Chapter 29
Even before Owen opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong. He could hear a rhythmic soft beeping and the unmistakable scent of antiseptic.
Shit.
Hospital.
He opened his eyes and stared up at a stark, sterile ceiling. He felt his heart speed up as he tried to think past the fuzziness of the meds he’d clearly been given. Lifting his head, he eyed himself. Hospital gown. An IV pumping something into him that had dulled pain but not eradicated it. And a thick, heavy bandage covering the right side of his chest and shoulder, with his arm held to him by a sling.
Thinking was a challenge, but he closed his eyes and pushed himself. His eyes flew open as he remembered going after Will, and then... a blinding pain. He remembered lying on the ground and hearing a struggle. He’d lifted his head to find Anna kicking Will’s ass, which had been the hottest thing he’d ever seen.
And then nothing.
Is Anna okay? Has she been hurt?
He wracked his brain for more info, but it didn’t come. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, and then his monitor began to beep. He tried to sit up, but pain slashed through him, making him gasp out loud. “Holy shit—”
A nurse peeked her head in and smiled sympathetically. Her tag read Hi, my name is Judy! “Yeah,” she said. “Moving is a bad idea. Just stay still, I’m going to check your vitals. How you doing?”
Well, let’s see. He’d told Anna he loved her after she’d dumped him, he’d been shot, and as a bonus, he couldn’t remember what happened to Anna. “The woman who was with me on the mountain. Is she okay? Anna Moore.”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t seen her.” She finished checking his vitals and made some notes. “The doctor’s on his way in to talk to you. Your friend Ky was here for your surgery, but once you were brought to your room, he had to go. He said you guys had a bunch of clients booked today and they’re stretched so thin he couldn’t get out of work, but that he’d be back as soon as he could. I don’t want you worrying about a thing. Is there anyone I can call for you?”
Owen looked around for a clock but didn’t see one. It was dark outside, but there was a slight lightening of the sky. He’d really been here all night? “I need my phone—”
A doctor strode into the room. “Good morning, how are you feeling?”
“Like I was shot.”
The doctor gave him a grim smile. “There’s a good reason for that. You remember what happened?”
“Mostly.”
He nodded. “We’ve got good news and bad news. Good news: no broken bones, nothing major hit—a miracle in itself, because if that bullet had hit a centimeter over in any direction, we’d be having an entirely different conversation.”
“And the bad news?” Owen asked.
“You lost enough blood to require a transfusion, and there’s still a chance for persistent deficits in the shoulder and arm as far as sensation and movement go. And, of course, infection. But we’re watching over you carefully. You’ve got a lot of physical therapy ahead of you, but all things considered, I’m pleased.”
Owen drew a breath. “And the woman who was with me, Anna Moore. How is she?”
The doctor looked up from his chart. “Is she family?”
“Yes,” he lied. Or... was it really a lie? Anna certainly felt like family. Or at least she had until she’d dumped him on top of Mount Lion. Remembering that part was as painful as being shot. “Please. I just want to know that she’s okay.”
The doctor nodded. “She had a few bruises and scrapes, one that needed stitches, but nothing serious. She was released hours ago.”
For the first time since he’d woken up, Owen felt like he could take a deep breath. She was okay. But...
She’d left.
When he was alone again, he stared at the ceiling some more and tried to talk himself into believing that she had a lot on her plate. Wendy had just had the triplets. Plus, she was slammed at work.
And then there was that one pesky fact about this thing between them being over.
Only it didn’t feel over, not for him.
He told himself to sleep, heal, and once he got out of here, then they could figure things out. But the room around him felt large and devoid of anything humanizing and... empty. So damn empty. And it wasn’t like he could call his aunt. She didn’t handle phone calls well. For whatever reason, talking on the phone was a trigger for her, even on a good day.
It was okay. It was fine, and he was fine. Totally fine. Totally and completely fine.
Yeah, and even he wasn’t buying what he was selling.
He looked around for his phone, but he didn’t see it. Bracing himself, he once again attempted to sit up. He was swearing and sweating when the door opened.
“What are you doing?” asked his favorite voice in the world.
Anna.
