Chapter Thirty-Eight
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
MY MIND COMMANDS MY feet to move forward, but they don’t obey. I’m stuck in the same loop of what-ifs…each one terrifies me more than the last. I can’t do this. I can’t walk out that door if he isn’t going to remember me. That’s a fate worse than I’ve been living the past year.
Shadow huffs and stomps his foot behind me.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going,” I say, taking a deep breath. I lift feet that feel like they’re trudging through wet cement.
When I reach the door, my eyes are drawn to the man who has joined Joseph, Jace, and Ben near the truck parked in front of the house. My breath catches in my throat, and my right hand maintains a death grip on the wood frame as I try to contain the sob building in my chest.
It’s him.
It’s really him.
“Nick.” The name comes out in a broken whisper.
As if he can hear me, warm, whiskey-golden eyes look my way. Even from this distance, I can see the wheels of recognition turning. Slowly, moving forward from their stationary position, kicking the dust off, until finally, it all clicks in place. He takes one step forward, then two, then three, until he’s sprinting up the hill.
“Dee,” Nick says. He sweeps me off my feet and into his arms in a soul-crushing hug, so tight it’s sure to leave an imprint on me. I hang on for dear life, never wanting to let go. He pulls away enough to meet my gaze before his mouth covers mine in a bruising kiss. The kiss is all-consuming. I have no choice but to get lost in it.
Lost in him.
Our bodies…Our souls are not strangers. They are familiar in a way I can’t explain, but being in his arms feels right. Feels whole. The yearning I’ve buried deep inside me is now satisfied when every one of my senses is full of him. I will never let this man go again. My heart has craved the beat of his against mine. My body has craved his touch on my skin and the comforting smell of him when he’s near. Everything about this kiss feels like coming home.
He’s finally home.
“You remember me?” I ask when we part, breathless, his forehead against mine.
His eyes meet mine and he smiles, calming the storm behind them. “I could never forget you, Dee.” Nick kisses me again.
“I thought you were gone. I thought I’d never see you again,” I whisper. “I didn’t—”
“You found me, baby.” Nick brings the back of my hand to his lips, then holds my hand to his chest. I can feel the beat of his heart underneath my fingertips. The sensation fills my eyes with fresh tears. He’s here. He’s really in front of me. My fears have been put to rest because he’s standing here, and he remembers . “Elena?” he asks, a bit desperately.
“She’s okay.” I smile at the thought of finally bringing him home to our daughter. “She misses you, but she’s good.” I notice the white bandage on his left hand and a deep purple bruise on the left side of his face fades into the skin beneath his eye. “What happened to your face? And your hand?”
“It’s nothing, Dee. I’m okay,” he says, trying to reassure me. “I promise. I’m better than okay.”
“I guess it’s time to come clean,” I hear Ben say when the others make their way up the hill. His tone holds a hint of humor like he’s about to let the others in on a private joke.
I refuse to take my eyes off Nick, scared if I look away, he might disappear and I’ll wake up to find the whole thing to be a dream.
Jace chuckles. “I have to apologize, Joe. You see, when we arrived this morning, it was to discuss the sale of your property. However, our true intentions shifted when we saw him leaving with your daughter.”
“You know him?” Joseph asks.
“Sir, I’d like to introduce you to Nick Davis.”
Nick smiles at the sound of his name. I do the same when he tugs me into his side, turning to face the others, but still holds my hand to his chest.
There’s a woman with them now, or maybe she was there all along. I didn’t see anything besides him. Her narrowed gaze sweeps across the different members of the group before landing on Nick, but he doesn’t even seem to notice, re-introducing himself to Joseph. Her pale green eyes move to me, and she looks me up and down before her gaze narrows even further.
“And this is my wife, Davina Villa,” Nick says, drawing my attention away from her.
“It’s nice to properly meet you, Nick and Nina,” Joseph says with a smile.
“I have to apologize, Joseph; I came here under false pretenses. You see, I’ve spent the past year thinking my husband was dead. When Jace called me this morning to tell me he’d seen him, I dropped everything and ran.” I smile up at Nick briefly. “But after seeing this place, I’ve fallen in love with it.”
“What a load of bullshit.” The woman scoffs, shaking her head. “Villa? You’re married to a Villa ? You’re exactly who I thought you were.”
A slight fall in Nick’s features catches my eye. “Charlie—”
“I can’t believe I fell for it.” Her burning gaze turns on Joseph when he tries to calm her. “No, Dad! How can you sit back and let them pull this—”
“Charlie, that’s enough,” Joseph says.
“Seeing her won’t magically bring back his memory.”
