She’d startled him, but then his cheeks flushed as he took her in, his eyes dropping to where she clutched the towel, then flying back to hers, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard.
His mouth opened, then closed and for a second she thought he was going to deny everything she’d overheard.
Then he squared his shoulders. “Every word of it.”
Her grip on the towel loosened.
22
CHRISTMAS STAR
There’d been a hundred times Heath had thought his heart would either explode or give out. Every panic attack he’d ever had. On practically every mission he’d been sent on in Iraq and Syria. He’d thought he might die more times than he could count. But he’d never felt the way he did with Lena standing there in the doorway in a towel, his heart pounding as hard as it ever had before. He was either going to die or he was going to be as happy as he’d ever been.
“You did the opposite of let me down today. You know that, right? Aside from Carissa, no one’s ever taken care of me like that. If it weren’t for you,” she swallowed hard, “Copper might not be—”
He eased his leg out from under Copper and stood. “Lena, I—at the Christmas carol thing. I shouldn’t have walked off. I should’ve answered your messages. I don’t want to do that again. This week—I don’t like my life so well anymore, without you.”
“I like my life better with you in it, too.”