“Ohmigod, are you serious?” she demanded. “Don’t you dare try to get out of bed. In fact, don’t you dare move so much as a muscle!” In opposition to her practically yelling at him, her hands were gentle as she pressed him back to the bed.
Unable to stop himself, he lifted his good arm and pulled her in, burying his face in the crook of her neck, and just breathed her in for a long moment, willing himself to let go of the fear. The future could be full of misery or full of happiness. It would be what it would be. No use spoiling the here and now by running ahead. And the present, with Anna pressed close to him, alive and breathing, happened to be pretty damn awesome.
“Hey. Hey, I’m okay,” she whispered, turning her head to brush a kiss to his jaw. Then his throat, just above the hospital gown. He took another deep breath and tightened his one-armed grip on her.
She lifted her head. “Are you in pain?”
“No.”
She snorted, but then her eyes went suspiciously shiny. “I was so scared for you.”
“Eh, I’m hard to kill.” He tried to smile but wasn’t sure he managed it. “But my heart stopped when you stepped in front of me.”
“I’m not the one who got shot!”
“’S’okay. I’ve got good drugs in me.” Very carefully using his good hand, he slid his fingers into her hair, gently pushing it back from her temple so he could see the bandage there.
“It’s nothing. Just a few stitches.”
“Will?”
“Arrested.” She dropped her forehead to his. “I nearly had a stroke because you had to go and be all heroic.”
She was holding on to him tight enough to hurt, but he didn’t care. There was something in her grip and in her voice that had a little tendril of hope unfurling within him. “So... you don’t want me to be heroic?”
“No. I mean, well, yes.” She lifted her face and met his gaze. “In the bedroom for sure—”
The rest of his tension left him, and he grinned. But it faded quickly. “How is it that you can just look at me and make me feel like I’m worth something?” he whispered.
She seemed to melt a little at that, which he figured had to be good, right?
“Seems fair,” she whispered back. “Because you can give me one look and melt my clothes off.”
They both smiled. Then he drew a deep breath. “I thought you left,” he murmured. Something he’d meant to take to the grave, but there it was. Everything about her made his mouth run free from his brain.
She looked horrified. “I would never have left the hospital while you were in surgery. Ky was in the surgery waiting room, and he promised to tell me the minute he heard about you so I could check in on Wendy and the babies. He called me a few minutes ago on his way out. It took me a moment to off-load the baby I was holding. Don’t ask me which one.”
“Michelle and Louise... and Annabelle.” He smiled. “You got your way.”
“I mean, it was just a matter of time,” she said modestly.
He laughed and then grimaced. “Oh shit.” He pressed his good arm against his chest as black dots danced in front of his eyes.
“Oh my God.” She cupped his jaw and stared into his eyes. “Don’t laugh! Don’t move. Are you okay?”
“Getting there,” he murmured.
“Wait—how did you know the babies’ names?”
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you on the way up the mountain, and then I was pretty busy sleeping while the doc patched me up... But yesterday...” He paused. “Maybe the day before? Hell, I don’t know what day it is. Anyway, I texted Wendy a congrats and we had a little chat.”
She pulled back. “About me?”
“Let’s just say she assumed I needed advice.”
Anna sucked in a breath, looking more panicked than she had facing down a damn gun. “What did she say?”
“She said if I can’t handle you at what I have mistakenly assumed is your worst, then I should be prepared to be unpleasantly surprised in the immediate future.”
Anna stared at him. “I shouldn’t be surprised, she can’t help herself.”
“She was trying to help me win you over.”
That got him a half smile as she perched a hip on the side of his bed and gently pushed his hair off his forehead. “I know. And, Owen?”
“Yeah?”
“The reason I never would have left the hospital? It’s because I’d have waited on you for as long as it took.”
That she’d mirrored his exact words to her after Wendy had given birth had something warm and wonderful sliding into his chest.
“Are you really okay?” she asked, eyes filled with worry and stress.
“Getting better by the minute.” He lifted a hand and gently brushed his fingers over a blooming bruise on her cheek. “You?”
“Same.” She let out a long exhale, and a good amount of the tension in her released. “I didn’t even know a person could lose as much blood as you did and live, and—” She burst into tears.