“Actually, it can; especially if he’s been recalling things that have to do with her. These things aren’t certain. You remember how it was with Grandma. And Doctor Sanders said—”
“This is insanity. They’ve done this whole elaborate scheme to get you to sell the ranch!” Charlie backs away a few steps before turning on her heel and running inside.
That was…dramatic.
Her father’s body rolls with a heavy sigh when the front door slams.
“Joe, I’m sorry,” Nick says. “It wasn’t like that. I swear. I—”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. That’s how these things work. All it takes is one trigger to set the whole thing in motion.” Joseph shrugs, adjusting the hat on his head.
Nick turns to me, cradling my face in his hands. “I should go talk to her. It’ll just take a few minutes. Okay?”
I don’t want to let him go. Don’t want to let him out of my sight, but he reassures me it will be okay. He kisses me one more time when I nod before he follows the same path Charlie took moments ago. When the door closes behind him, I turn back to Joseph. “Can I get a minute?”
“She means you two,” he says to Jace and Ben, who finally take the hint and head toward the house.
“I cannot thank you enough. Truly, you have no idea how much the generosity you’ve shown him means to me. The past year has been…the most difficult year of my life. We looked everywhere. We thought he was dead. And now, to find him alive and well, knowing he was taken care of—”
“Don’t think I didn’t put him to work.”
“I have no doubt. He probably loved every second of it. I know he missed working with his hands while doing more of the corporate side before all of…this. He’s not much of a suits guy.”
The thought of being a few hundred feet from Nick still doesn’t seem real after this past year. I’ve discreetly pinched myself a few times to make sure I won’t wake up from this dream, but I’m still waiting for it to happen. The moment I wake up, alone, and look at his side of the bed, finding it empty.
“He’s a good one,” Joseph says, stopping my thoughts in their tracks, and I smile. “You are too, Nina. You’re a bit harder to read, a lot more diplomatic than he is, but you have a big heart.”
“I get it honestly.”
“Do you mind if I ask you something?” Joseph pushes his hands in the front pocket of his jeans as we begin a slow walk down the hill. “Charlie seemed awful upset when she learned your name, but to be frank, I wouldn’t know the difference between a Villa and the man on the moon.”
His words make me laugh. It’s refreshing to be around someone who doesn’t know who or what a Villa is. “Let’s just say, my family is kind of known around the world for being good with money.”
“So, you’re not a designer?” Joseph lifts a brow.
“Oh no, I am. I have my own design company and help run my family company. When Daddy died ten years ago, he left it to us. Well, he left it to my brother, but I’ve been the one running it for the most part.”
Joseph hums in response with a single nod, his gaze on the gravel path.
“Joseph, I’d like to help. I hate to see you walk away from this place. It’s been in your family for generations and I hate to see it change. You’ve done something for me that I can never repay, but I want to try.”
“Change is part of life, Nina. The only repayment I need is knowing you’ll be in charge of the design for whatever happens after the sale.”
“Joseph—”
“Nina." There’s no room for argument in his voice. “I can’t keep up with this place, and it’s too much for Charlie to do alone.”
“What if you could afford to hire at least one ranch hand?”
Joseph rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “You don’t give up, do you?”
“No, I don’t.” I smile. “I want you to think about it, please. And if you decide you still want to go through with the sale, I’ll make this my last one.”
“Your last?”
“I’ve been a bit of a workaholic the past…well, my whole life. And this whole thing has been a wake-up call. I don’t want to blink, and it’s been forty years, and I haven’t been able to enjoy my life. My family. I don’t want to end up like my dad.” My arms fold over my chest as I rock back on my heels, staring down at my feet.
The thought breaks my heart. Daddy never got to experience a life without work. Even on vacation, he would still be handling business affairs—I can’t remember a single time he didn’t. And when he finally started to consider retirement—and divorcing Brina, but that was a whole other problem—he died a few months later. It didn’t seem fair that when he was about to start enjoying life, it was ripped away from him. I don’t want the same thing for me.
“It’s time to loosen up the reins a little. Let other people do their jobs and handle it for me. That way, I can finally enjoy time with my husband and our daughter.”
“A daughter?”
I smile and pull my phone out of my back pocket, opening it to show him a photo. “Elena. She’ll be four in August.”
Joseph places his hand on my shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. “I can attest that the work will always be there and there will always be more after it, but the memories with your family are what stick with you. Don’t waste this time you have with your daughter. You won’t be able to get it back.”
“Thank you.” I step forward into his embrace and he squeezes me again before we part. “I should help him get his stuff together so we can go home. We have a bit of a drive ahead of us and a family wondering where I am.”