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“Is that what I said?” She tried to adopt a teasing tone but wasn’t sure she succeeded.
“Yes, and that you were scared of being rejected.”
“And am I?” she asked and then clarified. “Going to be, I mean?”
“Not a chance, baby.” He tugged her closer and tightened his legs, trapping her firmly between them. His smile faded as he looked into her eyes. “I never thought I’d fall in love, and then you showed up in my life, and now I don’t want to imagine spending a day without you. Will you please come home with me to Texas?”
“As your PT?”
“As my partner, my mate, anything you want to be,” he responded. “Just please say yes that you’ll go home with me, be Robby’s mom, and help me raise him. I love you, Georgie, and I swear on my life, I’ll love you till my last breath and never let anyone hurt you again.”
Georgie opened her mouth to protest that she was okay, but Riggs stopped her. “Don’t. I mean it. Don’t make up an excuse for whatever it was that happened. If you can’t tell me, then don’t, but if that bastard Josh did this to you, he will eventually answer to me. And I promise you, he will hurt far worse.”
She couldn’t stop the tears from gathering or spilling down her cheeks. “I never realized I could feel this way and want to say yes. I do. But what about my work? It probably doesn’t sound important, but it is to me. What we do at BioNow helps people return to their lives after a devastating loss and function at near normal capacity, if not complete. We give them back what they lost, and I love being part of that.
“I truly love what I do, and nothing in this world other than you would even make me consider walking away. I mean, where else can I go that I’d have the chance to work with people who are pioneering cutting-edge innovations in prosthetics? I’m pretty sure there’s not much of that in Cotton Creek.”
“Not yet,” he replied.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you need to get to know my family. We’re not at all what you probably imagine.”
“You mean cowboys with swagger?”
“Hell yeah, we’re that,” he didn’t take offense at the tease. “But also, ranchers. Stewards of the land. People who have to know how to live with the land and how to protect it. Because if you don’t, your crops or herds won’t flourish, and you won’t either.
“And because we live that way, we’re attracted to new concepts on achieving goals that, at present, appear bleak. Like the apiaries and the SynthBee.”
“Yes, but what I do isn’t something that will save the planet, Riggs.”
“No, just lives. He waited for her to respond, and when she didn’t, he added. “How much is one of those worth? It seems like it should be a whole lot to me. And listen, I get that I’m all in on being a father, and I reckon I can be sort of a bulldozer, wanting to push through all the bull and get it done. But it’s here,” he took her hand and placed it on his chest. “That kid’s in here, Georgie. I can’t walk away from him, and I can’t raise him here during my rehab. I need my family. I need to take my son home, and I’d really like it if you went home with me, too, and we could be a family.”
“Not just to work with you?” she clarified, not quite ready to trust he wanted her for her and not for her PT experience.
“I’m a little hurt you’d ask that, to be honest. Yes, I want you as my PT, but no, I want you because I love you and want to be with you and see if we’re meant to walk a path together. I’d like to give that a try.”
She didn’t know what to say. It was so big, so so big. To walk away from her life was a huge thing. She loved her life. Well, okay, she loved her career. But Riggs? To say she was crazy about him was an understatement. She was in awe of him. She saw him jump into a river – a one-legged man – just jump in. And save a baby who otherwise would also have drowned with his parents.
She watched him fight through pain, frustration, exhaustion, and anger, conquer it daily, and keep trying. Riggs was relentless. Literally. Once he created a course of action for himself, nothing would keep him from adhering to that course outside of bodily injury that hindered him.
Riggs was the strongest person she’d ever known, and she didn’t speak of his physical strength but his spirit. He was also one of the most genuinely nice people she’d ever known, and damn if that didn’t make him just about the perfect man.
But that still wasn’t enough to make her say yes. She was scared to give up her life and take off with a man she’d known only for months. Yes, she was addicted to him. It was an apt description because a day without him was like an addict’s descent into withdrawal.
She was pretty sure he had PTSD, and his reaction to the baby was connected. Until he lost his foot, he was a dedicated career military officer in one of the most dangerous jobs imaginable. He was at home there and knew how to navigate a landscape of conflict, violence, and death. Never been married or engaged, and from what she’d learned from Gunner, found it hard to keep a relationship for more than a year and had never been much interested in settling down and having a family.
So why now? It has to be associated with his injury. He might just think he’s in love with her because her job was to help him get into physical condition that would allow him to return to active duty if he so chose.
Georgie knew that if that was the case, and she went with him, at some point, they’d have to face him realizing he didn’t love her and he wanted his old life back.
She was pretty sure that would destroy her, and in some ways, she was one of the least courageous people alive because she didn’t think she could handle that at all.
She needed time. Time to think. Time to talk with Naomie.
“Hearing you say that is like a dream come true, and I need to preface my response with this. I know I am crazy about you. There’s no doubt. But I’m not recovering from an event that would shake even the most stalwart to the core. You nearly died, lost teammates and a child you were trying desperately to save, and that sticks with you no matter how much you want to believe it doesn’t.
“That kind of trauma doesn’t let go quickly. It seeps into your psyche and can change you. It can make you think you feel something, and maybe you do, but that something might not be a lasting thing. Once the trauma is fully past, you may realize that what you thought you wanted or needed early on isn’t what you want when you become entirely whole again.