“Hey. Hey, it’s okay. C’mere.” Somehow he pulled her onto the bed with him, and even when she bumped his wound and he saw stars, he didn’t care. “I told you, I’m hard to kill,” he whispered, holding her as tight as he could, never wanting to let go. She was flush against his side, her hair all in his face, a strand or two sticking to the stubble on his jaw.
Before he’d met her, he could never have imagined such an intimate embrace having nothing to do with lust and yet somehow still being everything.
With a light brush of her fingers, she traced the thick bandaging around his shoulder and chest. “I just can’t stop reliving it,” she said softly. “The gun going off, you hitting the ground...”
He lifted her chin. “And I can’t stop thinking about the look on your face when Will told you I’d gone to see him. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Anna. I should have. I knew it at the time, but I was doing the stupid guy thing and trying to protect you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t need protection, Owen. I just need you.”
He gently swiped away a few tears with the pad of his thumb. “Right back at you.” He brushed a kiss to her temple. “So... we both feel overly protective of each other.”
“Seems that way.” She snuggled in closer, and he couldn’t quite hide his wince. Her head came up, eyes filled with concern. “Did I hurt you?”
He hurt from head to toe, but he was taking that one to the grave. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not, but you will be. I plan to bully you back to health.”
He smiled. His eyes drifted closed, because God, he was tired.
She took his good hand between hers. “I told the cops everything.”
His eyes flew open and met hers. “Even about your dad?”
“Yes.”
He searched her gaze, trying to decide how she was really doing, but he didn’t see any regret in her eyes. “And... you’re okay?”
“I will be,” she said with a smile.
He nodded. Paused. “I think we should talk about something.”
“Um... now?”
“I think so.”
Her mouth curved slightly. “You don’t sound positive.”
True story. He wasn’t positive at all. “I usually put what I need ahead of what I want. That gets confusing with you because I can’t always separate the two. So, about what I said to you up at Mount Lion—”
“Yeah, about that,” she murmured. Bit her lower lip. “Do you think you could say it again? You know, when we’re not about to die?”
He blinked. “You want me to say it... again.”
“Very much.”
He was pretty sure her smile made his heart skip a beat. “I love you, Anna.”
Her heart. It both ached and rejoiced as she drew in a deep breath.
“I know it hasn’t been that long, and that we’re complete opposites, and we don’t make any sense at all, but I’m tired of fighting it.”
“It,” he repeated carefully.
“Yes, it. Us. I love you too, Owen. Ridiculously.”
He stared at her. “It’s not the pain meds, right? You’re really here, telling me you love me?”
“I am. I don’t want to ever look into the eyes of another madman before he shoots you and wish I’d told you how I felt sooner.”
His gaze never left hers. “Sidenote, let’s never look into the eyes of another madman.”
With a rough laugh, she carefully hugged him. “You should know, I love you way too much for my own good. I was so afraid you wouldn’t love me back and I’d get hurt. Because you can hurt me, Owen. Far more than anyone else ever could—” She broke off when he slid a hand to the nape of her neck, pulled her in, and kissed her.
“I will never intentionally hurt you,” he murmured. “I should’ve listened to my gut and never gone along with the ‘just until the case is solved’ thing. I should’ve told you how I was really feeling from the very moment I started to fall for you.”
“To be fair,” she said, “I wasn’t ready to hear it.”
He drew a deep breath. “I told myself I could let you walk away, that I didn’t trust anyone with my heart anyway, not even you. But I keep thinking about what came to me after I was shot. You were yelling at me to keep my eyes open, yelling at me that if I died on you, you’d drag me back to the land of the living—”
“Uh, maybe you could go back to forgetting that part—”
He shook his head. “Don’t you dare make me laugh, it will hurt like a red-hot poker.” He paused, clearly trying to gather his words. “In that moment, I could see how you felt about me, the truth of it, how deep it went, and I realized it wasn’t about not trusting you. It was about believing that”—he closed his eyes and turned his head—“believing I deserved to be loved.”
If it hadn’t already, her heart would’ve cracked right open. Cupping his face, she brought it back to hers. “Owen,” she breathed.
He opened his eyes. “It was about having everything I’d ever wanted—you, Anna—right in front of me. I’ve always had to work for everything I ever wanted. And because of that, I’ve always trusted that what I have is mine because I knew I’d earned it.”
She smiled. “You don’t think you earned me? After everything you’ve done for me?”
But he wasn’t playing. He made a low, very male sound of frustration, like he couldn’t pull the words he needed out of his drugged-up brain. Instead, he kissed her, slow, sweet, loving, before he met her gaze. “I’m going to ask you to give yourself to me because I love you more than life itself, Anna Moore, and in return, I promise to do the earning every day for the rest of my life.”
She felt her eyes fill, but she blinked the tears away because she wanted to see his face. “And I promise you the same, Owen Harris.”
From the doorway came the sound of carefully muted cheers. Wendy in a wheelchair holding two sleeping babies. Hayden standing behind her, the third sleeping baby strapped to his chest.
“I missed something good,” Wendy said. “Start over! Say whatever you’ve just said to each other to make you both look so happy! Well, Anna looks happy. I mean, Owen does too, but he also looks a little gobsmacked.”
“She loves me,” he said.
Wendy grinned. “You’re on good drugs, right?”
“Yes, but she really did say it.” He looked at Anna with sudden concern. “Right?”
“I said it,” she promised. “I meant it.”
“Say it again,” Wendy begged. “Please!”
Anna looked at Owen, who had laughter in his eyes. He loved her sister too, which was amazing in its own right. “I love you, Owen. More than I thought possible.”
“Um, thanks?”
She grinned. “Obviously, I’m really new at this.” Her smile faded. “I was so afraid to fall.”
His eyes never left hers. “I’ll catch you, I promise.”
Anna’s heart melted, and Wendy sighed dreamily. “Quick, Hayden, divorce me so we can start over and get that new in-love feeling.”
“The problem with that is I’ve never been more in love with you than I am today.”
Wendy stared at her husband and then appeared to melt. “Because of the babies?”
“Because of you.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “You’re good too.”
Hayden started laughing.
“I love you,” Wendy said. “I do. But if you wake the babies, I will kill you where you stand.”
He worked to get himself together. “Understood.”
Wendy kissed him, then turned to Anna, who was busy kissing Owen. “Hey, so they’ve sprung us from this joint. Owen, take your lips off my sister’s for a sec and ask her if she wants a ride home.”
Owen grinned up at Anna. “Does Anna want a ride home?”
She shook her head. “No, Anna doesn’t.”
Owen’s eyes were filled with amusement, affection, and love... and not a single iota of her panicked. “Anna’s home is wherever you are,” she said.
He kissed her again and Wendy muttered, “Sheesh, you two, get a room.”
“Hellooo!” Anna said, waving her arms around the room.
Owen started to laugh, then sucked in a breath, holding her close, and just like that, the chaos in her chest settled. She could feel his heart beating beneath her fingers, strong and steady, sure. He smiled up at her, his gaze promising everything she ever wanted. And for once and for all, she was going to accept it.
“Love you guys,” Wendy said, and waved as Hayden wheeled her away.
Owen looked at Anna. “How long can you stay?”
“Forever.” Stunned by her own bold admission as it sat in the air between them, she tried to pull back.
But he held tight and smiled. “Works for me.”
Judy came in, along with another nurse, holding a small plate that held a piece of chocolate cake and one of those fake flame candles.
“I was going over your chart,” Judy said, “and realized it’s your birthday.”
Anna looked at him in surprise. “It is?”
He shrugged.
“Oh my God, I got you shot on your birthday?”
“No, you got me shot on the day before my birthday. And it’s no biggie, I got cake out of the deal.”
Judy grimaced. “We got the cake from the cafeteria, so I can’t actually recommend it, but thought you might wanna at least make a wish with our fake candle.” She flicked on the flame with a toggle switch.
They all sang the happy birthday song, and Owen pretended to blow out the candle before grinning at Anna. “Going to ask me what I wished for?”
She smiled. “What did you wish for?”
He threaded his fingers through her hair, pulling her closer. Just as his lips met hers, he whispered, “You...”